Stop Biofuel! feed people!

In the U.S because of the spike in Oil prices, and of extreme weather Food prices are rising. This has caused many people to go hungry even in the U.S as food stamps stays the same and prices increase.

Madison says her food stamp benefits have not increased despite rising food prices.

In fact millions of Americans are currently on food stamps. My suggestion curve corn based bio-fuel production. I have stated before that Bio-fuel can't be tomorrow's fuel as it is inefficient and also isn't at all environmentally friendly. So countries including Canada, U.S and many other countries should eliminate the bio fuel subsidy that are given to farmers who plant corn for bio fuel and gradually increase a subsidy for farmers to make corn for food. In fact corn is the base product of most of the products we buy. Including batteries, Coke Ca-cola and many others. By stopping useless corn based bio-fuel production and making more corn for eating and other products Corn prices could see a gradual decline and so many other important products we buy. Many might say that since we need oil to ship goods and with less bio-fuel production  there will be an increase in oil prices , and this increase would be enough to make any reduction in products prices, because of surplus corn look minimal. But if we also gradually use more renewable energy and eliminate the subsidy of fossil fuels and gradually increase the subsidy on renewable energy then oil prices would not spike as much and in future might go down.

Keystone food commodities like corn, soybeans and wheat have already increased 149% this past decade, according to the New America Foundation's Smart Strategy Initiative Director Patrick Doherty.

"With persistent high unemployment, oil fueling more than 95% of America's transportation system, and transportation costs running 24% of income in suburbia and in exurbia, 35%, America's middle class is extraordinarily exposed," writes Doherty.

Read more here

Ignatieff Shows Leadership

When four kirpan-wearing Sikhs were not allowed in the National Assembly in Quebec City, Ignatieff showed leadership. He defended their right to wear the ceremonial dagger in public areas such as the House of Commons. This comes as the Bloc Québecois wants to ban the kirpans from being worn in Parliament. Ignatieff and Layton are right to defend the rights of ethnicities to continue practicing their culture. Especially when those four Sikhs were at the National Assembly to testify at a hearing on accommodation. The kirpan is a cultural item and Ignatieff is right to defend it.

Leadership requires the willingness to take unpopular positions. Michael Ignatieff showed that willingness this week when he went to Quebec and defended Sikhs’ right to wear the kirpan, a ceremonial dagger, in the Quebec National Assembly and other legislative buildings in Canada.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

Related articles

• The kirpan and Canada’s French-English divide (theglobeandmail.com)
• Sikhs with kirpan not allowed in Que. legislature (cbc.ca)
• Bloc proposal to ban Sikh kirpans in Parliament called 'un-Canadian' (nationalpost.com)

Rewriting History

We all know the N-word is a bad word to say, but over 100 years ago the N-word was used on a daily basis. Now someone wants to rewrite one of the greatest books in history. The Adventures of huckleberry finn and To Kill a mockingbird have the N-word numerous times in these books. The whole reason that these books are great is, because they make it sound realistic since they used old fashioned words. It be like watching a play about the 17 century and the actors aren't wearing old fashioned clothing it's just silly. Rewriting history is wrong. If we censure the N-word what next. Censure any books that talks about slavery or racism. for the sake of education people should know that the N-word exists. We shouldn't try to forget parts of history just , because they aren't lovely rather embrace the fact that the event happen and learn from it. One of the greatest books like To kill a Mockingbird or Of Mice and Men have the N-word in them they are great, because they were very realistic, because the books talked about issue's that weren't yet discussed. Censuring history is silly in this case you get nothing in return, but teaching kids that they're is no such thing as the N-word. Ignorance isn't bliss when that ignorance is the ignorance of ignoring history and what it has to teach us.

"We learn from history that we don't learn from history!." (Desmond Tutu)

Related articles

• New Huckleberry Finn edition censors 'n-word' (guardian.co.uk)
• Critic's Notebook: Light Out, Huck, They Still Want to Sivilize You (nytimes.com)

The Lottery Of Life

There are many people in the world some are luckier then others. In fact I think many people should appreciate how lucky they are. In fact if you were living in the U.S in the projects it would be like winning a lottery. You are one of the luckiest people in the world in fact. Why you might ask? See not everyone can be born in the great Projects of the U.S. In fact it's kind of like a lottery. The lottery of life. See we don't decide were we are born. Every day 360,000 children are born in the world. If you were born in the projects of the U.S you would be very lucky person compared to the kid who was born in Ethiopia , the kid born in India or the kid born in Bangladesh. If let's say you could have a second chance at the lottery of life were would you be born? Odds are you would be born in a country not like your own. In facts odds are you won't be born in the great projects of the U.S and instead in the slums in India with no Government assistance. This brings a whole new definition to "someone else always has it worse", So if you could be born somewhere else where would you be born. Click here
I am sure you will be very thankful of living in this free democratic fair country of Canada, and appreciate how great you have it even if you live in the projects.

Technology will save lives.

This issue can be ignored for much longer, because we need to have a patient computer base available to all doctors. When someone goes to a doctor with a problem he first must write out a form, and he has to write the same form every single time he comes back. With this the patient is tested again to see what he has. We should have a system that if a person goes into the hospital they already know he is diabetic and needs medical attention. We have a phone book that tells use everyone's phone number and we have a database for every car in Canada. Then why not for the more important issue are health? It saves paper, less need for repetitive tests ,helps are doctors with less time wasting per patient and makes are visit fast and much more pleasant.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Watchdog issues urgent call for electronic health records (theglobeandmail.com)

Censor prostitution

Craigslist has removed the adult services ad on its web page. This service has been asked to go off for a long time now many people are sighing with relief that all those exploiting ads are gone. This response from Craigslist came after CNN did a report on the website on how it is too easy to get ads selling sex posted on the website, and calling Craigslist the "Wall Mart of sex trafficking". Craigslist has way before this said that it would look at all post to make sure that anything that looks like it might be implying the sell of sex will be taken off and be reported. Even after this many ads still got on, and now the entire service is gone. If Craiglist can't ensure that no one can post ads that are selling sex than this act is the only solution.

(CNN) -- Online classified service Craigslist's decision to censor its adult services section is a "good step but a continuing battle has to be fought," a leader in the fight against prostitution ads said on Sunday.

"I'm very pleased by this very solid and significant apparent step in the right direction," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who spearheaded a recent letter from 17 attorneys general urging Craigslist to discontinue its adult services section.

Read more here

Texting can't only Kill You.

New laws have been put inplace about using your phone while driving is dangerouse. Oprah Winfrey even started a pledge to stop people from driving while using the phone. The issue isn't that you can damage your car and hurt yourself it is that you can in danger others. Not just the people in the cars infront of you, but also in construction areas where workers are holding stop signs telling you to slow down. That is exactly what happened to traffic controller Jennifer Beauregard, 23 she got hit by an SUV. Why? Because the man who was driving was texting. Jennifer was lucky to survive the crash. She had many broken bones, brain damage and she was in a coma for 6 days. Don't cause another person to die, because you wanted to talk to your friend. 

See the full story here 

Dan Grander you are right.

I read a column in the Gazette newspaper online it was an editorial on the census written by Dan Grander. He wrote a great piece of information on the long term census. He talked about how in 1936 a poll that was taken by 2.3 million Americans on the election of that year. The poll showed that Alf Landon would win and not Roosevelt ,and would beat Roosevelt by a landslide. Mr. Grander mentions the poll was bias, because the people who did the poll where finding the address to send them to by car records. This meant that poorer people where less represented in this situation, which voted for Roosevelt. The result was that Rosevelt did win even though 2.3 million americans polled said that the other guy would win by a landslide. As a comment on the blog stated by Tom he thinks that if a poll that is not mandatory is reliable than how is it that a non mandatory census isn't. The thing is polls that are not mandatory can be wrong. In the 2008 primary New Hampshire was suppose to go to Obama every poll said even the exit pols , but It went to Hiliary. In 1992 the poll in the U.K had the conservatives just winning the election with the max 316 seats (minority Goverment) and would lose 3%of the popular vote (Camapared to the last election which gave them 43% of popular vote , and with 376 seats). The exit poll was wrong , and in fact the conservatives still had a majority , and only lost 0.3% of the popular vote. This goes to show how non madatory surveys can be unreliable, but to be fair as long as it is done radomly with no bias the margin of error can be minor 3%, but even with a margin error of only 3% it seems that you can make a mistake of majority goverments and minority. The long term census which gives very important informations has a response rate of 94% which is high , and shows strong data that is very accurate. With a non madatory census staticians believe that poorer people will not answer the census as much as the other , and this will create a in acurate reading in the census.

Read the editorial here

 

Canadians want to keep long term census.

A poll shows that about 52% of Canadians support re-thinking of the Goverment descision of the madatory long term census. While only  27% of Canadians think the goverment idea is correct. While the others say there not sure. Now whether Canadians support something is irelavent sometimes when it comes to policy, but the point is that most Canadians don't find it that much a problem to write it out. Clement said that he thinks it is too much of a problem to sign it out madatory. Seems that more people don't think it is that bad. Any way even if it is a problem to sign it out. The information we get from it will be shaky. So not only do the majority of Candians want the goverment to rethink this idea, also with this our informations will not be fully accurate. I think the Conservative should re-think this idea, because nothing good will come of this not better information or political points.

In fact, according to the poll (margin of error 3.1 points), 52 per cent of Canadians think the government should reverse its decision and keep the mandatory long form census.

  Only 27 per cent support the decision to replace it with a voluntary form (24 per cent of Canadians think the long form is overly intrusive).

 Read more here

See PDF file here

No Ignatieff!

Liberal leader Ignatieff had a speech in Montreal. Ignatieff said that he supported Affermative action. I hate this idea. I feel that Affirmative action insults who people think it is helping. Affirmative action for (example: women) tells them that the only reason they got the job is because they where born a women. I think they would rather want to get a job because they where the best qualified not because they where born. To quote Martin Luther King "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." So we should not judge people by there gender in this case, and give them a job because of it. We should judge them by their charector, and that is how they should get the job. I support getting rid of Affirmative action. Because the system works against themselfs we say no one should be treated better yet we allow people to be treated better.

Clemant isn't budging.

 Even with new anger against the scraping of the long term census Clement isn't budging.  The conservatives are keeping this motion, because they say that some people are relieved about this move. Even though complaints about the long term census has been dropping. I think sure it might be a pain to be forced to do this, but it only takes 10 minutes and gives valuable information that economics say they need. So I think that we should just keep it. I don't think that this is a biggest political thing that happened this year , but I am surprised how many groups have protested over this move.

Ever since the move was announced in late June, statisticians, researchers, academics, municipalities, religious groups and others have decried the move, arguing it will result in skewed and unreliable data.

Opposition MPs say they have not heard such complaints and the privacy commissioner has said complaints about the census have actually declined over the years.

Read more here

Keep the long term census.

The Conservative Government has said that they are going to scrap the long term census. What happens is that every five years 20 percent of Canadians will get a census they have by law to fill out. The problem many economist are arguing against this is that it will lose valuable information making this census not mandatory. In the U.S every American gets a census, and by law need to fill it out. I think we should keep the long term Census. I feel it is important to know the trends If we want to keep the same funding for programs , and that everyone is getting there fair share in federal funding. So if we scrap it some we will first not have solid information on how many people live where, and that can cause inaccurate funding in all these places for health care and sectors of government funding.

The 2006 census required about 20 per cent of Canadians to complete the long form which provides detailed household information used to decide everything from bus routes to new subdivisions to what support services are in local schools

"The long form gathers information that we feel is really necessary for a number of reasons. One, it helps to identify issues that people are living with," she said.

"And the other is that ... it provides a statistical record for us which is important to be able to have that information when we're applying for other funding and to run programs and to do some research."

Smith-MacDonald said she is worried that the poor and disadvantaged will statistically disappear if information on income is no longer rigorously collected in the census.

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País Argentina!

Which is Spanish for "Go Argentina". This is because that Argentina although has not won the world cup has won the title as the first south American country to legalize gay marriage. This is great. All people have a right to marry. To have children, and to be treated like anyone else, and should not be discriminated like they are all over the world. the lower house has passed it , and in a senate vote of 33-27 it passed. This law will go into effect in a couple days. Soon in Argentina all couples get the same benefits whether they be a hetero or homosexual couple. I hope that soon all countries will follow suit, because all couples have a right to marry.

After a marathon debate that touched on religion, ethics, the legacy of Argentina's dictatorship and the challenges of raising children, the 33-27 Senate vote was tallied shortly before dawn, with three abstentions.

"From today onward, Argentina is a more just and democratic country," said Maria Rachid, president of the Argentine Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender federation.

The law "not only recognizes the rights of our families, but also the possibility of having access to health care, to leave a pension, to leave our assets to the people with whom we have shared many years of life, including our children," she said.

Read more here

France takes a step back in the world.

France has just passed a law that would make it illegal for wearing the Niqab, Burqa and Hijab in public places. I think this is bad. You can't force people not to wear something. There is not a justified reason to do this. It is freedom of expression , and nothing else. This bill passed the lower house in France by a margin 335 yes 1 no. This will be the first European country to pass a law of banning this clothing. I do think that in some circumstances like voting, driver license, passport and others a face must be shown, but in public area's I say no everyone like me should have the right to where whatever in the world we want. This is just sad that France would do this to it's own citizens. It is not tolerant of us to not allow people to wear what they want. I would hope no other countries follows France, and that France's upper house rejects this law.

Some 82 percent of people polled approved of a ban, while 17 percent disapproved. That was the widest support the Washington-based think tank found in any of the five countries it surveyed.

Clear majorities also backed burqa bans in Germany, Britain and Spain, while two out of three Americans opposed it, the survey found.

France's lower house of parliament Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a ban on any veils that cover the face -- including the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women.

Owner and Doggy is Gone for the Summer

I will not be posting during July and August. Tomorrow's post will be my last. I will resume posting sometime in August. To all the readers of "The Happy Wanderer," have a great and fun summer!

Happy Canada Day!

Today is Canada Day, the birthday of our nation when in 1867, the province of Canada, along with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia formed the Dominion of Canada. In these modern times, Canada has achieved great things. Canada is my country and I am proud of it. Journalists from the Toronto Star wrote about why they love Canada. I love Canada because of our tendency to help other people. The most prominent token of this is universal health care. That is my Canada.

I never knew what Canada meant to me until this past Tuesday night. That’s when my son Michael graduated from high school.

It’s strange how one event can make everything seem clear. The kaleidoscope took that one extra “click,” the fragments of coloured glass formed a new pattern, and the picture I’d been staring at for 40 years suddenly came into 

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Comercial Canceled!

An advertisement in France has been canceled. I don't think it should have been canceled. The commercial shows just a male cat with a human body shaving. When the cat is done, it uses a soft drink for after shave. A man then touches the cat's shaven chin. This ad is 10 seconds! This ad has nothing wrong in it.  People are calling it the "gay cat ad". I say so what ? what is the world coming too when you can't even put an ad like this on the air. it is banned from french television for being "polemic". Merriam Webster defines Polemic as "an aggressive attack on or refutation of the opinions or principles of another" or "the art or practice of disputation or controversy." Neither of these sounds like good reason. This ad has nothing bad in it. Even see it for yourself.

See it at the Huffington Post.

Voting is Good

New research shows that political activism is good for people. Mentally, of course. They feel better, have a sense of purpose, better relationships and have a good sense of self esteem. This is very interesting. Of course, after the 2008 election with the lowest voter participation on record, we have to wonder whether there should be vote legislation. Anyway, I hope more people get involved in politics.

When it comes to politics, why are more of us becoming disengaged? Are we more cynical? Lazy? Self-absorbed? Distracted? Busy? Despairing? All of the above?

New psychological research suggests that rising indifference to politics among Canadians, as well as people in many parts of the world, may actually reflect a lack of personal happiness, an existential melancholy. In fact, the novel psychological experiments conducted by a U.S. psychologist and a German psychologist suggest that humans feel more satisfied and alive when they jump into political action, even at a relatively minor level.

Read more at the Vancouver Sun.

Tea Party leader rasict

The tea party leader, Mark Williams blogged about a new mosque, and a new Islamic cultural center near ground zero. He said the mosque would be a place where the Muslims would pray to there "terrorists monkey-god." I think this is racist for him to say such a thing about another religion and for trying to make the connection between Islam and terrorism is just horrific. I think we can all agree that Mark Williams should apologize, but he sent an email to the media saying that he wasn't sorry. He even said that he meant to connect terrorism and Islam. Mark is setting a bad example for the tea party, and I can speak for many people when saying that racism should have no part in a democratic country.

"The monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god," Williams, a frequent guest on CNN, wrote on his Web site

In an e-mail to the Daily News, Williams was unapologetic - saying his comments were specifically aimed at the terrorists, which he described as "the animals of Allah."

Read more at the Daily News.

A new law in France

A new law in France would make it illegal to wear full body burqa in public areas. This is going much too far. I think that people should have the right to wear whatever they want, but I think in certain areas you must be able to be identified by your face. Also, in areas like on your passport and drivers licence you must be seen.This might not be new, but I think that everyone can were whatever they want in public. That is a human right.