So yeah, I'm happy about Gitmo and the lifting of the Global Gag Rule. BUT

Obama is going to continue Bush's policy of bombing Pakistan.

The Pakistan military's top spokesman called the attacks, which he said were by pilotless drones, "counterproductive," because they undercut his country's efforts to oust militants from the ungoverned tribal areas.

I mean, for anyone paying attention this shouldn't come as a shock as he told us that he would use military action against Pakistan. But he's anti-war, right? (Is this where I apologise for being prematurely correct?)



17 people were killed today, 3 of them children. Since the bombings began in August we have apparently killed 2 terrorist leaders. I guess everyone else who lives in the region is a terrorist by default since there are no numbers for how many *actual* terrorists we've killed.



Great policy. It worked so well when Clinton was bombing Iraq in the 90's, didn't it?



"We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace."

Today marks the 19th anniversary of the École Polytechnique Massacre.

The shooter, who claimed that feminism had ruined his life came into a classroom and separated the nine women from the approximately fifty men and ordered the men to leave. Speaking in French, he asked the remaining women whether they knew why they were there, and when one student replied "no", he answered: "I am fighting feminism". One of the students, Nathalie Provost, said, "Look, we are just women studying engineering, not necessarily feminists ready to march on the streets to shout we are against men, just students intent on leading a normal life." Lépine responded that "You're women, you're going to be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists." He then opened fire on the students from left to right, killing six, and wounding three others, including Provost. Before leaving the room, he wrote the word shit twice on a student project He killed 14 women. Here are their names:

Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student.
Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student.
Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student.
Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student.
Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student.
Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student.
Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student.

Here is a list of others who shut down parliament when it didn't agree with them:

1629 King Charles I in England
1799 Napoleon in France
1913: Victoriano Huerta in Mexico
1933: Adolf Hitler in Germany
1936 Fransisco Franco in Spain
1939: Benito Mussolini in Italy
1973: Augusto Pinochet in Chile
2008: Steven Harper in Canada

Precedent setting. pfffffffft

I was going to do a knitting post, but I have decided to prorogue it for the time being.

Rally photo watch here.

Read what the people of Canada think over at the coalition Twitter page. (We're one of the top topics!)

If you read my last post you'd see that Canada is having some interesting times politically with the House of Commons pushing for a confidence motion in the Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Canadian Bush) so that they could vote "no confidence" forcing him to resign or call an election. You cannot remain the PM without the confidence of the House. That's how it works.

Today is a sad day for democracy in Canada. The Governor-General, Michaëlle Jean, has decided to grant Harper his prorogue. This has nothing to do with what is in the best interest of Canadian people as Harper likes to drone on and on about. This is all about Harper not wanting to lose his job. HE provoked the opposition by trying to take away public party subsidies, HE tried to take away worker's and women's rights, and HE gave us a crap economic platform that wouldn't help anyone.

"For the first time in the history of Canada the prime minister is running away from the parliament of Canada," said Liberal leader Stephane Dion, who headed up the opposition movement against Harper.

BRING IT HARPER. BRING IT!

To those of you who don't pay attention to Canadian politics, you really should right now. This is one of the most interesting times in Canadian political history. Right now 2 of the national parties, the NDP and the Liberal Party have forged a coalition deal that would, when the confidence vote fails (it's only a matter of time Harper, just deal with it) create a coalition government led by the Liberals. (You can read the accord here.) The Bloc Québécois is not formally part of this coalition, but has pledged their support for the next 18 months. (If only we could have Gilles as PM. *sigh*). Not only that, but Green Party leader Elizabeth May has also lent her support to the coalition. That means that 4 of the 5 major parties are UNITED behind this effort. And they have all made concessions. (As one does when one makes alliances like this. And also as one does to actually get shit done in government.)

This is really just the communications from Matthis Chiroux (pictured above from the DNC IVAW march), who you may know for his refusal to go to Iraq despite orders and is now considered a deserter.

The Hempstead 15 went to court on the 10th.

Here is Matthis's letter:

It was a sad day for Nassau County, but a proud one for veterans and activists nation-wide when the Hempstead 15 plead not guilty Nov. 10 in the Nassau County District Courthouse to charges of disorderly conduct while a crowd of nearly 100 supporters cheered them from in and outside the building.

I just saw a post on learning to knit and I know how Lambert likes the knitting posts, so I thought that I'd post about some projects I've been doing. I've been insanely busy with classes so I haven't really been knitting, but I just did some super quick and easy knitting projects and I thought I'd share them (these have all been done in the past weeks and they each took an evening or less).

So, I bet you all remember that wonderful sexist Larry Summers who said that women aren't excelling in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields because of innate differences between our brains and men's. Isn't he sweet?

OK, so there's another debate that I'll be watching tonight. (Actually, I'm having a debate watching party.) Since it starts soon I thought I might post the drinking game rules so those north of the border can use them if they wish. I know that most of you will be watching the VP debates, but I just think that the PM debates are so much more amusing. I mean, this time May (Green Party candidate) will be there! Hilarity ensues! And Giles Duceppes is always a good time. A 5 person debate is so much more fun.

Anyway. I'm sure I or Mandos will come back and tell you about it, but for now, for those who wish to participate, there will be some rules after I set this up for those not paying attention.

Layton=NDP (my personal favourites)
Dion=Liberal

Note: This is the same article DCBlogger links to (why didn't I think of that? at least copy/paste isn't hard)

The knitting Olympics are upon us so hopefully I will have more soon. (I know you're always saying we need more knitting posts. I do have a really nice tube top I'm almost done with that I promise to post. It's GORGEOUS.)

Welcome to the Sunday Morning Book Review, Jane Austen style. I apologise-it has been a long time since I have written a book review, but I will try to do this book justice. First though, I would like to give a little overall introduction to the world of Jane Austen for everyone, especially those who are wary of it or haven't picked it up b/c they think it might be boring, b/c I admit, I thought it was silly romance stories at first too. (And no, I haven't watched the movie.)

I posted previously about my WIP (work in progress-you will all learn knitting terms when I'm done muahahahahaha!) and I'm here to (finally) post some pics of my FO (finished object). And since it took so long, an extra special piece too. And I'm also posting information about how to keep your favourite knitted items in their original shape (natural fibres tend to stretch, shrink, etc.)

Here it is:

Awhile ago Lambert welcomed knitters from Ravelry, more specifically coming from the Just Hillary group. (Though he didn't know that.) He said he wished we posted about knitting. So I am posting about knitting and our lovely group, but there are lots of pretty pictures.

Here's my (almost finished) latest project:

This is the back piece.

Happy Towel Day everyone!