July 31 - Mark had a minor heart attack Thursday night so I've been less attentive to news items much less posting about them than I normally would be given the extraordinary news out of Europe these past couple of days.

Naturally he didn't go to the hospital Thursday night. (I can't prove that that 18-inning Jays game was why he stayed home, but ...) The nausea was so intense, however, that he left work Friday -- which itself is remarkable and means he felt much worse than he let on.

So I can add that to my small store of medical knowledge: when the lower portion of the heart is the area affected, nausea is the primary symptom.

He is in no immediate danger and, pending the results of Tuesday's angiogram, his main course of treatement will likely be changes in his diet. That may sound minor, but this is a meat and potatoes guy who won't eat broccoli because it looks yucky and sounds yuckier. He still refers to salad as "hay" but is extremely strong willed so will do whatever he sets his mind to doing and has even considered eating yogurt.

He seems resigned to being immobile due to the heart monitoring machine and they allowed him a minor concession by letting his sit in a real chair but he chafes at the restraint. We hope they will release him on Tuesday.

The hardest part is not fussing over him. Maybe someday I'll write a book about women who love strong willed, independent men, but for now I'll just focus on remembering that those things that drive me nuts are also the things I love most.

Many thanks to our friends who have dropped by the hospital to talk baseball and tease him about hospital food! They've really kept his spirits up.

Robert at Expat Yank is staying on top of events in England and No Parasan has some very interesting commentary on the lack of European identity as well as other European matters.

Indeed, the ball now seems to be in Europe's court and the question is what they will do with it. They seem to have seized the initiative to crack down on their own extremists, but is it temporary?

Stay safe, and happy Simcoe Day!

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July 27 - As the title says, I'm sorry for the lack of posting. Two factors come into play on my silence.

Our electrical power levels have been uncertain the last two weeks and we've had troubles maintaining internet connection (the thing with an adaptor that acts as a go-between between the computer's modem and the phone lines keeps blinking off which means I try to save something and I lose the whole thing) and there have been a couple of days when only half our electrical outlets were putting out any juice.

Short version: we chose air conditioning over computers, televisions and stoves.

A problem of a different variety is that I am still in Rage Mode after the bombings in London and Egypt. I don't want my life to be dominated by anger much less rage and I can't think of a worse prospect than grimly striding through life, but contrarily I can't imagine any better respose to atrocities than rightful anger.

What's to say? The Democrats are outraged. Check. Most people up here feel Canada is too insignificant to attack. Check. Ressem has been sentenced but won't testify against his co-conspirators. One of the would-be London bombers, Yasin Hassan Omar, from the failed July 21 attack has been captured and there is a lead on the Egyptian bombings. The U.N. contract for Paul Martin's mentor, Maurice Strong, was not renewed. Heh. Syria and Assad have been implicated (again) in yet another probe into the U.N. Oil-for-Food program, this time by I.R.S. investigators. I'm shocked that Syria, which is a member of the U.N. Security Council, would participate in a conspiracy with Iraq to circumvent U.N. sanctions on Iraq.

The CBC has joined their British colleagues at the BBC in refusing to allow the word forms of terrorism" to describe terrorism. Seems it's judgmental. It almost sounds like they think terrorism is bad ...

It's important to live with optimism and thus look to the stars: Discovery lifted off and we'll all probably hold our breaths when it returns because however blase we may be about space-travel, it's dangerous - far more dangerous than taking a subway or visiting a landmark. Kind of puts things back into perspective.

The Jays are just above .500 and the Giants aren't.

We saw Conan the Barbarian recently with what we'll call "renewed appreciation." Who could have guessed 20 years ago it would contain so much commentary on today's issues?

Two more nights and I get a real holiday weekend! Three consecutive days off, yet all I can think of how badly this place needs cleaning ...

I hope you're all enjoying the summer. It's been a baseball player's delight (because rain-outs are bad) but the days are already getting shorter and we're got provincial eliminations this weekend.

Later,

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July 12 - By power issues I mean of the electrical sort; anyone losing partial power - as opposed to a brown-out - here in Toronto? The power just went back on, but I'm posting fast in case it shuts off.

Stay cool.

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1 640 news is reporting that a transformer blew in Brampton. Story is here.

Posted by: Bill Strong at July 12, 2005 07:23 PM (lK80y)

2 Odd, but Vancouver Island seems to enjoy a continuem of Hydro power that is more steady than most places in Canada. We almost never get lightening up close here. Must be those old Beaufort mountains that protect us with moderate effects on storms. Oh, Here,s a note of some interest. Prime Minister, Martin, Your order to limit Information Commissioner John ReidÂ’s tenure to three months, when the House of Commons voted 277 to 2 in favour of extending his tenure to one full year, appears to be outrageously dictator-like rather than democratic. There is a dictator in recent history who solidified his iron grip on a nation in exactly this gradual way. Out of respect, I will not mention his name here. Politically, it will look much better for you and the Liberal Party to respect the 277 to 2 vote and allow Mr. Reid to serve his full one year term rather than try to crush him under the heel of a jackboot. Democracy first, A. Robinson Grounds for this at BendGovt.blog.ca

Posted by: TonyGuitar at July 20, 2005 04:29 PM (rmMzv)

3 Welp, I've been dropping by every day for some time now. I'm guessing that Toronto's power grids aren't the issue here. Uh... Debbye? Cat got yer tongue? Wassup?

Posted by: Tuning Spork at July 22, 2005 11:22 PM (ctgqC)

4 Debbye, enjoying your summer with the family, no doubt. Don't let us nag you back to the blogsite until you are rested and renewed. 73s TG

Posted by: TonyGuitar at July 26, 2005 06:31 AM (rmMzv)

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July 9 - Unfair! Nicholas starts out with a mild anecdote and then bang! cuts to a solidly-reasoned post as to how the economic woes of far too many Third World countries can be directly linked to their thuggish governments:

Western business practices can have little effect on cultures with no rule of law: the only way to conduct business in areas like that is to cut deals with the local powers-that-be or to become a local power. This is not good for the company conducting the business: they're not good at weilding power, nor should they be. Their core competency is conducting business, not becoming local bully boys.

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July 9 - I just learned that comments were down but they have been restored.

That's the kind of news I like - learning a problem was fixed before learning there was one. If only life were that simple ...

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July 6 - I found this article (and those also linked on the page) incredibly funny: Bono, Geldof and protesters steal spotlight:

Bono of the mega-group U2 and activist-musician Bob Geldof stole the spotlight on the first day of the G8 Tuesday with their incessant, high-profile calls for a huge increase in aid to Africa and the world's poorest countries.

Camera crews and G8 leaders alike were falling over one another to get access to the pair.

And then, after their fingers meet as they return his autograph book, ecstatically swearing that he'll "never wash that hand again." (Yes, I'm foregoing the obvious follow-up crack.)

Those gathered for the G-8 meeting (the participants, I mean) are supposed to be leaders of the most powerful countries in the world yet they're all ga-ga over rock stars?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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July 5 - If you are reading this then we are back up (but then again, it may be only temporary.)

It seems some kind of (im)perfect storm is hitting Munu with trackback spam, comment spam and some kind of automated upgrade thingy that involves squirrels and pearls or some such.

If you've been unable to leave your comment please don't take it personally; I too am receiving the message "you do not have permission to post."

Urgh. It lets me save but won't let me publish. Heh, this is a good opportunity to test my theory that I am way more stubborn than any machine.

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July 2 - This post by Melanie Phillips on The big lie cut straight to the chase and when it reminds readers of the known links between al Qaeda and Saddam. The gem is in the concluding paragraph:

The anti-western left has, over the course of history, fallen time after time for the propaganda of murderous tyrants who offered a handy platform for bashing the home society by providing the alibi of conscience. (Emphasis added)

The investment of personal, political and moral identity that this represents is so immense that after a short while such gullible dupes are simply incapable of recognising reality even when it stares them in the face. Hence their stupefaction when confronted with the enormities of Robespierre, Stalin or Mao. To that list must now be added the Islamic jihad and Saddam Hussein.

The difference is that this time these useful idiots have taken the middling people of Britain and Europe – and increasingly, it seems, of America – with them into the land of deluded wishful thinking. The result could be that this war against the jihadi terror could be lost -- at home.

More on the youth and the lies they are fed, Peaktalk writes about The Benefits of Underage Labor (in which he links to this post by Kate about her childhood work experiences.) In addition to the inevitable paper route, my kids also worked at movie theatres, which seems to be a fairly predominant rite of passage for city dwelling high school and college students, and I must admit that I was initially astonished that the middle child stayed at the job, given his fairly laid back approach to life, and his perseverence and dedication at that job laid to rest my fears that he had somehow failed to inherit the work gene.

Inserting a quick aside to Kate's post for a moment, my morning bus driver made a similar observation connecting childhood obesity to the lack of support for public school athletic programs.

Further on this theme, Michelle Malkin writes on how the feel-good therapy crowd is trying to turn us into a nation of namby-pambies (link via Newsbeat1.)

The latest example of Hand-Holding 101 comes from the New York City public schools. According to Lauren Collins of the New Yorker magazine, the school system is introducing a new curriculum called "Operation Respect: Don't Laugh at Me" into all its elementary and middle schools. The program is now used in at least 12,000 schools and camps across the country.
Ostensibly, the program helps kids deal with petty meanness and name-calling from insensitive classmates, not by instructing them in self-defense, mind you, but by inflating their self-esteem. The organization's mission is "to transform schools, camps and organizations focused on children and youth, into more compassionate, safe and respectful environments." Instead of "putdowns," teachers encourage "put-ups."

The Operation Respect Web site depicts well-adjusted children holding up ego-affirming signs reading: "Ridicule Free Zone," "No Dissing Here," "U Matter," and "Peace Place."

There's so much renewed value in the old adage regarding "sticks and stones." There are people who really are trying to break our bones, and that seems more worthy of our attention than worrying over potential hurt feelings caused by the names Americans are being called internationally. (I know it bothered Sen. Kerry, but it doesn't bother me until it becomes personal, a still relatively minor hazard here in Toronto compared to, again, issues like death.)

It also doesn't hurt that our folks taught us to ignore "peer pressure" and to do what was right, not what was popular.

What to say? By all means, let's add the nation's youth into the growing list of "victims" in our society. Let's strip them of their dignity and urge for self-sufficiency and teach them that self-defense and the work ethic are wrong. What's to lose, except for minor qualities like the vigor and strength exhibited by citizens in a confident nation?

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July 2 - Munu's Tiger (aka Terence Russell) has finally published Alien Attitudes - Alura, Alien at Large.

It's available both in paperback and in download at the above link. Tig talks more about it here and reports on an unexpected sighting from Roswell here.

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1 Thanks for the push. It's a tough road to the NYT Bestseller list. Tig

Posted by: Tig at July 02, 2005 07:02 PM (SnGwt)

2 Tig, your lyrical writing style and sense of humour already recommend the book to your blog readers, and I am really excited that this book is finally available so a wider audience will be able to enjoy your writings. Being so close to world domination, it is good that we at Munu can set our sights on a new challenge: the NY Times bestseller list.

Posted by: Debbye at July 03, 2005 01:27 AM (M4DkP)

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