Irony ...

I love Ed Hardy designs.


I bought a new vehicle recently.  My old truck had a steering wheel cover with the Ed Hardy "Goldfish" on it; I thought I would change it up this time.  This morning I went and looked at what was available, and I bought myself a new cover with the "Love Kills Slowly" graphic on it this time.


As I was in the line up to check out, I got a message from Red that The Wolf is in town for the holidays.


~~~ sigh ~~~


Since the last incident, the one that involved the police, the MP's, his CO, and the no contact order, I have maintained that if we made it through Christmas leave with no incident, then I would let myself start believing it was really over, that he had gotten the message.


I guess it is really going to the test.  Sebastian is convinced that the Wolf is not stupid enough to jeopardize his career over this, and I really hope he is right.  I am not convinced, however, of the rational influence of that threat on a person with PTSD and anger management issues who self medicates with whiskey.  But I've been wrong before.


The Wolf is trying to get Red to meet up with him for a drink.  Red, as it so happens, is the one he contacted back in May trying to get my address and other info; the one that alerted me that he was trying to find me, resulting in his CO being contacted the first time.  She is thinking she is going to be awfully busy for the next little while, too busy for a drink.


So in addition to all the holiday stress of being at my parents' place, seeing my dad's failing health, and my mom treating me like a consolation prize because my brother is not also home, I will be hyper vigilant on my 5's and 20's.


Thankfully, right now the plan is to head to Sebastian's place on boxing day; somewhere I can relax and feel safe and protected and forget about the bullshit and headgames for a while.  Other than the high population of tall men with high 'n' tights, which sometimes gets to me when I am "on alert".  I expect it to be a good visit.  Although the afore ranted about "crap" is still not resolved, he seems to be relaxing about it, and the last little while things have been really, really good.


Peace of the season to you all; and don't worry, I'll watch my 6 (or have a highly qualified person watch it for me).

"Lullabye For A Stormy Night"/"Leaving on a Jet Plane" performed b...

Thom over at SSS continues to inspire me to share some of my favorite songs.  Rain does indeed fall in every life, my friend. 

"Well now I am grown, and these years have shown that rain's a part of how life goes; but it's dark and it's late, so I'll hold you and wait, 'til your frightened eyes do close

and someday you'll know that nature is so the same rain that draws you near me falls on rivers and land, on forests and sand; makes the beautiful world that you'll seein the morning"

Red Friday ~ Fallen Soldier by Nathan Fair

A year ago yesterday my sweetie came home safe.  :o)  But I know he still remembers the ones who didn't.  There have been some hard times, some bad days, but we get through.

Hypocrites ... or just lazy?

Yes, those that saw it, this is what my FB status a few days ago was all about ...

http://boingboing.net/2011/12/03/canadas-secret-police-to-gov.html

This link was posted on the FaceBook page of a dance associate recently, and a number of outraged comments followed. I am not sure, but I strongly suspect that a number of the individuals who commented on the link read only the article's title - “Canada's secret police to government: we need torture to keep this country safe” or looked at the article's illustration, a woodcut of a crucifixion taken from creativecommons.org .

If you follow the links and read the supporting documents (including the original memo from 2008) you will see that CSIS is not saying they want to crucify people (as implied by the illustration), they are saying the wording of the amendment as proposed is to vague and open, is not in harmony with existing Canadian law, and they would like it clarified. CSIS is the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada's not so secret “police”. https://www.csis.gc.ca/index-eng.asp

For example under current Canadian law, if you want to accuse someone of something illegal, including torture, there is something called a “burden of proof” before they can be convicted. Under the amendment referenced in the article, the information just has to be “suspected” of being obtained through methods that qualify as torture as defined by section 269 of Canada's Criminal Code. No burden of proof to be met.

Under section 269, torture includes things like sleep deprivation, temperature manipulation, etc. Things which, as an aside, do reduce an individual's ability to control involuntary body language “tells” that let an interrogator judge their truthfulness. The amendment as originally proposed makes information obtained by such means inadmissible, even if later corroborated by information obtained through “legal” means.

For example: Our ally Great Britain obtains information from a member of extremist group that there will be an attack on the University of Toronto campus. Information is then gathered by CSIS through completely legal means, based on this tip, that indicates that the attack is indeed going to happen. Someone points out that GB uses sleep deprivation and temperature manipulation during interrogations, and that the original tip was likely obtained through such “torture”. They do not have to “prove” to Canadian standards that the information was obtained through torture, they just have to have a “reasonable suspicion”

Under the proposed amendment, CSIS would then not be allowed to act on ANY of the subsequently gathered information, and would be legally obligated remain uninvolved while the attack proceeded.

Can you see why they wanted the language clarified?

I have a few objections to what happened. Firstly, I believe that the headline and illustration chosen were inflammatory, bordering on irresponsible. Secondly, I believe, as I stated, that a number of people fired off comments without bothering to read what they were commenting on.

Most strongly, though, I believe that most of those that commented have never been in the situation where they have had to make a tough decision to save the life of someone they cared about (including strangers ... many people care about strangers). If it were the life of their child, their sibling, their spouse, their parent hanging in the balance ... would they be so quick to judge? So secure in their sanctimony?

If they had to look into the eyes of a child left orphaned by an act of terror – would they be so quick to judge the actions of those who strive to prevent it?

If they saw the devastation left in entire communities, would they object to the people responsible being made uncomfortable?

Unfortunately, for me, this dredged up memories of other people who have been quick to judge, including the lovely sales clerk who once asked me “How can you love someone who kills people for a living?”

‎"Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Veni, Veni Emanuel - Mediaeval Baebes

For Thormoo - my favorite version. Enjoy, my friend.

~~~~~~~~~

Personally, I am not feeling the spirit of the season right now. I am mostly ignoring Christmas, and hoping it passes quickly.