Thursday, April 3, 2014

Toronto mayor election/ The Invisible War



Mar. 15 Toronto mayor election: I read this in the Metro yesterday that NDP MP Olivia Chow is going to be running for mayor.  Good for her.

Mar. 20 Teen sues parents: I found this on Yahoo “Judge rules against New Jersey teen suing parents for financial support”: 

In the unprecedented lawsuit, 18-year-old Rachel Canning alleges she was forced to move out of the family home, citing emotional abuse and threats of physical abuse from her parents. However, her parents say that she voluntarily left home because she didn't want to follow their rules, reports CNN.

Judge Peter Bogaard denied Canning's request for her parents to reimburse her financially since her departure.

"I have been subjected to severe verbal and physical abuse by my mother and father," Canning wrote in a court document. "I am not willingly and voluntarily leaving a reasonable situation at home to make my own decisions. I had to leave to end the abuse."

"We're not Draconian and now we're getting hauled into court. She's demanding that we pay her bills but she doesn't want to live at home, and she's saying, 'I don't want to live under your rules,'" her father Sean Canning, a town administrator and retired police officer, tells the Daily Record.

Here are some comments:

RainbowConnection:  I know the Cannings must feel humiliated as was said in this report but I hope they realize that they have a HUGE amount of support out there from parents like myself who have had their kids do awful things because we made them follow (reasonable) house rules. My kid actually tried to set me up as a patsy with a CFS "councillor" who had swallowed her lies hook, line and sinker.

At what was supposed to be a "mediation" meeting, it took me about 10 minutes to finally figure what was going on, that this wasn't a mediation chat but set-the-parent-up-as-a-rat-ba$t@rd. I got up, told the BOTH of them that I'd wait 15 minutes out in the car for my daughter to decided whether she wanted a ride home (30 miles away) or for her to decide what she wanted to do with her life but that I was NOT going to be crucified for trying to enforce reasonable rules at home. The next day I reported the "councillor" for unprofessional conduct. Unfortunately for the Cannings, their daughter managed to get a lawyer to swallow her story of mean, abusive parents and it#$%$ the media. My sympathies to THEM.

My opinion: There are a lot supporting the parents.  I will say if she was abused, she should have told a teacher about it.  By this article, it seems like she didn’t want to live her parents, and wanted them to pay for her living situation.  This kind of reminds me this Tyra Banks episode of teen pregnancy.  One teen girl says (paraphrase): “I didn’t want to live with my mom and all her rules so I decided to get pregnant and have a baby.  There was a school where I can have a baby and keep going to school.  I applied to get on welfare.”

At least Rachel Canning didn’t get pregnant.


Mar. 21 Brazil: I was reading in the Globe and Mail article “Brazil’s radical weight-loss plan” by Adraina Barton on Mar. 17, 2014.  It was about eating fruits and vegetables, and learning how to cook easy healthy stuff.  It’s not really hard to cook rice and get fresh food.

It said: “…to economical and social reforms that pulled 20 million Brazilians out of poverty between 2003-2009.  This means new freezers and microwaves to store and reheat food, and money for fast food.”

My opinion: That’s really good that Brazil’s economy is helping people.

Mar. 25 Adopted children: I was watched a Criminal Minds episode called “Gabby” about a missing girl.  I went on twop.com to read people’s comments about it, and they all said it was “ripped from the headlines” as in it was in the news.

There is an underground network of adopted children.  Parents mainly adopt children from other countries.  Then when the kids have mental disorders or it’s too hard to control and raise them, they hand off the kid to other adults who want to be parents.  They find them on the internet, but they are not researched.  There are no lawyers or social workers and documentation about it.  Twop had these links:



Mar. 29 The Invisible War: I cut out this Globe and Mail article called “A horrific truth that begged to be told” by Johanna Schneller on Jul. 21, 2012.  She interviews director Kirby Dick about his documentary called The Invisible War. 

“Since World War Two, an estimated 500,000 US military personnel have suffered a sexual assault or rape.  As many of them were men as women.”

“Though women now make up about 15 per cent of the US military, a female soldier in a combat zone is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.”

“3000 or so assaults that were reported, about half were investigated, and only 191 perpetrators were court-martialed.”

Schneller is a good writer, but I couldn’t find the article to copy and paste so I had to type the above quotes.  Here are more of her articles:


I went to the movie’s website and it’s good:
“The three main objectives of Invisible No More are to:
  •  Raise awareness
  • Effect political and cultural change
  • Serve as a means of healing for survivors of Military Sexual Assault
Our brave troops protect our country, our freedom, and our livelihood.  We can’t turn our back on them.  The 2.9 million active duty and reserve personnel in the U.S. Armed Services should be able to serve with dignity and pride, and without fear of rape.”


Rick Ross: I wrote about this rapper before.  He rapped on Rocko’s song U.O.E.N.O where he raps about giving a woman the drug MDMA and having his way with her.  Women’s groups and rape victims started petitions and Reebok ended it’s contract with Ross in Apr. 2013 after all that criticism.  He apologized before, but here’s another one. 

In Metro’s article “Rick Ross moving on after his divorce from Reebok” on Sept. 18, 2013:

What did you learn from your setback with Reebok?

Ross: You live and you learn.  I think the most unfortunate thing about the whole situation was just the fact that my lyrics offended some ladies, especially dealing with the topic of rape.  It was interpreted as rape.  I really wanted to make sure that I apologize to any woman that I offended in that way.  I just wanted to make that clear.  When I make music and I’m talking on records, it’s like I’m painting a picture.  In my mind, I’m seeing a film.  I apologize.

Here is his more eloquent apology in my weekly email that I wrote about him earlier: 

“To the young men who listen to my music, please know that using a substance to rob a woman of her right to make a choice is not only a crime, it’s wrong and I do not encourage it.”

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