Author Archives: Wilock

Sikhs can carry kirpans in school: high court

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I’m a reasonable person. I don’t suffer from racism or intolerance. I’m rather proud of our melting-pot culture, and I’m all for religious freedom. But the Supreme Courts decision in this case is unfathomable, and beyond irresponsible.

At what point does religious freedom outweigh public safety? I don’t care if the kirpan is a religious symbol. It is a weapon pure and simple. I don’t care if there haven’t been any documented cases of kirpans being used as weapons. I’m sure there were no documented cases of box cutters being used as weapons either prior to 9/11. Humans are humans. Humans lose their temper; Humans lose control; Humans often seek vengeance for a perceived wrong. It happens every day. Violence happens despite handy statistics suggesting a specific scenario has never happened before. There always will be a first time. I guarantee it.

I’m not even talking about the average Sikh student carrying a kirpan going off the deep end and using it as a weapon; Although that could happen too. I’m talking about a regular confrontation that happens all the time in schools being taken too far because the presence of the innocent kirpan exacerbated the situation. Because, let me tell you, to everyone else the kirpan is a weapon no matter what Sikhs call it. And what about the local school bullies who target the Sikh student because he’s wearing the dagger? What happens when they take it away from him and injure him, or even kill him with his own religious symbol? Do you think the honorable Supreme Court justices will take any responsibility when that happens?

No, me neither.

Some people argue that kids are allowed to bring baseball bats to school. Baseball bats can be used as a weapon, can’t they? Well, I don’t know about the rest of the country, but kids are NOT allowed to bring baseball bats to school anymore in my area of Ottawa, for the precise reasons I’ve laid out above. Personally, I think that is excessive. And for those who think that’s hypocritical of me; let me ask you this. What do you think of first when you see a baseball bat? That’s right. Baseball. A sport. Now, what do you think of first when you see a dagger? I bet for most non-Sikhs it’s not religion.

When it comes down to it, anything can be used as a weapon. The point is kirpans will now single out Sikhs. It will make them the targets of bullies, and those that are poisoned with intolerance. Should it be that way? Of course not. Will it be that way? I’m afraid so. We don’t live in a Utopian society. We have to face reality.

Our laws forgive kids of the worst crimes imaginable because they are not deemed to be fully in control of themselves. They are still maturing or something like that. Given that, what makes these judges, or any proponent of this ruling for that matter, think that allowing these kids who are immature, and not fully in control of themselves to carry daggers is a good idea? How is it that the judges claim that this allowance is somehow defending the foundation that our constitution was built on?

I often wonder at what point are these learned judges responsible for the consequences of their half-baked decisions? Learned they may be. Wise? Apparently not.

* Editor’s Note: Here’s a link to the story: Top court quashes Sikh dagger ban

** Further update from the editor: Another good link about the story.

Re: Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive…

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Ethanol IS a better product than petroleum based fuels. However, it doesn’t do so well in cold weather. That’s why the ethanol fuel you see here is mixed with regular gas at an 85:15 ratio (ethanol to fuel)…at least I think that’s the ratio. Still good, but not perfect. In fact, a local Ottawa company (Iogen) is working on perfecting the whole Canadian ethanol thing.

BRING ON THE APOCOLYPSE, BABY!

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I was just reading more damning evidence that we’re on the highway to climate
hell. Predictably my blood started to boil.

It really is the beginning of the end. By all scientific accounts,
the polar ice caps will be gone within the next hundred or so years.
Temperatures will have risen several degrees in the same time. With all that
extra water the oceans are predicted to rise up to 20 feet (depending on the
article you read). This will dramatically reduce our landmasses, further
crowding us inland. Add on top of this that a lot of the remaining land will
be uninhabitable due to the risen heat and the constant scouring by never
before seen titanic storms, hurricanes and tornadoes. A lot of already
over-crowded countries won’t have enough room for their people. This
will initiate countless wars of “national survival”, which will actually be good
news because it will eliminate much of the overcrowding through war related
fatalities. But, then, wham! Hey! Where did all our fresh water go??? You
mean it doesn’t magically appear from some mystical fountain? Nope. Sorry
’bout your luck. 77% of surface freshwater is stored as ice and 22% as
groundwater and soil moisture. The remaining freshwater, making up less than
1% of the world total, is contained in lakes, rivers and wetlands. And what
do you think replenishes those lakes, rivers, underground aquifers that we
rely on so? Yep, ice cap runoff. Oh, rain does it too thankfully. Oh, but
we’ve f**ked that up too with acid rain. So we just melted our major source
of fresh water which is now nicely salinated in the oceans and are, ever so
busily, poisoning the rest. So, as the rivers, lakes and aquifers deplete, the
toxic chemicals will further concentrate. Unlike water, which can go away and
not come back, the chemicals tend to want to overstay their welcome. Where do
you think that leaves the land? Poisoned. Infertile. Dead.

So, after thinking about the previous scenario, I’m starting to change
my mind about the whole stopping green-house gas issue. Maybe I’ve
been looking at this the wrong way. Maybe, I’m going to start siding with the
oil companies and maybe our next vehicle will be a big, square, cast iron
vehicle that has to haul around a trailer with an extra enormous fuel tank
because it gets 0.2 km/litre. Better yet, lets lobby the auto industry to develop
a vehicle that runs directly on a gelatinous slurry of local puréed flora and
fauna. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

The way I’m starting to see it is thus: We’re never going to clean our act up
enough to save ourselves. It’s just too late for that. Humans as a whole
have been too cursed with a deadly mixture of intelligence, a supreme lack of
wisdom/foresight, and an unhealthy dose of complacency to set this all right.
This couldn’t be more apparent in our leaders. The world is ruled by a
bunch of retards who couldn’t pull their collective heads out of their collective
asses long enough to be aware of the world they’re supposedly responsible for.
That and they all, 100% of them, care for only one thing: the economy.
How much mental effort does it take to come up with the simple logic that
without a world in which to live, money doesn’t really do anyone any
good. But, you might as well tell people the oceans are red. Oh, wait!
They ARE (red tide)! Or that the skies are green.ummm, yep, it more and more
looks pretty greeny/grey with P.A.N.’s (Peroxy Acetyl Nitrates) which are just
one element of the chemical stew we vomit into the atmosphere on a daily basis.

And don’t get me started on illness. Where do you think most of our illnesses come
from? Alot of it, maybe MOST of it is self inflicted. That’s why I only, ONLY donate
to environmental charities. Lets fix the cause of the problem not put a bandaid on it.

Yep, I’ve concluded that we’re a species that was not meant to survive long in
the evolutionary scheme of things. We’re inherently murderous, rapacious and
egocentrically driven to exploit every natural resources purely for profit and without
any thought to consequence. The ubiquitous comparisons between humans
and cancer or viruses are extremely apt. We move into an area, use every
resource available until there’s nothing left and then move on to the next area.
In fact, there is little we do as humans that doesn’t involve destroying something.

With that in mind, I’ve pretty much decided to be anti-environmental. The sooner our
species is wiped off the face of the planet, or at least wiped out to the
point where we can’t hurt anything anymore, the better. Our tenure on earth
has been one unmitigated natural disaster since we started. We’ve ravaged,
raped or murdered almost everything there is that’s beautiful on the planet. I think
we’ve proven ourselves time and again manifestly unworthy to hold the top
seat on earth. Lets just get it over with. I’m sure with us gone, the environment will
recover fully in time. Maybe if we kill ourselves quickly enough some other
wiser, more intelligent life form will take over with better success…maybe
the dolphins will get it right.

Happy Armageddon, everyone!

P.S. I’m, of course, just kidding about becoming anti-environmental. I’m
just gonna become more rabid about it, and less humanitarian.

Re: Final thoughts on this…

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First, you can never link to a picture…EVER…in Flash unless each picture has it’s own page, which kinda defeats the purpose of having a dynamic site. When you click on a thumbnail on my site, what pops up is not a “pop up” in the HTML sense of the word. What it actually is is a movieclip with a button which has my picture on it. It doesn’t have it’s own file or path or any way you could link to it.

And, truthfully, I didn’t put my watermark on each picture, because I didn’t think the incidents of people screen shotting my images, and placing them willy-nilly around the internet would be as astonishingly high as it apparently is, as evidenced by your google image search for robertwilsonphoto….should I watermark my logo too?

I know, I’m a jerk. SOME of your points are noted. I will certainly address these numerous issues in any future versions of Robert Wilson Photography websites, if for no other reason than to get you off my back. But, I will NEVER get rid of Flash…at least not until something better comes along.