April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

Debra

Two Year Old Killed Over Child Support

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Ja Shawn Powell
Ja Shawn Powell
My heart goes out to this mother who has lost her child to such cold calculated violence. Danny Platt slashed two year old Ja Shawn Platt’s throat because he was upset at being ordered to pay child support.

“There was an issue, believe it or not, with him (Danny Platt) recently being ordered to pay child support, and he had made some comments that he would he kill either the wife or the child before he paid child support,” said Riley at a press conference Saturday. “He was recently ordered to pay child support. Our understanding is he, for the first time in two years, picked up his son, who he had visitation rights for.”

Though Danny Platt had visitation rights the night of the murder was the first time he had ever come to pick him up according to mother Daniella Powell. She allowed him to take Ja Shawn, however, as he had visitation rights.

“Then he called me back at 11 p.m.,” she said. “And he was like,‘Your son was kidnapped, bye.’ He didn’t even say anything after.”

“I called him back and said, ‘How do you let a two-year-old get kidnapped? What was you doing that he got kidnapped?’” she said. “He said, ‘Why you blaming this on me? Why you blaming this on me? I ain’t got time for this, bye.’”

Powell called Platt back a third time and asked if he called police. “He said, “Yeah, I called the police. As a matter of fact, they’re here right now and I’m about to flag them down.” But Daniella said when she talked to police, they told her the father had not called them.

Because Powell had called police, officers flagged the father down, she said.

News video and more on this tragic story

Brain Food

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A study carried out at Universite Laval in Quebec has found that heavy thinking requires calories. Though the difference in caloric need was negligible between rest periods and study periods, the study periods resulted in much higher fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels. Glucose is brain food.

Jean-Philippe Chaput, the study’s main author, said: “These fluctuations may be caused by the stress of intellectual work, or also reflect a biological adaptation during glucose combustion.”

The body could be reacting to these fluctuations by spurring food intake in order to restore its glucose balance, the only fuel used by the brain.

Mr Chaput added: “Caloric overcompensation following intellectual work, combined with the fact we are less physically active when doing intellectual tasks, could contribute to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialised countries.

“This is a factor that should not be ignored, considering that more and more people hold jobs of an intellectual nature.”

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go feed my brain!

Farewell 2008

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2008 ends with
war still on–check
Countless thousands are losing their lives to wars and as of 28 Dec. 106 Canadian soldiers have perished in Afghanistan.

ongoing human rights infractions–check
Too many to write to as every country around the world is guilty of this including Canada

Lying Liars still Lying or How I Sold My Foetus On Ebay
2008 saw an attempt in Colorado to have eggs legally regarded as persons. This was rightly defeated. An attempt to make abortion illegal under essentially any condition including life of the mother in South Dakota. Again defeated.
And a number of bills proposed which would reopen the abortion debate in Canada, as well as make contraception and abortion more difficult to access. Bill C484, C537 And we find out there is a secret cabal plotting to take away women’s rights.

Women still to Blame
One of the rules of a journalist agreement signed in Argentina was

We will never look for justifications or “motives” (alcohol, drugs, arguments, jealousy, a couple’s separation, infidelity, and so on) that only distract attention from the central issue: violence. The cause of gender-based violence is the control and domination that certain men exercise over women.

Too bad media didn’t take that tact when reporting on the killing spree in the so called Santa Killer case. References are consistently made to how his wife leaving him triggered his violence as if it was her fault. This is not an isolated instance in fact it is a sickeningly common occurrence.

Conservatives™ hate Democracy
Harper decided to prorogue parliament rather than face a coalition which represented 62% of the Canadian 2008 election voters. He relied heavily on many Canadians lack of knowledge of how our system works to shift that blame to the coalition members. An Angus Reid poll had this question;
Which of these political systems do you think would be best for Canada?
Please select one response only.
A presidential system, with an executive branch that is separate from the legislature
The current parliamentary system, with the prime minister and cabinet exercising power
A semi-presidential system, with a president in charge of foreign policy and a prime minister in charge of domestic policy
Not sure
Why I can’t imagine who *cough* Harper *cough* would want to go to an American style of government.

Fundies Discover Feminism
Sarah Palin is chosen as the running mate for McCain. Every remark made about her from her clothing expenditures to her ability to answer simple questions like what newspapers do you read, is met with a refrain of that is sexist!
An ironic twist in a campaign that featured right wing talking heads making egregiously sexist remarks re Clinton and whose GOP fan base eschews feminism like reality.

Morgentaler receives the Order of Canada.
An award highly overdue. Fundie heads explode and calls for return of other awards are made. Interestingly they didn’t see the awards as being tainted by the likes of a paedophile priest. Oh well we all have our own moral compass.

Khadr Still Waits for Justice
You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting

Workers Rights
Ontario is finally doing the right thing and trying to correct some of the exploitation of workers through temp agencies.

Just a few of the highlights. There is always hope that 2009 will be better but it is unlikely.

To my readers I wish you peace, health, happiness and friendship in the coming year.

Howard Hampton: Soon to be former ONT NDP Leader

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hh_thumbnailTodays Star has a good article on Howard Hampton the soon to be former Ont. NDP leader. Hampton never did get the chance to shine, stifled as he was by the shadow of Bob Rae. A shadow which even a move by Rae to the Liberals has not lifted. Ironically Hampton and Rae were not allies during the Rae administration. The Neo-Con climate of profit and business before people was also not conducive to Hampton’s message of fighting poverty and social responsibility.

Hampton, according to the Star article, gets under McGuinty’s skin and that alone is endearing. Having campaigned originally on a message of change, McGuinty has done precious little to change the circumstances of the most vulnerable in the province.

I hope that the next NDP leader will take up the fight for social responsibility recognizing that a society is only as strong and as healthy as the weakest of its members.