Report says hate speech should not be covered by Human Rights Act

No.  No turning back the clock.  Call me biased and petty, but I like things as they are now.  People like Fred Phelps cannot enter this country with a (clear) intent to promote hate.

Yes, that means limits to free speach.

Reasonable limits, that is.

And I’m okay with that.

I’m a pretty patriotic person, I’ll admit it.  And I’ll admit that having a sense of pride in and loyalty to a hunk of randon geography is pretty nonsensical, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling it.

So attempts like this one feels like an attempt to obliterate parts of Canadian culture.  And it makes me angry.

Lower Flag on Nov. 11th only, Panel Urges

The report [argues] for an even stricter policy that would shrink the number of scheduled days the flag is lowered to one — Remembrance Day on Nov. 11.

The proposal would eliminate half-mast treatment for four other days: Vimy Ridge Day on April 9, the Police and Peace Officers National Memorial Day on the last Sunday in September, Workers Mourning Day on April 28 and the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women on Dec. 6.

I suspect the motion won’t pass, but it still annoys me beyond all words.

Obsidian Wings: Andy Olmsted Major Andrew Olmsted was a soldier serving in Iraq. I did not know him, nor did I ever have the privilege of reading any of his blog posts. Until this last one, unfortunately. Major Olmsted died in Iraq on January 3rd 2008. He had the foresight of writing his own “final post”, to be posted in the event of his death. It is a sad state that it had to be used, and I feel for his friend who had the dubious honour of doing so. It’s funny, because there have been many comments across the internet about the fact that he uses many Babylon 5 quotes in his letter. People think this makes him uncultured or geeky or that it takes away from the solemnity of the letter. I heartily and thoroughly disagree. If anything, quoting from a television show he (clearly) loved shows exactly who Andrew was when he died. If I died tomorrow, and if I had a letter, it would probably be rife with Harry Potter, Buffy and Richard Bach quotes. Because that’s what I loved, and that’s what impacted *me*. Maybe it wouldn’t be brilliant, but it would be mine. Good for him for using the words that were important to him, even if others deem them lowly.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.