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Friday 8 April 2011
Libya warns of human, environmental disaster
if the 'Great Man-Made River' is hit by air strikes
By Staff Writers
Agence France Presse
03 April 2011 TRIPOLI — Libya warned on Sunday that NATO-led air strikes could cause a "human and environmental disaster" if they damaged the country's massive Great Man-Made River (GMMR) project.
Built at a cost of 33 billion dollars, the GMMR extracts water from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System beneath the Sahara desert at a depth of between 500 and 800 metres (1,600 to 2,500 feet), purifies it and transports it to the coastal cities of the north where most of the population is concentrated. — 326 words.
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'Qaddafi (called Papa) is a generous boss'
China Daily News
04 2011 MOSCOW — A Ukrainian nurse who treated Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi dismissed rumors on Tuesday that he had a nurse as a mistress but said the man they call "Papa" gives his staff gold watches every year.
Speaking to Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, nurse Oksana Balinskaya denied a rumor in a WikiLeaks dispatch that Qaddafi had a "voluptuous blonde" nurse as a mistress, named by media as Galyna Kolotnytska. — 250 words.
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American law professor writes on
'Their Imperial Highnesses'
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton
By Paul Campos
TheDailyBeast.com
Paul Campos is a professor of law at the U.S. University of Colorado at Boulder.
What if President Obama raised taxes without congressional approval? It sounds preposterous, yet U.S. presidents now routinely wage war on their own—and in Libya, Obama isn’t even pretending Qaddafi poses a threat to us.
2 April 2011 — Suppose President Obama announced that, in order to protect the nation while carrying out his constitutional duties as commander in chief, he was issuing an executive order restoring federal income tax rates to their Clinton-era levels. Suppose he justified this action by referring to the powers the Constitution supposedly vested in him to wage war on his own initiative. Suppose he argued that, since the Constitution grants him this power, it would be absurd to claim that it denied him the necessary concurrent power to raise revenue so that he might fulfill his constitutional responsibilities.
I suspect most lawyers and law professors, although perhaps not the indefatigable professor John Yoo, would consider such an argument preposterous on its face. After all, the Constitution specifically grants Congress the power to "lay and collect taxes." Only Congress has the constitutional authority to impose taxes, an authority it has exercised by enacting the Internal Revenue Code. The president's role in the matter is limited to executing that law faithfully, proposing changes to it, and vetoing proposed changes of which he disapproves.
All this is American Government 101. Yet when it comes to waging war, American Government 101 has, since the middle of the 20th century, been replaced gradually by American Government, Special Roman Imperial Edition. Our latest splendid little war is the most striking example of this trend to date.
For Obama and Clinton, military adventures in foreign lands are not wars if one’s intentions are sufficiently pure: then they become humanitarian aid delivered via Cruise missiles. — 847 words.
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31 March 2011 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – On Wednesday, March 30, Venezuela authorities formally announced the disbanding of the Metropolitan Police of Caracas (MP), paving the way for the newly-established National Bolivarian Police (PNB) to take over operations in the nation’s capital.
Minister for Justice and Internal Affairs Tareck El Aissami, whose ministry is responsible for running the new national police force, made the announcement yesterday, adding that a total 730 million BsF was approved on Monday to pay all pending debts owed to the soon disbanded officers. — 494 words.
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Sarkozy: Statesman or Madman?
Joy-stick intellectual, would-be Napoleon
drag West into another military disaster
The Germans said no thanks and the Russians and Chinese laughed up their sleeves and said, 'After you, my dear Alphonse'
TheDailyBeast.com
Christopher Dickey is a columnist for The Daily Beast and Newsweek magazine's Paris bureau chief and Middle East editor. He is the author of six books, including Summer of Deliverance, and most recently Securing the City: Inside America's Best Counterterror Force—the NYPD.
An intimate look at the French president and his ties to the incestuous world of French intellectuals who helped launch the war in Libya.
2 April 2011 — In their favored haunts all across the city, at the bar of the Hotel Raphael near the Arc de Triomphe, in the tearooms of the Lutetia on the Left Bank and the Bristol on the Right Bank — a long way, in short, from the carnage in the Libyan desert—the Paris literati banter non-stop about the nuances of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's somewhat puzzling decision to lead their country and the Western world to war. Not a few have been amused, or chagrined, or both, to learn that one of their own, the ever-so-flamboyant (some would say insufferable) philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy had a pivotal role in prompting the allies' intervention. "I might write a book about it myself," says the man commonly known as BHL—by far the most controversial public intellectual in France — as he settles into the Raphael's dark red-velvet upholstery. — 2,027 words.
Wisdom is a result of a happy marriage between intelligence and experience.
© Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher, True North Perspective
Editor's Notes
True North Perspective
Vol. 6, No. 12 (271)
Friday, April 8, 2011
The song that everyone wanted to hear, has gone flat
Now the tune is 'Humanitarian Aid' delivered to the whistle of cruise missiles
After two terms of President George W. Bush the world, not just the Americans, wanted to hear the song that presidential candidate Barack Obama so eloquently sang. When he took office and began betraying his promises the chorus sang out against those who expressed alarm, "Give him time…Give him time". Well, time Obama has had, and we find that the alarm has been justified.
The latest Orwellian word to justify war is Humanitarian. We are using our military force for Humanitarian reasons. Tens of thousands of young military men and women are dead or wounded as a result of Humanitarian wars in Afghanistan and Iraq along with hundreds of thousands if not a million unarmed civilians.
Now we have Libya, for Humanitarian reasons. — 491 words.
The Droz Report
For the Green Party's Elizabeth May, it's debate-a-vu all over again
By Geoffrey Dow
Managing Editor, True North Perspective
Originally published at Edifice Rex Online
Geoffrey Dow is blogging the Canadian election at Edifice Rex Online. Each week for the duration, True North Perspective will present the best of his columns.
Tuesday was a good news/bad news sort of day for the Green Party.
On the one hand, Elizabeth May's band of political upstarts lost their bid to have the Federal Court make an emergency ruling giving her a seat at the table for next week's televised leaders' debates.
On the other hand, if the results of a poll commissioned by the Globe and Mail are to be believed, a significant majority of Canadians either "strongly" or "somewhat" support her presence at the boys' table. — 927 words.
'If there's another subject, I'll answer it': PM
Harper's paranoid little world angers journalists
By Lauren McKeon
The Canadian Journalism Project
J-SOURCE.CA
05 April 2011 — Journalists reached their boiling point over the five-questions rule at a recent campaign presser in Halifax last week. Standing behind a yellow barricade 12 feet away from the Prime Minister, journalists peppered Harper but the PM wouldn't budge.
Neither would reporters. In video footage posted to the CBC's Inside Politics blog, one reporter plugs on after repeated rebuffs: "No, no, listen. There is a bit of an irony here that we're standing behind a fence and you're campaigning as a Prime Minister, as most do, promising to be open and accountable. So our only question is why do you limit the number of questions to four questions per day." — 520 words.
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Finally, Parliament is an issue in election campaign
By Alex Binkley
True North Perspective
8 April 2011 — Former prime minister Paul Martin raised a lot of hopes when he promised to correct what’s called the democratic deficit in Parliament. He never did and Prime Minister Harper certainly hasn’t.
The topic may sound airy fairy to you. Well, it should be as important as any issue that gets debated in the May 2 election campaign.
That’s because you’re voting to send your representative to Parliament. But if that man or woman is reduced to little more than a rubber stamp or trained seal by the government, then your voice is lost, especially if you voted for the MP as the best person to represent your community. — 720 words.
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Maybe not great minds, but campaign minds sure think alike
By Tamsin McMahon
The National Post
5 April 2011 — Ron Comeau and Elaine Tan Comeau and their three young children are a typical Canadian family – so typical, in fact, that their photo has been featured in ads by the Liberals, Conservatives and the NDP to promote their family-friendly agenda.
The photogenic Maple Ridge, B.C., couple and their eldest daughter, Abigail, 7, are the face of the family plank of the Liberal platform. A photo of Abigail, a red maple leaf painted on her cheek, was also featured in a Conservative Youtube ad in February trumpeting the party’s Canadian family values. And about a year ago, a colleague at a school where Ms. Comeau was teaching handed her an NDP pamphlet with the family’s picture on it. — 924 words.
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-- PBS journalist Bill Moyers.
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From the Desk of Dennis Carr, Sustainability Editor
Gary Mar brags of defeating emissions reductions as province's man in Washington.
TheTyee.ca
5 April 2011 — Gary Mar loves to cook. It's his way of relaxing after a hard day's work -- lobbying against U.S. clean energy laws, say, or making "aggressive" oil sands pitches to hostile members of Congress.
He can actually picture himselfas a furniture builder too. But now that Mar's quit his diplomatic posting in Washington to run for Alberta premier, he just doesn't have the time.
So it'll have to be cooking and political campaigning for now. And if he does become premier, which at this point is a real possibility, Mar will have even less time to make tables and chairs.
That he would be considered a frontrunnerfor the Progressive Conservative leadership -- and de facto premier, given the party's 40-year rule over Alberta -- isn't too surprising for some observers.
His past three years in Washington, D.C. have largely inoculated himfrom the party tensions plaguing outgoing Premier Ed Stelmach.
And in Mar's often successful quest to defeat any U.S. clean energy law targeting Alberta's oil sands, he's developed a powerful roster of allies, particularly among major oil companies and Republican legislators. — 1,336 words.
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Reality Check
Investment in machinery and equipment has declined in lockstep with falling corporate tax rates over the past decade
By Karen Howlett
The Globe and Mail
6 April 2011 — Canadian companies have added tens of billions of dollars to their stockpiles of cash at a time when tax cuts are supposed to be encouraging them to plow more money into their businesses.
Corporate tax cuts are becoming a major issue in the federal election campaign. The Conservatives, arguing that they are the best custodians of an economy that remains fragile after the recession, say tax cuts are crucial to stimulate job creation and make Canada more competitive on the global stage.
But an analysis of Statistics Canada figures by The Globe and Mail reveals that the rate of investment in machinery and equipment has declined in lockstep with falling corporate tax rates over the past decade. At the same time, the analysis shows, businesses have added $83-billion to their cash reserves since the onset of the recession in 2008. — 804 words.
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Taking it to the streets
Copycat protests set for Canada, USA, United Kingdom and Australia
By Tinamarie Bernard
Examiner.com
7 April 2011 — Sex-positive activists in Toronto accomplished an extraordinary feat. In six weeks, they organized an international protest against the Canadian policeman who used the slur, ‘slut,’ to blame a victim for her assault. The two-hour walk on April 4, 2011 was peaceful and attended by an estimated crowd of 3000 women and men. Similar events scheduled across Canada, the United States and Australia, with New York the site of the next SlutWalk march on April 9, 2011. These efforts are aimed towards women and their supporters who believe that how a woman dresses is not an invitation to commit an assault. Reframing how women’s sexuality is judged vis-à-vis men’s is part of a larger response against restrictions placed upon female sexual sovereignty, feminists have long argued.SlutWalk Toronto formed rapidly in response to a policeman’s slur used to blame a female victim for her assault earlier this year. On January 24th, 2011, a representative of the Toronto Police gave shocking insight into the Force’s view of sexual assault by stating: “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”. Outraged by these comments, for which the officer later apologized, the organizers – including Sonya JF Barnett, Heather Jarvis, Alyssa Teekah, Jeanette Janzen, and Erika Jane Scholz – partnered with several organizations committed to reframing political and police accountability, and advancing gender equality. — 603 words.
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Health Watch?
'No testing please, we're Canadian'
By Tiffany Crawford
The Vancouver Sun
2 April 2011 — Canadian health agencies have no immediate plans to measure the amount of radiation in milk following Japan's nuclear crisis despite the demands of B.C. dairy farmers who want officials to follow the U.S. and test dairy products.
"There will be no testing of milk," Alice Danjou, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said Friday.
The news came as a disappointment to Robin Smith, executive director of the BC Milk Producers Association, which earlier this week called on the agency to test the milk in an effort to prove to the public the levels are low enough to consume.
Smith raised his concerns after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday it had found traces of radioactive iodine in milk in Spokane, Wash., about 600 kilometres southeast of Vancouver. But the agency stressed that the levels were 5,000 times below those considered dangerous.
"If there is radioactive iodine in the milk we want to know about it," said Smith.— 759 words.
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Bits and Bites of Everyday Life
Secrets, half-truths and manipulation
No blaming the Easter Bunny this time around: Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair wonders, does Stephen Harper believe in our values and our democracy?
True North Perspective
Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair is the author of The Neglected Garden and two French novels. Visit her website to learn more: www.albertevilleneuve.ca.
8 April 2011 — Last year, Easter Sunday was on April the 4th and it was a gorgeous day: 28 degrees Celsius. We shared a beautiful Easter breakfast and egg hunt outdoors. Everything was fine until the men started talking politics. You can read the article that ensued, posted April 9th 2010 in the True North Perspective archives.
I took that opportunity to have my say since I have never been polled and only have one vote in a federal election. The Harper government, a mutant (Reform) Conservative party, worried me from the very beginning. I saw Stephen Harper becoming the George Bush sidekick: “Let’s make sure corporations prosper, never mind the masses”. Thank God, Barack Obama took over the U.S. presidency! Watching how Harper has operated ever since begs one question: “Does he believe in our values and our democracy?” — 1,172 words.
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Spirit Quest
Harper behaves as if he, like King Creon in ancient Thebes, has a pipeline to eternal truth
By The Rev. Dr. Hanns F. Skoutajan
True North Perspective
08 April 2011 — My first encounter with democratic procedures was in a one room public school in northern Saskatchewan. Pine Ridge School, with no pines anywhere in evidence, was about 25 km. from the nearest village. It accommodated 40 children and one pot-bellied stove. The nearest power line was 20 km away. In the school yard at the furthest extremity from the schoolhouse, understandably, were two one seater outhouses. Closer to the door, and there was only one door, was a hand pump. To exercise its handle was an honour not a chore. There was also a barn on the property to house horses that transported some lucky children to and from their education.
Verna Brown was 20 years old when I first walked into her classroom. In her desk drawer was an unused strap, standard equipment in those days. Because she did not believe in corporal punishment, discipline was achieved by non violent means and it worked admirably. — 848 words.
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ParkTales
Parkdale phantom maniac attacks again
By Frances Sedgwick
True North Perspective
Frances Sedgwick's keen eye and ear for the human condition reveals the heart and soul of Parkdale in southwest Toronto, one of the country's most turbulent urban areas where the best traditions of human kindness prevail against powerful forces that would grind them down. True North Perspective proudly presents a column by writer Frances Sedgwick. Her critical observation combined with a tender sense of humour will provide you with something to think about ... and something to talk about.
08 April 2011 — Returning from my Wednesday morning swim I stopped off at one of my coffee shops to read the paper and see and hear what was going on in the neighbourhood.
"Parkdale attack victim is 'getting out of here'", read the headline in the Greater Toronto Section of the Toronto Star.
I was alarmed as I read the details of the latest attack in Parkdale, a block away from my apartment building.
Previous attacks, and one death, had been targeted at people with mental disabilities.
This latest attack was on a man who has none of these problems. Dan Chiarelli is an out of work mechanic. — 429 words.
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From the Desk of Parkdale Columnist Frances Sedgwick
Theresa Boyle
and Jennifer Yang
Toronto Star Staff Reporters
Dan Chiarelli says he can’t move out of Parkdale fast enough.
The 45-year-old man was attacked early Tuesday morning and is the sixth victim in a series of beatings targeting people in the area.
“I am getting out of here ASAP. The first place I can find, I’m gone,” he said in an interview in his Maynard Ave. rooming house Tuesday night.
Chiarelli was just returning home after walking his girlfriend to the Queen St. streetcar at 3 a.m. when he was jumped from behind. As he turned around to look at his attacker, he got a fist in his face, which left him with a shiner.
“He must do boxing or something because it was a pretty hard punch. I can take a hit, but this was an exceptional blow,” he said.
Chiarelli said the pummelling lasted about two or three minutes and stopped only when someone from a nearby building yelled at them and scared the attacker off. — 613 words.
Always worth repeating
'Give us the tools and we'll finish the job'
— Winston Churchill
Let's say that news throughout human time has been free. Take that time when Ugh Wayne went over to the cave of Mugh Payne with news that the chief of his group had broken a leg while chasing his laughing wife around the fire. That news was given freely and received as such with much knowing smiles and smirks to say nothing of grunts of approval or disapproval. — 688 words.
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You can count on the True North Team Publishers are cutting back and that includes in-house editors Outside editors of the True North Team are rescuing writers from oblivion We handle fiction and memoirs and full-length books Manuscript editing to ghost writing Everything to put the best face on your work to publishers and the reading public For a free consultation please don't hesitate to contact carl.dow@truenorthperspective.com or Carl Dow at 613-233-6225 Always looking forward |
From the Desk of Darren Jerome, Ottawa, Canada
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The Associated Press
8 April 2011 — The secret network of jails, known as "black sites," that grew up after the Sept. 11 attacks are gone.
But suspected terrorists are still being held under hazy circumstances with uncertain rights in secret, military-run jails across Afghanistan, where they can be interrogated for weeks without charge, according to U.S. officials who revealed details of the top-secret network to The Associated Press.
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Quantico Blocks official visits to Bradley Manning by UN, Amnesty  By Michael WhitneyFDLAction
7 April 2011 — Government officials and Quantico Marine base have blocked official visits to PFC. Bradley Manning by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Amnesty International, and the UN Special Rappateur on torture. According to Manning’s attorney, Kucinich, Amnesty, and UN have been trying to get clearance for “official visits” to Manning at the Quantico Marine brig. — 282 words.
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The Pentagon has previously denied operating secret jails in Afghanistan, although human rights groups and former detainees have described the facilities.
U.S. military and other government officials confirmed that the detention centres exist but described them as temporary holding pens whose primary purpose is to gather intelligence.
The Pentagon also has said that detainees only stay in temporary detention sites for 14 days, unless they are extended under extraordinary circumstances.
But U.S. officials told AP that detainees can be held at the temporary jails for up to nine weeks, depending on the value of information they produce. — 1,230 words.
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Report from Obama's America
By David Kravets
Wired
4 April 2011 — The authorities may seize laptops, cameras and other digital devices at the U.S. border without a warrant, and scour through them for days hundreds of miles away, a federal appeals court ruled.
The 2-1 decision (.pdf) Wednesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes as the government is increasingly invoking its broad, warrantless search-and-seizure powers at the U.S. border to probe the digital lives of travelers.
Under the “border search exception” of United States law, international travelers, including U.S. citizens, can be searched without a warrant as they enter the country.
Under the Obama administration, law enforcement agents have aggressively used this power to search travelers’ laptops, sometimes copying the hard drive before returning the computer to its owner. — 430 words.
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Waiting workers: why it's still hard to find a job
'Networking is essential to finding employment'
By Catherine Benesch
Student Journalist, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
04 April 2011 OTTAWA Canada — “When you’ve had a year of sending in resumes and hearing nothing, you can be like … 'there’s something wrong with me,’” said Kirsten Partanen, who’s just lived through a year of being unemployed.
“Why bother trying if I’m doing everything the way that I should, and nothing’s happening?”
Partanen, 43, sent out dozens of resumes after losing her job in early 2010. She did keep trying though – she’s starting a new job working with children at a local library.
It’s been a hard year for people like Partanen, even with the 322,000 new jobs created nationwide in the last 12 months.
Weary job seekers might be forgiven for wondering and worrying why it’s still so hard to find a job.
Even as conditions apparently improve, unemployment in Ontario still sits at more than eight per cent. That’s slightly above the national average of 7.8 per cent, and more than two percentage points higher than before the recession started in 2008, according to Statistics Canada.
“The statistics are bullshit,” said Aimee Britten, a freelance writer and consultant who has been looking for work since Christmas. — 1,208 words.
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Rear-view Mirror
By Robin McKie
The Guardian
13 March 2011 — It remains the one untarnished triumph of Soviet science. On 12 April 1961, a peasant farmer's son with a winsome smile crammed himself into a capsule eight feet in diameter and was blasted into space on top of a rocket 20 storeys high. One hundred and eight minutes later, after making a single orbit of our world, the young pilot parachuted back to Earth. In doing so, Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to journey into space.
The flight of Vostok 1 – whose 50th anniversary will be celebrated next month – was a defining moment of the 20th century and opened up the prospect of interplanetary travel for our species. It also made Gagarin an international star while his mission was hailed as clear proof of the superiority of communist technology. The 27-year-old cosmonaut became a figurehead for the Soviet Union and toured the world. He lunched with the Queen; was kissed by Gina Lollobrigida; and holidayed with the privileged in Crimea.
Gagarin also received more than a million letters from fans across the world, an astonishing outpouring of global admiration – for he was not obvious star material. He was short and slightly built. Yet Gagarin possessed a smile "that lit up the darkness of the cold war", as one writer put it, and had a natural grace that made him the best ambassador that the USSR ever had. Even his flaws seem oddly endearing by modern standards, his worst moment occurring when he gashed his head after leaping from a window to avoid his wife who had discovered a girl in his hotel room.
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A fallen giant: The Soviet Space Industry
'Enormous challenges were laid before Soviet scientists, and they proved themselves up to the task.'
'The existence of nuclear physicists in the Soviet Union was an open secret, but no one knew about the missile-defense specialists who had worked in secret since the 1950s until the collapse of the Soviet Union.'
By Konstantin Bogdanov
RIA Novosti
04 04 2011 MOSCOW — Ordinary Russians see little connection between space exploration and economics. If anything, they see expensive space programs as a permanent drain on the nation's resources. Some are inclined to take it personally, as if the dark vacuum of space somehow sucked the money right out of their pockets.
Space is beyond the realm of the rational and, therefore, beyond the realm of economics. But Russia's space program was built, in part, by ordinary Russians using ordinary steel. Space exploration was considered a national priority in the Soviet Union, with the funding to match.
Elaborate production chains were set up, the necessary infrastructure was built, and state-of-the-art technologies were developed virtually from scratch. Aerospace specialists were paid stable salaries and received good housing, both of which were in short supply in the command economy of the Soviet Union.
But it wasn't just about the money for them. By their own account, they worked to experience the thrill of creative endeavor and to feel a sense of confidence about the future. — 1,395 words.______
The Associated Press
6 April 2011 — A Russian capsule delivered three new astronauts to the International Space Station on Wednesday, doubling the size of the crew just in time for a pair of major space anniversaries.
The Soyuz spacecraft docked two days after blasting off from Kazakhstan. The linkup took place 350 kilometres above the Andes Mountains of Chile.
Settling in for a five-month mission are Russians Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev, and American Ronald Garan Jr. — 257 words.
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While under house arrest Egypt's Mubarak
receives monthly allowance of $339. from the state
29 March 2011 — Deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is in receipt of a monthly allowance of $339 from the state, an Egyptian paper said Tuesday.
Mubarak's pension as the former commander of the armed forces could not be disclosed, the Al-Masry Al-Youm daily said, citing an unnamed state official, RIA Novosti informs.
"There is no truth to reports that former president Hosni Mubarak has left Egypt for Tabuk in Saudi Arabia", "He is under house arrest, with his family, in Egypt," the country's military rulers said in a statement on Facebook.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has ruled Egypt since Mubarak was forced to quit in February this year after 18 days of massive street protests against his 30-year autocratic regime.
The council has announced it will hold a general election in September. It said emergency laws would be lifted before the elections, Sifi says. END
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Colombia to extradite drug lord Walid Makled
By Adriaan Alsema
Colombia Reports
06 April 2011 Bogata — Colombia will extradite alleged drug lord Walid Makled to Venezuela and not to the United States, which had also requested the extradition, Colombia President Santos announced on Wednesday.
In an interview with news network Univision, Santos said "I promised [Venezuelan] President [Hugo] Chavez that if the law said this man should be extradited to Venezuela, I would extradite him to Venezuela. Moreover, at this moment I am asking Venezuela [to extradite] two big drug lords." — 262 words.
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Film documentary review
By Sigrid Macdonald
Ottawa, Canada
Sigrid Macdonald is author of Be Your Own Editor and is available at
8 April 2011 — Based on real footage, and old and new interviews, this 2009 documentary by Steven Soderbergh and Marina Zenovich was fascinating. Despite the media frenzy surrounding the now internationally acclaimed Polish-French film director, Roman Polanski, for much of his adult life, there are still some facts that people may not know, such as the devious way his trial was conducted, and the excruciating losses he endured before his child molestation trial in 1977.
In a Kennedyesque fashion, everything went wrong for Polanski, who experienced extreme highs and lows in life. He was a Holocaust survivor and lost both his parents to the camps. Somehow he made it to Hollywood, despite all odds, creating smashing movies such as Rosemary's Baby, The Tenant and Chinatown. Meanwhile, party boy Roman fell in love with the stunning Sharon Tate. For once in his life he was happy and safe until a real-life Satanic force, in the form of the Manson family, brutally murdered pregnant Sharon. — 1,082 words.
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From the Desk of Carl Hall, Entertainment Editor
Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert sing duet of Friday
by Rebecca Black, 13, to raise $86,000 for child education
Originally aired on episodes of The Colbert Report and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Recently, Stephen Colbert auctioned off one of his portraits to DonorsChoose.org, subsequently raising $26,000 for child education. After announcing this milestone, Colbert unilaterally decided that his "best friend for six months" Jimmy Fallon would match the $26,000. Following is the response from Jimmy Fallon, then the duet performance by the two video comics of the hit single Friday by Rebecca Black. — Click for all three videos inside.
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Words of wisdom from a Moscow-based American translator
The Moscow Times
Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of The Russian Word’s Worth(Glas), a collection of her columns.
Талант: talent
08 April 2011 — Like the vast majority of my fellow Americans, I’m great at making New Year’s resolutions and horrible at keeping them. But there is one resolution I’d like to keep.
Awhile back, I realized that I always complain about translation goofs and gaffes, so I resolved to celebrate translation successes from time to time. As we blunder our way through a foreign language, it’s heartening to remember that with time, effort and talent, it is possible to make translations that sing. — 606 words.
In case you missed it ...
The Old Man's Last Sauna
A collection of short stories by Carl Dow
An eclectic collection of short stories that will stir your sense of humour, warm your heart, outrage your sense of justice, and chill your extra sensory faculties in the spirit of Stephen King. The final short story, the collection's namesake, The Old Man's Last Sauna is a ground-breaking love story.
The series begins with Deo Volente (God Willing). Followed by The Quintessence of Mr. Flynn, Sharing Lies, Flying High, The Richest Bitch in the Country or Ginny I Hardly Knows Ya, One Lift Too Many, The Model A Ford, the out-of-body chiller, Room For One Only and O Ernie! ... What Have They Done To You! The series closes with the collection's namesake, The Old Man's Last Sauna, a groundbreaking love story. All stories may also be found in the True North Perspective Archives.
Wisdom is a result of a happy marriage between intelligence and experience.
© Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher, True North Perspective
Guest Editorial
True North Perspective
Vol. 6, No. 11 (270)
Friday, April 1, 2011
Canada watches its democracy erode
Wisdom is a result of a happy marriage between intelligence and experience.
© Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher, True North Perspective
Guest Editorial
True North Perspective
Vol. 6, No. 11 (270)
Friday, April 1, 2011
Canada watches its democracy erode
Wisdom is a result of a happy marriage between intelligence and experience.
© Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher, True North Perspective
Guest Editorial
True North Perspective
Vol. 6, No. 11 (270)
Friday, April 1, 2011
Canada watches its democracy erode
Wisdom is a result of a happy marriage between intelligence and experience.
© Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher, True North Perspective
Guest Editorial
True North Perspective
Vol. 6, No. 11 (270)
Friday, April 1, 2011
Canada watches its democracy erode
Wisdom is a result of a happy marriage between intelligence and experience.
© Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher, True North Perspective
Guest Editorial
True North Perspective
Vol. 6, No. 11 (270)
Friday, April 1, 2011
Canada watches its democracy erode
The Droz Report
The main issue of this election is personal
'This government is willing to sacrifice Canadian soldiers to bring democracy to Afghanistan and Libya. But it cavalierly dismisses democracy at home.
'Cynics hold that Canadians don’t care about such abstract matters, that as long as our bellies are full we will put up with anything. We shall see. The cynics have been surprised before.' — Thomas Walkom, in The Toronto Star, March 25, 2011.
By Geoffrey Dow
Managing Editor, True North Perspective
Originally published at Edifice Rex Online
1 April 2011 — It's been a week since the Conservative government of Canada (also known as "The Harper Government", about more of which anon) was finally defeated in the House of Commons. Stephen Harper had decided to roll the dice and put Thomas Walkom's claim that Canadians docare about such abstract matters as integrity and democracy to the test.
Having survived two and a half years, there was no great surprise that the government
The Droz Report
The main issue of this election is personal
'This government is willing to sacrifice Canadian soldiers to bring democracy to Afghanistan and Libya. But it cavalierly dismisses democracy at home.
'Cynics hold that Canadians don’t care about such abstract matters, that as long as our bellies are full we will put up with anything. We shall see. The cynics have been surprised before.' — Thomas Walkom, in The Toronto Star, March 25, 2011.
By Geoffrey Dow
Managing Editor, True North Perspective
Originally published at Edifice Rex Online
1 April 2011 — It's been a week since the Conservative government of Canada (also known as "The Harper Government", about more of which anon) was finally defeated in the House of Commons. Stephen Harper had decided to roll the dice and put Thomas Walkom's claim that Canadians docare about such abstract matters as integrity and democracy to the test.
Having survived two and a half years, there was no great surprise that the government
The Droz Report
The main issue of this election is personal
'This government is willing to sacrifice Canadian soldiers to bring democracy to Afghanistan and Libya. But it cavalierly dismisses democracy at home.
'Cynics hold that Canadians don’t care about such abstract matters, that as long as our bellies are full we will put up with anything. We shall see. The cynics have been surprised before.' — Thomas Walkom, in The Toronto Star, March 25, 2011.
By Geoffrey Dow
Managing Editor, True North Perspective
Originally published at Edifice Rex Online
1 April 2011 — It's been a week since the Conservative government of Canada (also known as "The Harper Government", about more of which anon) was finally defeated in the House of Commons. Stephen Harper had decided to roll the dice and put Thomas Walkom's claim that Canadians docare about such abstract matters as integrity and democracy to the test.
Having survived two and a half years, there was no great surprise that the government
The Droz Report
The main issue of this election is personal
'This government is willing to sacrifice Canadian soldiers to bring democracy to Afghanistan and Libya. But it cavalierly dismisses democracy at home.
'Cynics hold that Canadians don’t care about such abstract matters, that as long as our bellies are full we will put up with anything. We shall see. The cynics have been surprised before.' — Thomas Walkom, in The Toronto Star, March 25, 2011.
By Geoffrey Dow
Managing Editor, True North Perspective
Originally published at Edifice Rex Online
1 April 2011 — It's been a week since the Conservative government of Canada (also known as "The Harper Government", about more of which anon) was finally defeated in the House of Commons. Stephen Harper had decided to roll the dice and put Thomas Walkom's claim that Canadians docare about such abstract matters as integrity and democracy to the test.
Having survived two and a half years, there was no great surprise that the government
The Droz Report
The main issue of this election is personal
'This government is willing to sacrifice Canadian soldiers to bring democracy to Afghanistan and Libya. But it cavalierly dismisses democracy at home.
'Cynics hold that Canadians don’t care about such abstract matters, that as long as our bellies are full we will put up with anything. We shall see. The cynics have been surprised before.' — Thomas Walkom, in The Toronto Star, March 25, 2011.
By Geoffrey Dow
Managing Editor, True North Perspective
Originally published at Edifice Rex Online
1 April 2011 — It's been a week since the Conservative government of Canada (also known as "The Harper Government", about more of which anon) was finally defeated in the House of Commons. Stephen Harper had decided to roll the dice and put Thomas Walkom's claim that Canadians docare about such abstract matters as integrity and democracy to the test.
Having survived two and a half years, there was no great surprise that the government
 For True North Perspective issues prior to September 3, 2010, please select True North Perspective Archives.
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Readers have asked …
Why do you continue to run the collection of short stories The Old Man's Last Sauna? My answer is that we get new readers every week. The short stories are eclectic. They demonstrate that there is more to us than hardcore news and analysis. And besides, when we were on our hiatus in August a veteran reader (and generous financial donor) got bored with our repeated issues and for the first time opened the short story The Old Man's Last Sauna, the namesake of the collection. He was delighted with the read. In his brief note he said of me, "You old romantic you." The collection offers a positive and humorous side to True North Perspective that may not be apparent to some readers. — Carl Dow
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Donate!True North Perspective is free but that doesn't mean it doesn't have costs to cover. And so far, our experiment in carrying advertising is not coming close to doing so.
And so we call on you, our readers, to step up and contribute to our growing service!
If half of you contribute the price of half a cup of coffee a day, True North Perspective will be on a sound, long term financial platform.
If you enjoy True North Perspective, put your money where your mouse is and send us a donation today! (If you can't afford to donate, then forward your favourite articles to your friends or link to us on Facebook, twitter, or your favourite social media site!)
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No credit card? No problem!
You can donate the old fashioned way: send cheque or money order to:
Carl Dow, True North Perspective, Station E, P.O. Box 4814
Ottawa ON Canada K1S 5H9
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Website may be path to success
for authors, publishers, and companies  Prolific best-selling Ottawa author and publicist Randy Ray has developed a website to promote his publicity services, which he offers to authors, publishers and companies. Mr. Ray has helped many clients get their message out across Canada on CTV, CBC Radio, CH-TV, A-Channel and Global TV, and in Source, Source, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun, Halifax Herald and many Ottawa-area weekly newspapers. Mr. Ray's web site is RandyRay.ca. He can be contacted at: (613) 731-3873 or randyray@rogers.com.
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