Now THIS...is a COOL Flashmob.

Flashmobs are becoming extremely popular around the world. Usually it's a form of artistic impression and spontaneous performance. Most are the usual popular music tunes but even the classical music world has started putting out these kinds of spontaneous productions. I especially love the baroque music "flash-mobs" - call it a "random act of culture".

Evidently a choir in Ontario put on a flash mob of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus from the oratorio "The Messiah" in a food court.

Meanwhile, over in Great Britain, the Morrison's grocery store...got a flash mob, courtesy of Classic FM (a British Classical Music radio station) who assembled a group of professional musicians to play one of the most famous Handel Coronation Anthems "Zadok The Priest"

Having performed the "Hallelujah Chorus" and "Zadok The Priest" before - I wouldn't be able to resist joining in...

I wish there were more "flashmobs" like this in Vancouver.

I Am A Baroque Music Snob (And Damned Proud Of It)

Yes, the title proclaims it loudly. I AM a baroque music snob. There aren't many pieces that I like after the years 1750. It is one of the most ornate and ornamented of music. The musical offerings of Bach, Handel, Philippe Rameau, Telemann and others are beautiful beyond measure and that period of music appeals to me like no other.

The vocal stylings of Handel's Il Trionfe Del Tempo e Del Disinganno is the epitome of baroque opera.

.

Or any arias like Handel's Rodelinda and it's hauntingly beautiful aria

Modern music pales when it comes to matching this. People scream over the Beatles, but the banal "He loves you, yeah yeah yeah..." doesn't compare to Handel's poetic "Return oh dear, my sweet darling, to give comfort and hope to this heart!"

Neither does Motley Crue's "Don't go away mad, just go away." compare to the poetic outrage of "Semplicetto a donna credi!" the Italian equivalent of "faithless woman, piss off! I won't be deceived yet again..." from Handel's Alcina

As far as I'm concerned, music died a screaming agonizing death in the 1900s. Baroque Music was the epitome of music and frankly my opinion (as small as it is) is that music all went downhill after that.

EBOLA...Watch it now...Watch it now!!!

This post isn't politically correct. Nor will I say I'm sorry for it. The CDC and the Obama administration is playing fast and loose with people's lives. That's right. Ebola is in North America. Why? Because nobody paid attention when Thomas Eric Duncan (otherwise known as Patient Zero) got on a plane and came to the United States. But that was because he wasn't symptomatic (showing signs of a fever or vomiting) when he got on the plane but became symptomatic after he reached the United States. But travel inspectors were asleep at the wheel when they didn't bother questioning him about why he was in Liberia. Now we have the CDC not advising a nurse who fell ill after treating Patient Zero flying on a US airline after showing signs of a low-grade fever. Now everybody on that flight is potentially at risk. Is everybody fucking stupid?

The Black Plague is now thought of as a virus plague (much like Ebola) ravaged Europe. The only reason why it didn't jump to North America and decimate the Indians is because it took three months to sail the ocean back then. Now Ebola is only a plane-ride away (not even a day) to reach North American shores.

The CDC keeps hammering the fact that Ebola is non-transmittable by air - that transmission is only possible with contact with the waste and bodily fluids of those who are ill with the virus. I call bullshit on this one. It takes just one mutation to airborne transmission and the rest of us are susceptible to the disease. Ebola will circle the globe if that happens and wipe out a significant percentage of the world's population.

Frankly if someone can be charged with the reckless endangerment of another while driving a vehicle. I think the CDC brass can be charged with attempted murder if there is an outbreak. Because while they are pandering to the uneducated masses about the fact that "there's no danger" of transmission unless you come in contact with bodily fluids of the patient - meanwhile the virus is mutating. If there is an outbreak (and we're seeing the start of one with two people ill from this virus (both nurses) who treated Thomas Eric Duncan) in North America; heads should roll in CDC and criminal charges should be placed against the head of CDC who said that there isn't any danger.

I feel sorry for those who are on the front line in this - the service providers (health care workers) and those who are in constant contact with the public if a pandemic breaks out. The sheer panic of not knowing who is infected or not (21 day incubation period) will cause a lot of psychological wear and tear on an individual. Anyone with a fever coming in for medication will be suspected. Anybody who has stomach pains. And all this because the current administration in the United States didn't see fit to seal the North American borders (nobody in or out - shoot anyone that tries to breach the borders) the second that they knew that Ebola was active on the African continent.

I'd hope Canada would be smarter, but with Harper in government - I'd say Canada's government is just as brutally incompetent as the United States'.

Time To Think About Healthier Living

5.5 hrs of sleep and insomnia kicks in again. Not a good thing. This insomnia has been kicking my ass the past few weeks. Been doing what I can to rest through yet another cold and yet another throat infection. Two days through yet another 10 day round of Biaxin. I really need to give my immune system a kick. Been doing a bit of research on the internet on healthy vitamins and natural supplements to help boost my immune system so that I can fight this thing off next time without the bnefit of anti-biotics. Constant taking of antibiotics probably isn't the healthiest thing for me. I take it my diet probably isn't the best thing for me right now either considering the past few weeks, has been mostly fried food.

Have to ask my wife if we can pick up some bananas and other fruits. I want to start eating healthy so that I have a fighting chance of seeing sixty let alone my dad's seventy-five before he passed away from a heart-attack.

I need to start walking again. With the Impala sitting out in the driveway, it's all too easy to get in the habit of pulling the vehicle out to go places. We bought it for a) groceries, b) shuttling our daughter to daycare, and c) my business - which requires me to go to all sorts of places normally not accessible by transit.

So what I will do is research more what I have to do to get back into shape and try and do that, slowly and surely so that I can last for a few more years or hopefully decades.

OMG The Japanese Are Gonna Get Marines.

Yeah, that's right. The Japanese are going to get Marines. Their very own Japanese Self-Defense Marine Corps although I don't know if that's exactly what they'll call it - Nihon no Jieitai umi heitai. Who the fuck knows. All I know is that there's an article in the Defense News that says Japan To Create Amphibious Force Modeled After US Marine Corps. Well, y'know. If they're going to go all the way, since they've been in bed with the United States for damned near since the end of WWII and sucking each other's "privates". They might as well go all the way.

Why not just copy the entire rank structure of the US Marine Corps (restricting it to the enlisted structure in JMSDF) but using US Marine Corps style insignia. How's that for a waste of money for uniforms etc. But of course, the Marines have to have their own "esprit de corps" or in Japanese "danketsu kokoro" much like their United States counterpart. And frankly what are they going to use as their mascot? Instead of the tough USMC bulldog. May I make a humble suggestion? Use Hello Kitty.

And to start, here's a few insignia they might think about using, just like the copyrats in the Philippines. No need to pay me for the time and effort used to create this, Japan. The amusement I'm finding in the attempt to even come close to the almost 300 years of history that the USMC has, has me in stitches. Thanks Japan, that's payment enough.

The Japanese Self Defense Marine Corps Insignia hat device. Silver & Gold for officers; straight gold for enlisted.

The Japanese Self Defense Marine Corps Insignia hat device - subdued for camo utilities

The JSDMC Gunnery Sergeant or otherwise known in Japanese as Hōjutsu gunsō - the collar devices for utility uniforms (camo, Class B khakis) - the JSDMC has to have a distinct uniform much like the USMC. Might as well copy the United States Marine Corps then. Hey, the Filipinos did.

The crimson and gold for dress uniforms. Hell it wouldn't even really be a far stretch, The Japanese have copied the USAF, US Army and the US Navy for their uniforms substituting the sakura for the eagle and stars on their rank devices.

JSDMC Cover

JSDMC Officer's Tunic (complete with ribbons)

JSDMC Major's Officer Tabs

The more logical method is to just take the existing JGSDF insignia and make it Marine Corps so that they have some connection to the rest of the Self Defense Forces. There would be two OR-8s as in the USMC O7 O8 O9 - distinctly set for staff and regular officers

The three top senior enlisted ranks in the Japanese Self-Defense Marine Corps - OR-8 Line, OR-8 Staff, OR-9 Master Gunnery Sergeant of the Japanese Self-Defense Marine Corps.

Likewise, the collar insignia for fatigues and for Class C khakis

Enlisted Tunic - Japanese Self Defense Marine Corps.

Japanese Self-Defense Marine Corps 8 sided Utility Cover like the USMC except in Jieitai pattern.

Gotta say the idea has some merit (in having a Marine Corps in Japan), but the thought of a distinct fighting force outside of their usual JGSDF, JASDF and JMSDF kind of makes me collapse in laughter.

"In Canada" from two Canadian icons - the Hadfield Brothers.

God Bless the Hadfield Brothers: astronaut, former Royal Canadian Air Force pilot and musician Chris Hadfield and his equally musically talented brother David.

Make no mistake, I love my country. I just hate the politicians who run it. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Canadian who believes in Canadian sovereignty from Confederation unto eternity.

A lyric from the song "I'll stay out of your face, if you'll stay out of mine". Something the United States needs to understand.

This Is Not The Canada I Grew Up In

This is not the Canada that I was born in.

The Canada I remember, was one of Pierre Elliot Trudeau. The very same who stated: “We must now establish the basic principles, the basic values and beliefs which hold us together as Canadians so that beyond our regional loyalties there is a way of life and a system of values which make us proud of the country that has given us such freedom and such immeasurable joy.” when he signed the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms in 1981. Back then we were so proud that we had a Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms to aspire to. That at the very age of eleven, I looked on believing Canada to be the land of the just and upholder of human decency. We were proud of being Canadians; the first to put together such a proclaimed charter that the Queen herself had given Royal Assent and personally signed in a ceremony on Parliament Hill. We truly believed that Canada was at the forefront of civilized nations.

Yet…here I stand not 33 years later angered and bitter at the fact that Canada, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper has signed away those very rights and freedoms that were enshrined to us under the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms by passing an omnibus bill that contained a United States law called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). That over 1 million Canadians with clinging US indicies were painted as US persons – as delinquent US taxpayers no matter how long they were living in Canada or whether they were born in Canada. With that flourish of a pen and with the passing of the vote in which not one governing party MP deigned to vote against, Canada surrendered its sovereignty to the United States. For such is the foul taint of United States citizenship that anyone who is even the slightest bit connected to any person with clinging US indicies in question is labelled a US person (of interest) to the Internal Revenue Service; even if they were born in Canada, had never set a foot on American soil and has never even thought about taking out US citizenship.

The United States confers US personhood upon each and every single one of them if one of their parents was a United States citizen having spent the requisite amount of time state-side.  These are not tax cheats, they are law-abiding Canadian citizens who pay taxes to Canada who have cast off the US citizenship that fetters them in the past by committing a renouncing act and thought themselves free of the burden only to be told by the United States that they were United States citizens all along regardless of what they did.  With the constant movement of the taxation goal-posts, is there truly any way for a former US citizen to be truly free of the United States?  The United States citizenship is mistakenly thought to be so exceptional that Canadian citizens who are mentally disabled are held hostage by the United States government if they had an American parent, regardless of where they were born.  Those affected in such a way can be truly thought of as tax-hostages to the United States.  They cannot renounce their unwanted US citizenship at all because according to the Department of State, they must understand the reasons for giving up their citizenship and that no-one may renounce on their behalf.  This is a violation of human rights in its most flagrant form.   The only reason for this is the US government wishes to get its hands into the disability trusts that the Canadian government establishes to support their most vulnerable citizens.  And when that fact was pointed out, the Conservative members of parliament stooped so low as to heckle and deride the member of parliament of the NDP who was stating that fact and was calling the government out that they were making a pact with a group of organized criminals: the United States Government; a government who holds themselves above international law, under the guise of "world savior". 




I stand here today a jaded 44 year old who trusts his government much less than that innocent 11 year old of years past. Knowing just how much his government has betrayed his family and his loved ones has brought him to that point. My ancestors were interned in Slocan during WWII, Japanese-Canadians born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia when the Japanese of their father’s homeland bombed Pearl Harbor. Mackenzie King was the architect of that internment and violation of Human Rights. He was also a Liberal, which made me swear that I would never vote Liberal for the rest of my life. The only party that stood up to his violation was the CCF (Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation). The Progressive Conservatives righted the Liberal wrong by making restitution to the Japanese-Canadians for forcibly being removed from their homes and their possessions taken and sold. And that was what prompted me to support the Progressive Conservatives when I began to vote. I am a Canadian citizen first and foremost and only a Canadian citizen.  We have become, from a nation that created a great fighting force against the forces of tyranny and freedom during the Second World War to a nation of apathy, that takes its freedoms for granted and doesn't spare a thought that these freedoms could be taken away with the stroke of a pen.   I realize now that government is for sale to the highest bidder with the betrayal of Canadians to the United States.  That we, as Canadians, if we are not to see our sovereign nation’s rights ceded to a foreign nation, we must stand on guard and protect our sovereignty, under arms if we must.

The blatant subornation of a certain segment of population by the Progressive Conservative government should not pass without reprisal. The US government has labelled those with clinging US indices tax cheats and have thrown the full weight of the IRS at those who they claim “flout their laws” and the Canadian government is a willing accomplice. The Canadian government should be brought to task for the criminalization of the segment of Canadians and all Canadians should be outraged that their citizenship and our nation’s sovereignty should be valued so cheaply. This law does not affect just those with clinging US person-hood, but it affects all of us. We will be forced to pay out of pocket for the rising costs of the bank compliance through higher fees, intrusive interrogation when opening a bank account that normally would be cause for a Human Rights complaint, but because of a flourish of a pen, is made legal to ask. One by one our rights are being eroded and instead of being enraged for the further erosion of this once-great country, we are complying with a whimper. Trudeau would ask about the location of our spine.

The acts of our government would indicate that we have none.

For more information: Contact: Isaac Brock Society
Maple Sandbox
and donate to the following Charter Challenge: at adcs-adsc.ca (Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty)

Our freedoms and human rights are at stake

FATCA: Economic Warfare

With the looming hostilities in Crimea and the Ukraine versus Russia, it's not surprising to find the old Cold War adversaries jawing at each other across crossed swords. But as much as the USA tries to paint the Russians as being the bad guys this time around as last - the United States isn't the squeaky clean image that it purports itself to be either. Fresh off the Benghazi debacle, the NSA wiretap scandal, IRS targeting of conservative groups, FATCA and other hostile acts by this American government, the USA's image has been tarnished quite considerably.

So far, the United States is 17 Trillion in debt and that number is rising dramatically quickly. It is an economy that is sinking rapidly no matter how many pundits try to pontificate to the opposing viewpoint. Jobs are not being created - unless they are McJobs (part-time; temporary) and the economy is slowly deflating. For example Rhode Island's unemployment rate is at a staggering 9.1% as per this article by ZeroHedge.

"No, Janet Yellen, The Economy Is Not Getting Better

As one can see in this graph both Democratic and Republican administrations have contributed greatly to the National Debt. Treasury Yields have dipped significantly, GDP has declined in the past ten years and people are saying that the economy is recovering? In normal parlance anyone who reads a graph in decline and says that everything is improving would be fit to be hogtied, slapped into a strait-jacket and shoved in a rubber-lined room for their own protection.

Let's see. Obama signed the Hire Act in 2010 to rounds of applause validating "entitlement" of other people's income who don't even use US infrastructure by the extraterritorial implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act otherwise known as FATCA or perjoratively known as FATCAT. This is implementing United States law and forcing foreign nations to comply with US law world-wide. Normally this would be grounds for war with the blatant violation of other nation's sovereignty. But the United States is riding forward on the idea that no-one will oppose this because (a) no-one likes tax cheats (b) no one wants to oppose the United States due to its good-will around the world and the fact that if one chooses to oppose them, the United States will target their military on them. Of course they won't come right out and say that, but it's implied. "Oppose us and suffer". Needless to say the IRS and Congress know that most governments are spineless at best and self-serving at worst and tacking on a 30% fine on US earnings to non-compliant FFI (Foreign Financial Institutions) for not reporting their United States tax slaves to the IRS was just icing on the cake. Plus on top of that the Department of Treasury will happily stick a $10,000 fine (non-wilful; $100,000 wilful) for failure to file an FBAR. Needless to say most of the Dept of Treasury assessments will find the failure to file FBAR wilful. Oh, there's no getting around that. After all, the Mighty USA is always right.

Meanwhile, Canada's government (the Progressive Conservatives) in the hopes of saving their own sorry skins and pandering to the banks have thrown the majority of "accidental Americans" (Canadian duals and Canadians born to American mothers in Canada) to the wolves (the environmental wildlife photographer in me protests comparing these political Conservative scumbags to wolves who would be insulted)

It is a sad state of affairs when we look to China and Russia to uphold the bulwarks of "freedom". Push the two nations who have nuclear weapons that can oppose the United States on their economic war and we will see missiles fly.

Economic War is just another form of warfare and the United States upon signing the Hire Act declared war on each and every other nation in the world. Let's hope to heck that FATCA can be repealed and the nonsense that it spawned can be contained or we will not survive; once Russia and China realize that this is absolute WAR.

In Several Generations, My Family Will Be White!

In 2 or more generations, the Chikamori family will end up hakujin (white). You won't be able to tell us apart from the average Joe Smith running around Canada. That's provided my sons do not marry a Japanese girl to preserve the Asian-ness of the family name. My daughter Storm will end up making her own family with a man and become a part of their family whether she marries a Japanese man or someone from a different race. Am I one to dictate who they marry? No, I am not. The Chikamori family may be an old Japanese name, one of the more uncommon ones and one that has prided itself on staying relatively homogenized in Japan, however time marches on and as such we evolve into a more blended family (at least in Canada and the United States)

How does it make me feel? Well...the maternal (my estranged mother) side of this family (the Mimoto end) went through the internment. It pretty much destroyed the cohesiveness of the Japanese-Canadian community. The general concensus of the Japanese-Canadian population was to assimilate fully into Canadian society and that meant "intermarriage": that way, they would never be hurt again. As the first blended generation of my family - as a sansei, who married a young woman of Irish-Italian descent, having had four children, it has been an eye-opening experience. My kids look hapa, though they overwhelmingly bear a marked appearance to me, their skin tone is much lighter. Whereas I am a rich beige in skin coloring, my kids share their skin-tone coloring with my wife. Their facial bone-structure is similar to mine. Their eyes are much like mine, but their eye-shade is much lighter. My daughter's eye color is hazel where as mine is a dark, dark brown almost obsidian black.

So how do we preserve our Japanese culture while living in Canada? That's the hard question. Of particular note, since Pauline Marois' legislation in Quebec (which got soundly rejected with the defeat of her Parti Quebecois in the Quebec by-election by the Quebec Liberals which formed a majority government), culture has been a hot-topic recently. And it is a hotbed of resentment between all involved in cultural preservation. Simply put, there is no Canadian culture, per se. North America, frankly is a land of immigrants. What culture is present was brought over over 400 years ago. The Voyageur culture was brought over from France. The English-speaking populace's culture was brought over from Britain, Ireland and other Celtic countries. And each culture that has come over since has brought over their own brand of culture and all of that mixed together with a bit of sugar and salt makes up what passes for Canadian culture as a great big mixed pot of goulash (sorry, Hungarians!). So we as a mixed family have to preserve our Japanese culture by participating when we can, in the Powell Street Festival; by hanging out at the Nikkei Cultural Center in Burnaby, BC. (or in Toronto if you live in that area) and/or making sure that holiday customs are celebrated in our home. To preserve the Japanese-Canadian culture, you have to be a part of the Japanese-Canadian community; to make a connection to those who do remember the cultural values brought over from the old country.

So as far as my opinion is concerned - Do I care that my family will end up looking entirely white in several generations down the road? The answer to that would be a resounding no. The only thing I care about is that they remember where their roots came from. Embrace the future, but remember your past. And as far as the injustices were concerned with respects to the Internment, during the Second World War? Shikata ga nai. There is no positive ending to making noise about the Internment. Deru kugi wa tatakeru.

Bald Eagles: "Don't Call Us American!"

North American Bald Eagles are incensed to be called American Bald Eagles. "We have no partisanship" says one Bald Eagle named Harry, who lives in Serpentine Fen. "It's a case of the United States thinking that they have ownership over us. Next thing they'll do is imply that we are part of their tax base. How do you put a figure on the number of rats and the latest dead carcass that we consume and what sort of tax form do I fill out and send in? Hell, I don't even have fingers, damn it!?" He looked off to the side and gave me a gimlet stare with one of his eyes "I'm sorry, but I'm Canadian. I was born and raised in Serpentine Fen and haven't ever been across the border. I have no idea why the United States would think that I'm part of their own and pay taxes to the IRS? That's absolutely f*ng ridiculous!" At that Harry gives off a resounding snap of his beak in annoyance.

Harry looks over at the Canada Geese milling around aimlessly on the pond a few meters over. "Snowbirds" he mutters disgustedly. "The IRS should take a look at those bastards. They spend six months out of the year in the United States munching on US resources, flying in US skies. Hell they even down US planes for heaven's sake. At least they're using resources in the United States. We don't use a single piece of vermin in the US and we get taxed. We hunt, kill and feed our young all up here in Canada. Our lives are spent up here and the United States wants to tax us? Are they kidding me? I talked about it with Ma and Pa in White Rock and Mom n'Pop in Green Timbers, y'know, friends of mine, and they're telling me that extraterritorial taxation is a crock of shit. Hell, I'm not going to pay it." Harry says. "It's not a fair tax and Obama can go kiss my feathered ass!"

Harry snorted contemptuously as he looked around trying to see if there were any crows present. "Those bastards will rat you out." he said. "You hear about that amnesty program, called OVDP?" he said with a disgusted look "One of my buddies over by the Delta Dump went into that. He got taken for a ride. They wanted tax returns from 6 years back and to admit that he was guilty of tax fraud because he didn't claim 66,000 rats taken last year. He didn't know he was supposed file that stupid piece of paper called an FBAR."

"Lil' Chucky", Harry grumbled. "He got away with his villa in the Dominican Republic.", "James..." he said. "...the list goes on. These bastards get to shill for the tax paying public and get away scot free when they evade taxes. It's a mother lode of bullshit." Harry said as he preened his feathers. "And they're coming after the small guys like us. Well...I can't wait until I get classified as a Canadian Bald Eagle..." he paused for a moment.

"Well...did you know that Canada signed an IGA with the United States on February 5th, 2014?" I asked him.

"Bloody Fucking Hell!!" Harry swore vehemently. "Maybe I need to ask my friend Boris, he's a Eurasian golden eagle, if he's got a place I can crash at for the next forty years."

Anti-American and Damned Proud of It.

I'm tired of hearing American apologists saying that "we are so lucky that the United States is our friend". Yeah, well, what friend extorts 30% out of Canada's banks and then tries to mask that as going after tax cheats?. What "friend" goes into Afghanistan and Iraq as a masquerade for going after non-existent weapons of mass destruction then conducts a regime change in Iraq? What "friend" enacts extra-territorial laws against other countries in the world not respecting the fact that other countries have privacy laws? What "friend" is an enemy of most other countries in the world.

Canada on February 5th, 2014 surrendered their sovereignty to the United States in the American's attempts to find "tax cheats" which are laughing uproariously at the fact that the IRS has diverted attention from them to expatriates in foreign countries tarring them as "not pulling their weight". In fact frankly, why should they? Expats pay taxes in their own country of residence usually at rates higher than in the United States. They also get no benefits from the country of their birth. There is no consulate protection. All of the rhetoric coming from US government financial entities is unadulterated bullshit. Expats are considered resident in Washington DC? Well, where are the rent receipts and tax forms utilized to determine residency? What the United States is doing is creating phantom citizens to pad their tax base. The United States is a tax-and punish society.

...which is incredibly hypocritical of them as the formation of their country was formed on seceding from Great Britain under protest for "unfair taxation" and now they have become the epitome of "unfair taxation".

Now the United States is telling Russia that they are impeding on Ukraine's sovereign right to govern themselves. Well, they're the world's biggest hypocrite in enacting financial laws that are extraterritorial (and usually unenforceable outside of the good ol' US of A), but because of America's military might and nuclear weapons - the unspoken threat, those laws were rammed through at the barrel of a gun. And they're considering sending in the USS George Washington battle group to make their point about Russia being an abusive power. What the United States is doing is making steps to starting a war that they cannot win. At what point will Russia resort to using nuclear weapons? At what point will the United States retaliate with the same? Then we'll all have other things to worry about than FATCA going through.

The US is nobody's friend. And the United States' behavior as of recent is like a rabid dog. And rabid dogs need to be put down with due prejudice. Time to start digging your bomb shelters.

Ashley Wagner Face - Tanki!

Yes, as you can tell, my new addition is Tanki. As a matter of fact. since my last post, I have leveled up two ranks to Sergeant-Major from Master Sergeant. And considering some of the wonderful expressions out of Ashley Wagner from the 2014 Sochi Olympics, we now have a new Meme - the Ashley Wagner Face.

Yep, her expressions say it all.

Tanki - An Addictively Fun Game.

There is this game that my sons have introduced me to. A first person shooter game involving tanks created by the Russians called "Tanki". Simple controls, space bar to shoot and a ton of people playing this MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game. It's addictively fun to upgrade your tank (the reason for collecting crystals - the currency in this game) and seeing just how effective your tank is in different scenarios (battles). There's a variety of different locations that you can battle in. My favorites being Serpuhov and Highland. There are others including an insanely fun battleground aptly named Madness (a stuck in space battleground) where you hurl yourself off the highest point and tumble (hoping to heck through God and Superior Firepower) that you can land on your treads and continue in the game, most of the time you land on your back (turtled) and have to hit delete to self-destruct). You also upgrade through different ranks (and each leveling up affects how many crystals you get. The higher rank you are, the more crystals you can get. You also get a certain number of XP (how much XP you have is how you level up) for killing opponents (a lower amount for killing someone lower rank than you, a higher XP value is assigned when you kill someone that ranks higher than you in the game.

This game is insanely fun and absolutely a hit to play. My sons are addicted to the game and thanks to them, now I am too.

If you want to play a game that's fun and addictive, come on and join us...at Tanki Online. And prepare to have a BLAST of a time. Добро пожаловать в России, товарищ!

'Murrica...FUCK YOU!

I used to be a big U.S. apologist. I had bought into their war on terror and the fact that George W. Bush was going after the "bad guys" and that Canada should help. Well, this viewpoint has changed considerably since my family came under attack from FATCA. I will forgive most anything, but I will not forgive an all-out attack on my family be it physical or financial. Therein lies the reasoning for my switch from being a US apologist to an outright US enemy.

When the United States instituted FATCA, they waged economic warfare on my family. My wife is the big earner in the family and unfortunately, unwittingly, she is the Trojan horse that allows the US to scrutinize our financial dealings. My photography only makes enough to get by if that. I have a bad back from falling down a set of stairs thanks to my mother not maintaining them. So, I do what I can under the physical limitations of my back. I do not collect welfare, I depend on my photography to carry me through.

Our children hold US indicia through her, whether they've opted to go American or not; which they haven't. We haven't even informed the US consulate of their birth and have no intention of doing so. And my oldest son has the intention of renouncing his US citizenship when he reaches the age of 18 which is in 7 years. Which means Uncle Sam has their claws in the majority of my family.

Peter W. Dunn of The Isaac Brock Society said it most succinctly and accurately that Canadians being taxed by Uncle Sam is a human rights crime. His quote: "Many Homelanders are a special breed of bigot who believe that you live abroad so that you can shirk your responsibility to pay for their Social Security, their Food Stamps, their welfare, and their wars across the globe" is exactly it. Homelanders keep hollering about "paying your fair share". What is fair share when you aren't represented in government? What is fair share when you cannot partake of the benefits (welfare, medicaid, unemployment insurance...etc) allowed to all Homelanders? What is fair share when we do not use their infrastructure? Should we have to pay the way of illegal aliens as well as career welfare recipients? Is it because the United States wishes to tax their expatriate indicia just for the simple fact that they carry a blue passport with an American Eagle on the face? Because a tax rate of 29% and fines of over 300% for not filing a stupid piece of paper is quite a steep rate for a little booklet and frankly not worth it in my books.

As of this year alone, the US renunciation rate has gone up 222% in the last quarter of 2013 and Americans are starting to get a bit concerned, but they still have the mindset of "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" or "Murrica, Fuck Yeah!". There is a note of exceptionalism and superiority with every "homelander" remark that they make about having to "defend the world" (when in actual fact, they stick their noses in everyone else's business even when they aren't supposed to) and "time for those who ride on America's coattails to pay up".

It's not a matter of US exceptionalism any longer. The rest of the world with the exception of a two bit banana republic called Eritrea, taxes their citizens based on residency and not citizenship. Even Russia, a hold out, folded their citizenship taxation when the Iron Curtain fell in 1991. So the United States, a nation 17 trillion dollars in debt holds company with a two bit dictatorship in Africa while the rest of the world tries to tax their citizenry fairly.

But rest assured my diatribe does not single out the US alone. My enmity is for all those nations who capitulated and signed a pact with the devil himself, Uncle Sam. All the nations who willingly threw their citizens under the bus just because they held US citizenship (1/2 of a dual citizenship) are contemptible. Canada recently on February 5, 2014 signed an FATCA IGA and threw 1+ million (5 million or more if you count all those affected) US indicated individuals (Canadian citizens or those who are permanent residents and are seeking Canadian citizenship) under the bus. The Stephen Harper government did an end-run around the Privacy Act and made the banks reportable to the CRA (which has now become an arm of the IRS). Harper and his Tory cronies decided to sell-out Canada's sovereignty and tried to make Canada a territory of the United States. To this Canadian, the Tories are traitors to Canada and should be imprisoned for life. In fact, I doubt with the exception of Murray Rankin, Elizabeth May, Alex Atamenenko and Linda Duncan there is a politician in Canada that will stand up to and reject FATCA. What the world needs now is a nation with the backbone to stand up to the United States - a nation that is willing to tell the United States where to go and have the might to back it up.

All malicious empires have their Achilles heel. It's just a matter of finding where the United States' Achilles Heel is. This attack on innocent expatriates of every nationality just because of US indicia should not be tolerated by any nation.