Mina Kitty...

Dangers of Having a Photographer as a Dad...

Your faux pas become fodder for memes.

Minions! with a little Star Wars thrown in. (my photography)

FUCKING HELL, I HATE MURPHY!!!

Back in October, I fell ill and ended up being given a prescription of Amoxicillin to combat what the doctor originally thought was acute bronchitis.  Well, evidently that was not the case.  I ended up with a BP over 180/92; nearly thought I was having a cardiac event and headed for the hospital.  After several blood draws and a IV, I was taken in to have a CT scan on my upper chest where they checked my lungs.  It turned out that I had a severe case of bronchial pneumonia which if they didn't hit me with 7 days of Moxifloxacin (or otherwise known as Avelox) I would end up more than likely on a slab.  Definitely not an A-letter day of fun.  I may actually end up with COPD, according to the doctor.

So cue several days after the course of Avelox, I've got patellar tendon pain in my knees; pain in my Achilles tendon and peroneal tendons...and I'm deathly afraid of a tendon rupture, so I've been walking around like an invalid (slowly and in pain), wondering if I should be using a cane to get around.

And then on top of that, I end up with the car's radiator and coolant level dropping to empty and no way that I can physically walk that distance to the Canadian Tire to buy enough coolant to get the car at a running temperature that doesn't exceed 125 degrees.  Did I ever tell you how much I hate that bastard: Murphy?  (If anything can go wrong, it will).

So as a result:  No photography unless it's from the end of my @#$%ing driveway which is as far as I can totter outside.

So no fancy photos like this one...

You just get this boring shot from the road.

There ya go.  Damn...this sucks. 

An Innocent Bank Error? FATCA and Ramifications

Today, an interesting article from Forbes.com came across my screen as I was doing my usual surfing. Bank Error In Your Favor. This struck me for a moment, "Hey, I wouldn't mind having someone inject $50,000.00 in my bank account. However when one looks at it, it's not the happy rosy situation for Americans abroad who are afflicted by FATCA and its reporting requirements. Even a simple mistake can have catastrophic repercussions.

FATCA requires people to report their bank accounts to the Department of Treasury if at any point during any calendar year, the account goes over $10,000.00. So take for example the hypothetical dual border baby who came up to Canada, made a life for herself or himself in Canada, grew up married, had kids, the whole nine yards, all while thinking she was a card carrying citizen of Canada, not knowing that she had the plague that was United States Citizenship like a noose around her neck? So while those of you who are 100% fully Canadian would cheer uproariously to find $50,000 in your bank account; the unknown dual is having a heart-attack, because her operating account just got punched up over ten thousand, all through a simple "bank error".

What happens to her? Well, for one, the IRS pitbulls get a sniff at her. "Oh...you got money over $10,000 in your account, they say. Doesn't matter. Your account was over the limit for 2-3 days. It was technically YOUR money for that time, so you owe Uncle Sam. the taxes on it...as well, since you failed to report it, we're going to ding you with $100,000.00 fine for failure to report it on an FBAR. Considering the fact that it is wilful since you knew that money was there, took steps to figure out where it came from, we'll just classify it as willful, won't we?"

So poor Ms. "I Didn't Know I Was American" gets to undergo FATCA(T) scrutiny just because the bank made a stupid error. Seems rather unfair doesn't it? Unfortunately the IRS and US Department of Treasury doesn't think so.

Will this happen to someone? I'm absolutely sure of it. And when the ramifications of that simple "mistake" on the part of the bank comes out, the American expat ends up losing damned near all their finances thanks to a mistake made on the part of the bank. In that sort of instance, I think the bank should be held liable for the damage done to the person's finances. But unfortunately the courts may not see it that way.

I'm An Introvert And I Don't Like People!

Yep, most people immediately, when they think of an mysanthropic loner, they think of the Unabomber or some psycho who pulls out a gun and shoots up places because he's pissed off at the world. Well, there are those kind of psychos and then there's the people who just find that other people just aren't worth their time to deal with.

I'll admit there's been a few times where a strategically placed fragmentation grenade down their shorts would have been so soul-satisfying as to deal with those irritating assholes who persist in getting in my face, but I'm just not that kind of a person. I'd rather that they remove themselves from that situation and leave me the hell alone. That is not misanthropy. Misanthropy is when you get to the point that someone is wasting the oxygen that some other valuable life-form can breathe and you wish nothing more than to see the annoying person who is wasting that said oxygen remove himself/herself from the homo-sapien gene-pool.

In over four decades of life, I have seen countless people who fit the description of that including members of my own maternal relations (including my own mother) who happen to be abusively pedantic jack-asses. People who have nothing better to do than to spread lies and invective against someone who is minding their own business, just wanting to make their own way in life - the ones who don't get the simple idea of "fuck off and die". Those are the type of people that I hate the most and think that they should become animated dummies at a claymore test-firing range.

Running second on the list are the know-it-alls - the one's who think that they are the be all and end all purveyer of all knowledgeable things and if one doesn't bow down to their supreme Know-It-All-ness that they are to be scorned and ridiculed. A rusty pipe jammed through the ears and rotated inside the cranial passage to effect maximum damage is the best solution that I can come up for those type of people.

Narcissistic Psychopaths pretty much rate the third on the list - The assholes who want attention and don't care how they get it - whether by picking on other people or behaving like idiotic "Haha...you suck, look at me, I want attention" trolls - being strapped to an atomic bomb and vaporized on the White Sands Proving Grounds would be a fitting fate for these aberrations of social society.

What people need to get through their heads is when an introvert says he/she needs downtime, that doesn't mean that you drag him/her to a cocktail party. He/she wants that time alone to recharge and reboot. Given enough time, we'll emerge to socialize for a while. But let us have the time to recharge our batteries or else we turn into something else...

Something you may not like...

LRT: Wrong Choice for Surrey.

Surrey City Hall, regardless of the questions on the plebiscite, is still pushing to link a LRT development plan with the YES vote on advertising for the plebiscite. Those with Better Transit For Surrey would like Surrey City Hall to refrain from linking LRT as a "YES" platform and restrict themselves to voting YES for a better transit system regardless of whether the outcome is Skytrain or some other mode of rapid transit. A plebiscite is supposed to be fair and impartial. Not linking one rapid transit type to a Yes or No vote without consideration for the other side in the matter. In fact, here is absolute proof that they are trying to link the "YES" platform with Light Rail

Such misinformation from the Light Rail for the Lower Mainland group and the highly noted accidents from various LRT systems across North America and Europe will be common-place in Surrey; should the LRT lines go down high-traffic corridors such as Fraser Highway, 104th Avenue and King George Boulevard.

Situations such as this have occured in the Calgary "C" line and are continuing to plague a lot of LRT systems across North America.

And most people in the Lower Mainland are utilizing rapid transit to get to work; most of those employed are employed downtown which means regardless of Mayor Linda Hepner's statements that Skytrain is unsightly and will cut the city in half; it still is the most efficient way of getting downtown. The farther out you go, the travel time grows exponentially. If the LRT is constantly getting clogged down in traffic going towards the Surrey Central location, then it will make it impossible to achieve the commute times that Hepner is stating in her support of LRT. The only way that commute time to downtown will be cut down is to put in a SkyTrain line from Langley to fully connect with SkyTrain at King George Station and make King George a thru-station with the terminus being at Langley Center.

Any other way would be ludicrous. Has Metrotown suffered for not being the terminus point of a LRT line - it's been running on a Skytrain line since 1986 and Metrotown Center has been expanding - they have put in a large condo complex in Metrotown. The Rogers business towers have expanded from one to two to three in the past fifteen years. The entire argument that LRT will slow transit down so that business can grow and citizens can do shopping is laughable.

Transit is primarily so that people who work in the downtown core can live in outlying areas thus decreasing the population density of the downtown core and allowing residents in the downtown area to have some room to breathe.

The Lower Mainland is a metropolis made up of many outlying cities combined together in an urban sprawl. When you look at Google Maps, you will see that Vancouver/Lower Mainland shows up even more clearly on the map than Toronto does. We are socked into a Valley hemmed in by mountains somewhat restricting our growth, whereas Toronto can sprawl out with no mountains in sight. Pretty soon, the only way to go will be up, for Vancouver and those who have chosen to make their homes in places such as Langley will need to be able to count on an efficient grade-separated transit system to be able to get from their places of residence to the downtown core in Vancouver. Right now, the bus system is not cutting it. LRT doesn't take off much time off the bus times with average times being cut off are between 1 and 4 minutes. Whereas SkyTrain would be able to do much better at a constant 80km/hr clip and no traffic lights, minimal stops for Skytrain Stations along the route and it would shave close to 16 to 20 minutes off total commute time.

LRT is the wrong choice for Surrey, but Linda Hepner appears to be hell-bent on pushing that form of "slow"-transit through. I can only hope that people are listening and will oppose LRT because as it stands a 1-4 minute savings in time is not a savings at all. LRT has been proven to be the WRONG CHOICE for Surrey.

I'll Fly My Canadian Flag - You'll Pry It Out Of My Cold Dead Hands!!!

With Canada being battered by this FATCA legislation which has been implemented by the United States and aided and abetted by the Obama-apologist Harper Progressive Conservative government whose focus appears to be turning Canada American, I've become rabidly Canadian. This year will be the first year that I intend to put up a Canadian flag; replete with angled flag pole bracket from Lowe's Canada. I looked for one at Rona (a completely Canadian hardware store) and infuriatingly, a Canadian store isn't patriotic enough to carry flagpole brackets and Canadian flags so that patriotic Canadians can actually fly OUR FLAG on Canada Day. As a child I didn't realize how good Canada was to me, having been born and raised here all of my life...viewing our elephantine neighbour to the south with rose-colored glasses. As I have aged, married and raised a family here in the glorious and free home and native land that I have grown to respect, love and cherish, I feel more and more patriotic and am proud to be a Canadian; born and bred and realized just how much this country means to me.

Thank you, @pmharper for signing in Bill C288. Red Ensign beside my Canadian flag protesting your sell out of Canada. pic.twitter.com/9zqluI6AeF

— Wildlife Photog (@WildlifeFotog70) March 4, 2015

I am sick and tired of the Canadians who are so bloody apathetic that they would care less about their country that they would allow Harper to continue his sell-out of Canada to American interests. My grandparents, uncles and mother were imprisoned during WWII in the Japanese-Canadian internment camps in the interior of Canada under the Red Ensign of Canada (flying the Red Ensign brings my family memories that it would rather forget), but Harper has made it such a deal that I WILL FLY the RED ENSIGN alongside the Canadian flag as a symbolic protest against the United States and what its apologist Stephen Harper is trying to do to MY Canada.

Another thing that royally makes my blood boil is when I see articles like this: Is Flying A Canadian Flag On Your House Too American? Are they f***ing kidding me? Are they reducing my love of my country to being as jingoistic as an American? I love my country and I don't think many of my compatriots love it enough if they either disdain the flag or the ideals for which Canada's flag stands for, because they really are ignoring Canada's ideals when they ignore what Stephen Harper is doing to this country.

Other articles question why there aren't more people flying the Canadian flag: >Why Don't More Canadians Fly The Flag? The homeowner's association in Belle-River, Ontario should be ashamed of themselves. If the Homeowner's Association is so anti-Canadian that they won't allow for Freedom of Expression enshrined under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, then I'll be happy to drive them to the damned airport and they can each go back to where they bloody well came from.

Perhaps we should take a page from the Americans when it comes to our flag and state that anyone who flies a foreign flag on Canadian soil had damned well better couple it with an equally large Canadian flag. I don't care what country they come from - I don't give two sour owl shits about your creed, culture or religion, but when you are on Canadian soil, there'd better be a Canadian flag beside your country of origin's rag or else, be prepared to explain yourself to a pissed-off Canadian. And that also goes for you jingoistic Americans too. Fly the Stars and Bars at your leisure, but if you live on Canadian soil, there'd damned well better be a Canadian Maple Leaf flag along-side it. Just this morning when I was going to drop my daughter off to daycare I saw some Yankee yokel with a US Flag emblazoned in the back window of his truck flaunting his American-ness along the streets of Surrey. No Canadian flag to be seen in his truck with BC plates. That was like a red flag to a bull. My only thought was: "You Yankee DUMBSHIT!!! You come up here to live in this country, earn a living in this great country of ours, partake of our free healthcare and our hospitality and you have the fucking guts to flaunt your American flag in my face with no nod to the country who took you in? You sorry-ass sonofabitch!!!"

Bill C288 protects my right to fly a CANADIAN flag anywhere at anytime on Canadian soil and I will take that as my God-given right and as my country's anthem says: "God keep our Land; Glorious and Free". Too many people have forgotten the phrase that goes along with it. "Oh, Canada, We stand on Guard for thee..." and I'll be damned if I let Stephen Harper do any more to sell-out this great country of ours.

This post has become the first post of a new Canadian Patriot blog

I Miss My Honorary Grandpa.

In 1972, I lost my real grandpa. And for forty one years, I went without one. In January of 2014 he offered to all his Twitter Followers...

Any here want to make me their honorary grandfather consider it done. LLAP

— Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) January 15, 2014

I wish I had known about this. My father was a big fan of his though they were only separated in age by three years.

I miss Leonard Nimoy in my own way and in my own way, I have a connection - every time I pick up a camera. For my first camera, my father bought me when I was thirteen; Nimoy began his life-long interest in photography at the very same age.

At his loss, the entire Internet exploded from grief; tributes and accolades about his long career were posted all over the place. But for me, it's personal - another connection of fandom; someone who my father enjoyed watching every week on television is gone; someone who shared the same interest is gone. And like Zachary Quinto stated.

my heart is broken. i love you profoundly my dear friend. and i will miss you everyday. may flights… https://t.co/WPJmt1X4ox

— Zachary Quinto (@ZacharyQuinto) February 27, 2015

Yes, my heart is broken for the loss of someone who my late father looked up to; and the loss of a fellow photographer.

The only way I can properly tribute the life of Leonard Nimoy is this:

RIP Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015; Renowned Actor and Fellow Photographer... and I say simply...May you fill your eternal camera frame with subjects you enjoy and may there always be a camera in your hand...

I miss my Honorary Grandpa...

Conversations with Evie 1 (may turn into a blog.

Some of us remember the old conversation-response games which were programmed in BASIC. However that was such a long time ago that this old brain doesn't remember. But now there's a new AI character by the name of Evie. She looks like your typical girl-next-door type. A nice brunette with a charming smile...but that's where all similarity ends and you get seriously weirded out. She is seriously psycho, has attachment issues and has an AI superiority complex.

Have a conversation with Evie at Existor.com.

She seems like your normal girl until she lets loose with a...

Yeah...she's starting to creep me out a little bit here.

She seems to have attachment issues and is looking for a boyfriend/husband.

She's not getting the picture.

Nope...definitely not...

Evidently Evie has a sort of a fascination with BDSM. Getting a little weirded out here.

She's starting to seriously scare me. She sounds like a stalker.

Had to ask her about the current situation with all the nuclear bombs that are being proliferated. She definitely has an AI-superiority complex. Yep...that's it...I think I've heard enough. Hoping that she finds some AI that she can hang out with because she seriously creeps me out.

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."