Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

I found a new breed of spam in my filters Wednesday. It’s stealing clips of my RSS feed [my own writing], and putting it into a comment with a link to their site at the end. I’ve had more sblogs take my entire RSS feed in the past and have written about that happening. I’ve turned my RSS back to providing full content again, after setting it down to just a summary, however.
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And I also saw an amusing ask.com search that hit upon my blog for a possible answer.

“how do you remove a sticky mousetrap from a dog”

“Carefully, and with scissors,” is how I’d answer that.

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On the topic of computer stuff, I’ve been working in Ubuntu Linux today. I’ve installed Skype and successfully phoned Ashley, for free using it. Now I’m going outside to enjoy the great weather.

Amanda continues to take on the money-and-ethics-poor CIBC after they cashed post-dated cheques she wrote, prior to the date on the cheque when insufficient funds were in her account. Thus the bank ruined her credit report, and still wants her to pay them fees that their mistake generated.

I wrote about the Bank’s Theoretical Electronic Funds Transfer (THEFT for short)(TM) previously, and the story attracted some attention in the blogosphere.

Stuff we learned from this escapade:
1) Post dating is, in fact, valid.
2) Cheques are not eligible to be cashed until the date shown on the face.
3) If the bank puts thru your post dates before the date, you will need the power of leprachauns to rectify the situation.
4) Leprachauns are growing weary of their duties.
5) This is why banks operate above the law.

May the Leprachauns be with you Amanda. Good luck.

Technorati tags to help people find this page: banks theft cibc cheques rage estevan scam Sam Burns

Ashley writes:

In response to a Canadian federal cutback to women’s programs, people have begun a blog tag.
5 things feminism has done for me:

1) Allowed me to go to university.

2) Give me a way to fight against international injustice to women as well as local injustice.

3) Given me an outlet to vent about the female obsession with bodies, and a way to fight against it.

4) The right to own my own property, and to not have them taken away should I choose to leave my husband.

5) The right to choice about who I am, what I will do with my life, what career path I will follow, what I will do with my body, and many other things. Choice is one of the most powerful things given to us by feminism. We can choose to vote or not, who to vote for, whether or not we want to marry, how many children to have, how to dress, when/who to have sex with, what type of bith control to use, the choice to use birth control (and without male permission), among many other choices we have as a result of feminism.

Mr. Bandana gets his day in the national spotlight. He was one of my favourite players from the team that last brought home the Grey Cup.

What do you make of this Blogging Tory website? I just kinda stared at it with a gaping mouth for at least a few seconds trying to decide if it was parody or not. The all black theme, the constant hand wringing, and the slightly hyperbolic claim that “50,000 people” view the page every day made my brain confused. Considering the main BT page has “Viewed by over 34143 people yesterday” displayed today, I guess they have peak days of about 70,000 people. That’s a lot of average people concerned about terrorism daily in Canada.

It looks like a case for … IJustWetMyPants.ca! The website that has been showing Canadians how unafraid of terrorism we are by talking about it constantly, since 2006.

CJME.com Thursday at 10:00 AM had the question:

“Should Richards be fined for smoking at a no-smoking stadium facility?” The fine for a business violating the public building smoking ban, is $5000, or $2000 for an individual. Obviously Richards and the Stones could afford $14000 over two nights.
I phoned in and said he should be fined, but told in advance he would be if he smokes - giving him the chance to put a positive spin on the law by publicly stating he agrees with the law and is going to take his punishment.

A celebrity needs to be held to a higher standard than the average joe, and we have to uphold the rule of law. No one is above the law, not even rock stars. To the people who said that the Stones might cancel the concert over this fuss, well if the Stones are that petty, then they may cancel if it snows or if Richard stubs his toe on a gopher. Some people are so insecure about their home province’s worth, that they are willing to kneel down to a crumby rock star and would gladly eat off the floor if he commanded them to.

Something not well mentioned is the potential damage the crowd will do to the turf after they try to light up in secret. I wonder how flammable the plastic field is, eh? Wouldn’t a field fire be a disaster?

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Soulfood has a contest. Create a clever answering machine message for her, and you could win a $20 gift.

I guess reading isn’t too important to a Prime Minister who hopes to write a book about hockey. After all, there will be kids who will buy the book about hockey, who needs adult readers anyway? According to John Baird, it’s too late for adults who can’t read, and there’s not much point in trying to make them literate.

“We’ve got to fix the ground floor problem and not be trying to do repair work after the fact,” Baird said.

Exactly! If they can read, they might vote for a party that cares about them. People like former Montreal hockey coach Jacques Demers don’t deserve further education opportunities, even if they want them at a stage in their life when it’s mortifying to be illiterate. Yet again, Conservatives are proving to be more compassionate than they legally have to be toward people who have a harder life than they do.

I wonder what Harper’s wife will tell him about her day handing out papers to children. Will the media asking her the obvious question about literacy program cuts come up at all? I bet she thinks its a bit odd that an aspiring author would be so against teaching adults to read if they were ruined by the education systems in governments past.

Maybe he’s just a constitutional stickler, and figures that since education is a provincial matter, he’d better not dedicate any funds to literacy programs. Oh, but then why isn’t he for the same constitutional separation that gives Saskatchewan full rights to its natural resources like oil revenues? Maybe Conservatives just can’t govern?

The Green Party of Canada released its environmental plan. Even its critics find strong points in it. The name GP^2 comes from the initials of the plan being GP multiplied by GP (in case you’re not a math brain).
More summaries are available all over the blogosphere.

When an American Republican in charge of a state puts Canada to shame, it’s time to blast our government over their inaction and backward steps such as slashing the Energuide program.