SOA's Best New Artist?

A picture that Annie took in the gym at St. Anne's Church in Detroit, MI...

Falon picked up a guitar and tried (unsuccessfully) to serenade the hippies in the room....unfortunately people were so hungry they couldn't hear anything.

Soon after Falon could be seen eating plain basmati rice and bread until we rescued her with pizza pockets.

They Sooo Didn't Know What They Were In For...

A picture of Falon and Annie in the van on the way to Detroit.

Highlights of this leg?

Stopping people from eating all of Annie's food, and the seeing Annie's face when she was told she was staying in the Detroit ghetto.

Priceless.

A Short Political Break

Alrighty, just stumbled across this when I saw in the Freeps that Rick Mercer visited London yesterday.

Check out his blog and "endorsement" of Dianne Haskett for the Conservative Party in the London by-election.

Hilarious, and true.

Dad and I will be checking out a taping of The Mercer Report a week from Friday...yea!

http://rickmercer.blogspot.com/

The Three Amigas At The Fence

We got this picture taken at the end of Sunday at the fence.

Truly a moving experience to see the fence filled with memories and names.

One of those grannies took this picture. Sigh. Then I really missed my granny.

Peace-y Peace Peace

The welcome banner at the front stage...

So peaceful....

Lots of Grannies

One of the organizations that came was a group of one thousand grandmothers...

The marched through the crowd at a very slow pace, handed out peppermints.

I missed my granny.

Tons of Boy Scouts

One of the interesting things about this year was the sheer amount of cops and soldiers this year.

This year the military erected a third fence, confining us only to the street. This didn't let us see the 16 people jump over the fence and be arrested.

Another thing that was new was the amout of military personnel behind each fence. I counted 11 soldiers in full camo gear watching us.

I just waved the peace sign...using 2 fingers.

Die In

A picture of the annual die in at Fort Benning.

This year there were over 80 people who participated in the die in...the majority were Canadians from our group.

The die in is like a sit in, but instead of sitting and singing, they dressed in black, painted their faces white, and had red paint thrown on them.

They sat there for the duration of the vigil starting the funeral procession, it's a deeply spiritual event although the people in the die in are stepped on quite frequently.

Stories in Pictures

From the living room floor in London, Ontario to the Fort Benning fence in Columbus, Georgia.

La Toya, Krista and I painted this banner and snuck it over the border.

I folded it up, rolled it in my sleeping bag and prayed that the customs agent wouldn't question our "spiritual retreat" excuse....

Luckily we all pasted as good little Christians, probably in large part due to the big smiles plastered on Annie and Falon's face in the back of the van...

NEWSFLASH: ANNIE IS NOW A HIPPY

Hey All!

Good news, Annie, her friend Falon and I all made it to Georgia and back!

It's safe to say that it was an eye opening experience for my sister and her friend.

Stay tuned for pictures and stories!!! We have a lot of stories...

Exciting and Funny

Alrighty, Annie and I leave tomorrow for Georgia.

I can't contain my excitement!

We'll take lots of pictures!

AHHHH!

p.s. ok, this pic doesn't have anything to do Georgia, it just made me laugh

GAH!

I went to the store to buy one pair of jeans.

I left with one pair of jeans, two t-shirts and one zip up hoodie.

And I'm going back tomorrow to pick up a bag that I saw on sale for $10.

Is it possible for Maggie to rub off on me, three provinces over?

Christmas Attack

Help.

In my office there is a tacky, fiber optic Christmas tree.

NOOOOOO!

After cracking the secret code...

Ralphie: (Reading It) Be sure to drink your Ovaltine. Ovaltine? A crummy commercial? Son of a bitch!

Karma Anyone?

A Warning To Carollers In Airports

Consider this a warning.

I just saw a new Christmas commercial (yes, it's that time of year again) where a mother and two children are stuck at the airport, delayed for a flight.

In the midst of this dreary wait, the mother pulls out the crappy Hallmark "gift" and then turns it on. And plays Jingle Bells.

Let me make myself perfectly clear.

If anyone ever decides to actually do this when I'm waiting for a delayed flight in a high traffic time period I will take that sweat shop made Hallmark piece of crap and hit you with it. Repeatedly. Seriously, Frosty's carrot nose will be embedded in your ass like an American jounalist in Baghdad.

Just so you're all warned.

Question of the Day: What Is That Smell?

Alright, just got back from the city of Toronto where Dad, Annie, her friend Christy, and I went to the annual Canadian Royal Winter Fair!

Yes, late last night Dad and I decided that it was a perfect day to assault our noses with the sweet, sweet smell of agricultural victory.

We saw horses, and almost gave Annie an asthma attack when walking up to see the fancy horse stables. We saw the baby chicks, the alpacas, llamas, sheep, and goats. We even stopped around some of the booths to let Annie and Christy do some shopping. However, since the clothing being sold was reserved for country folk, there wasn't much to buy.

We did see one animal group which I will have to add to my list of animals that I hate: the cow.

I know, why is it that certain animals want to see me lying on the ground in pain?

When we were walking around the cow pavillion at the CNE I was almost run over by a very large cow, followed by another very large cow. Seriously, run over. It practically ran into me. Maybe this is some bovine retribution for the delicious sirloin steak I had last night...

So, for those of you keeping score the animals that I hate are:

- Chipmunks
- Squirrels
- Cows

"Scared cows make the best hamburgers."

~Mark Twain

I Hate This Man

I just heard about Kanye West (right) and his sore losing at the MTV Europe Music Video Awards.

Pathetic. And I'm even saying this despite the fact that Kanye wrote and performed a song about conflict diamonds.

Please note, as of today, I am removing him from my iPod.

Now you know I'm serious.

I Love This Woman

Alright, I just got off the phone with this woman, the amazing Eva Olsson, Holocaust Survivor.

She's like my very own Jewish grandmother.

She rocks and is truly inspirational...and the most exciting part? As of today (and if the planning, travel and cost all work out) I, along with 20 teachers, will be travelling to Auschwitz with Mrs. Olsson. She hasn't been back to the concentration camp since her release from Auschwitz during WWII.

An Update

Hello All,

Just thought I'd give you all an update on my crazy, busy life...

What's new, you might ask? Well, not a whole lot...still working away at the Gen. R. Dallaire Genocide Institute, and still having a good time.

Dad returned from his scotch filled tour of Scotland with Papa, Kevin and Bubbles, and from the pictures it looks like they had a merry old time in Scotland. In addition to drinking copious amounts of alcohol they did devote some time to finding our Scottish roots. It seems our ancestors, the MacIntosh-es, were a violent clan. Besides that it seems that the matriarch of our family was a general. Annie and I will have to keep this in mind when we travel to the SOA Protest in two weeks. However, it appears that the skills of the MacIntosh clan leave something to be desired. This meaning our clan was virtually (I say virtually because someone had to have survived to travel to Canada) were wiped out in, I kid you not, a massacre. That's right, my family in ancient times, were massacred. And even worse than that, their demise was the result of us following another clan into battle. A hard lesson to learn about being a follower.

Other than that the parents went off to Montreal, came back and then Mom went out to the East Coast for a conference and to see Mags.

Annie is spending longer chunks of time on the farm, oops, I mean University of Guelph.

And I'm getting ready to go off to Toronto next week to start preparations for the 75th Anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine (2007), when we plan to hold a scholarly conference. Very exciting, if forced famine and Stalin float your boat.

Other than that there is the very exciting trip to SOA that is coming up. Annie will be joining our group this year as we travel to Columbus, Georgia for the big protest. I think the most amazing thing about this year's trip is that people are horrified to learn Annie's going, but there's virtually no concern pour moi. I'll chalk that up to my experience and ability to protest and not to the fact that people like Annie better. Right, Grandma?

p.s. The above picture is of a singer I'm feeling at the moment, K.T. Tunstall, from Scotland!

I Am Victorious

Alright, we've finished the MindYourMind.ca Anti-Stigma Campaign this weekend.

And I can honestly say, it rocks.

I'll let you all know when you can get our groovy buttons...(aka "The Voices Are Telling Me To Go To mindyourmind.ca").

Later.