Reader Jeanette writes;

As a non-practising Christian I have never displayed a nativity scene in my home, mostly out of principal and respect for those for whom the Christmas story is meaningful. I don’t believe in being a “Sunday Christian”, or even a “Christmas Christian”.
That was until recently, when I started to realize that in doing so I am silently condoning the demise of our Judeo-Christian culture. For me being a “secular Christian” is now a political statement against those liberal forces that are causing us to say “Happy Holidays” and Holiday tree” etc.
So this year I decided to add a Nativity scene to my Christmas decorations and I needed to go out and buy one. In previous years they have abounded at all the major retailers throughout the Christmas season and in the post Christmas sale period. To my shock there wasn’t a single nativity scene for sale at Walmart in Regina nor at Costco! I have yet to check out Zellers and Canadian Tire. Is that because they are sold out, or not bringing them in for sale?
Do I think it’s a conspiracy, No! But is it more evidence that the liberal movement to destroy our Christian culture? It could be. Perhaps this could be a discussion on SDA.
Merry Christmas Kate, and Happy New Year

Comments open for your feedback…

Postcard from Vegas…

I have a building in NYC to sell you.

just because it’s time for a change of pace.
Notice: Some of you have been getting antivirus software alerts. Here’s what I’ve found. The problem is with embedded videos, so I’ve dropped those for now and replaced it with a link.. Actns/Swif.T virus affecting embedded YouTube vids?

Spoke with Google/YouTube and apparently anti-spyware software from Computer Associates had been returning false positives, identifying certain files contained within YouTube embed codes as malware. The specific YouTube issue is apparently being corrected by Computer Associates and wasn’t actually harmful in the first place. If you’ve got CA software, you might want to check for any updates.]

(photo/caption credit Karen P.)

Just a short time left to vote (if you haven’t already). If we can move him into 7th place or higher, he’ll travel down bedecked in SDA duds. Just a few minutes left….
Update – the voting has concluded, and after a back and forth horserace, iti appears Rob finished in 7th place. Thanks, all. I know he appreciates it!
Just make sure of one thing while you’re down there Mr. Clark – no dead hookers.

“Maybe it was the lost tool bag from the ISS”

Via CTV

Update:

(via)

At Damn Cool Pics
h/t

Kate’s away again, so on her behalf I’ll invite the guest bloggers to feel free to post on SDA.
I must admit though, I’m somewhat jealous of our colleagues in the Saskatchewan Dipper blog-o-sphere. Calvert announced that he was done as NDP leader tonight, so they’ll have all sorts of political mischief to make in the next little while.
It hasn’t started yet . . . but once they get over the ass-kicking the NDP got in Saskatchewan on Tuesday, good places to visit are probably going to be: Sean in Saskatchewan, Giant Political Mouse, Accidental Deliberations, and the ULTRA LEFT WING!!! Buckdog.
I’m not so jealous of the Libloggers who will soon have the same opportunity. The grassroots and the establishment are set to have one big brewhaha. The fall-out isn’t going to be pretty and the grassroots are going to lose.
Just remember Liberals, at or about 10 am on the Saturday morning of your “good for TV” convention, while your 20 year old delegates where sleeping off their hang-overs, the few who bothered to show up for policy votes declined one member one vote.
That’s why the establishment feels free to cut the leader. That’s why they don’t care about you. You told them it was okay for cliques and divisions in the party. You told them that delegate voting was the right thing. You abdicated your responsibilities to your party.
You remember that when you’re whining about those “senior Liberals”.

Some rather disjointed thoughts after yesterdays election.
There’s a lot of anguish in the media and on the leftward leaning blogs about yesterday’s voter turn-out. PR is raising it’s ugly head, strategic voting was hailed as the saviour for the left and failed.
Woo, big surprise. Reminds me of the right during the 90’s. Here’s a hint to the left; appeal to the dedicated voter demographics or get them to be dedicated voters.
In my opinion, anyone thinking that Harper “lost” last night because he didn’t get a majority is wrong. At the outset, majority was best case, stronger minority was middle case and reduced minority was worst case. The Prime Minister said that. He met with all of the leaders to try and argue the case for the last parliament.
The results of those meetings was a resounding, “No.” Harper said, “Fine.”, and we went to an election. That became one of the first (of many) Martin campaign parallels, Dion had previously all but promised a fall election and PM Harper pre-empted him.

Continue reading →

“Put down that sandwich and come out with your hands up…”

Quebec’s Open Source association FACIL(Google Translated) is suing the Gov’t of Quebec because Quebec has refused to open tenders for software and support to local vendors. Quebec is using an exemption in law that allows them to buy proprietary where no other options exist. (Cough, BS.)

Good for FACIL, I hope they win. I also hope that other Municipal and Provincial governments as well as the Federal gov’t get off their duff and start moving towards Open Source Software. Usually it is license free, it is always better code, and service and support can be provided by local vendors because they have access to the internals. OSS allows gov’t to create a more diverse knowledge based economy and allows it to support it’s citizenry rather than the Seattle and San Jose economies.

h/t: Michael Geist. CBC story

Cheers,
lance

Old Pampered European Count: 0*

At 61, in his 9th Olympics, posting a clear round and Canada is into the jump-off with the US for gold in team show jumping. Woohoo!
update: USA – Gold, Canada – Silver, Norway – Bronze
Well done, “Captain Canada”.

Going through some old photos this morning, I came upon this snapshot of an oil painting that was “borrowed” from the art department wall of a now defunct sign company in Saskatoon at around the time I ended work there… (The name of the company was A.G. Neon Art.)

I did the piece as a teenager (from a magazine photo), and while it has no actual value, I’d still like it back. If one of you in this relatively large audience has spotted it in your travels, please send me an email (or mail to the address here). It’s a longshot, but you never know.
I’m not interested in anything more than the painting’s return – so no questions asked.

(video works now)
(Where are you going with this, Anchoress? (link fixed now))

Surfing around this afternoon (I’ve been sick most of the day), I found his page on the official Beijing Olympics site, listing the events scheduled with links to reports, results, etc. Nice clean design, and easy to navigate for those of you interested in the games.

Cough. 6-0 Riders.

Cheers,
lance