August 8th, 2008; Today it is raining for pretty much the entire day. That is the kind of day it is turning out to be. It is not a hard rain, more like a steady light rain. Enough to want a person to stay indoors. I read on the Internet that a charter bus from Houston, Texas had slammed onto its side and then skidded off a freeway near the Texas-Oklahoma border line. 40 people were on that bus. 12 people had died on the scene and two had died while being treated in hospital. At least six of the wounded were in critical condition. The passengers were a group of Vietnamese Catholic worshippers on their way to an annual pilgrimage at a Missouri church. The right front tire of the bus had blown out, but officials were still investigating the cause of the accident. Some pilgrimage that turned out to be.

A man was arrested on August 4th, after attacking people during the Vancouver Pride celebrations. The man ended up in police custody following a series of violent attacks in the midst of an otherwise peaceful gay pride celebrations in Vancouver. According to police reports, the incident began when a 31-year-old man was chased into the street by a shop owner after allegedly stealing a drink from a corner store on Davie St. in the West End of Vancouver. The owner of Tutti's convenience store, Reza Khalaj, said the man was wearing a black wig and black glasses and was carrying a hammer and a handgun. He then began attacking people in nearby restaurants and bars with a hammer, beginning at the Majestic restaurant and lounge. Six people there were struck with the hammer, including one who was knocked unconscious. "He ran to the Majestic, and he started hitting people with the hammer," Khalaj said. "I saw the black gun in his hand, and he started … just smashing the people with the hammer." The man then moved on to a nearby restaurant patio, where he struck two women and a man. He also pointed an imitation handgun at a man who tried to subdue him, said Vancouver police Const. Jana McGuinness. Nine people were taken to hospital with injuries, none of which appears to be life-threatening. The man faces 17 charges, including assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon, possession of a prohibited weapon and a count of theft under $5,000, police said. The owner of Majestic, Vince Marino, said; "It was an amazing day," he said. "People were just enjoying themselves. It was probably one of the best Pride Day we've had. And it's just been sort of a sad way to end it. It was a terrible way to end an otherwise jubilant day. Hundreds of thousands of people had attended Vancouver's annual gay pride parade.

I recall that during the 2008 Pride Day Parade going on in various cities around the world, homosexuals have received a lot of bad press and a great deal of flack from Christians and other religious groups. Take the one that took place in San Francisco, special-interest groups like the Christian "Americans for Truth" came out and really lambasted homosexuals during their "Pride not Prejudice"; Pride Day Parade. Here is what they said about that event. "What honor can there be in protecting the public practice of heinous perversions and nudity in the city's streets? The shame of pandering politicians is transferred to the cops who were intended to be guardians of the law and public order," the Americans for Truth organizer's chief, Peter LaBarbera said. His organization "Americans for Truth" is one of the few in the country to call officials from San Francisco on the issue of the obscene behavior, including public acts of sex, documented during the festival in late July. "One San Francisco policeman told our volunteers that the police were instructed not to make arrests for indecency on the city streets at "Up Your Alley" - but merely to 'contain' the activity to the street fair, which encompassed several city blocks," Americans for Truth reported. "San Francisco's extreme political correctness has turned cops into impotent Perversion Protectors," the group said. Americans for Truth organization said the events included whippings, public sex between men, and even advocacy for slavery, with one man wearing nothing but cuffs and chains. "Homosexual activists mock and deride "Americans For Truth" relentlessly for exposing sordid realities like 'Up Your Alley' - and showing you what happens when sexual radicals come to dominate a major city. They don't want Americans to see this side of their agenda … But we must face reality and come to grips with the truth that "rights" based on aberrant sex are not genuine civil rights, Peter LaBarbera said.

After having read that article, I read what other people had to say on this matter to get both sides of the story. Here is what a person who was there had to say about the 2008 Pride Day Parade in San Francisco.

What? I looked up Ferndale News and got this bigoted link to a special-interest group's website. Pride is a big event for Ferndale, which brings a ton of money and publicity to the area. It's a very positive event and this article severely misrepresents problems. How many arrests were made in previous years? Does the "reporter" have pictures or proof of lewd acts? No, only some out of context comments from a "newsletter." Not newspaper, mind you. An illegitimate/biased news source citing another illegitimate/biased news source does not equal journalism. Please remove this ("Americans for Truth") story and replace it with the truth - which is that Ferndale does have a large gay population, and also a better economy and level of community involvement than most other metro-Detroit cities, partly because of this annual celebration!

Another person had this to say about Gay Pride Day Parades, from Michigan, U.S.A.; I have been going to this event for years and never saw any inappropriate nudity. This may be not the case in other large cities like Toronto, San Francisco and Chicago. Michigan is small and low-key. Many local families attend the Gay Pride Day Parade, Straight and Gay people. This (Americans for Truth) story is more likely propaganda generated by the (Christian) American Family Association. By the way, straight people are known to be found half or fully naked on public places. Ever heard of public beaches full of Nudists?

A report from around the world; Tens of thousands from across the country typically flock to America's gay Mecca for the festival, a virtual holiday in San Francisco. The parade traditionally opens with a blocks-long contingent of "Dykes on Bikes" - lesbians dressed in leather driving loud motorcycles. While he said the parade will still celebrate "having a great time and living out loud," D'Alessandro expects the mood to be more traditional this year than in years past. "It's not this subculture. It's mainstream," he said of the pro-marriage mood. "You can go to Macy's to pick out your china, you can go to Shreve's to pick out your rings, and you can go to the Four Seasons and pick out your reception room." Gay pride events were also planned for New York, Chicago, Seattle, Houston, Honolulu and other cities. Overseas, extremists throwing rocks, bottles and gasoline bombs attacked the first ever gay pride parade in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. Police in riot gear made about 60 arrests. No serious injuries were reported among the 150 or so marchers. About 500 people marching in a gay pride parade in Bruno, the second-largest city in the Czech Republic, were attacked by a group that threw eggs and shouted abusive slogans, said leading gay activist Jeri Ramada. Revelers in Portugal carried a giant rainbow flag through the capital of Lisbon, thousands marched in Mexico City, and half a million danced through the streets of Paris to a soundtrack of disco mixes, choral music and accordion tunes. In India, where homosexuality is illegal and taboo, gay activists were to hold demonstrations Sunday in the cities of New Delhi, Calcutta and Ban galore. About 3,000 gays marched through Jerusalem without incident, protected by 2,000 police officers. The original Gay Pride Day parades had commemorated the Stonewall uprising of 1969, a series of battles between gays and police in New York city which was widely considered the beginning of the gay rights movement. The Gay Pride Day parades began the following year in 1970.

Personally, I think homosexuals have received a lot of bad flack from mostly narrow-minded religious groups. But I think the gay community does more harm to its own image and cause with these sort of "Up Your Face" or "Up Your Alley" type of propaganda. Go ahead and have a parade and demonstrate your solidarity, but don't dress up as a bunch of freaks or run around almost naked making rude gestures. I have seen "Gays" acting like as if "anything goes" attitude and really make a spectacle of themselves by flaunting their "Gay-ness" in rather crude, demeaning manner. If the whole idea of having a Gay Pride Day is that you want to be accepted by society as being as "normal" as any other people, then show people that you are the kind, decent, caring type of people that you are, who want only to be treated as equals, with the same rights, freedoms and benefits as the "heterosexual" population enjoys.

August 11th, 2008; Today it is cloudy but warm. I had volunteered to go with the Temiskaming Lodge residents to a boat trip on Lake Nipissing at North Bay, Ont. Temiskaming Lodge (Jarlette Health Services) where I volunteer, is a long term care facility. Kathy Ruddy, who is the Lodge Activity/Volunteer Director, became our Van driver today. We had another volunteer to help us with the Lodge residence. After we had loaded the Lodge residents on board the Lodge's special van, we headed for North Bay. The other volunteer had brought a guitar along with her and we had a grand time as we had a sing-a-long while driving through the beautiful countryside. When we had arrived at North Bay, we made our way to the Government Dock where the Chief Commanda II was docked. We all got aboard the Chief, which is a large twin hull vessel which made a one and half hour cruise on this occation, where we cruised around the four main Islands on the lake. I checked to see where all the life jackets are stored, where we were, just in case. We had a fabulous lunch on board the Chief Commanda II in their large cabin on the main deck. After lunch, we went out to the bow of the vessel, to see the sights. Quite a few people were on board with us. It was a real nice sunny day to be on the water. Everyone had a real grand time. When we got back to the dock, we had a pleasant drive back to the Lodge with more sing-a-longs. We arrived back to Temiskaming Lodge just in time for the residence supper hour. Cathy drove me home on her way to New Liskeard. Buddy by now was real glad to see me after having been gone for most of the day. I took Buddy out to do his thing, and then made some supper which consisted of pork chops, baked potatoes and corn and to top it all off, with some black coffee and a cigarette. What a find day it turned out to be. Anyone who wants a pleasant day on the water can get on the Chief Commanda II at the Government Dock, North Bay, on Lake Nipissing. Their phone No. is (705) 494-8167. You can take a 3 or 6 hour boat cruise. You can cruise Lake Nipissing, up to the Upper French River, and on the south shore of the lake. The Tour includes a film presentation. Trips are made during mid-May to Labour Day.

August 12th, 2008; Today was a warm sunny day. I was going to take the canoe out for a run, but a lady had called and asked me if I could have a look at her computer. From what she told me when she tried to log on to her computer, the damage was quite extensive. From what she had told me, it sounds like she had inadvertently deleted a system file which prevents her to access her windows XP program. She told me a friend of hers had told her about me and recommended to see me. When I had checked her computer, the windows program would not come on. I tried to undelete what she had deleted but I could not retrieve some of the lost files. She did not have a Windows XP disk when she got the computer. Unfortunately, she did not have a saved system disk or have an XP disk to re-load into her computer. All I have is Windows 98SE. I told her that I could load the Win98SE disk so she could surf the Net and do her e-mails. I told her to think about it, if she wanted to change to that system or try someone else, like Reg and Darcy at Tammarack Ltd., in Haileybury. They have a Win XP disk and can retrieve her lost Win XP operating system. Kathy at Temiskaming Lodge was having a sausage/corn roast today around 4 PM for the Lodge residents and had asked me if I could help out. I went over and helped with the sausage/corn roast. Everybody there had a good time. We had an open fire in a fire pit, and the Lodge residents had Bar-B-Q sausages or wieners, with corn on the cob, and they roasted their marshmallows on the fire pit. Kathy Ruddy, the Lodge Activity Director, does a lot for the residents to set up programs to entertain them and get the residents involved in many activities. The Temiskaming Lodge residents are fortunate to have such a dedicated staff. During the sausage/corn roast, we saw a huge plume of black smoke billowing up into the clouds somewhere north from the Lodge. We did not know what had caused the fire. According to the huge black mushroom like black smoke we were seeing above the rooftops, it must be something serious. Later we had heard that the smoke might have come from the Haileybury Marina. Maybe a boat had caught on fire. I never found out what it was by the time I got home. Maybe I will hear about it on the late night news. I had a good time helping out the staff and the Lodge residents, it was a good day. Update on that fire; While I did not get any news about that fire from the news media, the people around town told me that a motorboat was heading for the Haileybury Marina when it caught on fire. One lady on board was burned lightly, and all the people on board had managed to escape the blaze by diving into the water and swam to shore. The boat had developed a gas leak around the carbrator and had caught on fire, before the boat exploded and eventually sank near the harbour entrance buoy. These people are extreemly fortunate that this did not occur in the middle of the lake, for Lake Temiskaming is a big lake. These people are fortunate to have come out of this alive. This is the reason it is always a good idea to have life jackets on, when in a boat. You can never tell what might happen, even in larger boats where people tend to think they do not need to wear their life jackets. Ever tried to put on a life jacket while in deep water? It is not as easy as one might think, if they have never done it. I recall other incidents where people get into trouble, even at dockside. Like when they fail to vent out the gas fumes from their enclosed engine compartment before starting the engine. Boating regulations state to always vent out the engine compartment with the vent blower before starting an engine in an enclosed engine compartment, which is a no brainer. But despite using plain common sense, some people will just never learn and put an end to their vacation and their lives. Lesson is never take things for granted.

According to a CMA (Canadian Medical Association) report, 21,000 people will die in Canada from pollution in 2008. The report claims that up to 21,000 Canadians will die this year due to air pollution, with 3,000 of those deaths due to short-term exposure to smog. These figures are some of the key findings in the first large-scale report on the impact of air pollution across Canada. It finds that by 2031, almost 90,000 Canadians will have died from the acute short-term effects of pollution and more than 700,000 will be dead from long term exposure. In the long-term, the repost said, the harmful ingredients contained in air pollution can weaken the muscle cells in artery walls, particularly in the heart, causing a number of cardiovascular problems and potentially death. I am surprised that they had not blamed all those deaths only on smoking tobacco, like these people tend to do. I have for a long time believed that most of the lung cancer and cardiovascular problems was mainly due to pollution from industrial and automotive exhaust gases. Its time these people got off the backs on people who smoke tobacco products and put the major blame where it belongs.