Next summer (2010), the Ontario Government is set to put into force its new harmonized GST/PST sales tax which will apply a 13% sales tax to everything we purchase.

Things That Were Not Subject To The Current 8% PST Will Be Now Taxed –  As a result, things that were not previously taxed under the current Ontario Provincial Sales Tax (PST) will be taxed at 8%.

The new 13% tax will therefore apply to things like your electric bill, your gas bill, your water bill, condominium fees, insurance premiums, and every other good and service you purchase. There are almost no exemptions.

The current Ontario PST tax does not apply to services, nor does it apply to  the purchase of certain goods. The new 13% tax will therefore extend the old 8% PST tax rate to the purchase of all goods and all services.

The New 13% Tax Will Apply To The Puchase of All New Homes – The new harmonized GST/PST will also apply to all purchases of all new homes.  If a person were to purchase a new $1 million dollar home in Toronto, they would have to pay roughly $200,000 in taxes as a result of the Ontario land transfer tax, the new City of Toronto land transfer tax, and the new harmonized 13% GST/PST.

Think about that and what that would do to real estate values in Toronto. It will cause property values to fall and kill the new home construction industry and the jobs it creates.

And it won’t be long before you’ll hear our elected representatives telling us that, because of the harm that has been inflicted to the new home construction industry by the new 13% tax, it would be “fair” to extend the new 13% tax to sales of existing homes.

The New 13% Tax Is An Assault On Your Primary Residence Canadians have had two things that they have always been able to count on as being tax free – things that they could use to save money and accumulate wealth. They are your: (a) primary home; and (b) RRSP. That’s it.

The extension of the new 13% GST/PST to homes is simply a tax assault by the government on your primary home. They want to tax your primary home and you will suffer because of it.

Why? Because if a purchaser has to pay almost $200,000 in taxes to buy your  $1 million dollar home, the purchaser is going to pay less to you for your home. The purchaser will reduce the amount he or she is willing to pay to you in order to pay all the taxes.

The New 13% Tax Will Effectively Raise Your Income Taxes – Currently, the combined Federal/Ontario income tax rates are roughly 25% on the first $20,000 of taxable income, 42% on the next $40,000 of taxable income, and 46.5% on each dollar of taxable income over $60,000. On top of that, you have to add the “Fair Share Health Tax” of up to $1,000 each of us has to pay.

If the Ontario Government gets away with implementing their new harmonized GST/PST sales tax of 13%, the top effective income tax rates in Ontario will  be as follows (since you can’t spend any of your tax paid dollars without paying the new harmonized 13% GST/PST tax):

38% on the first $20,000
53% on the next $40,000
59.5% on every dollar over $60,000

On top of that, you have to pay your Ontario Fair Share Health Tax, your city realty taxes, your city garbage fees, your city water fees, your city street  parking permit fees, your annual Ontario and new City of Toronto vehicle license plate fees, your Ontario land transfer tax, your new City of Toronto land transfer tax, your gasoline taxes, your liquor taxes, your air departure taxes, your entertainment taxes, and so on.

OF ALL THE MONEY YOU WORKED HARD TO EARN, WHAT PERCENTAGE ARE YOU REALLY  KEEPING FOR YOUR OWN USE? 25%? 20%? 10%?

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH – FIGHT BACK- THIS HAS GOT TO STOP HERE OR WE WILL ALL SOON BE WORKING FULL TIME FOR THE  VARIOUS LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT IN ONTARIO .

AS A RESULT, I URGE YOU TO TAKE THIS ISSUE SERIOUSLY AND TO SIGN  THE PETITION AT http://www.unfairtaxgrab.com

I WOULD ALSO ASK YOU TO SEND THIS E-MAIL ON TO OTHERS THAT YOU KNOW AND ASK THEM TO DO THE SAME.

IF WE DON’T WORK TOGETHER ON THIS ISSUE THE NEW HARMONIZED 13% SALES TAX WILL BECOME A REALITY NEXT SUMMER.

THANK YOU.

ParentMagic Newsletter
DR. THOMAS PHELAN

ParentMagic Inc
800 Roosevelt Rd
Glen Ellyn IL 60137
www.parentmagic.com

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YOUR CHILD’S SELF-ESTEEM: ARE YOU HELPING OR HURTING?

What does it take to raise competent, good‐natured children who can feel a healthy respect for themselves? Research has shown over and over that good parenting involves two basic components. One will not surprise you, but the other one may catch you off guard.

We are very aware today that children are born with different personalities and temperaments that are not created by their parents. Nevertheless, parents do make a big difference, and here in the United States we need to get back on track regarding what children’s self‐esteem is really all about.

What are the two parenting ingredients that make for good self‐esteem? First, good parents are warm and sensitive to a child’s needs. They understand their child’s positive as well as negative feelings. They are comforting in times of crisis and pain, as well as appreciative in times of triumph and accomplishment. They are supportive of a child’s individuality and encourage his or her growing independence.”

That’s no big news flash.

GOOD PARENTS ARE ALSO DEMANDING

What we often overlook, though, is that good parents are also demanding. They clearly communicate high—but not unrealistic—expectations for their children’s behavior. Good behavior and achievements are appreciated and reinforced when they occur. When the kids act up, on the other hand, Mom and Dad respond with firm limits, but not with fits of temper or righteous indignation. After a child makes a mistake, the parents’ message is, ‘I’m sure you’ll do better next time.’”

Parents whose child‐rearing philosophy involves both warmth and “demandingness” tend to produce competent children. There are of course no guarantees, but their kids will have a better chance of becoming more self-reliant, self-controlled and happier. They will have a better chance of being accepted and well liked by their peers, and of having a sense of belonging.

Sometimes, though, parents have blinders on. We’re so busy, we don’t have time—or take the time—to do some of the things that will really foster self-esteem. Such as what? Such as helping our children develop social skills and academic and physical competence. Your kids’ self-esteem is ultimately going to be earned or not earned in the real world—not in a fantasy world.

KIDS DO BETTER WHEN THEY LEARN BOUNDARIES

The demanding part of the parenting equation implies not only that parents ask more of their kids, but also that parents ask more of themselves. We often follow the misguided belief that self-esteem and creativity are both higher when children can ‘do their own thing’ and when they are not exposed to external limits imposed by adults.

On the contrary, kids feel better about themselves and perform better, creatively and otherwise, when they learn the boundaries for reasonable behavior. The world has all kinds of limits and rules, and parents are the ones who introduce children to life’s boundaries. “How parents establish rules and set limits—or fail to set limits—has a tremendous effect on the self‐esteem of a child. Your kids may not like all the rules and regulations you must teach them, but if they don’t recognize and work within these constraints, they will get hurt badly.

However, not all self-esteem building strategies involve unpleasant or hard work. One of the best “tactics” for encouraging healthy self-respect in children is fun. We need to take time with our kids. Keep in mind that one-on-one time having fun together is one of the most potent self-esteem builders. That’s one parent with one child. Kids really like having a parent all to themselves.

What is the quickest and easiest way to learn a warm and demanding parenting approach? The program, 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12, embodies what warm and demanding parenting is all about. 1-2-3 Magic’s three parenting steps, Controlling Obnoxious Behavior, Encouraging Good Behavior, and Strengthening Your Relationship With Your Child, require that parents be supportive and nurturing while at the same time they are expecting constructive behavior as well as hard work from their kids.

ELEMENTS OF HEALTHY SELF-ESTEEM

Healthy self-esteem is based on four elements:

1. Good relationships with other people
2. Competence in work and self-management
3. Physical skills and caring for one’s body
4. Character: courage, effort, following the rules and concern for others

Dear Mr. Minister, I’m in the process of renewing my passport, and still l cannot believe this.
How is it that Radio Shack has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a t.v. cable from them back in 1997, and yet, the Federal Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date. For Christ sakes, do you guys do this by hand?

My birth date you have on my social insurance card, and it is on all the income tax forms I’ve filed for the past 30 years. It is on my health insurance card, my driver’s license, on the last eight goddamn passports I’ve had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I’ve had to fill out before being allowed off the planes over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms that are done at election times.

Would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother’ s name is Maryanne, my father’s name is Robert and I’d be absolutely astounded if that ever changed between now and when I die!!!!!!
SHIT!

I apologize, Mr. Minister. I’m really pissed off this morning.
Between you an’ me, I’ve had enough of this! You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my frickin’ address.
What is going on? You have a gang of Neanderthals assholes workin’ there!

Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don’t want to dig up Yasser Arafat, for cripes sakes. I just want to go and park my ass on a sandy beach.

And would someone please tell me, why would you give a care whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days? If I ever got the urge to do something weird to a chicken or a goat, believe you me, I’d sure as hell not want to tell anyone!

Well, I have to go now, ’cause I have to go to the other end of the city and get another frickin’ copy of my birth certificate, to the tune of $60 !!!
Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in the issuance of a new passport the same day??

Nooooo, that’d be too easy and maybe make sense. You’d rather have us running all over the frickin’ place like chickens with our heads cut off, then find some asshole to confirm that it’s really me on the darn picture – you know, the one here we’re not allowed to smile?!

(What morons)

Hey, you know why we can’t smile? We’re totally pissed off!
Signed – An Irate Canadian Citizen.

P.S. Remember what I said above about the picture and getting someone to confirm that it’s me? Well, my family has been in this country since 1776 when one of my forefathers took up arms against the Americans. I have served in the military for something over 30 years and have had security clearances up the yingyang.
I was aide de camp to the lieutenant governor of our province for ten years and I have been doing volunteer work for the RCMP for about five years.

However, I have to get someone ‘important’ to verify who I am – you know, someone like my doctor WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN COMMUNIST CHINA!!!

by Ann Bartz,
Source: http://www.babycenter.com/0_what-to-do-at-home-if-your-child-is-having-behavior-problems_1388454.bc?showAll=true

While children can display a wide range of behavior problems in school, from disruptive talking in the classroom to fighting and name-calling on the playground, the reasons for bad behavior are usually simple. “If a child is acting out a lot in school, my assumption is either that he’s having strong feelings and needs a hand with getting those feelings out, or that something in school is really not working for him,” says Alison Ehara-Brown, a licensed clinical social worker and school consultant in Berkeley, Calif. As a parent, you can try to change the situation in school so your child has a better time there. You can also help your child at home, by understanding how his feelings are getting in his way and giving him the means to express them.

“Children carry little packages of bad feelings that shut their thinking down if something triggers those feelings,” says Patty Wipfler, a parent trainer and founder of the Parents Leadership Institute in Palo Alto, Calif. “Sometimes it’s mathematics that does it; sometimes it’s other children looking happy and relaxed when he doesn’t feel that way.” When a child’s thinking shuts down, he may do something inappropriate because his ability to think before he acts is temporarily gone.

How to help your child at home

Don’t punish your child. Children aren’t to blame for having bad feelings, says Wipfler. “It’s not something they asked for. Your child isn’t bad, and you’re not bad for having a child with a behavior problem; these things just happen.” Punishment for bad behavior will only make your child feel terrible about himself and prolong the difficulty by further shutting down his thinking.

Think about what’s going on in your child’s life. Is he dealing with a big, one-time event, like a divorce or a death in the family, or smaller stressors over the long term, like teasing from an older sibling or pressure from a critical parent? Criticism can sap a child’s positive feelings about himself; teasing can leave him looking for someone smaller or younger to take it out on. If your whole family is weathering a trauma, your child may be trying to handle strong feelings on his own without adding to your burden. You may never know exactly what’s at the root of his difficulty with school, but you don’t need to know in order to help him.

Try talking. Your child may be able to tell you straight out what’s bothering him, or you may have to set up certain conditions first. Children talk to adults when they feel safe, loved, and close. You can give your child that sense of contact either by playing with him vigorously and generously, or by listening to him without judgment or interruption.

Your child may also be more willing to open up if you ask him a positive question first. Someday when you’re lying in the grass at the park, or out for a walk, or riding in the car without being in a hurry, ask in a relaxed tone, “If you could make school any way you wanted, what would it be like?” or “If you could make recess perfect, how would you change it?” You’ll hear about what’s hard at school, but you’ll have bypassed the hopeless feelings that can make children reluctant to talk.

Let your child fall apart. Children keep a lot inside but are always looking for ways to get their feelings out. You can help, says Wipfler, by being ready for “a tantrum, or a rage, or an insistence that something be done in a very particular way or his world will crash: ‘You have to put butter on my mashed potatoes — it can’t be margarine’ or ‘I will not turn off the TV.’ Children will get very particular about a small thing because they have a little volcano of feelings inside that has nothing to do with what they’re getting upset about. But it’s the only way they know to address what they feel.”

This won’t be easy for you as a parent. You may be every bit as cranky as your child at the moment he picks to fall apart, or you may be under a lot of pressure to get something done. But your child will benefit tremendously if you can go down on one knee, put an arm around him, and listen while he cries as long as he needs to. Your child may say things that are difficult to hear — criticism of you, perhaps, or revelations of difficulties you didn’t know he was having. But if he can cry all the way through these feelings, using you as a target, your child will feel heard and understood and will be able to think better in situations that might otherwise throw him. The day after a big emotional release, his behavior in school (and with his friends and with you) will most likely be profoundly better.

Wipfler tells a story of one parent who divorced the father of her two girls and married a new man. One of the daughters was furious about these developments. She was almost unable to do any of the assignments in her 3rd grade class, and at home she brought up the same bad feelings over and over. “Once she hid in the back of a closet and was crying and trembling and perspiring,” says Wipfler. “Her mom stayed out of kicking distance but kept sticking her hand in toward her child and saying, ‘I really love you, and I’m sorry it’s been hard.’ Her daughter was pushing at her hand and yelling and screaming — she had a huge cry.” Finally she decided she was finished and asked for some orange juice. Then she wanted a bath, and her mother filled the tub for her. Five minutes later, the mother heard her daughter singing, “I love my mommy, and I love Steve, I love my life and the flowers everywhere.” Her grades soon went from failing to A-minuses, and her distaste for school evaporated. Her mother, who had been afraid that her daughter would have to struggle with learning issues for the rest of her life, was astounded: In six months of several other outbursts and intense cries the girl had turned it all around. “If a child has an ongoing struggle,” says Wipfler, “it may take listening many times, but you can change a child’s whole life in this way.”

Stay close to your child. You can always help your child have a better day at school if you take time for closeness. Get up a bit earlier to carve out some relaxed time with your child as the day begins; a little bit of snuggling or playful cuddling in the morning can set him up for a better day. He’ll go to school feeling more connected to you, and a little sturdier when he encounters a trigger that usually sets him off.

Play with your child. Set up playtimes with your child so he can get some of the attention he’s seeking by misbehaving at school; you may also get a better sense of what’s on his mind. In his book Building Healthy Minds, Stanley Greenspan, a child psychiatrist and clinical professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at George Washington Medical School, advocates “floor time,” or play, as a way to discover what’s bothering a child. “When a child is misbehaving, pretend play can sometimes help reveal what’s on his mind, why he’s so angry and provocative.”

Where can I get further information?

“Listening to Children,” by Patty Wipfler, Parents Leadership Institute, $7. A series of six booklets describes how to work with your child to relieve his fears, frustrations, and anger. Topics include “Special Time,” “Playlistening,” “Crying,” “Tantrums and Indignation,” “Healing Children’s Fears,” and “Reaching for Your Angry Child.” Other books and videotapes are also available, as well as classes in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses: The Truth About Ritalin, ADHD, and Other Disruptive Behavior Disorders, by John Breeding; Bright Books, 1996. $16.95.

How to Talk So Kids Can Learn: At Home and in School, by Adele Faber, Elaine Mazlish, et al.; Fireside, 1995. $13.

The National Institute of Relationship Enhancement offers classes in filial therapy, a branch of family therapy that teaches parents how to use play to help their children.

I write this after hearing about the Tori Stafford case in Woodstock Ontario (Video Article here). Short version: An 8 year old girl willingly walked away from her school with a woman. Apparently that woman’s boyfriend killed Tori that same day, April 8th 2009. Absolutely disgusting and completely deserving of the death penalty, Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib style.

This story leaves many parents obviously shaken, but more importantly worried about their own children and how they can help prevent this from happening again. Please comment on this article with what methods you employ to keep your kids safe. Here are some comments I’ve read from my friends own web-postings. It’s important to collect this information and distribute it to all parents because as we’ve just seen it is really that simple for major harm to happen to a child.

A.M.
“I tell my ___ not to yell help but fire! Becuase stupid f___s wont look when someone yells help cause they dont want to get involved but they’ll look at a fire.”

C.P.
“When my ___ were younger I told them to never go with ANYONE, even their aunts and uncles unless I told them to. If ANYONE (even friends and familiy) tell them to go with them, without me telling them to, they had to ask them what the secret password was. 

We made up a password, that they would remember, and if I sent anyone for them I would tell it to them. That’s how they would know it’s ok to go with them. Once that password was used by someone, we thought up a new one.”

And I told them that even if someone said I was hurt or in the hospital, don’t go with them. The only person exempt from the password was my mom. (just in case I was injured so bad I couldn’t speak)

Personally, I teach my children to push their thumbs into their attacker’s eyeballs, to bite them repeatedly, anywhere and to fight for their lives. Screaming “stranger,” “you’re not my daddy/mommy,” “fire” the whole time, kicking and generally making themselves difficult to steal or sneak away. We go through it every time I think they’ll be out of my reach or go into crowded public areas. I even have them practice biting and thumb poking (on me) so they can actually feel it and not be surprised if it ever happens.

This is good advice no matter the circumstances – with the one stipulation that the food is not GMO, processed or filled with additives and preservatives. Tall order I know. eFoods Direct (.com) is a great resource for this end.

You may have received a message from me today (Friday) telling to stock up. Why? Because of the swine flu, and here’s more detail on that.

The media is reporting a real dooms-day scenario with this version of the flu with little evidence to support that it is any worse than the common flu. So, why would the media do that? Well as we already know the media is not news but is rather a propaganda device of the controlling elite. Read this article for more balance on my statements: http://www.infowars.com/swine-flu-hysteria-spreads-faster-than-actual-virus/

Bottom line:
The Swine Flu really IS a pandemic waiting to happen, or it’s not. In either case you will need to be prepared for how the governments respond to it. If the governments call it s a pandemic you will be confined to your home (hopefully instead of some FEMA camp) and instructed to avoid contact with others. If the government says it is not a pandemic then you have proof that the media is full of sh¡t and you will at least have food stores.

Finally, ignore this message and gamble with your lives, and gamble with your responsibilities as an intelligent citizen.
Don’t ignore it – be a skeptic of it and research it on your own, but avoid major news outlets and instead look for actual medical personnel input.

Wash your hands, and make your kids wash their hands (soap, hot water, 30 seconds).
Open bathroom doors with paper towels.
Don’t shake hands.
Don’t share food/drink.

 

ParentMagic Newsletter April 2009© 2009
http://www.parentmagic.com/uploads/ParentMagic%20News%20Apr%202009.pdf

A very common and very upsetting problem arises in the course of many relationships, such as husband/wife or parent/child. It occurs when one person offers another person the choice of feeling angry or feeling guilty. This problem then involves an interaction between two testing tactics: Intimidation and Martyrdom.

Here’s how it goes: 13 year old Kristina walks into the room where her father is busy watching his favorite football team. With an innocent question, Kristina offers her father the choice of whether he wants to be angry or guilty:

“Dad, can you drive me to Jenny’s?”
“Kristina, that’s clear across town.”
“It will only take forty minutes.”
“You know, you pick the worst times to ask me for rides.”
“Your stupid football’s more important, huh?”
“Why the heck can’t you ever plan ahead?”
“You never do anything with me anyway.”
“OK, OK. Let’s move before the darn game is over.”
“No, hate to ruin your day. Thanks anyway—I’ll just stay home!”

When his daughter asks him for a ride, Dad can either take her, or feel resentful, or he can refuse, and feel guilty. The choice is clear; what to do isn’t.

ISN’T THERE A MORE RATIONAL SOLUTION?

Whatever the reason, you often wind up with two people sort of jockeying for position, trying to take the angry position and at the same time put the other person in the guilty role. When Dad says, “You pick the worst times…,” or, “OK, OK. Let’s move before the game is over,” he is saying, “I’ll be angry and you be guilty.” But Kristina isn’t about to stand for this so she comes back with, “Your stupid football is more important,” and “I’ll just stay home.” She, in other words, is now saying, “No way buster I’ll be angry, you be guilty.” If she does stay home, she may become the official winner of this match: she can be angry and Dad will feel guilty.

You’re probably thinking. “This sounds pretty stupid.” It is, but it happens a lot. Isn’t there a more rational solution than two people trying to guilt each other to death? Certainly it would be better to negotiate (or to plan ahead). Perhaps Dad could have responded by saying, “I can take you if you can hold on till halftime,” or something like that.

If you are the parent on the receiving end of a spontaneous request like the one above, or in some other situation that might involve this kind of jockeying, your best bet is to say “No”, or make a reasonable counter offer. Then—if your child is still unhappy—live with the guilt if you have to, and avoid coming back with intimidation to eradicate your discomfort.

The following was sourced from Dr. Phelan at parentmagic.com

A basic principle of good discipline requires that parents, teachers and other caretakers have realistic expectations of what children are capable of doing. It is obviously going to be crippling to self‐esteem if the child is not ready to do all the things the parents expect. You don’t try to toilet train a twelve‐month‐old, expect a four‐year‐old to know his multiplication tables, hope that your seven‐year‐old son and his four‐year‐old sister will stop fighting for good, or punish your 3‐year‐old daughter because she can’t clean up her room.

Developmentally inappropriate expectations like these are frequent problems. Parents also need to be aware, however, of some other common, unrealistic expectations that can frequently cause trouble. Here are a few:

True or False?
Kids are naturally cooperative and unselfish.
-False!
The younger they are, the more selfish children are. The cute little peanuts are primarily out for themselves, and they don’t like it when you cross them. When they get what they want they are fun, affectionate and delightful. When they don’t get what they want, crying, screaming, whining and tantrums can be the order of the day. Don’t hold it against them—that’s just the way little kids are.

Kids are basically rational.
-False!
Kids in the beginning are more emotional and less rational. They are not little adults. Their ability to reason develops slowly, though aggressively. Often when they’re little (and often when they’re teens, too), even five rational explanations won’t get the job done in a frustrating situation.

I should only have to tell them once.
-Not!
Discipline means training, and training means repetition. What they’re learning has an intellectual aspect to it, but it also involves increasing the emotional skill of tolerating frustration. Kids get the message when you’ve taught them over and over.
Continued on http://www.parentmagic.com/uploads/ParentMagic%20News%20Mar%202009.pdf

The FBI has recently adopted a novel investigative technique: posting hyperlinks that purport to be illegal videos of minors having sex, and then raiding the homes of anyone willing to click on them.

Undercover FBI agents used this hyperlink-enticement technique, which directed Internet users to a clandestine government server, to stage armed raids of homes in Pennsylvania, New York, and Nevada last year. The supposed video files actually were gibberish and contained no illegal images.

A CNET News.com review of legal documents shows that courts have approved of this technique, even though it raises questions about entrapment, the problems of identifying who’s using an open wireless connection–and whether anyone who clicks on a FBI link that contains no child pornography should be automatically subject to a dawn raid by federal police.

Roderick Vosburgh, a doctoral student at Temple University who also taught history at La Salle University, was raided at home in February 2007 after he allegedly clicked on the FBI’s hyperlink. Federal agents knocked on the door around 7 a.m., falsely claiming they wanted to talk to Vosburgh about his car. Once he opened the door, they threw him to the ground outside his house and handcuffed him.

Vosburgh was charged with violating federal law, which criminalizes “attempts” to download child pornography with up to 10 years in prison. Last November, a jury found Vosburgh guilty on that count, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 22, at which point Vosburgh could face three to four years in prison.

The implications of the FBI’s hyperlink-enticement technique are sweeping. Using the same logic and legal arguments, federal agents could send unsolicited e-mail messages to millions of Americans advertising illegal narcotics or child pornography–and raid people who click on the links embedded in the spam messages. The bureau could register the “unlawfulimages.com” domain name and prosecute intentional visitors. And so on.

“The evidence was insufficient for a reasonable jury to find that Mr. Vosburgh specifically intended to download child pornography, a necessary element of any ‘attempt’ offense,” Vosburgh’s attorney, Anna Durbin of Ardmore, Penn., wrote in a court filing that is attempting to overturn the jury verdict before her client is sentenced.

In a telephone conversation on Wednesday, Durbin added: “I thought it was scary that they could do this. This whole idea that the FBI can put a honeypot out there to attract people is kind of sad. It seems to me that they’ve brought a lot of cases without having to stoop to this.”

Durbin did not want to be interviewed more extensively about the case because it is still pending; she’s waiting for U.S. District Judge Timothy Savage to rule on her motion. Unless he agrees with her and overturns the jury verdict, Vosburgh–who has no prior criminal record–will be required to register as a sex offender for 15 years and will be effectively barred from continuing his work as a college instructor after his prison sentence ends.

How the hyperlink sting operation worked The government’s hyperlink sting operation worked like this: FBI Special Agent Wade Luders disseminated links to the supposedly illicit porn on an online discussion forum called Ranchi, which Luders believed was frequented by people who traded underage images. One server allegedly associated with the Ranchi forum was rangate.da.ru, which is now offline with a message attributing the closure to “non-ethical” activity.

In October 2006, Luders posted a number of links purporting to point to videos of child pornography, and then followed up with a second, supposedly correct link 40 minutes later. All the links pointed to, according to a bureau affidavit, a “covert FBI computer in San Jose, California, and the file located therein was encrypted and non-pornographic.”

more at http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9899151-38.html?tag=nefd.lede

Canadian Military Units To Undertake “Domestic Security”

Sources:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/canadian-military-units-to-undertake-domestic-security.html

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12694

http://www.calgary911truth.org/my_weblog/2009/03/canadian-military-units-to-undertake-domestic-security.html

You would think a News Giant like CBC News would report on this:
http://www.cbc.ca/search/cbc?ie=utf8&site=CBC&output=xml_no_dtd&getfields=description&oe=utf8&safe=high&q=canadian+military+domestic+security

CBC ran this in December 2008 (unrelated, but similar):
 http://www.cbc.ca/empire/security.html

The Globe and Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/templates/hub?searchText=canadian+military+domestic+security&hub=Search&searchType=Quick&control=searchSimple&iaction.x=26&iaction.y=7&iaction=Go

The National Post:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1353971

The Toronto Sun:
http://search.torontosun.com/?sen=site&ie=UTF-8&q=canadian+military+domestic+security

 

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Duties would include mass internment of citizens after terrorist attack, mirroring militarization of law enforcement in U.S. and Britain

Paul Joseph Watson

Prison Planet.com

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Canadian military is reorganizing its priorities to suit a “post 9/11-world,” by creating reservist units for each area of the country that would be tasked with providing “domestic security,” and involve roles such as the mass internment of citizens in the event of a terrorist attack.

“The Canadian military has embarked on a wide-ranging plan to turn its reserve soldiers into focused units trained and equipped to respond to a nightmarish array of domestic threats,” reports the National Post.

“The remodeling of the reserves will see the development of specialist units in four of the military’s regional divisions — Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario and the West.”

This is an open announcement that Canada has been subdivided into military units that will be policed by military reserves, who will take a “dominant role in domestic operations in the future,” according to the article.

Of course, the necessity of the change is dressed up using the notion of troops helping people in the event of earthquakes, floods and nuclear accidents, but we also learn that one of the duties that the reservists would potentially undertake would be mass internment of citizens in camps or quarantine zones after a biological terror attack.

“We are training to establish a perimeter,” said Brigadier-General Jean Collin. “Do I see a scenario when we might be obliged to keep people in? Probably. You need to be trained to be able to make sure that you don’t become a casualty in the process of doing that security.”

In light of that comment, it’s interesting to note that, according to the report, Brig-Gen. Collin, who has served in Bosnia and Afghanistan, “has also been a special advisor to the Chief of the Defence Staff on homeland security issues.”

Other roles for the military reservists would be to undertake law enforcement and other “security” duties for domestic events such as the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and the 2010 G8 summit of world leaders in Huntsville.

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The story dovetails with a report out of Barrie, Ontario, where authorities are considering using troops from the local army base to patrol bar areas on weekends in a supposed attempt to prevent rowdiness.

Mention is also made of “scenarios that might require a form of constabulary or policing function for reserves in civilian containment and security.”

David Bercuson, director of the Center for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, attempted to dismiss the premise by claiming reservists would oppose such measures.

“People in Ottawa sometimes forget that the reserves are volunteers. If you try to change the reserves in ways they don’t want to change, they just might not show up,” he said.

Would reservists oppose the use of military units for purposes of domestic law enforcement and not show up, or would they just follow orders under the justification of a breakdown in authority after a biological attack or mass rioting after a total economic collapse?

I’m not so confident that people who have been kicking down doors, abducting, torturing and killing people in Afghanistan for seven years under the justification that they are terrorists would be unwilling to do the same to Canadian citizens if they were drilled with the same propaganda.

The militarization of law enforcement duties in the U.S., Canada and Britain is accelerating at a pace never before seen.

Last week it was revealed that the British Army is on standby to deal with rioting on UK streets as a result of the economic crisis, according to a newspaper report, which states that MI5 is targeting political activists who could help create a “summer of discontent”.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., urban warfare training drills are taking place across the country as Northcom announces that tens of thousands of active duty troops will be stationed inside the U.S. for domestic purposes.

The U.S. Army War College in November released a white paper called Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development. The report warned that the military must be prepared for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,” which could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse,” “purposeful domestic resistance,” “pervasive public health emergencies” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.” The “widespread civil violence,” the document said, “would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.”

Research related articles:

1. Two More U.S. Military Units Assigned For Homeland Security
2. Military May Patrol Bar Zone In Canadian City
3. Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security
4. Washington Post: 20,000 More U.S. Troops To Be Deployed For “Domestic Security”
5. Military Examines Role In Domestic Defense
6. Marines Admit “Security Force” To Operate Inside U.S.
7. Georgia mobilizes commando units near S.Ossetia – Russian military
8. Use of military in quelling domestic unrest a scary sign
9. Domestic Military Operations At Camp Pendleton?
10. The Nation’s Deathbed – A new Canadian Independent Documentary Film about the Security and Prosperity Agreement
11. ALEX JONES on COAST to COAST AM “Domestic Security Force”
12. Obama’s Civil Defense Program Resembles Domestic Draft