Cathie from Canada

The Montreal Gazette editorial:

Regardless of what they may have thought they were doing, in firing on innocent worshippers the gunmen were firing at all of us. And therefore it is incumbent on all to show solidarity in the face of this horror. In due course, the accused gunmen will have to answer in court for their actions. In the meantime, the unity of our condemnation must be the only response to these repugnant actions.

Trudeau immediately called it a terrorist attack -- there was no dithering about this at all.  Initial reports blamed two shooters, one of whom was apparently Muslim.   Right wingers seem to think it couldn't really be terrorism if a shooter was Muslim -- I read many right-wing tweets about this, which I will not embed here.  Montreal Simon is rounding up the appalling right-wing reaction to the Quebec City Massacre.
But the news now is saying that there was just one shooter, a right-wing white man.  I expect silence will now descend on right-wing twitter....
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It is just tragic what is happening in the United States today.

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
But it's all right, it's all right
We've lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
we're traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what went wrong

Canada needs to step up to the plate and accept the refugees, US green card holders, dual passport holders, prospective immigrants and everyone else that the United States is now turning away.
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Sorry Frank, but I'm glad to see the last of 2016.
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From GQ: The Least Influential People Of 2016 - everyone from Anthony Weiner to Ryan Lochte, from Hillary Clinton to A Rod....

And don't miss DB Wong's chicken wing instructional video at the end.
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And from the oddest Christmas special of all time:

According to co-writer Ian Fraser, Bowie balked at singing "Little Drummer Boy": "I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?", Fraser recalls Bowie telling him. Fraser, along with songwriter Larry Grossman and the special's scriptwriter, Buz Kohan, then wrote "Peace on Earth" as a counterpoint to "Little Drummer Boy". Crosby performed "Little Drummer Boy", while Bowie sang the new tune "Peace on Earth", which they reportedly performed after less than an hour of rehearsal

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Well, I thought at the end of August that I was recovering but instead I just kept on getting sicker and sicker. Finally I went into hospital the third week of September, followed by immediate surgery to begin to deal with an obstructed bowel, followed by a seven-week hospital recovery. Barely eating for three months resulted in a complete depletion of the protein in my body so following the surgery I could barely stand up, much less walk or do stairs -- and we live in a four-level split. So I needed extensive physio and lots and lots of nutrition before I could come home. I finally managed to get home last week. Provided nothing else goes wrong, I am looking toward likely two more surgeries in the next year, before this trouble is behind me (so to speak!)
All in all, I would sum it up as a miserable experience, mitigated only by the love of my family -- they all faithfully visited almost every day, in spite of the cost of hospital parking!
And they brought me Tim Hortons.
One other silver lining -- I lost 70 pounds! Maybe I could write a book on how to lose weight. It would be a short one: 1. Get seriously ill 2. Don't eat for three months. 3. Lose weight! -- however, somehow I don't think it will be a best seller!
So hopefully, I will be able to get back to blogging now. And given the Trump election (gag!) I have a feeling that there will be lots to blog about over the next while.


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So I got sick in early July, and I am finally just recovering now -- just the flu, originally, but then I couldn't eat anything, then got diverticulosis -- awful -- and I'm finally just coming out of it now.  I'm still not eating normally, but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

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