tvordlj | This and that in the news today (Reply)

Canadian Liberals pick their new leader this weekend. Apparently there are 4 front runners but it's anyone's game at the moment. It's going to come down to who can put up the best fight against the minority government PM Harper. there's a politician from Nova Scotia in the running but he's farther down the ranks and word has it he'll throw his lot in with Bob Rae who is number 2 at this point. I'll be interested to see who wins but not interested enough to watch any telly coverage.

Colin Thatcher is getting full parole. This man was convicted of hiring someone to kill his ex wife Joanne back in the 80's. He was a "respected" politician who was allegedly a violent man which caused his wife to finally leave him. She was found badly beaten and shot in her home. He's always said he was innocent. This was before DNA evidence but there was a strong case and he was found guilty. I remember following the trial in the paper at the time and a tv movie was made out of the whole case which certainly painted him in a less than innocent light.

Apparently the Pope had declared that there will be no more Limbo. That's the nothingness that your soul goes to when you die unbaptized among other things. It's forever, no chance of redemption to go to Heaven or Hell. According to the Catholic church anyway. Which only makes me think once again that organized religion isn't about God, it's about control. If they don't behave, and even the thought of Hellfire and brimstone doesn't pull them back into line, then threaten them with an eternity of suffering because there's even a little hope at the end of Hell if you say Sorry, and do your pennance. If this was supposed to be a real place, nobody could just make a declaration that it doesn't exist anymore. Pope or not. So what happened? Did God sit down with the Pope over a cuppa and say, "you know, Benny, we're losing people from the church hand over fist and maybe if I trash this whole scary Limbo thing, we might welcome or keep a few more into the fold so you tell them for me. No, no, we'll still keep the Heaven and Hell concept for now. That's worked quite well. Even non-Catholics are afraid of Hell and want to go to Heaven. " Bollocks. If someone can say, no sorry, we aren't going to have Limbo anymore, then it beggars the question that it even existed in the first place, along with H&H. It's no wonder organized Christian religions are losing when it's one inconsistency after the next. From what i can tell, all the other organized religions seem to at least be consistent and though there's a happy place at the end of your life on earth if you're a good (insert religious label here), they only seem to be very sorry for you if you slip and fail and lose your way. I may be wrong, i don't really know a lot about other non-Christian religions but it seems that way to me. Look, even the Islamic suicide bombers are doing it because their extreme views have them believing they'll go to their equivalent of heaven for their deeds.

There's a former teacher in Nova Scotia called Eric Smith. He was diagnosed HIV postive.... 23 years ago. He lost his job and has become an activist for the cause. It's amazing that he's still alive considering he was diagnosed when there wasn't that many developed drugs for the disease. There was something about him in the paper today, an interview for International AIDS day.

There's a new movie out about the birth of the boy who would grow up to be Jesus Christ, it's called the Nativity Story. The girl that was in Whale Rider is Mary. I think she'll probably do a pretty good job. Did you hear that the 16 year old is now pregnant by her boyfriend of 2 years?

There is a movie coming out that i think i'd like to see, The Holiday which looks very girly and i think i shall see if my friend Carole wants to go see it. It opens next weekend.

I'm home today, i was awakened about 5 a.m. by that nasty dizzy thing that i had a few months back. Doctor said then that it was caused by some sort of virus. It leaves my head muzzy and if i move the wrong way too fast, i get a little spacey but i think the worst is over now. I had a good sleep until my back just wasn't going to be comfortable anymore. It wasn't as severe as the first time i had it but it does take it out of me and i feel a little off. I did put my Christmas tree together last night so i will start decorating it today and over the weekend, a bit at a time. It's so nice to have the lights already on it! When i was putting it up last night, i thought about how that was always Dad's job, putting the lights on and how he hated it lol I think he'd have got down on his knees in thanks if they'd had one of these trees available years ago! They've really only been around the last couple of years. Mom was getting tired of putting up a tree anyway so the fairy lights were at the end of the tunnel for him anyway! Still, since my niece and sister are in the house, Mom says if they want the tree up they can do it! It *is* nice to have. I always like to have it and i put mine up early in December. I quite like the lights and will often sit in the dark with just the tree lights on.

Tomorrow, if i fell ok, i think i'm going to go to the tree lighting at Sullivan's pond in Dartmouth. I think the weather is going to be ok and not too cold. I see in the paper today that if you bring two strings of the old style Christmas lights, they'll replace it with one string of LED lights for free. I might do that as i have the old lights in the box of decos and it doesn't hurt to have a spare string of lights, for the window or something.