mrrnice2

Megan, whatever scar that you might end up with should be looked at as a badge of honor. In terms of your work I personally would not find it to be an issue of concern, in any sense. Your decision is something that is wonderful. Organ donation is something that I hold very dear because of my own experience and personally seeing what it can do. Truly and very literally, a gift of life.

Thanks mrgreen. I appreciate the response. Nobody is perfect either in their own mind or to everyone else and that is a given. All that we can do is act as best as we can in the circumstances that we are in. Like you I try, but questioning is something that we all do, and rightly. Thanks f-Stop for the reply. I suppose in my mind there is a line of some sort, and issues of life and death and religious and moral conviction would serve as that line? Abortion and the death penalty would be two issues such as that. I just checked and I thought that I had it correct. In 1976 A Liberal MP named Warren Allmond was the Solicitor-General of Canada. One of his roles was to be the final authority to sign off on a death penalty verdict before it was carried out. He made a blanket statement that he would refuse to sign one, ever, and brought in the legislation that removed that penalty from Canada. He stood for his principles and personal integrity. He did it again when he voted against a Paul Martin budget because it would hurt too many people and was removed from cabinet. Are there many with that personal integrity?

I wonder at times if there is anyone left in this with world with true personal integrity, myself included in that general statement. I've been pondering this for a while now and and some recent events have caused me to jot down my thoughts. The first two events are political in nature and many may argue it's not an integrity question at all, just politics. The first is this. My own Member of Parliament, a long time Liberal member is also a devout Catholic. He has gone on record as being against legal abortion in Canada. As much as I may disagree with that I can at least respect his decision based on his vision of morality and religious belief. However, based on Justin Trudeau's recent comments that all Liberal nominees for the next Parliament must be Pro-abortion, my MP just prior to the nomination meeting went on record as saying that if it ever came to a vote in the House he would vote for the right to choose. Personal integrity? Whatever respect I had for him is gone. The second political event is the Bill C-36 legislation. It is most interesting that as far as I know, not one single solitary Conservative MP has spoken out against the bill. It is equally interesting that as far as I know not one single solitary opposition member has spoken out in favor of the bill. As this is legislation that has the potential to have women killed, do I believe that every single Member of Parliament is, by pure coincidence, supporting their party line? Not for a single minute do I believe that. I have not heard one opposition party leader state that they will reverse the legislation if they are voted into power. They could but do they care either? Political office is merely to them a game, a power game. I probably have as much respect for a Joy Smith as a Justin Trudeau or a Thomas Mulcair because at least I believe that she believes, even if I think she is terribly wrong. I don't know what anyone else believes. That's a political side of the personal integrity question. How about our own integrity? This could be a question for the game, "Scruples," but consider it for a moment. Let us say that, God forbid, you as a client are the unfortunate one to be arrested and charged under this new potential legislation. In a court room, under oath after swearing on a bible, are you going to lie and say that you only paid for time and companionship and that there was never any sex? If you as an SP are called as a witness, are you, under oath after swearing on a bible, going to mislead the court in order to protect your client? You cannot be charged for a crime if you tell the truth but perjury is a crime. Personal integrity. I recall well a few years back one of our absolutely most respected and well thought of women on the board said something to the effect that if she were in a hotel room with a client and a fire broke out that she would quickly find herself all alone. I challenged her on that at the time and we had a good private discussion on that. Was she right? Personal integrity. I am now just past sixty years old. I have always prided myself on my sense of idealism and personal integrity. I am feeling quite badly that over the last couple of years, for a number of reasons beyond politics that I am losing that. Personal integrity. I wonder..........

Well as much as I hate to admit that I am wrong and someone else is right, Cinelli probably has a good point above. I wrote to all 300+ M.P.'s. -I received a total of 7 automated acknowledgements of receipt of my letter. - I received 1 form letter from Kelly Block thanking me for my input on Bill C-36 I wrote to ALL opposition party leaders under my own name. I received not a single response. I wrote as well to Elizabeth May under my own name and received nothing back. I wrote to my own MP under my own name and received nothing back. Good call Cinelli. :( Did anyone get any response to anything?

I'm simply looking for an update if anyone actually knows the answer to this question. When I wrote to the Clerk of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights inquiring about the committee meetings, his response was that briefs had to be submitted by June 27th and then the committee would meet from July 7 to July 10. He indicated that if I submitted a brief then the committee would consider INVITING me to be a witness. So my question is, do we KNOW who the committee has invited? Are sex workers represented anywhere? I am scared of the answer to tell the truth. Hell, I believe that I shall write the clerk and ask who the invited people are. If he answers I shall post it. Added: Here is the brief note that I wrote to the clerk. Thank you Mr. Page for your response. I am interested in following the committee meetings. Has the list of witnesses been released yet and is there public access to the meetings either in person or on line? Thank you.

Once burned, twice shy - or something like that. I expect that I am not the only one in PEI or NS that is doing this but I have just about finished hurricane proofing as best as I can. Hurricane Juan in 2003 is not something that I shall forget. So with Hurricane Arthur approaching I am doing my best to be prepared and hopefully it will make a sharp right hand turn. My planters and hanging planters are all now in my barns. Joining them are all my lawn chairs. My outside tables are all turned upside down on the lawns. My vehicle will be parked in the field where no tree can fall on it. My sump pump is hooked up and ready to roll. I will have my bathtub filled and pots of water set aside in the kitchen. For all you city dwellers who may not know why, that`s because in rural areas water comes from a well. No electricity = no power for the pump. Interestingly enough I just listened to our local weather guy who said that tomorrow afternoon the center of Arthur and whatever eye still remains will pass between Charlottetown and Montague. When I tell people where I live I say halfway between Charlottetown and Montague. Perhaps I will see the eye! I believe that NS will get it worse than us, at least winds, and maybe this is all much ado about nothing, but only time will tell. Bring it on!!! Oh yes, what am I doing right now? Having a well deserved beer! Enjoy the storm tomorrow fellow Maritimers. I hope that the A hurricane coming straight at us is not an omen for Hurricane season.

I have pretty well been unable to see any games in the past week but have been keeping track of scores and match ups. From what I have seen thus far Netherlands and Germany still look very strong. However as a total novice to this I am going to stay with the team that is my sentimental favorite as the underdog. I'm cheering for Costa Rica to upset the Dutch.

First league game for the Redblacks tonight in Winnipeg. Go Ottawa. :)

Happy Canada Day. In case you cannot get to fireworks this evening, these are pretty amazing. So good I wonder if they are actually real. :) Fireworks.

Happy birthday Michaella. Have a great day.

Happy birthday Jafo. I hope that you have a great day!

Emily Rushton is a very frequent Halifax visitor and I see will be there this week and Katherine and Midnight-Massage are in Halifax. All redheads, and all awesome people.

Finally on June 23rd, we had our first summer like day. :) The first of many I hope. One of my kids is coming home tomorrow for a few days and then I am off with a large group of family to NS for the weekend. As it was so nice today I missed all of the World Cup so far but have just come in to cheer for Mexico over Croatia. Beer and BBQ hamburgers for supper too.:)

I do believe that she has a whole cheering section with her. :) Surprisingly enough, I am quite enjoying this tournament. I have watched more soccer in the last week than in my whole life prior to this I think. The, "Beautiful Game," is what they call it? Beginning to see that.

Happy birthday Sami. I hope that you have a great day!

I got a lovely little TY note today from POWER after sending the first of what will be monthly donations, as well as a note saying what it was used for. Very nice touch! Today I accepted that I have done what I can do at the moment regarding this legislative debacle, and am trying to go incommunicado on Cerb on the topic. I am expecting a visitor tomorrow and that shall be an evening filled with good food, laughs, and no doubt some deep conversation. Finally the sun came out late this afternoon and we got all the way to 17 lovely degrees! I picked a big bouquet of lupins too. :) They really do grow everywhere on PEI. A good day all around!

Happy Birthday to you! I hope that you have a GREAT day.

It depends on what's going on. Watching a movie demands popcorn, real popcorn, not that microwaved stuff. Of course, smothered with extra REAL butter. :) Playing a video game requires chocolates for some reason. My preference is certainly Toffifay. While sitting around with friends having a few beers it would certainly be peanuts, cashews, along with regular and/or BBQ chips. My standard kitchen fruit bowl will have usually bananas, pears and a variety of chocolate bars. Yup, I am a real health nut eh!

Not NEARLY as much fun as the blogs from all the women but here is my first ever blog entry. My letter to the MP's.

The first has to be the fact that today has been a sunny day! Second is that I wrote a long email to all of the M.P.'s last week. I knew that it was too long and Jabba kindly volunteered to edit it for me and he got it back to me last night. He did a remarkable job which is the good news. He made it more concise, took out redundancies, and to make it a more valid argument, removed much of the emotion and anger that clearly had shown through. THANK YOU so much Jabba. I really appreciated the help and input! The bad news Jabba is that I could not help myself and put back into it a bit of the emotion and anger. Please don't be upset with me. :) It is still WAY better than my original! I just finished sending it off by email to all M.P.'s. I really wish that I believed that they would actually read it. I'd especially like to watch Joy Smith and Peter MacKay's responses. Makes me smile just to think about it. :) I also created a blog, my first ever blog!!! I have posted a copy of the letter on that blog and once I know that it is actually working I can start my own post in the "I Just Updated my Blog," thread. I doubt it will get the same reads as what the ladies get with theirs. LOL. I titled the Entry as , "An Open Letter to Conservative M.P's and All Canadians. How's that for presumptuous! :) Anyway, in the for what it's worth department, mission accomplished - so far. Finally, as I write this Mexico is tied with Brazil 0-0 as the second half starts. An upset in the works? :)

Thanks Conelli for that heads up and I fully expect that you are correct. However, we can only do what we can do. If I am going to be facing a criminal record and up to five years in prison for being what I think a very respectful man who spends time with very respectful women then it is my personal obligation to write and speak out. So, I will speak and when I speak it will be twofold. 1. Sacrificing women for the sake of political agenda. 2. The criminalization of clients.

Thanks OD for the information! For those who might wish to submit a brief to the committee, a link to the processes and procedures is here. I have written to the clerk of the committee asking for deadline dates for the submission of briefs. When I hear I shall post it on this thread. For groups and witnesses who might like to appear in person, I am not sure how to get yourself invited to participate.

From today's debate in second reading which was cut off by the Conservatives. From Mr MacKay, "I would suggest that throughout the bill we find ample evidence of the intent and the purpose of the bill to protect that group of individuals, to protect those who, in the vast majority of cases, find themselves involved with prostitution because of coercion, because of violence, because of experience early in life, in many cases when they were children. The empirical evidence and anecdotal evidence we have looked at indicates quite clearly that the vast majority of prostitutes today, men and women, were exploited, were victimized, often through violence and addiction, and brought into the life of prostitution, arguably through no fault of their own, at a vulnerable early age, at an early stage in their lives when those who were victimizing them should have been counted on to protect them."

It was defeated? I hope I'm reading that correctly???

Here's the thing Natasha. At this exact moment in time I am watching the World Cup, France vs Honduras. Now if you knock on my door, the damn soccer goes off. :) It's like a no brainer.!