Domestic Violence

While watching a television show I'd never seen before, a lady guest came on who said she had started a movement to end domestic violence and the blaming of victims.
Sounds good, right?

Well, I have to say, I don't believe the gallant solution will work, ever. I mean, there are  just some people who have problems who stay in dysfunctional relationships. Men, too, stay when they shouldn't. After all, why would anyone want to live a life where you have to hit another person to get them to do what you want?

And there's another reason why the law can't start making things safe for only women. You shouldn't hit a woman, right? But how about women who think it's cute and funny to smash a fist into their boyfriend's face just because he spoke to another girl.

You can't ever dismiss the reality that people will take advantage of any law that favors them. How about a jealous girlfriend who deletes her boyfriend's computer work? Is that to be condoned? It may not sound like domestic violence but it is an assault on personal property and intellectual property.

I'm just saying that as long as society 'gets away with what it can' there isn't going to be any solution to any problem because as soon as you make a law, people will twist it.

Canadians should remember the days when anyone under fourteen could not be charges with a crime. The law was to prevent older people using kids for crime purposes. Instead you have ten year olds stealing cars and such.

So to me, no gallant solution, 'never hit a woman' will get rid of domestic violence. We just somehow have to accept that a lot of people are dysfunctional and address the roots of the family problem that creates abusers and victims.




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Post-Halloween, Pre-Christmas

November. I can't remember much going on for this month. Lately, there's been Movember where men grow moustaches, but of course, I can't do that.

I try to think back to when I was a kid to remember what I thought about November then. After Halloween, Thanksgiving (Canadian) and my brother's birthday in October, there's not much. I just had to last until December when the really good stuff begins.

Ten days off from school, prezzies, the tree and lights and dinner with grandma and grandpa and any other family present in White Rock for the season.

So what's to look forward to in November for Canadians who don't have Thanksgiving that month?

Well, there's the weather. It's not too cold. It's not too snowy. Just enough to get kids going with the snowplay. For winter athletes it's a great time, skating, skiing, snowmobiling.

I never did any of those when I was a kid. But there was the fun of going to the beach. Okay it was cold. But the waves were much bigger in winter and it could be lots of fun.

I guess I see November as a preparation month. Preparing for winter play, preparing for a great holiday. All the same, I'm glad it's almost over for another year.

Oh, and one last thing, Captivating Tales is a 6-in-1 tween/Young Adult book package of over 1000 pages for $1.99 for Black Friday until December 2nd. So that's one good thing for me this year.

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Upper Roper Millionaire

So I was finished my writing for the day a few days ago, and I thought I'd type in my old address in White Rock, just to see the photos of it.

We lived on Upper Roper Ave. in an old house with a post coming up through the floor. Dad got a loan from the bank and he built, or had built, a house in the backyard. We then pulled down the house we were in and moved back.

It had four bedrooms and two bathrooms. It had a fireplace.

I remember it as a nice house, one that was well heated, unlike our old one, and big enough to move around in a bit.

Dad built it for $10,000 dollars. When I last checked it in the summer, it had sold for $780,000 dollars. From such humble beginnings.

But I enjoyed looking at the photos to see what had changed and what others had added so I brought it up again.

It seems the guy who bought it in April had flipped it. He had re-done so much that it was listed as being built in 2014. I don't know how much work it takes to make something forty years old be listed as new but I know it now has six bedrooms and two kitchens. It has a basement now, something we never had at all.

It's price is over $3,000,000 dollars. Wow. I don't know if Dad is looking down from beyond at his old house. I don't know if spirits care about such things. But if he were alive I'd tell him just to get his reaction.

Just as an aside. We have bundles from MuseItUp Publishing. My story, Beggar Charlie is bundled with five others and the whole package of over 1000 pages is only $1.99. Here's the link if you want to check it out.

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Salonika

I watched the Remembrance Day service on TV today. It made me think of my grandfather, who fought in the British army. He was in Salonika which never gets any airtime, even in shows about WWI.

The one thing I think is that although for the rest of us, the war ended on such and such a date, for the soldiers, it never ends. My grandfather couldn't stand to kill anything after he came to Canada, even when he had to put meat on the table.

They lived in the woods so they had to get their own meat. Grandpa had others shoot his game for him.

Another thing, he hated mules. They had a mule train in Salonika and he claimed the officers treated the mules better than the enlisted men. So a perfectly harmless animal became his bug-a-boo. Also, he was bitten by a mosquitoe and came down with malaria. This weakened his heart which was the reason he came to Canada.

He was also in France, almost killed, he was only saved because he had swapped belt buckles with an Australian. At one time he was reported killed and a note sent to my grandma, but it was another Albert Edward Smith who had been killed.

I don't want to go on and on, it's just that we should remember all those who can't sleep at night or other symptoms of war shock, etc, all the time, not just on one day. I often think of my grandfather and what he went through and am very grateful for his sacrafice of his mental health for us.

Purity Movements

Because I don't think like other people on certain issues, I've learned to keep my mouth shut a lot. But I have an interest that I can't keep quiet about because I'm not sure of the answer.

You see, humans seem to have always had a belief that they can purify themselves and I wonder what it is they're feeling when they think they're pure.

For instance, Native Americans used to burn tobacco to purify. Tobacco? The cancer-causing plant? Pure? They're not the only ones. Think of today's vegetarians. They firmly believe they can purify their bodies by abstaining from meat and processed foods.

While I think they do have a healthy diet. I just don't see how they can feel they are pure. In fact, what is purity anyway? Humans are secretions, oils, waste and dead skin. How can any living human be pure?

I say I keep my mouth shut. Mostly because people are offended by what they consider purity. As the religious sex taboos. They think I'm talking Victorian morality here and though that is also a purity movement, I don't understand why they assume I agree with purity movements when I say I'm fascinated by the idea of them but that's how people take it.

They think I agree that someone who sins and then confesses and does penance can somehow be made pure. My thought is, I don't understand what they suppose purity is but somehow, every human civilization has this concept. It goes around and around and around.

Like the temperance movement of the nineteenth century. Leeching or letting out bad blood in medicine.

I'll have to do some more thinking about this to figure it out but until I do, I'll just keep my lips zipped.