Academy Award Nominees

Sadly, this years Oscar nominees are looking pretty bleak. Hardly any decent and good films actually got nominated in the entire list. Most of the major nominations, and certainly the films that received the most nominations, are extremely artsy and stand outright against decent family values and morals. The only one that should even be of any interest, is Crash, for an intriguing storyline and brilliant editing.

As an avid movie-watcher, and someone who has been raised into the industry, here, in no particular order, is my list of the:

Most Under-Nominated Movies

• Cinderella Man
• Pride & Prejudice
• Batman Begins
• King Kong
• Corpse Bride
• Chronicles of Narnia
• Mr & Mrs. Smith

Well, it looks like my tastes in movies aren't going to win me an Oscar anytime soon... but at least my preferences place me right into the top grossing movies for 2005.

Separation of Church and State: The Real Meaning

Over and over again, I hear people referring to the "separation of church and state". The phrase is more than commonly used by social and political groups that are known as anti-religious. It has become their battlecry.

The common argument, is that the "separation of church and state" means that religion and the church should have no part in determining how the country is run, nor with what morals it shall be run by.

I have for you here, the real meaning of the the "separation of church and state". And to get it, we must refer to the actual 1st Ammendment to the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States, with which it originated back on December 15th, 1791.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

As you can see, church and religion has the total right and freedom as per the Bill of Rights to influence and determine the laws of state ("petition the Government for a redress of grievances"). The separation of church and state truthfully means that the state and government has no right or place to influence or control an establishment of religion ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof").

North America had been founded on sound principles deeply rooted in religion and christianity. And then some President or Prime Minister comes in and remove prayer from schools, or revoke the freedom to vocalize or print certain bible verses in public, or the right for a religious estabilshment to advise their members on which government party shares their values, or the chance for a people to rectify a foolhardy law set in motion by irresponsible legislators.

It's sad when we start to lose the values that has made our countries so great and prosperous since their very conception.

The Unfortunate Upgrade

Last night, my monitor died.
I was working on a project, went upstairs to make some tea, and came back down to a totally messed up monitor. And of course, I panicked. Time was running out on some aggressive deadlines, and my monitor fried!

So I went out to BestBuy in the morning, and bought up their second-last CRT monitor (the big fat ones). Looks like the world is moving to LCD and Plasma, cause that's all they had there. Lucky for me, people who can sacrifice a little desk space can get themselves a 19" monitor for $200 Canadian. It's even bigger than my old screen!

Christian Manga

Manga, the japanese form of comics, has really taken off in North America over the last year or two. Just walk into any bookstore, and you'll see shelves and shelves of the books, with over 100 new titles just in the last year.

All we need now is a new breed of christian cartoonists and mangaka's to step up to the plate and praise Jesus through their art! They don't have to be super-religious or bible stories... themes of christianity in every day life, family, and relationships work just fine, and already have widely-read secular versions of these types of stories. Testimonial comics and also becoming increasingly popular.

Here's a couple of noteworthy sites out there:

Serenity - christian manga series about a girl struggling with her life.

Alias Comic Publishing - Some interesting american-style comic books.

Comix35 - ministry involved in visual literature. They also have good lists of christian comics out there.

Reverend Fun - american-style daily comic strip.


There is a few of them out there, but we definitely need some of those bright Jesus-loving artists out there to get going and use those gifts that God gave them.

Creation and Catholics

Now I have no idea what the catholic opinion is on creation, but it seems pretty silly to me that they would suspend one of their own teachers in the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board.

George, a well respected teacher, was suspended from the school board because merely mentioned the term "creation" during one of his classes, and two of his students complained to the board.

It definately sounds like the students run things at that school.

But what really gets me, is the thought that it's theoretically a christian school, and is supposed to teach about creation!

Canada Elections Warning

Please be careful who you mark on your voting ballot on the 23rd.

If you're voting for the conservatives, make sure you know ahead of time who is in the riding for your area. There is a scheme in elections canada to confuse the ballots and deter people from voting conservative.

Elections Canada marks their voting ballots with acronyms, and are using this method to confuse voters.

For the Progressive Conservatives with Stephen Harper, they are marking the ballots with the "CON"
The initials "PC" on the ballot actually stands for the Progressive Canadian Party which is basically a fake party created a couple of years ago so they would show up first in alphabetical order of the party listing. They are not the conservatives.

So when you vote, beware, and make sure you know who is riding for the conservatives in your area.

Privatized Clinics in Canada

I don't know why Paul Martin is so against privatizing medical clinics in Canada. Sure there's hundreds of reasons why Canada would benefit from privatization, but that's not the point I'm trying to make here.

There is, in fact, already thousands of private clinics in Canada, where you can walk in, have a serious operation, and OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) will completely cover all costs of the operation.

Over 100,000 of these operations are performed yearly in Canada, and all are being paid for by the government.

These operations, are abortions.

Now somebody explain to me why the liberal government will completely fund an abortion at a private clinic, but will not allow other operations. Say, having a spleen removed? Or Heart valve surgery? Or bladder stones? Or even cancer tests, such as the one my mom has to wait three more months for?

Yet More Government Scandals

Well it looks like there's yet another scandal uncovered that ties back directly to the Liberal Party. This one also links to Paul Martin himself.

It all begins with the "Power Corp.". This large corporation receives massive amounts of money in oil contracts through it's daughter companies. Jean Chrétien's son is married to the daughter of the former head of Power Corp. Even Chrétien's son-in-law is the director of the daughter corporation that made the oil deals with Saddam. Also, Chrétien appointed Paul Martin, who is currently Prime Minister of Canada, and is also being advised by Maurice Strong, who is a former president of Power Corp.

Here's a little graphic from over at Western Standard that shows the connections so you can see for yourself exactly how many liberals are involved in this international scandal.

Now we know why the Canadian government was so spineless in the prospect of helping our North American neighbours bring down Saddam Hussein.

Family Resolutions

New years day, the family got together to do our yearly planning, goal setting, and resolutions.
I definately suggest that all families should do this together with their children.

We put together a whole list of categories, and went around placing personal, and family goals in each section. Ranging from financial, business, and investments, to spiritual, intellectual, and physical.

For some examples, here's a few of my personal goals... to give you ideas, and so you can help keep me accountable!

• practicing my kendo twice a week
• use my camera frequently to practice my photography skills
• read my bible daily, and at least a half-hour of other reading
• blog and/or journal on a regular basis

Just cause it's a week after new years, doesn't mean it's too late to make resolutions. We should always be growing, improving, and setting higher goals for ourselves.

500,000 Kilometers

It's time to celebrate! My minivan has just rolled over the 500,000 kilometer mark. It's only a 1996 model, yet has very little rust, and still runs relatively smoothly.

On the way to church last night, Zack and I ended up driving up and down a street parallel to the highway trying to rack up those final few kilometers so I could stop and get some photos of the mileage meter, and the exact spot it hit. And what do you know, but it stopped right in front of my friend Ron's house, and he happened to come walking down the street as we were taking photos.

Here's to the first half-million, and here's to the next!