Winter in the Olympics!

No, not the Vancouver Winter Olympics, although they are definitely worth writing about. Great to see the good ole U S of A is bringing home some medals-and some great skiing and snowboarding from my New Hampshire, Vermont and Quebec brethren. We eastcoasters can ski! When you learn how to ski in New England, you can ski anywhere including the slop on BC's Cypress Mountain. And cheers too to our speed skaters-someone has to keep those Koreans working hard. And great to see the Canadians score well on their home front!

But still, as much as these Olys are fun, nothing beats Lake Placid in 1980 when we fought World War III and sent the Russians back to Moscow to pound their skates at the Kremlin and ask, "Who will bury whom?!"

Anyhow-if you are a fan of me on Facebook you probably have noticed that I just posted a bunch of great news on our Olympics-the Olympic Peninsula that is-compliments of the Peninsula Daily News of Port Angeles. Check out this good news when you take a break from watching Shaun White orbit the planet-

1. North Olympic Land Trust turns 20 years old!
2. Hurricane Ridge Road is getting close to reopening
3. More fishers are reintroduced to the Olympic National Park
and
4. Olympic National Park may add some acreage near lake Ozette.

All good news indeed for one of the finest regions/places on the planet!

Canada's Seal of Approval

Even in a country as liberal as Canada where liberal drug laws and criminal codes allow gangs to shoot up Vancouver with impunity, junkies stumble over each other in half of the downtown, and terrorists are granted immigration status, this latest move simply baffles me: Canadian MPs Vote to Include Seal Skin On Olympic Uniforms. Read for yourself in today's Vancouver Sun. American Lefties love to point to Canada as a promised land. How many of them threatened to leave the US for our northern neighbor when George W Bush was reelected? I'm still waiting for Sean Penn to leave. But the fact of the matter is that when it comes to environmental protections-the much more conservative America does better. We have an endangered species act (signed by Republican Richard Nixon no less). We have a wilderness act and millions of acres of wilderness. And we don't butcher marine mammals (thanks to a bill drafted by two NW senators, one a Republican from Oregon). In Canada, they still log old growth forests, there is no endangered species act, oil is king in the boreal forests, and they slaughter seals. And not only do they slaughter them-in a most inhumane way I may add-but they are now flaunting it by making their athletes wear clothing containing seal skin. Mon Dieu!

Now, I'm no vegetarian, and I have mixed feelings about seal slaughtering-but it is indeed inhumane the way they do it-and I would add, probably unnecessary (First Nations should be exempt for subsistence hunting) and it should definitely not be flaunted-and forced upon athletes that may object to this barbaric practice. And now Canada has introduced a hot political topic into what should be a non-political event. And you thought the dog issue was big in China? Now, I love Canada-spend a lot of time there-and the country consists of wonderful people. I like Stephen Harper, the Quebecois, and adore Diana Krall. But this act-like their liberal drug laws that have turned the Lower Mainland of BC into a gang infested war zone makes no sense to me. Where's the outrage now Sean Penn and company? Is your silence a seal of approval?

(Photo from Liberation BC)