Thank you Dawson Raymond and Edmonton's Creep Catchers

"Dawson Raymond says he creates fake online profiles and waits for would-be pedophiles to get in touch. "We'll get in a conversation with them and within that conversation, I'll mention my age. If they continue to talk to me after that, there's a problem," he said.

Raymond has posted more than two dozen video ambushes on his website since November. In a page explaining Raymond's mission, he says he's out to keep children safe.

Creep Catchers founder Dawson Raymond says he's not worried about being harmed by a potential pedophile.

"I'm not afraid of these guys. These guys are cowards in the flesh," Raymond told CTV Edmonton on Wednesday.

Read the story on CTV News

Thank you Kalawati Devi Rawat for your leadership and courage

Not only did  Kalawati Devi Rawat  bring electricity to her community - literally by carrying abandoned poles and wires to her village - but she and the women of the Mahila Mangal Dal (Women Welfare Group) battled alcoholism in her village by shutting down illegal breweries and prevented logging companies from decimating nearby forest by organising her fellow villages to hug the trees when the men with chainsaws approached.

Read about Kalawati Devi Rawat in the BBC News

Thank you Diala Brisly for your art and determination

"Artist Diala Brisly fled Syria in 2013. She now lives in Beirut but she's well known inside Syria for her work on Zayton and Zaytonah, a children's magazine that, amazingly, is still printed and distributed inside the country."

Read the story on BBC News

When government refused to help - a housewife set up a radiation lab

"Five years ago an earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered a tsunami and a series of meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Kaori Suzuki's home is nearby - determined to stay, but worried about her children's health, she and some other mothers set up a laboratory to measure radiation."

Kudos to housewife Kaori Suzuki and the other beauticians, hairdressers, and office workers who learned the science and set up  non-profit organisation - Tarachine - specifly to to measure radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

What does this tell us about relying on government to protect its citizens? And more importantly, what does this tell us about the wisdom of building nuclear power plants?

.....Read the story on BBC News

Thank you Gregoire Ahonghonon for helping the mentally ill

"For almost 30 years, Gregoire Ahongbonon, a former mechanic from Benin, has helped thousands of West Africans affected by mental illnesses, caring for them in residential centres run by his charity, the Saint Camille association. Above all else, he is determined to stop the practice of keeping mentally ill people in chains."


Read the story on BBC News

Please help give war resister Rodney Watson back his freedom

"Rodney Watson, who spent a year deployed in Mosul, Iraq, could not stay silent about unnecessary violence he witnessed by the occupying troops. He has been in sanctuary for over half a decade, inside a Vancouver church to avoid deportation after the Harper government ordered him returned to the U.S." writes John Hagan in Now Magazine

Please send an email to our new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau and tell him that war resisters like Rodney, and Jeremy Hinzman, and Kimberly Rivera should be welcome in Canada and protected from the grasp of the American cops.

And if you've got a few extra bucks, please donate to the War Resisters Support Campaign

And thank you Rodney for your principled stance against war.

Robin Russell plays his drums for the coyotes

"For 14 years now, sometimes three times a week, Robin Russell has gotten up around 3 a.m. and driven his maroon van from Pasadena to the same spot in Griffith Park, not far from the zoo. In the dark, he rakes out a small clearing under an oak tree, unpacks a six-piece drum kit and sets up, everything in its place on an old piece of red carpet.

And he plays. He plays if people are there to hear. He plays if the birds and coyotes are the only ones listening. Often he starts under the stars. He plays through sunrise and on into the afternoon. He leaves before dark, the time depending on the season."... writes Mary MacVean of the Los Angeles Times

Thank you Anita Krajnc for your act of kindness

"The preliminary hearing for a woman charged with mischief after providing water to pigs en route to a slaughterhouse has been set for the end of November.

Animal rights activist Anita Krajnc says she was on a roadway median giving water to pigs on a hot day in June as trucks hauling the animals stopped at an intersection in Burlington, Ont. One of the trucks' drivers took exception."

Read the story on CTV News

Please email Madeleine Meilleur, Attorney General of Ontario and tell her to drop the charges against Ms. Krajnc.... and instead, give her a medal.

Thank you Ineke and Kees Veldboer for helping people fulfil their last wish

Dutch couple, Ineke and Kees Veldboer (photo below) help people fulfil their last wish. Their company, Stichting Ambulance Wens has ambulances, nurses, and hundreds of volunteers who help dying people take one last horse ride, view their favourite Rembrandt, sit one last time on their sofa, go sailing, or kiss a giraffe.

In the past six years they have helped more than three hundred people fulfil their last wishes.

Thank you Batman

Batman - or Route 29 Batman as he was known, was killed in an auto accident yesterday. Leonard Robinson's 'Batmobile' broke down on the highway and was struck by another vehicle.

For the past 14 years, Mr. Robinson has been dressing up as Batman and bringing joy and laughter to  sick kids in the hospital.

Thank you Batman for giving of your self and your time.

R.I.P. Dr Frances Oldham Kelsey

The world needs more dedicated 'Boy Scouts' like you... Thank you Dr Kelsey

Read the story on BBC News

Hats off to Colin Hill - his family is safe

Mr. Hill died doing his job - protecting his family. We fathers of the world take our hats off to you Colin Hill.

Read the story on CTV News

Please subscribe to my entertaining and extremely well-written blog

Hey Blogsphere Folks … please subscribe and help me reach my goal of 1000+ new followers of my entertaining, and insightful, and extremely well-written blog. Together we will engage in pithy dialogue on such subjects as: Mother Earth, ethics, politics, lawyers, nutrition, family court, exceptional people, short stories,  my wonderful children and grandchildren, government idiocy, and my bald head.

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Oh ... And coming to my blog on Fathers Day is a free copy - serialized- of my thrilling novel FATHERS' DAY (the basis of a feature film I am producing) it's about a loving father who tracks down his serial son in order to prevent the boy from hurting anyone else"

Many thanks for subscribing.... Peace, james

A poem for my wife

 

"Perhaps love is like the ocean

Full of conflict, full of pain

Like a fire when it's cold outside

Or thunder when it rains

If I should live forever

And all my dreams come true

My memories of love will be of you."

.... Perhaps Love - lyrics by John Denver

Hats off to James Robertson

Thank you Mr Robertson for teaching us a valuable lesson about work ethic. I hope his employer appreciates him as much as Mr. Robertson appreciates having employment.

Read the whole story on CTV NEWS

Thank you Jane Wells

Thank you Jane Wells.

It's 3:10 in the morning and I woke up about about ten minutes ago with legal phrases, procedural details, and warm thoughts of you swirling in my head. 

I fell in love with Jane the moment I saw her sitting one row over in my high school algebra class. But alas, she had a boyfriend and I was always to shy to tell her that my heart raced and my head swooned every time we passed in the hall, or she spoke in class, or someone spoke her name. But though we never became lovers, we did become friends and it was some time during the two years between Grade 10 and graduation that Jane (a Quaker) shared with me two bits of wisdom that would forever shape my life....

"Do not hit" 

and 

"The fight is not over until one of you gives up"

Imbided with my mother's social activism I have struggled all my life against bullies, racism, war, and injustice, from the labyrinthine streets of New York to the segregated restaurants of Georgia.

So as I sit at my computer keyboard this morning, composing legal filings and appeals, I am thinking of Jane and all the non-violent battles I've fought - some unimportant and likely foolhardy - and some, like this battle, vitally important. 

For the duration of what's left of my time on this earth, I will continue to do battle with the forces of evil, and thanks to you Jane, I will never raise my fist and never, ever give up.

So here's to you Jane Wells... where ever you are.

Peace,

James