Where I’ve Been … an update

Places I’ve Visited

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Great Minds …

Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.

~~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Where I’ve Been … so far

visited 28 states (12.4%)
Create your own visited map of The World or website vertaling duits?

Relationship Advice

Now does this remind you of anyone you ever knew?

Thanks to the fabulously creative people at Wonderfactory for these little tidbits of life.

On Being Brilliant

The key to getting a reputation for being brilliant is actually being brilliant, not just acting like you are.
~ Seth Godin

Bird of Paradise

Bird of Paradise, Guatemala 2010

Dear Mr. Schellenberger

May 14, 2010

Gary Schellenberger
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6

Dear Mr. Schellenberger,
I am quite interested in trying to understand the reason that MPs from all parties are so reluctant to allow the Auditor General’s office access to their spending records.
It would seem, in light of the current climate of skepticism, that MPs would welcome the chance to show their transparency and accountability to the Canadian taxpayers. We are, after all, the ones footing the bill.
Can you please clarify for me what your position is on this particular issue?

Regards,

Caffeine High?

Go ahead, I dare you. Take the caffeine click test and see how you score.

Created by OnePlusYou

The Right to Free Speech

Much has been heard, of late, in the Canadian news about Free Speech. Coincidentally, I was reading a novel by the late Stieg Larsson and came across this passage. Mr Larsson has very clearly articulated what free speech means in the context of Swedish law.  Would that our own media and others in the public eye had such a finely tuned grasp of the concept.

Swedish democracy is based on a single premise: the Right to Free Speech (R.S.F.). This guarantees the inalienable right to say aloud, think and believe anything whatsoever. This right embraces all Swedish citizens, from the crazy neo-Nazi living in the woods to the rock-throwing anarchist – and everyone in between.

Every other basic right, such as the Formation of Government and the Right to Freedom of Organization, are simply practical extensions of the Right to Free Speech. On this law democracy stands or falls.

All democracy has its limits, and the limits to the R.F.S. are set by the Freedom of the Press regulation (F.P.). This defines four restriction on democracy. It is forbidden to publish child pornography and the depiction of certain violent sexual acts, regardless of how artistic the originator believes the depiction to be. It is forbidden to incite or exhort someone to crime. It is forbidden to defame or slander another person. It is forbidden to engage in the persecution of an ethnic group.

Press freedom has also been enshrined by parliament and is based on the socially and democratically acceptable restrictions of society, the is, the social contract that makes up the framework of a civilized society. The core of the legislation has it that no person has the right to harass or humiliate another person.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Stieg Larsson

This blog has moved

Welcome to the new home of Katamat.   You may notice we have the same address – www.katamat.com/blog – but Katamat is no longer a Google Blogspot  blog, we are now a WordPress blog.

The reason for this is that Google decided to make some changes to their Blogger tool and since that forced me to do some administrative things by May 1 to keep the blog running, it was just as easy to move it to WordPress (like all my other blogs) and  now it is easier to manage.  All I needed was a little motivation to make the change.  So thank you Google for motivating me.

You will probably see the theme of this blog changing a few times over the next few weeks as I decide how I want to decorate my new blog.

Cheers all, Anne