Judging a book by its cover, this one features a color photo of a shirtless, tattooed man emblazoned across the book jacket. While this is quite common with many of the publications sitting on bookshelves today – memoirs of heavy metal musicians or biographies of male supermodels- this one is quite different and exceptionally powerful. […]

The post Recently Read: The Body of Chris appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

“Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it. Canadians make no connection between the fact that they are a Northern European welfare state and the fact that we have very low economic growth, a stand…

Hey friends. Here are a few links that caught my attention recently: I’m currently trying to Fall in Love With My Work by taking this self-study course in order to figure out my professional shizz. So far so good! I’m seeing things a bit differently so that’s a promising sign. Letting Go of the Need […]

The post Random Linkage – October appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

The process of unlearning has been front and center in my life these days. My mother is dying and had packaged up a box of some various mementos for me – photos, notes, baby shoes, children’s books and every single one of my report cards. I haven’t been able to look at the box until […]

The post Unlearning appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

I can feel it. I have discovered in the past little while that I respond to ASMR triggers of the auditory kind. As a kid I had this kind of reaction but never really knew what it was and it seems like it now has a name and has become a recognized thing. I get […]

The post Can you feel the music? appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

Cover Art by Carole Leslie | ZenDotStudio I haven’t been speaking about it very often given that I’ve been pretty heads-down working away on it, but Sumeru Press and I are ever so close to releasing the anthology of Canadian Buddhist women’s writing. We’re now in need of a title. Please either email info@sumeru-books.com with […]

The post Help Name a New Buddhist Book! appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

By Felicia Anderson SaaS provides a treasure trove of new user insights. As customers adopt Software as a Service (SaaS) in record numbers, those software providers that effectively leverage SaaS’ unique advantages will move into industry-leading positions.  Companies that fail to do so will lose competitive ground. Here are 3 areas that every SaaS product […]

Do you know that feeling when the right message comes along at the right time? Whenever I’ve gone through tough times, or been asked by a friend how I’ve coped with difficulties, my tried and true, go-to recommendation has been to read Pema Chödrön’s When Things Fall Apart. It has been a great comfort during […]

The post Bouncing Forward: Transforming Bad Breaks Into Breakthroughs | Michaela Haas appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

  I am so sorry! I’m not anti-social. I’m idiotic! Oh gosh. I’m just seeing now that I had comments turned completely off here on this blog. I really do want to hear from you. Leave me a comment. Say “Hi” and bring me up to speed on how you’re doing. Tell me something about […]

The post Not anti social, just idiotic appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

Reasonable persons would look at the results of the recent federal election and determine that change is going to happen with Canada’s existing marijuana laws. These same reasonable individuals would deduct that perhaps application of the old, about to…

 Screw off Stephen Harper, you undemocratic, arrogant, evil, deluded dick !!!

This is not a drill! The book that I’ve been working on is officially out! It’s been a complete labor of love, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that being a first time editor of roughly 30 pieces was easy – especially when working with the words of so many people who I […]

The post Lotus Petals in the Snow – Now Available for Purchase! appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

Here dear friends is a handful of items that have crossed my eyeballs on the internet lately. I like to call it Random Linkage. May you all be titillated, entertained and perhaps illuminated. Check out this interview from The Lion’s Roar with Mingyur Rinpoche after emerging from a four year retreat. They’re talkin’ bout my […]

The post Full Contact Enlightenment – Random Linkage: November appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

 (Click on image to enlarge .. )CALGARY, ALBERTA–(Marketwired – Nov. 22, 2015) – Four of Canada’s largest oil sands producers have come together to demonstrate leadership on climate change. Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Cenovus Energy Inc….

In cased you missed my recent blog post about my recent big night out – well here’s a bit of serendipity after seeing this article a few days ago. “Something that meant so much to me was now part of the problem. Music is one of the most important parts of my life but I […]

The post More Extraordinary Circumstances appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

This is likely one of the more bizarre show reviews you are about to read. It’s written by someone who grew terrified of going to see bands. A panic attack during the opening act before the band OFF and boom, I was OFF. OFF to the bathroom to have a meltdown and then OFF in […]

The post An Evening of Extraordinary Circumstance appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

“Words don’t mean much to Stephen.”Preston ManningOur outgoing Prime Minister does not want to testify at the criminal trial of Senator Mike Duffy. He wants to use his Parliamentary ‘privilege’ to try and stay off the witness stand. If there is any jus…

A defeated, yet still highly offensive group of political like minds will join together in Ottawa today. They are known as the Conservative Party of Canada Federal Caucus.  While in power they raised the debt of Canada by tens of billions. Th…

It’s that time of year again in the northern hemisphere – talk about seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.What is SAD? Much of how we feel comes from the amount of daylight we experience, experts believe. So in the fall, as daylight hours shorten and ni…

As soon as somebody says you’re spending too much time on something, you’re on the right track.—Bob Lefsetz, American music industry author. There are two approaches to delivering stories to your product team: pull and push. Typically, product managers and executives “push” more and more requests to the developers. Even though the team already has […]

Yes. I know I told you that I had given up reading and reviewing books for a bit. After a few decent ones came my way, I decided to withdraw my ultimatum on book reviewing , but rather be more mindful with the amount of books I was signing myself up for taking on. Would […]

The post Book Review: Susan Piver’s Start Here Now appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

“Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s closest aides developed a secret plan in February 2013 to protect Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and other Conservative senators from questions about their eligibility to represent specific provinces in the upper chamber, according to documents tabled in Duffy’s criminal trial Thursday.

Harper, however, worried that delving into Senate residency rules would open a can of worms, and insisted that owning property in a province was a sufficient qualification for senators to hold their seats.

“Had I known we were going down this road, I would have shut it down long before,” Harper wrote to a senior aide. “As long as they maintain a residency in their province, as per tradition, we will deem that as sufficient for this purpose … i.e. the property requirement = residence.”

But the PMO’s top lawyer privately argued that Harper’s simple definition could be wrong given that the Constitution lists owning property in a province and being “resident” in a province as two distinct criteria for serving as a senator from that province.”
The Ottawa Citizen

Oh and for the record:
–this blog contributed in February 2013 to the voices critical of naming individuals as Senators who clearly did not meet the residency requirement.

-And the Right leaning Regina Leader-Post contributed to the voices of support for Harper’s inappropriate naming of individuals who did not meet the residency requirements.

(.. just sayin’)

“We just think that’s the wrong direction for society and I don’t think that’s the way most Canadians want to deal with this particular problem.”
The tough-on-drugs message is one the Conservatives have been using for months to drive a wedge between Harper and his opponents — most particularly the Liberals and leader Justin Trudeau.
On Monday, Harper told party faithful the opposition parties want to legalize marijuana and prostitution, and make it easier to have supervised injection sites — all of which Harper said his party opposed.
The Conservatives promised Tuesday that, if re-elected, they would spend almost $27 million a year to help the RCMP root out drug labs and change the focus of the national mental health commission that it created in 2007.
The campaign pledge would see an extra $4.5 million per year, on top of the $22 million currently budgeted, for an RCMP team designed to crack down on illegal drug labs and marijuana grow-ops.”
ipolitics

‘Harper The Great and Powerful’ looking ever more like the cowardly lion

Okay, even the Kool Aid drinkers have to be gagging on the gag order.

It is all beginning to unravel like a cheap suit.

Look no further than John Robson, former champion Kool Aid drinker of the Conservative Party who drove more wooden stakes through the heart of Karl Marx and Ed Broadbent than Barry Goldwater. I have crossed swords with Robson many times but never once doubted his intellectual honesty. And that honesty is what compelled him to write a column in the National Post advising the Tory faithful to abandon the current leadership in this election.

“These people are not honourable. Indeed, they laugh at honour. They cherish the low blow, the devious tactic, the unprincipled bribe, in a relentless, sneering partisan tone. People I know and like retweet Pierre Poilievre with vicious glee. I weep for them and my country.”

John, old trout, finally we agree.

How has the CPC braintrust responded to the growing chorus of the disenchanted? Circle the wagons and look for enemies in your midst. Elizabeth Thompson, whose work at iPolitics has been hotter than the Blue Jays these last few weeks, hit another one out of the park with her story on Stephen Harper’s penchant for treating supporters like potential threats.

First came the story of Harper minion Kory Teneycke’s revealing “democracy by invitation only.” I ask you: who would go through hoops for a ticket to see Steve, knowing that he will either bribe you with your own money, break into song, or tell you a whopper? Even Jimmy Swaggart offered a little inspiration along with the request for cash.

Now, as revealed this weekend, if you want to see Harper The Great and Powerful in person, you have to agree in advance to shut up and never speak a word of what you saw or you won’t get through the door. And I’m talking about his fans here, not seditious parliamentary librarians who need to sign a loyalty oath before lending out a book.

I’m not sure what democracy is anymore in Canada, but I’m pretty certain its got nothing to do with agreeing to get frisked and letting people and dogs mess with your junk before you attend a political event. Do they even do that in Myanmar?

And just the other day, my friend and colleague, Susannah Kelley, was refused entry to a Harper event. Her crime? Attempted coverage. She was barred because she wasn’t there the full 60 minutes in advance and the RCMP dog wasn’t in place to put this veteran journalist to the sniff test. Do they really think there is a “Stop Harper” sign in every woman’s purse? Or that Mike Duffy might slip into the event disguised as the Thin Man?

Stephen Harper’s cynical manipulation of the system to give Canadians 11 weeks of electoral hell is not going as planned, no matter how hard Big Oil, the Banks, and some at the CBC try to throw him a lifeline.

The point is the Harperites know they are in trouble with their own supporters. They were OK with the spendthrift liar, but no one admires a coward.

For one thing, everyone knows the cost to taxpayers of this election will be needlessly astronomical. Harper planned the whole thing because he and his cash-rich pack of robots can spend twice as much on the longer joust than would be possible, at least legally, on the usual 37-day campaign. Remember, to Harper an election is just like a car or a rifle; something you buy.

The extra money will come in handy in places like Peterborough where only a fumigator could clean up the stench left by disgraced former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro. The ballot question in Peterborough is this: How many paid commercials does it take to exorcise the memory of a scoundrel in shackles?

Harper’s mischievous marathon towards October 19th was also designed to blunt spending by third parties, especially the unions and pensioners, whose respective campaigns were beginning to bite. Calling the election early means that limits what they can say and where they can say it.

One long-time Conservative who spoke to me on background said there was also another calculation in this Chinese water-torture of a 77-day election campaign; the hefty reimbursement cheques that Elections Canada will write to the CPC when the dust has settled – perhaps as much as $25 million. Not bad for a man who said he wanted to take public money out of political funding.

Does Harper really think he can raid our piggy bank for the largest one-time payout to taxpayers in Canadian history, the Universal Child Care Benefit, and convince anyone that it is about child care and not politics?

Can he make anything that walks upright believe he won’t tax back most of what he appears to be giving Canadians when next April rolls around?

And what about that polygamist in B.C., who will get a cheque for $43,160 because he’s got more kids than Old Mother Hubbard? He’s got the kids, Steve, so do we pay? Try selling that to the base.

Leaping lizards, Batman, the guy who made the cash-for-kids announcement was wearing a Conservative-branded golf-shirt! Is there anyone in Canada smart enough to boil an egg who believes that the government really couldn’t process the cheques back when the program began on January 1? Is there anyone with the IQ to butter toast who doesn’t see that the retroactive payment cheque was designed to coincide with the election call?

The truth is, Steve was making his own people gag long before the election call.

Brent Rathgeber, who left the Harper government over the issue of core values, said it best and most simply; Harper has degraded the Conservative brand to the point where it is now the personal vehicle of an unprincipled political maverick who would do anything to keep power. “They have taken electioneering and electoral bribery to new and dangerous levels,” Rathgeber, now an Independent, wrote.

And its not just bribing Canadians with their own money. Despite Treasury Board guidelines designed to protect public servants from being drawn into partisan political activity, Foreign Affairs minister Rob Nicholson ordered his bureaucrats to produce three terrorism-related statements he could announce in the media each week. It’s pretty simple. They figure if they can scare the pants off you, they just might get your vote.

Not cynical enough for you? How’s this one: public safety minister Steven Blaney reversed the RCMP’s ban on Swiss Arms and CZ-858 rifles. The RCMP had determined that the weapons were variants of prohibited, automatic firearms. Accordingly, they changed the status of the weapons to “prohibited.” Blaney ignored the Mounties and simply changed them back again. The Conservatives are clearly betting that in a close election, the difference between winning and losing could be the gratitude of gun nuts. As for public safety, everyone needs a look-alike assault weapon to deter the swarms of terrorists down the block, right?

And how about this? On the same day that the election was called, the Harper government slipped through an Order-in-Council aimed at permitting itself the power to continue negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Here is the catch. Once parliament has been dissolved, the behaviour of government is supposed to change. While constitutionally, a government retains full legal authority to govern during an election campaign, it is expected to exercise restraint in its actions. This is called the convention of restraint and it prevents governments that may not be re-elected, and who do not face the confidence of the House, from making country-changing policy decisions during an election.

The Privy Council Office, which has been massively politicized under Harper’s period in office, has now added a new paragraph to the convention of restraint allowing the government to move forward with TPP negotiations for a variety of compelling reasons. The problem? How can the Conservative government tell its negotiating partners that anything it says will hold true after October 19? It can’t, of course, but in the bid to have a public-relations victory, this is war and all’s fair….

So no wonder the base is wondering. How can it be that the Christian caucus of the CPC is now being treated like the skunk at the garden party? Harper wanted their money and their votes but he did less for social conservatives than the Liberals.

The proof? Not only wouldn’t Harper permit Maurice Vellacott to run in one of the new ridings, he has now turned the disciplinary apparatus of government on the pro-life champion over allegedly improper housing expense claims. Sound familiar? Vellacott, who once thought Harper would take his determined little caucus of one-issue Conservatives to the Promised Land, is now merely headed to court – like a lot of disappointed Conservatives.

—


Michael Harris is a writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his “unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us.” His nine books include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare ambition, Lament for an Ocean, and Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry, and three of his books have been made into movies. His new book on the Harper majority government, Party of One, is a number one best-seller.

I am a voracious consumer of podcasts. Zillions of podcasts are just waiting to tickle my earbuds on a daily basis. I use Downcast to manage them all as it’s a pretty full feature “podcatcher” (I guess that’s what those in the know are calling this kind of tool). I listen to a whole bunch […]

The post Anxious and Angry and Helping Others so Very Much appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

  Want to take  your Product craft to the next level? Attend the Craftsman PM 2-day hands-on Product Management workshop. Think holistically about building and marketing The Whole Product Go beyond MVP/Lean Startup and dogmatic frameworks Raise your Product Management game Details are here: The Craftsman PM: A 2-day Hands-on Workshop  Where: Blue1647, Chicago, IL When: August […]

I like a Dave Matthews Band song. I have been crying more in the past 6 months in my entire lifetime and it feels amazing. Really. I’ve been doing a lot of self massage with tennis balls on my upper shoulders. Can’t recommend this enough. I am quite adept at keeping bamboo alive. My first […]

The post Confessions…. appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

Holy heck it’s June already! Are you feeling it? I hope wherever you are that the sun is shining on your pretty face and you have a nice cold drink chilling beside you. May you all be free from harm. Let it be known that long ago I once almost killed my cousin and I […]

The post Random Linkage: Is it June Already? appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

As a self-professed dog person (nothing against cats over here folks), I’m quite excited to hear about the new book A Puppy’s Path to Nirvana from Deke, The Dharma Dog. It’s a 29-lesson ebook, with Deke speaking throughout, explaining Buddha’s view of the world, his basic doctrines and practices, Buddhism’s early growth, and its development […]

The post “A Puppy’s Path to Nirvana” by Deke, The Dharma Dog appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

I had a mindblowingly glorious weekend friends. My dear, beloved teacher, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche gave teachings in my adopted home of Montreal this past Friday and Saturday. We were all thrilled to have him back on the East Coast! It was the first time I as able to see him IRL so I was filled […]

The post Resting…. Resting… 1-2-3 appeared first on Full Contact Enlightenment.

 In a May, 2013 Buckdog post, I told you how the Duffy/Harper mess got started …

May 20, 2013:
“When Stephen Harper decided to add Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy to Canada’s unelected, undemocratic Senate, he started in motion a series of events that has ultimately become an ugly, nasty political scandal.

For starters, neither Duffy nor Wallin qualified for senate appointment as representatives of their respective native provinces.

While Ms. Wallin is originally from Saskatchewan, she has lived away for most of her adult life and Saskatchewan was no longer her principle residence. Saskatchewan’s right leaning corporate MSM came running to Harper’s defence and tried to murky the waters about Wallin’s residency requirement.
 
Same with Mr. Duffy. While originally from Prince Edward Island, he has for decades made Ontario the site of his actual ‘principle residence’.

Here is where it all went wrong.

In order to be appointed to the Senate, ‘principle residence’ reality had to be fabricated in order for Harper’s appointments to be acknowledged under existing Senate rules. False expense claims were the only way to maintain the charade …

Amen.

-Buckdog 2008: Academic Says Pamela Wallin Does NOT Meet Residency Requirements – Should NOT Be Appointed Senator ‘From Saskatchewan’!


(Graphic courtesy the highly skilled Montreal Simon ..merci !)

Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada is dangerous to democracy, so much so that he has to hide from the general public. Today we see a typical ‘secret’ Conservative election campaign event in the Regina ‘area’. No one, except the most trus…

(This editorial, published in the Toronto Star, is bang on and a good  expression of what’s happening with our dishonest and highly corrupt Prime Minister:

Stephen Harper’s Alice in Wonderland world: Editorial

A surreal Alice in Wonderland air is beginning to surround Sen. Mike Duffy’s trial, and it is shredding the government’s credibility

The Star

This week marks the 46th Anniversary of a pivotal moment in Baby Boomer culture and history. The 1969 Woodstock Rock Festival is nearly a half century old and the generation that spawned it and basked in it for decades afterwards is now in its Senior y…

A group of Canadian military veterans said they were denied access to a Stephen Harper event held at a legion in New Brunswick Monday morning.Fabian Henry of the organization Marijuana for Trauma said that he and six other veterans heard Sunday night t…

… and that question is:W T F ???

COVERUP !!! There is NO other way to describe it.

The Saskatchewan NDP were elected in 1991 after 9 disastrous years of PC rule under Grant Devine. Devine did not balance even one of his 9 budget and left the province of 1 million citizens in debt totaling $14 Billion. The incoming Romanow NDP government had a deficit in its first two budgets but … the NDP balanced the NEXT 14 PROVINCIAL BUDGETS.
Don’t let Conservative and Liberal lies dissuade you. Look at the record .. look at the facts.

“The federal New Democrats are pitting a former Saskatchewan finance minister against the incumbent federal minister in the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, in a bid to shore up the party’s credibility on the economic front.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair was confident that Thomson can defeat Conservative Joe Oliver, but the NDP has never done well in the riding.
“The NDP’s Andrew Thomson offers the people of Eglinton-Lawrence something that Joe Oliver hasn’t — a record of balanced budgets,” Mulcair said.
Mulcair said he’ll take Thomson’s economic record in Saskatchewan over that of Oliver and Prime Minister Stephen Harper any day.
As finance minister in Saskatchewan, Thomson brought in big tax cuts in 2006 and skirmished with the federal government over equalization payments.
Mulcair said an NDP government would give Parliament’s budget officer more powers so Canadians have a much better window into the budget process.
“Our plan will enshrine budget transparency into law,” Mulcair said as he announced the policy at a campaign event in Toronto.”
CBC

*typo corrected. Apologies. The author of this blog is severely visually impaired after failed detached retina surgery and ongoing glaucoma. Typos occur when I am unable to get someone to help me proof read. My ongoing apologies for this. Please be patient 🙂

Bingo !!!

The Globe & Mail