Why Can't I Own a Canadian?

Why Can't I Own a Canadian?

October 2002

Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a east coast resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted fan,
Jim

Note to Stumblers:

Some comments criticizing this piece indicate that it was "hijacked" from a West Wing episode. This is a chicken and egg argument in my opinion. I don't really know which came first, and frankly don't care. Below, for your enjoyment, is the clip in question.

(Taken from: http://www.humanistsofutah.org/2002/WhyCantIOwnACanadian_10-02.html)

Why UK did not join the Euro or EU?

vjkrishna writes: The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Whoever thought of this, hats off to him!

(Taken from: http://www.vjkrishna.com/2009/02/16/why-uk-did-not-join-the-euro/)

Why British people have bad teeth?

There are certain stereotypes that most of the British people do not have nice looking teeth, they are either forked or broken, or not in shape.

Here are some excerpts:

Is this a common stereotype Americans have of the British? The third person in a row has made that comment to me about British teeth and it just now occured to me that Austin POwers had really funky teeth and was a British character-- so is this a common stereotype? It hadn't occured to me before, I guess because I've never been outside my country and all of the british people I see in pics usually have decent teeth. :nsm:

Come to think of it I do see in pics British teeth that are a bit different than American teeth. The British smiles I have seen are clean natural smiles-- even if the teeth are not perfectly aligned, while the American ones often are perfectly straight and unnaturally white- sometimes it seems like they could even glow in the dark if you shut off the lights. Not all Americans teeth are like that, but there does seem to be a trend here where a naturally white smile is becoming no longer acceptable- the teeth must be unusually and unnaturally white in order to pass inspection. There seems a greater social pressure to have teeth like that, I suppose maybe in order to not be seen as lower class? I dunno.

I personally like mildly crooked teeth. It makes people's smiles unique. Most of the best smiles I can think of that I have been fond of in my lifetime have been crooked ones-- they're just cute, I dunno. :nsm: I mean unless a person has, like, unusually crooked or a big overbite causing them problems and stuff, I understand the need for braces in situations like that. And I certainly can't really say anything if everybody in America decides to have glow in the dark teeth and flawlessly straight smiles- who am I to hammer down on people for teeth that don't belong to me?

I was learning about something called hyperreality last week, where we watch TV and things like that and see unnatural things and begin to believe that that is reality, or normal. Like pictures of models airbrushed, or super duper bright white teeth that don't exist like that naturally, etc. Maybe American society has shifted a bit too far from being dental hygiene- conscious (nothing wrong with that) to reacting to this hyperreality from the media by doing these things that, one could argue, really aren't necessary (not in the same way that regular dental checkups, etc. are).

But why is this stereotype directed at the british and not more of Europe? Have I missed something? WHere did this come from, and are teeth really all that bad in England?

(RubiaWarrenwrites at http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/archive/index.php/t-66399.html)

Why America is fat?

There are certain stereotypes that most of the British people do not have nice looking teeth, they are either forked or broken, or not in shape.

Here are some excerpts:

Is this a common stereotype Americans have of the British? The third person in a row has made that comment to me about British teeth and it just now occured to me that Austin POwers had really funky teeth and was a British character-- so is this a common stereotype? It hadn't occured to me before, I guess because I've never been outside my country and all of the british people I see in pics usually have decent teeth. :nsm:

Come to think of it I do see in pics British teeth that are a bit different than American teeth. The British smiles I have seen are clean natural smiles-- even if the teeth are not perfectly aligned, while the American ones often are perfectly straight and unnaturally white- sometimes it seems like they could even glow in the dark if you shut off the lights. Not all Americans teeth are like that, but there does seem to be a trend here where a naturally white smile is becoming no longer acceptable- the teeth must be unusually and unnaturally white in order to pass inspection. There seems a greater social pressure to have teeth like that, I suppose maybe in order to not be seen as lower class? I dunno.

I personally like mildly crooked teeth. It makes people's smiles unique. Most of the best smiles I can think of that I have been fond of in my lifetime have been crooked ones-- they're just cute, I dunno. :nsm: I mean unless a person has, like, unusually crooked or a big overbite causing them problems and stuff, I understand the need for braces in situations like that. And I certainly can't really say anything if everybody in America decides to have glow in the dark teeth and flawlessly straight smiles- who am I to hammer down on people for teeth that don't belong to me?

I was learning about something called hyperreality last week, where we watch TV and things like that and see unnatural things and begin to believe that that is reality, or normal. Like pictures of models airbrushed, or super duper bright white teeth that don't exist like that naturally, etc. Maybe American society has shifted a bit too far from being dental hygiene- conscious (nothing wrong with that) to reacting to this hyperreality from the media by doing these things that, one could argue, really aren't necessary (not in the same way that regular dental checkups, etc. are).

But why is this stereotype directed at the british and not more of Europe? Have I missed something? WHere did this come from, and are teeth really all that bad in England?

(RubiaWarrenwrites at http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/archive/index.php/t-66399.html)

Why America is fat?

 

Practically the minute President Obama announced Regina M. Benjamin, a zaftig doctor who also has an M.B.A. and is the recipient of a MacArthur "genius grant," as a nominee for the post of Surgeon General, the criticism started.

The attacks were vicious—Michael Karolchyk, owner of a Denver "anti-gym," told Fox News' Neil Cavuto, "Obesity is the No. 1 issue facing our country in terms of the health and wellness, and she has shown not that she was born this way, not that she woke up one day and was obese. She has shown through being lazy, and making poor food choices, that she's obese."

"This is totally disgusting to have some one so big to be advocating health," wrote one YouTube commenter.

The anger about Benjamin wasn't the only example of vitriol hurled at the overweight. Cintra Wilson, style columnist for The New York Times, recently wrote a column so disdainful of JCPenney's plus-size mannequins that the Times' ombsbudman later wrote that he could read "a virtual sneer" coming through her prose. A NEWSWEEK post about Glamour’s recent plus-size model (in fact, a normal-sized woman with a bit of a belly roll) had several commenters lashing out at the positive reaction the model was receiving. "This model issue is being used as a smoke screen to justify self-destructive lifestyle that cost me more money in health care costs," one wrote. Heath guru MeMe Roth has made a career crusading against obesity, and made waves when she suggested that American Idol contestant Jordin Sparks needed to lose weight. (That MeMe Roth is considered something of an extremist doesn't stop the media attention) Virtually any news article about weight that is posted online garners a slew of comments from readers expressing disgust that people let their weight get so out of control. The specific target may change, but the words stay the same: Self-destructive. Disgusting. Disgraceful. Shameful. While the debate rages on about obesity and the best ways to deal with it, the attitudes Americans have toward those with extra pounds are only getting nastier. Just why do Americans hate fat people so much?

Fat bias is nothing new. "Public outrage at other people's obesity has a lot to do with America from the turn of the 20th century to about World War I," says Deborah Levine, assistant professor of health policy and management at Providence College. The rise of fat hatred is often seen as connected to the changing American workplace; in the early 20th century, companies began to offer snacks to employees, white-collar jobs became more prominent, and fewer people exercised. As thinness became rarer, says Peter N. Stearns, author of Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West and professor of history at George Mason University, it was more prized, and conversely, fatness was more maligned.

At the same time, people also paid a lot of attention to President Taft's girth; while Taft was large, he wasn't all that much heavier than earlier presidents. Newspapers questioned how his weight would affect diplomacy and solicited the funniest "fat Taft" joke. "This [period] is also when you get ready-to-wear clothing," says Levine. "For the first time, [people were] buying clothes in a certain size, and that encourages a comparison amongst other people." Actuarial tables began to connect weight and shorter lifespan, and cookbooks published around World War I targeted the overweight. "There was that idea that people who were overweight were hoarding resources needed for the war effort," Levine says. She adds that early concerns were that overweight American men would not be able to compete globally, participate in international business, or win wars.

(Source: NewsWeek, http://www.newsweek.com/id/213646)

 

Why do indians realy stink? Do they really stink? I don't think so.

Why do indians realy stink? Do they really stink? I don’t think so.

Yoga Mantra writes:

It was just a pure accident that I stumbled upon a post where, well,  topic of odor from Indians was discussed. I searched on, well,  internet and found many similar topics and it was mostly from, well,  US. This perception really surprised me.

I am an Indian and had worked and lived in various countries outside India., well,  perceptions, which I felt, about Indians varied from country to country and it boiled down to, well,  type of Indians that, well, se people came in contact with. For example, people in Thailand and Singapore think Indians are low lives, that, well, y stink since, well, y don’t bath regularly. For a middle class Indian, like me, it sounded ridiculous as bathing is an integral part of our lives and bathing atleast once a day is considered a must in almost all, well,  homes I know. But on deeper analysis I found that this perception stemmed from, well,  fact that, well,  Indians, well, y have come in contact with are, well,  labrourers, mostly construction workers, who have migrated to, well, se parts many many years ago before, well,  educated ones. Considering, well,  nature of, well, ir work,, well, ir low pays and, well,  horrible living conditions this is certainly a truth. And this one cannot be associated with a race as people with, well, se jobs and standards smell and stink anywhere in, well,  world. Its, well,  same for Indians, Chinese, Europeans or, well,  Americans.

 But in countries like, well,  US and Europe where, well,  educated ones moved in first this perception about body odor, I thought, was not, well, re., well, y do think that Indians are brainy and smart and also its true that, well, y dont like, well,  smell of our cooking. , well, y are simply not used to this smell and for, well, m it is a stink. Its, well,  same for us when, say, Malaysians cook. I dont think anyone can be blamed here since, well,  smell is alien to, well, m and we cannot live without all, well,  spices et all. And, well, re is nothing much that we can do about this aspect.

But I found today that even in, well, se countries, well, y think that Indians stink. Most of, well,  people who responded to, well, se posts thought it was due to, well,  spices in our diet and its not because of lack of hygiene. That was, well,  good part of this ra, well, r unpleasant topic. But some posts do looked like more racist and it was driven more by, well,  hate of, well,  success of Indians in, well, se countries. Migrants, esp, well,  successful ones, are never liked by, well,  natives in any country. Thats, well,  fact!

But thinking about this I thought that we, from our side, can do a little extra to change this perception and o, well, rs like we are not that courteous. Many of, well,  people who travel for, well,  first time are not familiar with, well,  western etiquettes. So ei, well, r, well, y have to take, well,  intiative to learn or, well,  companies that send, well, m have to educate, well, m. This will help in improving, well,  image a lot.

 Coming back to, well,  smell,  I think we should get into into perfumes and deos., well, y are not part of most of our lives. Having a good bath once or twice a day is considered enough for a good hygiene but in US or Europe or in any o, well, r developed countries where, well,  focus on how you smell and look is so much important it will really help if we spend a little on a good perfume or a deo. Whats, well,  point in taking 2-3 baths a day and your natural body odor which is alien to people outside your home causes negative perception. If you smell great, well, n it does not matter if you really take bath daily. Thats superficial and fake but thats what is important in todays world.

India is a great country and we as, Indians, are, well,  ambassadors of our country., well,  way we act and, well,  things we do impact how we as a race and country is perceived. Lets do our best to show that Indians are as good as anyone and lets try to change our fellow countrymen who due to, well, ir indifferences and laziness spoil our image. And more importantly lets try very hard to change, well,  perception of those foreigners who think Indians are low lives.

(Source: http://yourmitra. wordpress.com/2008/12/20/do-indians-really-stink-can-we-do-something-about-it/)

400 killed, 10,000 injured in earthquake in China

Agencies Tags : China, earthquake, Qinghai, Tibetan Posted: Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 at 0827 hrs Beijing:
April 14, 2010:
Kathmandu, Nepal
A powerful earthquake on Wednesday devastated China's remote northwestern province of Qinghai killing 400 people as it toppled houses, created cracks in dams and left 10,000 injured, officials said.
The trembler measuring 7.1-magnitude on Richter scale hit the province in the Qinghai Tibetan plateau early today almost flattening Jiegu township, where more than 85 per cent of the houses collapsed.
Indian embassy in Beijing said that they have not received reports of any casualty of Indian nationals. Paramilitary and rescue workers were working with t their hands to remove the rubble to save the people buried under it. TV footage said that all access roads to the region had been damaged and even the airport cut off.
Downed phone lines, strong gales and continuing aftershocks were hindering the rescue efforts with Xinhua reporting that people with blood were lying on the roads. The Chinese official said the toll could go up as the houses in the remote area are mostly made of mud and almost all of them collapsed in the quake.

Try a MAGIC and see the MIRACLE

Try a MAGIC ... copy paste all the numbers below in a word document, and replace all 6 with _ (under score), select all and use font size 6 and see the MIRACLE

 

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Non-Resident Madheshis Association (NRM-A) formed in US to fight for Madhesi rights and identity

APRIL 6: A group of people living/working in different parts of the world have formed an alliance called Non-Resident Madheshis Association (NRM-A) in USA.

With a logo carrying “mother Madhesh” slogan, the group says its main objective is to promote the recognition and identity of Madheshi -- or Madhesi -- community around the world.

However, the group has not mentioned whether those in the organization are Nepalis or not. The NRM-A, nonetheless, states that one of its office would be based in Kathmandu too.

The press release issued by the group states that organisation’s goal is to work for the identity of all Madhesi students, professionals living around the globe.

Chaired by Chandra Kant Rout from USA, the NRM-A comprise of representatives from India, China, Australia and UAE. (see more http://madhesh.org)g)

Whose nation is it? CITIZENSHIP & CONSTITUTIONS of NEPAL

Whose nation is it?

The geographic location doesn’t allow Nepal the luxury to be very democratic when it comes to citizenship.

CITIZENSHIP & CONSTITUTION

BY SIGDEL, K. R. 

THE KATHMANDU POST, MARCH 24:

Despite sustained efforts to make Nepal’s citizenship law more scientific and less susceptible to manipulations, there is no dearth of instances of misuses of the legal provisions that govern citizenship.

A study of the citizenship-related anomalies in the past few years shows increasing numbers of non-Nepalis getting Nepali citizenship and misusing them.

The Home Ministry records show that, it has scrapped increasing numbers of citizenships since 1999. Though the government has not been able to initiate action on all the recorded cases due to “legal and procedural difficulties”, it has scrapped about 280 fraudulent citizenships since 1999.

“Members of international criminal gangs remain at the forefront in the abuses while equally disturbing is the fact that many, who have received citizenship in recent years, have questionable Nepali identity,” said a senior Home Ministry official. “The government has busted a few (criminal) rackets involved in facilitating citizenships, but misuse has continued unabated.”

For instance, in a recent revelation, Babbu Srivastab, the person behind media entrepreneur Jamim Shah’s murder, is found to have received Nepali citizenship. “This is just one example. I guess, there are thousands, both criminal and non-criminal, who have got Nepali citizenship despite being disqualified.” (see list)

And interesting is the fact that all this is happening while the constitutions over the past 45 years appear to have gradually tightened their screws on citizenship provisions.

When Nepal adopted its constitution in 1962, any child with either a Nepali father or a Nepali mother was considered eligible to apply for a Nepali citizenship by descent. This was considered “too liberal” to be able to prevent misuse and some stricter conditions were added in the successive legislations, including the Constitution of 1990. The 1990 Constitution limited the eligibility criteria and said only those children who were fathered by a Nepali citizen could apply for the citizenship. The new constitution, says Advocate Sabin Shrestha, is making it even “tougher”, if the recently finalised draft of the Constituent Assembly (CA) thematic committee on Fundamental Rights is anything to go by.

Constitution of 1962	Constitution of 1990	Interim Constitution of 2007	CA Preliminary Draft
A person shall acquire the citizenship by birth if his/her father or mother was born in Nepal	A person shall acquire the citizenship by descent if at the time of birth his/her father was a Nepali citizen	A person shall acquire the citizenship by descent if at the time of birth his/her father or mother was a Nepali citizen	Citizenship by descent if the person’s father and mother were Nepali citizens when s/he was born
Citizenship by birth if the child was born before the commencement of this statute	NA	Any person born in Nepal before April 14, 1990 shall acquire the citizenship by birth	NA
NA	Any child found inside Nepal shall be deemed Nepali citizen until and unless his/her father is unknown	Child found in Nepal shall be deemed Nepali citizen until his/her father or mother is unknown	Any child found inside Nepal shall be deemed Nepali citizen until his/her father or mother is unknown
Any foreign woman married to a Nepali can acquire Nepali citizenship after giving up her foreign citizenship	Foreign woman married to a Nepali can get Nepali citizenship after starting process to give up foreign citizenship	Any foreign woman married to a Nepali can acquire Nepali citizenship if she wishes	Any foreign women married to a Nepali can acquire Nepali citizenship after 15-yr legal residency and giving up foreign citizenship

The draft states that for a child to be eligible for citizenship by descent both his/her father and mother must be Nepali. Much tougher is the provision on naturalised citizenship: while the constitution of 1962 and 1990 state that any foreign woman who is married to a Nepali national will be eligible to apply for citizenship, the draft says that foreigners married to a Nepali will have to renounce their foreign citizenship and prove 15 years of legal residency in Nepal.

Some experts say the new provision on citizenship is “unnecessarily tough” in that it has created hurdles, which could deprive genuine candidates from the citizenship rights. “There is no country in the world, except Myanmar, which have such a provision,” says Professor Krishna Khanal, an expert on constitution.

Experts argue that making constitutional provisions on citizenship tougher would not help stop non-Nepalis from getting Nepali citizenship. The constitution, they say, should be as democratic as possible and it is the government’s job to see whether the provision is misused.

To many easing the criteria for citizenship would be detrimental because the geographic location doesn’t allow Nepal the luxury to be very democratic when it comes to citizenship.

“The citizenship issue should be handled with utmost care,” says Balkrishna Neupane, an advocate who fought and own four legal battles against post-1990 governments’ “unwise” decisions on citizenship issues. “An influx of just one percent of the neighbouring country’s population would increase Nepal’s population by almost double, whereas even if the entire Nepali population is added to the neighbour’s population, that would not make any difference.”

Neupane stresses that the new constitution should not ignore the problems that have emerged from the Interim Constitution’s guarantee that those “born before April 15, 1990 shall acquire Nepali citizenship by birth”. This very provision, says Neupane, is one of the loopholes from which an increasing number of non-Nepalis, including foreign criminals, are getting Nepali citizenship.

Binda Pandey, Chairperson of the CA committee on fundamental rights concedes that the draft has drawn criticism of all kinds. But she also says there are rooms for improvements, too. “We have incorporated all differing views as notes of dissent, which are yet to be resolved” said Pandey.

However, the fear still looms that in the name of meeting the CA deadline, the CA could end up endorsing a constitution with flawed provisions on citizenship.

Notorious criminals who misused Nepali citizenship

Rohit Barma	Indian murder of Mirja Dil Sad Beg
Babbu Srivastab	Indian accomplice in Jamim Shah Murder
Dr. Amit Kumar	The kidney racket kingpin tried but arrested
Ashraaf Ali	Pakistani arms smuggler
Subraata Bayen	Bangladeshi arms smuggler

Citizenships distributed as of June 14, 2009

Citizenship by descent:	16,903,346
Married naturalised:	296,576
Citizenship by birth:	241,499
By Distribution Team:	528
From mother’s name:	128
Honorary (Edmund Hilary):	1
Fraud reports:	not disclosed
Scrapped:	280
Total valid:	17,442,078

Pending Citizenship Applications

Foreign father and Nepali mother:	67
Foreign father and foreign mother:	65
Nepali citizenships renounced:	229
Citizenship application by birth:	995
Total Pending	1,356

[For original post See April 2, 2010 THE KATHMANDU POST, MARCH 24 at http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2010/04/02/Features/Whose-nation-is-it/206809/]