Ethiopian lions are smaller than other lions. There are only an estimated 1000 of these lions left in the wild. So why are they being killed and sent to the taxidermists? An Ethiopian zoo is poisoning the lions and sending them to the taxidermist to be stuffed because the zoo keepers say they don't have enough money to care for the animals. Although the lion is the national symbol and appears on Ethiopian currency, the lions are still being killed and sold. These lions are rare. They need to be preserved and yet the only preservation they're getting is as a dead animal on display in some collector's home or museum.

A debate is going on in Ontario about drinking raw milk. I had raw milk when I was a child. I lived on a farm until the age of seven. I'm still alive.

Consumers who prefer raw milk should be allowed to buy it but it is against the law in Ontario.

Some people have found a loophole in the law and have been taking advantage of it. If they buy shares in the cows on the farm, they legally own the cow and can drink the cow's milk raw and unpasteurized.

The government of Ontario is against regulating the sale of raw milk. They believe pasteurization has worked for decades so what's the use of changing the law. Of course, not pasteurizing milk has worked for decades before that and the laws were changed.

The issue is really about the consumer's right to make their own decisions. If people want to drink raw milk, that is their choice. The ban restricts people's freedom of choice.

The farmer in Ontario who started this debate on whether raw milk should be made available to consumers is on a hunger strike. He is drinking nothing but water and raw milk until the government at least looks at regulating the sale of raw milk.

I wish him luck and I hope the laws change.

Happy New Year everyone. I spent new year's eve at a small club listening to a jazz band. They were very good. Our blowers (those new year horn things) didn't work very well and mine kept hitting me in the face every time I tried to blow it. It seems my lungs are very good and I was blowing too hard. It was very funny though. Everytime I blew into it, it would bend back and hit me in the forehead. My friends had a good chuckle.

Let's hope Mother Nature is good to us in the new year. She has been pretty angry lately, with tsunami's and hurricanes etc. I hope 2007 is a quiet, uneventful year, weatherwise.

I hope the new year brings all of you great joy and peace.

As many of you may have noticed, the site has been offline for awhile. I was hosting with Stormweb.ca and they moved my site from one server to another without telling me. The site was not compatible with the move and so the site was down. I spent a frustrating week trying to fix the site to make it compatible but couldn't. I finally gave up and found a new host instead.

This is not the first time Stormweb has done this to me. Last time they had a server down and did a back up of the site that was old so all the information was gone or out of date. Again they didn't tell me I had to find out on my own. What bothered me was they didn't even apologize, try to help me get my site back online or offer some sort of compensation. I was furious. I tried to call them but I couldn't reach them after 5pm or on weekends. Their support is only available from 9-5 mon-fri. It was awful. I was stuck. It has been a very frustrating time for me but in the end, we're back!!! Yay!!!!

Now the site is hosted on monsterhosting.ca. They're cheaper, offer more space and their support is fabulous. They respond right away. Support is available 24hr/day. What a difference.

Now I know the best thing about finding a good web host besides a reasonable price is 24hr 7 day a week support.

The Week Of Silence is from January 1-7

This week is a week of oral fasting. It is a time to be quiet, and tune in to what's going on inside of you. It is a time to think about the coming year and what we hope will happen. It is a time to project positive energy into the coming year, in hopes that it will be a happy, healthy and peaceful one.