U.S. soldier in battle for refugee status

Family moved to Canada after private refused to fight in 'dehumanising' Iraq war
US army private Jeremy Hinzman fought in Afghanistan and considers himself a patriot. But when his unit was ordered to Iraq, he refused to go and embarked on a radical journey that could make legal history.
Private first class Hinzman left the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, taking his wife and son to Canada. Officially, he is awol (absent without leave), and, instead of fighting insurgents, he is battling the US military in the Canadian courts.
This month Pte Hinzman, 25, filed legal papers to become the first US soldier objecting to the Iraq war to be granted refugee status in Canada. His case is expected to be a test of new Canadian immigration laws and the country's traditional role of accepting refugees from the US military.
An estimated 250 Americans every year seek refugee status in Canada, the vast majority making mental health claims, according to Jeffrey House, a Toronto criminal defence lawyer who represents Pte Hinzman.
"This is the first time a soldier from the Iraq war is seeking protection. He does not want to fight in Iraq and he will do any lawful thing to stay in Canada."

Best DishWasher in the World

I’m looking to put in a cooktop range and a dishwasher underneath it, but most dishwashers are of a standard...

Online comix to go

Thinking of Blue

Saw some nice warm(er) weather on the way to work today, but a little disappointed with the lack of colour...

Something to ‘Howl’ About

Ginsberg's Icon- Busting Poem Resonates in the Patriot Act Era
Fifty years ago, an unpublished 28-year-old American poet came into the United States at Mexicali dreaming of literary glory. His name was Allen Ginsberg, and after traveling from New York to Havana and through the jungles of Mexico, he was eager to write the great American poem. It was time for him to take his rightful place, or so he thought, with Walt Whitman and William Carlos Williams in the poet pantheon.
In California in 1954 . the year the nation began to emerge from McCarthyism, the Korean War and legal segregation in the South . Ginsberg began to shed his New York skin and cast himself as a wild West Coast poet. He wanted to write an explosive, apocalyptic poem befitting the Atomic Age. He would sing of himself and his country, with its "infernal bombs," "industries / of night" and "dreams / of war." Nothing would stop him, not his own "solitary craze" and certainly not the conformity of the times . the Eisenhower era, the Cold War . that seemed so antithetical to rebels with or without causes.

Kerouac Alley

I remember taking this pic in San Francisco. I’ve probably already posted it somewhere, but it’s still a neat pic,...

New house blues and reds

Feel like I’m being weighted down with all of the money issues and all the paperwork for the new house....

Speaking of Beats

Check out this awesome image I found on the ‘net. I didn’t know Louie Armstrong was a Beat…

Beat Generation

Reading Kerouac’s _Maggie_Cassidy_ today, and thinking about the beat generation. In the depths of the Greyhound Terminal sitting dumbly on...

Almost ready for update.

The new template is almost finished for the main page — just have to tweak some link colours, and I’ll...