Telemiracle 34 has wapped up in Regina.

This year Telemiracle raised a total of $4,010,314!

Last year, Telemiracle raised $3.8 million.

THANK YOU Saskatchewan!

It’s the Telemiracle weekend as the Kinsmen Telemiracle Foundation host Telemiracle 34.

Every year groups, organizations and individuals raise money for Telemiracle. I remember as a kid back in Gravelbourg the elementary school would have a hot dog sale to raise money for Telemiracle, as I recall the annual hot dog sale raised a fair bit of money each year.

This year, Telemiracle returns to Regina taking place at the Conexus Arts Centre. Doors open at 8pm with the 20-hour telethon beginning at 9pm continuing until 5pm Sunday.

Last year’s Telemiracle raised $3.8 million.

Well it looks like the federal government has come to its senses on a proposal to change a line in the national anthem to make ‘O Canada’ more “gender neutral.”

The government said Friday it’s decided not to review the lyrics of “O Canada.”

Much of Canada was abuzz after the government announced in Wednesday’s throne speech that it would look into making the lyrics to “O Canada” more gender-neutral. Of those who responded to the 620 CKRM online poll question on the subject, 98.4% said the government should not make ‘O Canada’ more general neutral.

The government now says it will longer be considering changing the lyric “all thy sons command” because of public disapproval.

The throne speech suggested a review of the anthem and possibly restoring the controversial line to the original words “thou dost in us command.”

On Friday afternoon, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement affirming the change was abandoned because of strong public reaction.

“We offered to hear from Canadians on this issue and they have already spoken loud and clear,” PMO spokesman Dimitri Soudas said in a release.

Now this is the kind of government flip-flop that actually makes sense!

Many in Regina are still talking about some city hall workers getting an eye-full from a man who streaked into city hall the other day.

Well here’s a story of something else, which should have been covered up or maybe just someone who’s a little too up tight?

In New Jersey, police have forced a woman to cover up a snow sculpture modeled on the famous nude Venus de Milo.

Elisa Gonzalez carved the ancient Greek-style torso from snow on her front lawn and says her work was initially a hit.

“It looked very beautiful,” she said. “We got a lot of attention from people in the neighborhood. Some of them got out and took pictures and spoke to us.”

One neighbor clearly felt the snow nude — headless, armless, and cut off above the knees — was too hot.

“We had a visit from the local police who told us that a neighbor had complained about the statue and we needed to cover it up or knock it down,” Gonzalez said. “We didn’t want to have any problem with the police so we covered it up.”

Here’s what the censored version of the snow sculpture looks like:

Is the world a safer place now?

One surprise from the government’s throne speech was a proposal to tweak the wording of “O Canada.”

A sentence in the 6,000-word speech, which was delivered Wednesday afternoon by Governor General Michaelle Jean, said the Conservatives would ask Parliament “to examine the original gender-neutral English wording of the national anthem.”

The lyric in question: “True patriot love in all thy sons command.”

Under the Conservatives’ proposal those words would revert to an earlier version of the anthem written by Stanley Weir in 1908.

The lyric would be replaced with the phrase “True patriot love thou dost in us command.”

I like most men; women and children (people to be politically correct) never realized some were offended by our national anthem. I think this is nothing but political correctness being shoved down our throats and a complete waste of time for the government to even consider a lyric change for the national anthem. I just hope the government wakes up before a lot of time; effort and money will be spent on a debate over ‘O Canada.’

Joannie Rochette will carry the Canadian flag into tonight’s closing ceremony for the Vancouver Olympics.

The 24-year-old figure skater from Ile-Dupas, Que., won a bronze medal less than a week after her mom Therese died of a heart attack.

Rochette said she was “surprised and touched” to be selected. “Why me’” she said with a smile noting that she had only won a bronze. She said she wanted the closing ceremony to be a celebration of how Canada did at the games.

“I want to walk into that stadium with a big smile on my face.”

It had been widely speculated that short-track speedskater Charles Hamelin would be the flag bearer for the closing ceremonies.

However, the Canadian Olympic Committee said Hamelin was never considered for the task.

The closing ceremonies will be broadcast tonight at 7pm on CTV.

The 21st Olympic games will wrap up Sunday in Vancouver. After seventeen days of competition and years of planning, the Vancouver winter games are just about to go down in history.

So how will it end?

Naturally, details are a closely guarded secret, but John Furlong the CEO for VANOC did say the closing ceremonies will be light-hearted and will poke fun at Canada.

The promise is that the ceremonies will showcase some “pretty amazing Canadian talent” and burst some Canadian myths.

As for performers, the big names winding their way through the rumour mill include Michael Buble, Diana Krall and the rock-group Rush.

The closing ceremony will be broadcast Sunday at 7pm on CTV.

WOW!

What an edge of your seat nail-biter (and any other kind of cliché) to describe the end of Friday’s semi-final as Canada played Slovakia.

Canada started the third leading 3-0, but Slovakia netted two and almost got a third to tie late in the game, but Canada came out on top 3-2.

Patrick Marleau, Brenden Morrow and Ryan Getzlaf scored for
Canada, while Lubomir Visnovsky and Michal Handzus got the
Slovak goals in a third-period rally.

Canada will face the USA in the Gold medal game on Sunday looking for a little revenge over last Sunday’s 5-3 round-robin defeat.

Go Canada!

As the Olympics continue, it’s interesting to see the clothing styles chosen by the countries involved and how some styles have caught on with the general public.

Here at home, the greatest Olympic style success has been those red mittens. But many in Norway and around the world are commenting about the men’s curling team pants. Those red, white and blue diamond patterned pants are proving as much a hit in Norway as around the world.

Personally, I would expect to see those pants as something a jester would wear or Herb Tarlek from the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati. While the pants are not to my taste, many love the pants.

In fact, a Facebook fan page dedicated to the Norwegian men’s curling team pants claims to have over 435,000 fans. Among those fans include Norway’s King Harald who said he loves the pants and reportedly just got his own pair.

I’m sure after the Olympic are finished, the colorful diamond pants will be mass marketed; perhaps proof the 1970’s live on!

It was another “must win” game for Team Canada in men’s Olympic hockey. Canada faced Russia, a team they haven’t beat in Olympic hockey since 1960.

That dry spell came to an end as Canada defeated Russia 7-3 in the quarterfinal show down between the rivals.

The key victory will see Canada advance to the semifinals to play the winner of the quarterfinal game between Sweden and Slovakia.

Of course expectations are very high for the men’s hockey team to win. In a Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll taken just before the Olympics began, Canadians ranked winning the gold medal in men’s hockey as more important than Canada topping the overall medal rankings.

No pressure for Team Canada, eh?

Go Canada Go!