From the closet

This is Harper's tongue-in-cheek assessment of Canada to Americans in 1997. It is a bit old, somewhat amusing, somewhat downright alarming. Oh well. Make up your own mind.
http://bdoskoch.electionblog.ctv.ca/default.asp?item=117978

dilbert goes universal

very interesting, fresh, and quite different take on the world:
http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/godsdebris/

who's really at risk?

Ottawa Citizen p.A15, "Evolutionists suffer from self-delusions", Sunday 060115

[quoted by author from unclear source]
"The scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation. His religious feeling takes the form of rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals the intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."

I quite agree. However, to quote rocker Ronnie Hawkins: "I believe in God, but it's the [expletive deleted] ground crew I don't trust." I couldn't agree more: Science is a disciplined approach to examine the marvels of natural laws without interference from any self-righteous ground crew.

slow swinging pendulum

Ottawa Citizen p.A11, "Onward Christian Soldiers", Sunday 060115

"Mr. Foster, the political scientist, says he has asked politically engaged evangelicals how they stay optimistic in the face of overwhelming evidence that suggests Canadians reject the overt role of religion in politics and public policy.
The overwhelming answer I get is that they hold out hope that sooner or later, enough Canadians are going to be so disillusioned, so disaffected with so-called progressive policies that they will see the light, as it were, and return to the guardians of tradition. That in itself is characteristic of people of faith."

uh, return to the guardians of whose tradition? We'd be in a nasty pickle if every neighborhood started arguing over which tradition to follow and what to do with those who don't comply... I suppose that public debate, commitment and enforcement, in a manner acceptable to all, would be required to prevent escalation to the point of crusades, civil wars, concentration camps, etc.

Could it be that our democracy was borne out of people being so disillusioned and disaffected with so-called religious policies that they saw the light and returned to the ancient greek tradition of democracy?

religion and democracy

Religion is fundamentally anti-democratic.
Please keep religion out of politics!

instant gratification

The quality of a democracy depends on the knowledge of its people. "True knowledge requires a combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/01/12/dumbing_down_a_college_education/

Computers and the internet have ushered in the "information age." However, as we humans increasingly seek instant gratification in most areas of our lives, we will gradually loose our right to consider ourselves knowledgeable (not unlike one who lives in an all-you-can-eat buffet eventually forgets how to cook).

Much like the "if a tree falls in the forest" thing, if we are all too dumb to know the difference, does it really matter? The problem I see with the dumbing down of society is that we become ripe for corruption and other abuses of power. Depending on the time/society intersection, various groups having abused this power including the Roman Empire (and its last vestige, the RC Church right up to the Duplessis gov't in Qc), the American/Middle Eastern oil industry, etc. If we all give in and settle on such a lazy path, we invariably weaken the fundamental pillar of democracy.

land of the free?

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/01/13/is_roe_v_wade_already_collapsing/

Abortion ends the life of ''a whole, separate, unique living human being." This year, the Legislature, which just opened its 35-day session, is being pressed by a state task force to add more mis-informed consent, more delays, more expensive barriers.

I find it ironic that legislators, who send soldiers out to ("proactively") end the ways of life of whole, separate, unique living human beings (i.e., killing foreigners in their own countries) that threaten them in some financial way, don't respect a woman's choice to end an unborn life, that threatens her in some very personal way. I suspect that star-spangled banner now waves only o'er the home of the brave, having stopped waving long ago o'er land of the free.

living next to a self-righteous mass-murdering sociopath

Has anybody actually paid any real attention to the US national anthem recently?!
http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/ssb.html

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution. (!!!)
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand (what about free women?)
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land (!!!)
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. (???)
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Big words, wrong message

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3199925,00.html

"It is the world's interest that Iran not have a nuclear weapon," said Bush, adding that Iran must not "have capacity to blackmail free societies."
Wow. Big words, but what message does this really convey:
* That only once Iran joins the club of nuclear powers will its people really be free, but the world would rather keep them enslaved?
* That only once Iran becomes a nuclear power will they be allowed to blackmail?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany "would not be intimidated by a country like Iran."
* That once Iran develops nuclear weapons they will actually worry Germany?

Seems to me that these words would further strengthen their purported desire to develop a nuclear program (and annihilate the world to bring about the next messiah), and I'm not sure that's a good place to go.

first laugh!

shortly after supper last night. twice within a few minutes! it was amazing to hear him do that, like finding another gold clue on a path to great hidden treasure.

Consistency

POST-DEBATE UPDATE: I must say that Duceppe justified this position fairly well during tonight's debate.

Gotta give it to the Bloq. Duceppe was quoted as saying something like "we already had a free vote to resolve that issue [gay marriage]; now its normal and we have to get used to that."
Funny how that logic doesn't apply to referenda...

(source: tonight's Royal Canadian Air Farce" on CBC, who haven't been taking any hostages from any party)

Justice and Fashion

Harper wants to pass tougher sentences for crime (and Layton is flirting with him on this issue). Meanwhile, correctional services are cutting back on guards/parol officers. What good are tougher sentences if there's nobody to enforce them?
On a side note: RDI reported last night that violent crimes have actually decreased over the past 25 years, contrary to Harper's claims. Also, sentences and prisons in the US are a lot tougher than ours, yet their violent crime rate is more than 6 times higher. To me, that solution doesn't seem very effective...

Humanity is a race

Here are a few quotes I thought relevant following my previous post:

Humanity is a race between chaos and prosperity. -- (source?)

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. -- Thomas Paine

All that is essential for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. -- John Stuart Mill

Meaning, and the Means to achieve it

(ok - this is a long one - if I were a political candidate, this would be my opening speech.)

I think it is a fair to say that we have always wanted the opportunity to express ourselves. The environments we work in, standardized and normalized over the years in search of efficiency (Taylorism, Total Quality, Maturity Models, Six Sigma, etc) have given us a high standard of living and afforded us with the means to create our own environments in which we feel we have the ability to express ourselves. This undoubtedly accounts for the recent trends in home renovations and blogging, where some of us feel we have a certain degree of control in our lives and can express our individuality without fear or retribution.

This trend actually started much earlier. Perhaps around 150 years ago, people began fleeing to the suburbs in pursuit of privacy and expression, to escape their duties as promoted by their Church, state, tribal elders or local wardlords, and enforced through poverty, hardship, restricted education and fear (of violence and/or of god). Religion, on the one hand, lost credibility by denying science and education in desperate attempts to stay in power, yet most people stopped following. State governments, more recently, have lost the confidence of the people through mismanagement and abuse of public resources, and people voted in representatives thta would cut services and amalgamate municipal governments (rather than dress the wounds, we thought it better to amputate). Problem is, these amalgamated city councils appear even more distant furtherer alienating its constituents and effectively reducing democratic involvement.

I fear this democratic deficit is actually a step backwards from the standard of living our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents have achieved for us, which we all take for granted today. By cutting democratic participation and government spending, we are slowly reducing our ability to counter corporate influence and exposing ourselves to greater abuses (environmentally and with conflicts of interest). I also believe that a democratic deficit increases the political risk (control by the government's ability to influence/coerce its people) and discourages technological and other risky investments.

Some would argue that market forces would be sufficient to keep this all in check, but if significant investments start dwindling, we consumers start losing our jobs, any influence we might have had as consumers to encourage industry to "do the right thing" is the first to be sacrificed as we focus on our own survival. (Try telling someone in a 3rd world country to stop cooking over an open fire because it causes global warming.) Canadians would expect our social safety net to catch us - but who pays for it? We are already hugely in debt because of it, and times have been very good. We would have to rely on our credit rating, but with reduced government, reduced investment, fewer jobs, fewer dollars coming in, and vanishing ability (and will) to enforce good legislation (i.e., taxes), how could anyone believe we could turn ourselves around? We would quickly join the ranks of the many banana-republics, where officials (sometimes elected) prostitute themselves to a significantly richer neighbour (currently the US) in desperate hope for favours. Meanwhile, local warlords, tribal elders, and the church will enroll us so they can fight amongst themselves over who will fill the democratic power vacuum.

That is not the kind of society I want to raise my son (or any other children-in-waiting) in. We have institutions, we have laws, and mostly we have great people. I firmly believe we have to restore democracy in our institutions so they can uphold our laws, so that we can continue to afford the quality of life as we know it, and continue to bring out the best in this world. To this end, I am extremely proud to pay my taxes, since the more taxes I have to pay, the more I have made for my family and the more I can share with others so they can enjoy a similar standard of living, express themselves without fear nor retribution, and appreciate the expressions of others.

cents nonsense

Apparently, it costs Canadian taxpayers and consumers nearly $100 million dollars every year to keep the stupid penny in circulation.

http://www.whyfor.com/nocents/nocents.htm
http://www.marklewis.ca/nocents/chande_fisher.pdf

Since the Royal Canadian Mint produces on demand (some years up to 2200 TONNES of pennies), KEEP THE DAMN THINGS IN CIRCULATION!

From now on, I'll also be telling cashiers "no cents for me please."