He saw it coming

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism
lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy,
which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a
dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The
effects are apparent in many countries, improvident
habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish
methods of commerce, and insecurity of property
exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or
live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of
its grace and refinement the next of its dignity and
sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every
woman must belong to some man as his absolute
property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine,
must delay the final extinction of slavery until the
faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among
men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but
the influence of the religion paralyses the social
development of those who follow it. No stronger
retrograde force exists in the world.

Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant
and proselytizing faith. It has already spread
throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors
at every step; and were it not that Christianity is
sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science
against which it had vainly struggled, the
civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell
the civilization of ancient Rome."

Short speech reportedly by Sir Winston Churchill, in 1899.
(The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages
248-50, London: Churchill saw it coming.)

why i don't trust them

Thou shalt not lean too far to the right
globeandmail.com, September 22, 2007
Words of wisdom from Tom Flanagan, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary and a former Conservative campaign manager:

"...People don't vote just for good ideas; they vote for potential rulers whose character they can trust and who inspire passions of loyalty and support. Conservative statecraft has to be more than the logical deduction of policies from philosophical premises if it is going to succeed. It has to be an artistic combination of sound policy with the deft communication of conservative values, such as integrity, reliability and fortitude."

Then, in the next two breaths,

"Staff must avoid the limelight and let the communications department deal with the media. Candidates must talk about the platform, not their personal beliefs, and (except for designated spokesmen) concentrate on local rather than national media."

and

"Conservatives have to conduct thorough opposition research and make use of the results, run hard-hitting, fact-based negative ads, and do whatever is legally possible to jam our opponents' communications and disrupt their operations."

followed by:

"A conservative party stresses individual choice and responsibility in a competitive marketplace. That gives it a special responsibility to deal with voters as individuals, to find out what their concerns are, and to give them a stake in the political process by making it easy for them to donate time and money."

Besides the fact that I don't know why Conservatives believe the role of the prime minister is supposed to be a despot, how can they talk about demonstrating such contradictory values as "trusting character," integrity, and reliability at the same time as running attack-ads (based on stories that could only have been avoided if they were in full control of the media) and stressing individual choice and responsibility while forbidding personal beliefs; how can I go about convincing people to "donate time and money" to me (without any strings)?

PS. http://ago.mobile.globeandmail.com/generated/archive/RTGAM/html/20070921/cover22.html
and, in case it gets censoreddeleted:
http://mqup.typepad.com/mcgill_queens_university_/tom_flanagan/index.html

you call this leadership?

Caucus dissent grows over schools policy
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070925.wonttory25/BNStory/ontarioelection2007/Ontario/

Bill Murdoch [Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP] said in his rural riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound that he could no longer defend his boss' plan to extend public funding to Jewish, Muslim and other religious schools. He said he came to that realization after hearing "loud and clear" while campaigning door to door that residents are predominantly against the policy.
At a campaign stop in Guelph yesterday, [Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory rather childishly] dismissed Mr. Murdoch as a "maverick" and said his views are not representative of the other 24 caucus members.
"Bill Murdoch is sort of like a jack-in-the-box, where you wind the handle and you don't know when something's going to pop up with Bill and it popped up today" Mr. Tory said.
"I think you will find we have good support for this policy," he said. "I mean, when you look up maverick in the dictionary, you find his picture there in colour."
[Granted, ]Mr. Murdoch has become renowned during his 17 years as a member of the provincial legislature for speaking his mind [, but] At least five other [PC] caucus members have expressed reservations about the policy, including veteran MPP Bob Runciman. He recently told The Canadian Press that: "It's not playing well. I am not hearing from people [who are] supportive, by and large."
Meanwhile, John Tory is running TV ads blasting Dalton for broken promises and praising himself as a good leader. I wasn't sure that slandering a member of the team, a well-seasoned MPP was a appropriate behaviour, so I looked up the definition of the term "leadership." Oddly enough, John Tory's picture was not there.

Save the Lawn Lamps!

The days of the soft white (incandescent) snowball lawn lamps in my earth-friendly, simple-lined, well integrated, 1970s heritage neighborhood are numbered.
The city of Ottawa wants to tear them up and replace them with one of several gaudy and garish "pre-approved" models (majority vote by street) and increase overall illumination levels.
Other than the recommendations affecting Katimavik and Beaverbrook, the draft policy is quite well done.
I do NOT want high-mast high-pressure sodium replacements - the dull orange glow sucks the color out of everything, and, being so much higher, they are often obstructed by trees and cast shadows across peoples' faces. This style clashes severely with Teron and Campeau's visions of building pedestrian- and earth-friendly neighborhoods, which is specifically what attracted me to this area. Brighter lighting will strip the pedestrian character of the streets and encourage drivers to drive even faster.
I've spoken about this to my community association, contacted my city councilor and emailed two city officials on this. I want a change of course. The one-size-fits-all just doesn't.

Producer responsibility

I don't know how much of this I've blogged compared to how often I've written notes on the way home from work on this topic, but I'm very much of the opinion that manufacturers have to be taxed on the crap that they are bringing to the Canadian market, both product AND packaging. Not made in Canada? No problem: tax the Importer. This tax would correspond to a portion of the environmental cost of disposing the product at the end of its useful life in an environmentally-friendly manner. For example, the cost of gas would increase by (a fraction, initially, of) the cost of capturing the major pollutant gases and transforming the for reuse elsewhere. Why? so we stop wasting energy violating the planet extracting her natural resources and throwing the waste products right back at her. That's no way to treat a woman, let alone your mother (earth). Anyway, I'm really glad to see that this idea is getting traction and even got exposure at the debate between the local candidates for Member of Provincial Parliament. Partial transcript follows (formatting mine):

Legend
All points are paraphrased as best as I could interpret them.
"Stuff in quotes are verbatim comments, as best as I remember them."
[Stuff in square brackets are my personal comments.]

EMC Press question: Where do you stand on the Carp Dump expansion?
Norm Sterling (PC, incumbent): I was the first in the riding to oppose it. I opposed it in the legislature.
- McGuinty promised 60% diversion of waste but this was nowhere near achieved; the environmental commission in Ontario decried his lack of action in this area.
- I want to ban organics in landfills.

John Ogilvy (Green): We have to focus on the long-term, and we have a plan to divert waste from the industrial and commercial sector.
- Says NS had 30 years to do something about this.
- Believes in producer responsibility laws, where the creater of a product is responsible for its eventual disposal.

Michael Hadskis (NDP): Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!
- Producer responsibility laws: yeah!

Megan Cornell (Liberal): When NS was MoE, he reduced funding for blue box recycling.
- The Liberals have a plan that will work.

Norm Sterling: Said that gov't blue box funding was cut because it was replaced by funding from a fund which was paid into by the packaging producers themselves. This saved taxpayer money!

Thanks to Michael Low for taking the time to transcribe this and distribute it after the debate.

ain't this the truth

the ultimate facebook song. really. amusingly truthful.

DO NOT CALL service

I signed up for the DO NOT CALL service at the CMA. I'm also curious to see if also selecting the DO NOT MAIL option makes a dent in the amount of crap I recycle every week.

greening vs greenwashing

I was pleasantly surprised to find a Top Ten list of questions for product design on the Canadian Marketing Association's website. Then again, naturally, they would want to show they really do care about the environment and want others to follow suit... sure... maybe its just their implementation of a greenwashing strategy?

computer costs

Did You Know
A computer that is on constantly uses approximately $165 worth of electricity per year. However, if it is on continuously, but goes into 'sleep mode' , it will cost $84 per year to operate. If you shut it off at night, it will cost only $28 per year.

From the Canada School of Public Service's Green Procurement course (C215).

Too bad they don't state the electricity rates or actual power consumption so we can calculate difference at today's rates wherever we happen to be. Still, should be enough to convince people to power their PCs down when not in use for a large chunk of the day.

urinal social-awareness devices

just to give those bladder-shy guys out there something else to worry about:
electronic talking urinal mints
don't miss the embedded video.

first time

I went to my first community association meeting tonight. Been wanting to go for a coupla years now but this was the first time I actually (a) had open schedule and (b) had something of grave enough concern that the local paper and city councilor wrote up on it last weekend (councilor even sent out an email to those on her list).

locals stayed mostly for the grave part: correctional svcs ontario is relocating a parole/probationary something services office just down the street from a "less to-do" area closer in town. my assessment is that us locals feel that our beyond-the-greenbelt non-ottawa-proper-community status has been violated, partly adding to the still simmering amalgamation resentment. Now "they" want to move ex-cons and parolees and other such people under community surveillance (from "in town") out into "our" neighborhood in the middle of two grade schools, several day care centres, a womens' shelter, and its just beyond a little forest running behind some of our backyards. Go figure. "Oh and by the way its opening next month we're just here to advertise our program really, and reassure you that only the high-risk people will be visiting twice a month, with no extra surveillance in the area. Did we mention there was only one death associated with such a program in the past 20 years? You see, nothing to worry about. The two other facilities in Ottawa are in a high-traffic street in an industrial park and at the provincial courthouse. We thought your little bedroom community is perfect for us here in the west end."

Its a major case of NIMBY, and I am just as apprehensive as the other residents who attended tonight; I don't like it one bit.

After the rather tense Q&A period that ensued, everybody except the community association executive and the local councilor cleared the room. I stayed behind, paid my dues, listened to the issues being discussed, and threw in my two cents' worth (though perhaps too forcefully for a newcomer - but hey - there weren't any rules of engagement and I haven't been around these things to know any better).

Having already thrown my regular caution to the wind, I can only hope my credibility didn't go with it. I will only know after the next few meetings. >:) (evil grin)

outstanding in french fields

bill-maher-aime-les-francais

deeds, not words

I remember my dad got letters from the Prime and Defence Ministers' offices in response to a complaint he sent them about nuclear submarines many years ago - must have been under Mulroney. Later, under Chretien, I received email responses from the PMO from most of the comments I sent them via the PMO website.
In contrast, I still haven't had any response whatsoever from any of the various emails and comments I have submitted to the current PM and his ministers. Seems to me a small army of public affairs people responding to individual citizens' inquiries is a good way to show you truly take personal accountability to heart...

footprints

Our current standard of living is like a frat party that has no intention of cleaning up after itself. Is this how we want the Earth (or at least future civilizations, if there are any) to remember us?

Low, even by Conservative standards

The enemy within...

CBC Covers Harper's SPP Police Provocateurs in Montebello TV broadcast from CBC local news

SPP Police Provocateurs Outed in Quebec Actual video footage taken by demonstration organizers

Police Pose As Protesters At Montebello Summit TV broadcast on CTV NewsNet

Quebec police admit they went undercover at Montebello protest Article on cbc.ca/news

another great initiative

A forum/channel dedicated to Green IT news.

Awesome initiative

There is a city called Dongtan being built in China - designed from scratch - to be as self-sufficient and sustainable as possible.

CNN newsclip

Developer's website

Ubercool. I really hope they succeed as a role model for other developers and governments everywhere around the world.

economic liability / guillotine

Apparently self-storage is a multi-billion dollar industry in the US. If I understand correctly, people are paying to store stuff that was replaced by new stuff bought, with maxed out credit cards...

I dunno, but I figure that not too far from now, when banks start threatening to repossess mortgage collateral, we're gonna start seeing a lot of this junk (new and old) hit the second-hand market all at once. I'm glad I'm not in that situation because I suspect a lot of them are gonna find themselves even deeper have-nots than they are trying so hard to avoid admitting today... If I still have a job by then and civil unrest doesn't loom too close to my home, I might go on a buying spree. Either that or I'll establish a security guard and compound business! :)

Fixing the imbalance

Being green is in the long-term economic interest, although it is primarily perceived as against many Canadians' financial interests, at least in the short term.
Unfortunately, manufacturers know they cannot count on the "early adopters" (those who are willing to pay a premium to get the latest technology) phenomenon because many of those that are green at heart cannot afford it. This is why I believe the following steps are necessary to restore a little ecological balance to the financial system: 1. promote the perception of value of green; 2. label goods with their environmental footprint; and 3. adopt more holistic financial incentives to encourage suppliers, investors and consumers to make, sponsor and buy more "green."

1) Promoting the value of "Green". Cynics will be quick to undermine any public awareness campaign as being motivated by personal gain (some under-educated author of a letter-to-the-editor called David Suzuki a "light-bulb salesman" for his part in the PowerWise campaign - I am still ashamed of that). You and I know that in the vast majority of cases, that is simply not the prime motivator, and even if it is, they can't be faulted for working within the capitalist/free enterprise system (or does that make them feel betrayed? hmmm). What has to be made very clear is that green buyers are motivated by something a lot larger, a lot more honorable, than greed.

2) Footprint labeling. It is very difficult for consumers to "vote with their dollars" when there are no effective means of comparing the environmental footprint (harm caused in the production and eventual disposal) of one product over another. And how to know which is better when marketers and advertisers flaunt their wares with such meaningless terms as "all-natural" and the like? There is also no standard for the "organic" certification. If manufacturers are unwilling to self-regulate, the federal government should impose regulations and standard labels much like those for nutritional value in foods and hazardous materials in... just about everything.

3) Holistic financial incentives. On this point I believe the Ontario government deserves a lot of credit: they have eliminated the PST on qualifying EnergyStar appliances, offered mail-in-rebates for hi-eff furnaces and air conditioners. All these programs reduce the cost barriers to the acquisition of environmentally-friendly yet more expensive products. Another incentive, much less known, is a pay-per-output mechanism where companies must share the cost burden of recycling all the packaging materials that accompany their products. If this cost-sharing mechanism were to be extended to cover the recovery and recycling of their actual products, manufacturers would pay a little more attention to what materials are used in production. These costs would have to be shared with consumers, so products compete on the basis of the cost-efficiency of raw materials, transformation, AND end-of-life recovery. The flat rate deposit per item (tires, engine oil and most recently electronics in Ontario) doesn't provide this kind of competition. One thing I am glad every government has firmly resisted is reducing the gas tax - such a move would be a counter-incentive and confuse the pro-environment image they are all currently trying to create for themselves.

Being green shouldn't mean buying less, it should mean buying better. Implemented together in a concerted effort, promoting the value of green, imposing footprint labeling standards, and extending financial incentives and burden-sharing programs will effectively harness the competitive forces and neutralize the barriers to adoption of a more sustainable lifestyle for all to enjoy for generations.

polling for policy

I participated in a telephone poll recently on the subject of national policies and political parties. How could I resist? They asked questions like "Do you agree with the course that the Stephen Harper government is currently on, and do you believe they will maintain this course if they form the next majority government?" and "How well do you know what Liberal Leader Stephane Dion stands for, and is he doing a good job at making himself known to Canadians?"
The obvious slant of these sample Q's is due to my selective memory - I was continuously trying to detect whether there was any bias in favour of one party or the other, but overall, I just couldn't tell for sure (though I suspect for the Liberals, if any at all). So I asked at the end who commissioned the poll, and when and where could I see the results. Naturally the minimum wage pollster and the part-time mcdonald's hamburger team leader supervisor didn't have that information.

I can't decide whether to trust these polls enough to justify spending my time answering them. On the one hand, I'd like to believe that they are legitimate research leading to actual policy making, in which case I'd be happy to participate and have my say. On the other hand, I just can't shake the suspicion that they are used for spin doctoring, marketing or advertising existing policies (or digging for personal campaign-style attack material).

From now on, if I want to be heard (or at least have my say, whether it is read or not), I'll express my opinions in a letter (or two or three or more) to my MP. It's free, I can take the time to research and justify my opinions, and is the way of influencing public policy (at least in theory). But then again, when used properly, poll results can sway public opinion (if only indirectly as it affects what newspaper editors include in their editions), and somebody out there is surely trying to force a little yang to my yin so it has to balance out.

Speaking of balance, perhaps, as with all other things, a multi-pronged approach is probably best. Sounds (small p) political, doesn't it? There - I've successfully talked myself out of having to change anything I do.


PS. Poll in question was Insight Canada Research, 1800-363-0499, number 994.