I told iago2 that I'd put up pictures of some building walls that have been extensively tagged, but then I saw this trailer on my evening walk. ( More Here )

I took this photo earlier today up at the gazebo overlooking Mundy Pond. Graffiti is moving into the spotlight in St. John's city politics (along with 'panhandlers' as of this morning) so I've been paying more attention to it while I walk around the city. So far I've found the experience enjoyable, but admittedly I don't own any of the walls which sport such decorations. Except the gazebo is a publicly owned structure so I guess I have some stake in it.



( More photos here. )

To all you Chrisian's out there, have a Merry Christmas. For all the rest of us, happy Festivus!

When I heard the list of programs slated to have their funding cut (and in some cases eliminated) by the federal government this morning, the one that first triggered alarm bells for me was the decision to cut off the budget of the Law Commission of Canada. The alarms got louder when I heard the justification for this program being targeted (damn my early morning memory - I don't know for sure who said this) was that there was no need to be funding lawyers to attack federal laws.

Even though I freely admit that I don't know much about the LCC I was shocked that a representative of the New Government of Canada couldn't think of any reason why a parliamentary body would want an independent review of the laws it passes. Even in my pre-caffeinated, sleep-addled state I could think of several reasons why a fair and representative governing body would want to make sure that it's laws weren't having unforeseen consequences on unintentionally overlooked members of society. So I decided that maybe I was jumping to conclusions about what the LCC was and what it does did and I spent some time this morning gathering what will soon become antiquated knowledge.
( Read more... )

Now wait a minute, isn't a minority government supposed to be good for a country? Doesn't a minority government ensure that the ruling party can't stomp all over the country with impunity? What went wrong? The last minority government was paralyzed by relentless sniping from the opposition parties and was brought down in less than a year.

What does this New [Minority] Government of Canada do? Well among other things it declares that there are some things, set up by previous governments that are just no longer the priority of this New [Over-confident] Government of Canada.

(CBC coverage here)

Here's a brief list of some of the things that your New [The last election was a mandate to do whatever we want] Government of Canada no longer counts among its priorities:

• Museums
  
• Status of Women Canada
  
• the medical marijuana research program
  
• Law Commission of Canada (eliminated completely)
  
• Canadian Volunteerism Initiative
  
• First Nations/Inuit tobacco control strategy
  

This morning on the radio I heard Finance Minister Jim Flaherty explain that he didn't need to consult with the directors of the affected programs because he thought that the last election was a consultation with the people of Canada about our priorities. If this is what the Conservatives think they can do with the very limited mandate they received in the previous election I do not look forward to living in a country where they manage to form a majority government. It seems to me that the Conservatives didn't wait for three consecutive majorities to develop a "culture of entitlement" very similar to the one they relentlessly accused the Liberals of having.

Last year about this time I was inspired to start a spending diary. For three months I dutifully logged every penny we spent and exactly what we spent it on. Prior to starting this diary, I thought I knew where our money was going and that the exercise would be tedious and uninformative. It was tedious, but it was also extremely educational. And embarrassing. We found a number of problem areas that needed improving and discovered that not all of them were, strictly speaking, of a financial nature. We started eating healthier, directed more of our dollars to local retailers instead of multi-national chains and even began to exercise more (walking is both fun and free). The benefits of the diary far outweighed the tedium of keeping it.

Now, a year later, it's time for a repeat performance. I'm a little trepidacious about it this time. I know that some of our bad spending habits have resumed to some degree and I figure that there are whole new issues that have come up in the past nine months that we're not even aware of. On the other hand I know that the very act of observing our spending, alters our spending which will mean a smarter allocation of resources. Plus, it will be fun to compare the two journals in three months to see how things have changed.

I found this quote in Jack Layton's book, Speaking Out:

I am standing by the shore of a swiftly flowing river and I hear the cry of a drowning man. So I jump into the river, put my arms around him, pull him to shore and apply artificial respiration, and then just as he begins to breathe, another cry for help. So back in the river again, reaching, pulling, applying, breathing, and then another yell. Again and again, without end, goes the sequence. You know, I am so busy jumping in, pulling them to shore, applying artificial respiration, that I have no time to see who the hell is pushing them all in. - Irving K. Zola

For more about Dr. Zola, or to read his collection of short stories, check out his homepage.

Super-Fantastic Wonder Wife is going to do this too ...

the_nita says:

1. Go to Wkipedia and enter your DOB minus year.


2. List three historical events, two births and one death that happened on your birthday.

( Read more... )

the_nita says:

1. Go to Wkipedia and enter your DOB minus year.


2. List three historical events, two births and one death that happened on your birthday.

( Read more... )

So on Thursday I used these prophetic words: "Sure I’d like a new computer, but it would really suck if the old fourth-hand charity model I currently use didn’t turn on in the mornings." Can we guess, boys and girls, what happened on Friday morning?

According to one view of the universe, I was the recipient of an ironic Cosmic comeuppance for daring to tempt fate. According to another I was faced with a funny and harmless test of the philosophy I promoted last week. I'm proud to report that my recently found equanimity held up very well. I won't say that I danced the Dance of Joy or that I scorned the use of profanity, but I didn't let it ruin the weekend, or even the morning. For all you normal people out there this may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but for me it's a giant step forward.

Oh, yes, more thanks are in order to Buddy in Torbay (BiT, henceforth) for coming by yesterday and 'helping' me replace the power supply. Of course, we all know that 'helping' means that BiT did all the fiddly things that are involved with changing the power supply while I made tea and the occasional sarcastic comment.