Afternoon Star November 30, 2006
Posted by politicsranter in Intrigue, Media.add a comment
Today’s Star P.M (which I would love even more if it worked consistently and didn’t crash Firefox so often) is full of intriguing bits.
#1 – The leaked report on children’s aid society mismanagement. Executives got $50,000 SUVs and “first visits to probe children at risk were an average of three weeks late, with some children never been seen at all.” Three weeks is far too long in the life of an abused child. And never is unacceptable.
#2 – The picture on page 5.The combination of the caption saying the kids are HIV positive and the kid on the bottom’s charming, happy, adorable expression made me want to cry at my desk.
#3 – The part about health myths on page 10, especially this one:
Don’t wait before calling 911 if someone is showing symptoms of heart attack or stroke
Seems common sense enough, but when my dad had his stroke, I had to make numerous phone calls from 5 hours away pleading for the people who went to check on him to get him to the hospital. I later found out that another friend of his had come over and left, despite the fact that he wasn’t able to talk, other than to say yes or no.
I could have done without the heavy-hitting investigation into starlets flashing their crotches, though. “Is it on purpose? Is it an accident?” Who cares?
The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year November 29, 2006
Posted by politicsranter in News.2 comments
The time when everyone’s too busy buying presents to bother with the symbolism and celebration of Christmas and buy a real tree. Lame.
Who Counts? Pt. II November 29, 2006
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Scott Feschuk and Rex Murphy made excellent points today on the Quebecois nation debate. The whole thing was such a favour-currying rush job that no one really managed to work out the details that well. Today’s Torontoist has a link to metafilter’s discussion on the subject. As you can tell, people have different opinions on the subject.
So who IS part of this nation? Everyone in Quebec? Only the french-speaking people in Quebec? What about people whose first language is english, but they mostly speak french now? What about French-Canadians who live in Alberta?
Gordon Campbell has already suggested that Canada’s aboriginal population (who really should have been first in line before Quebec, anyway) be declared a nation. I’m taking bets on who’s next. My money’s on Labrador. No one’s really sure about Labrador anyway, so why not make it clear as mud?
Another Day, Another $325,000 November 28, 2006
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More government money-stealing!
Auditor General Sheila Fraser released a report today detailing, among other things, that Ron Stewart collected $325,000 worth of stuff with the governement’s money (a lot of it trips to Grey Cup-hosting cities) and didn’t do a lot of work. Reuters claims that he was at a cabin with no phone from April-October most years. I’m annoyed, but not surprised (I doubt anyone is).
I used to work in a government office. I answered the phone and kept track of who was there and who wasn’t. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to call asking to speak to so-and-so and so-and-so not be there. It was also not uncommon for them to ask to speak to someone else in that department, and for me to be unable to find anyone else in a three or four person department. It was also a fairly frequent occurence for people to head over to the pub next door at lunch, and then peek their head in to say, “I’m taking the afternoon off” afterwards. Meal allowances and mileage were generous.
So this is why I wasn’t upset when Harper cut the HRSDC’s youth employment programs. I’ve had two separate jobs, for three summers, through that program and 90% of the time I was sitting around trying to pretend like I had work to do and wanting to stab myself in the eye because I was so bored. Places that don’t really need a summer student hire one just because they get the funding. I know that a while ago I was complaining about not enough grants for post-secondary students, and you’re probably thinking that I could really just view the program as grants and be happy with it. But I would much rather that the government funelled the money saved by cutting the HRSDC’s program into true grants, and let businesses that are able to pay for their own summer student do so. I’m still in favour of helping out non-profits and struggling businesses with student wages. But this way, students could potentially get a job (funded by the private sector) AND a grant (funded by the public sector). Sure, there might be less summer jobs initially, but I think eventually more and more businesses will start finding the money for a students and more and more students will become creative in their job hunting. I’m as left-wing as they come, but one of my biggest problems with the left is its knee-jerkiness (more on that tomorrow) and ability to find a battle point in everything. A lot of HRSDC jobs were a waste of money and amounted to the government paying for students to sit around and do nothing. It’s money that can be much better spent.
Apparently It Isn’t Something Everyone Can Get Behind November 28, 2006
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Give me a break.
There are a couple of things about this that seem really stupid to me.
The homeowners’ association demanded Jensen remove the wreath from her house, saying it doesn’t allow flags or signs that are considered divisive.
Since when was peace a “divisive” issue? Peace is pretty good. I always thought that was something most people could agree on. Evidently I was wrong.
But it turns out that maybe it wasn’t peace that people were up in arms about. They had misinterpreted what the signifier was signifying.
Jensen was ordered to take the wreath down when some residents in her 200-home subdivision saw it as a protest of the Iraq war. Bob Kearns, president of the board, also said some saw it as a symbol of Satan.
Have people gone so insane over wars and terrorist threats and absolute patriotism that they forgot about a little thing called Christmas? Last time I checked, a peace sign Christmas wreath was a Christmas decoration, not a sign of Satan. It may have been a disguised statement on the war, but so what? Her wreath didn’t say “I hate GWB and his stupid war” (not that I’m saying she shouldn’t be allowed to say that, I’m just going by their guidelines for non-divisiveness). It simply showed that she doesn’t like people fighting and dying. She just wishes people could all get along. Most people should be able to get on board with that.
The last thing that bothers me about this is this propensity of suburbs and subdivisions and condo buildings to regulate everything so tightly. Some rules are good. They keep a semblance of order in the world. But when the associations that govern these places make rules about how your house can look, just so everything looks the same, it gets creepy and unnecessary. I thought that when you owned a house, it was yours to do what you want with. In some places you can’t even have a clothesline. Use more unnecessary energy so that we don’t have unsightly clotheslines around! Ugh. This is one of the many reasons I will never, ever live in the suburbs. If I live in the city, I want to live in the city. Otherwise, I would live way out in the country.
Connect The Dots November 27, 2006
Posted by politicsranter in Media, News.3 comments
There are a couple of articles of note in The Cord this week (for non-WLU people, this is Laurier’s student newspaper, where I worked for four years). The interesting thing about them is they way they connect. Check it out:
and
Hmmm. Perhaps one step towards combating homophobia on campus is to hire a diversity co-ordinator who doesn’t say things like:
With a background in race, ethnicity and culture, Brown was blunt about her exposure to the queer community coming into her position. “I don’t know anything about queer issues,” she said.
Yikes. Surely they could have found someone better suited to the position than that? There are approximately 400 zillion arts grads out there looking for jobs, and plenty of them who know about all the aspects of diversity required for a job like that. Including queer issues. When I organized the Women In Radio conference, there was a workshop called “The Intersections Of Marginalization.” Any of the people who spoke at, or even attended, that workshop were probably more qualified for the job than the woman they hired. It really, truly astounds me that they hired her for that position. If Laurier wants to increase tolerance and respect on campus, perhaps better hiring practices (read: even just a tiny bit of common sense) would help.
Who Counts? November 24, 2006
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Amy sent me this interesting and disturbing article from the Hamilton Spectator. If there’s a flu pandemic, there won’t be enough ICU beds for everyone who will need one (surprise, surprise). So instead of trying to make sure there ARE enough beds, instead they’re outlining who gets a bed and who doesn’t. Got terminal cancer? Out of luck. “Severe trauma and burns”? Too bad for you. (If someone could tell me the correlation between having severe burns and not deserving flu treatment, I would love to hear it. Is it that they’re trying to get rid of people whose physical appearances make others uncomfortable?) And if you’re over 85, they’re just going to leave you to die, all old and frail. Thanks for coming out, but your time is up.
Amy’s biggest concern, and mine, was the part about people with “severe cognitive impairment”. She works in the mental health field and is worried that doctors may take liberties and declare people with mental health issues as part of this label. It’s pretty scary that they can say you don’t count enough to get treatment just because of a cognitive impairment. Yikes. She also mentioned the possibilty that technically stroke survivors (which my dad is) could fit under that term.
He could also fall under the category of “advanced and irreversible compromised immune systems”, since he has a treatable-but-not-curable autoimmune disorder. So I’m not sure. Would he get a bed? The article says that the beds are for “patients who are sick enough they will die without them but not so sick they can’t recover.” The flu would be bad news for him, but he could beat it. It’s terribly frightening that someone like my dad, who is 50 years old, still able to do almost everything he always was (he can’t do really strenuous physical activity and is re-learning speech and writing at a really fast rate) is so closely navigating these guidelines. It’s rather disgusting actually. I’m pretty sure my dad didn’t spend 6 years battling back from his illness and who knows how long re-learning his communication to let the flu get him after the government refuses him a bed, and I’m also sure there are lots of other people in a similar situation.
A country like Canada can do better than this.
Buy Nothing Day November 24, 2006
Posted by politicsranter in Media, News.2 comments
Torontoist has an excellent interview with Andrew Potter about Buy Nothing Day. The most interesting part is this bit:
And you see the same thing with gentrification with bands, with cool electronics, with exotic travel- the same cycle of cool people seeking out places where only they know about. Or only they have access to. The masses eventually find out, pile in, it gets ‘massified’, becomes uncool, and the cool kids need to find a new tool or a new toy or a new whatever. That is the essence of consumerism- it’s that constant search to distance yourself from the masses. To be a rebel against what everyone else is doing. And it’s a bit ironic that that very attitude finds its most flagrant expression on the first page of No Logo, a book that is supposedly about anti-consumerism.
I want to be careful here: we’re not calling Naomi Klein a hypocrite. What we’re trying to do is to point out that there is, even amongst the most acute critics of consumerism, a deep-seeded misunderstanding of the forces that drive consumerism. Most people think it’s driven by advertising and the corporations; Naomi Klein thinks that. In actual fact it’s driven by competitive consumption amongst consumers. And that’s what is exhibited on page one of No Logo.
It’s an excellent point, and one that I’d never thought about before. It relates to the fact that Buy Nothing day is an easy, quick fix that doesn’t really fix anything. It’s a symbolic gesture that people do instead of thinking really deeply about it and doing something for meaningful change, because meaningful change is a complex thing to do. His argument that these people who think they’re being anti-consumerist by buying outside the mainstream are really driving the quest for companies to create new products is pretty eye-opening. And it sticks it to those jerks who don’t like a band after it gets too popular.
It Already Has A Name November 23, 2006
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Harper has decided to ask Commons to delcare that Quebec is a nation within a united Canada. Has he forgotten that not too long ago Ignatieff declared that Quebec should be recognized as a nation and everyone went ape shit? It was seen as a huge gaffe everywhere but Quebec.
Adrian thinks it’s a smart move in his part, since it will please his Quebec support base who are becoming disenchanted with him lately. He might be right. But he also might be wrong, since a lot of the rest of the country will be pissed off, and they already have enough stuff to be pissed off about.
I am 1/4 French Canadian, and very proud of it. And I realize that Quebec is a unique place. But so is Newfoundland. So is Nunavut – it has its own languages, just like Quebec has French. If we start calling Quebec a nation, who’s next? Then the next thing you know, we have a fractured country that no one really feels part of. Most mind-boggling is now that they’ve added the caveat united Canada, everyone is jumping on board. Canada is not going to remain a united Canada if we keep doling out special designations to its parts.
Besides, Quebec already has a term designating it as separate from other places in Canada. It’s called a province. That’s why we have them.
I’m pretty sure Stephen Harper is already starting to show what his legacy is going to be. What will people remember about him? They’ll remember him as the guy who didn’t do anything for anyone but himself (ok, and the people who could get him what he wanted). He’ll be the guy who eschewed helping people who needed it in favour of blatant political strategy games. He’ll be the guy who ruined a lot about Canada for his own personal gain. He’ll be the guy who wanted power for the sake of power.
The Marriage Debate November 21, 2006
Posted by politicsranter in News, Politics.3 comments
So Commons is going to be voting on whether or not to re-open the issue of same-sex marriage. The Conservatives’ push to get their closed-minded way is most likely going to be defeated, but it irks me nonetheless.
I defy any of these same-sex marriage opponents to detail a specific instance where a gay marriage had any negative effect on their perfect heterosexual marriage, or anyone else’s.
But groups opposed to gay marriage say Canada passed the law too hurriedly, without examining the effect it would have on society and in particular on children.
(from the Star)
Did it ever occur to anyone that the only reason that children might be negatively affected is that fanatical assholes keep telling them that there’s something abnormal about their family? If they were able to exist in a context where everyone was perfectly fine with two moms or two dads, there wouldn’t be a problem. I’d argue that gay couples have an even better chance of providing an attentive, nurturing family, because they have to really want to be parents for it to happen. Any option they choose involves a lot of time and money. No chance of unwanted accidents and half-hearted parents.
Also, the argument that marriage is between a man and a woman, and it’s been that way always so it should stay that way, makes me want to tear my hair out. I want to slap anyone who uses it. Marriage was a cultural construct created by people, to be modified by people. It’s not like the dirt or the sky. It didn’t just appear on its own. That’s what makes it so frustrating to argue with these kinds of people. They don’t care about good logic in the first place, so you can never win with them, no matter how smart or convincing you are. I feel my blood pressure rising just typing this.
