Tory On Tory Handbags!

Sooner or later chickens come home to roost. They really do. I’ve never seen it but cliches do not lie. So it is fun, then, to watch someone somewhere who is a more principled, more confident leader than the bad batch of all stripes we have to deal with in Ottawa these days:

Danny Williams, the Newfoundland and Labrador Premier who has promised to make the federal Conservatives regret last week’s budget, on Tuesday ratcheted up his attacks on Prime Minister Stephen Harper. His government has launched an advertising campaign calling into question the honesty of Mr. Harper. “If we can’t accept at face value the promise of our Prime Minister, then who can?” asks the ad, which will run in newspapers across the country. “A promise made should be a promise kept. And as Mr. Harper pointed out, there is no greater fraud than a promise not kept.”

What a shocker! Imagine holding the PM to account rather than playing hide and seek when he glowers and grumbles as he stumbles as appears to be the wizardry of the Loyal but Not Very Capable Opposition. I remember the first week of law school in Halifax when all the keener sons of Bay Street partners of Calgary politicians opened their yaps to answer a question condescendingly only to face the wrath and wit of the baymen Newfs in the back, ripping them and their answers apart as the rest of us giggled and got out of the way. Go Danny! Remember – Atlantic Canada is right on this point and Ottawa promised. It is as simple as that.

Group Project: What Were We Like And What Are We Like Now?

…and what are we becoming? I know I go on but this new report on the state of privacy and surveillance technologies in the UK reminded me of this one about blogging, especially this passage:

…before the telegraph, for example, almost all ordinary people read entire newspapers and were generally very up to date on all issues of the day. It was not uncommon for politicians and other famous people of the day to come to town and speak literally for hours on end about complex issues facing people. Ordinary townspeople would know exactly what was being discussed and were not spoken down to or had the subject matter dumbed down for them. Postman relates one typical example where Lincoln was speaking somewhere for something like six hours, excused everyone to go home and eat supper, and then resumed speaking again an hour later. Then the telegraph made the spread of information much, much quicker. But because of all the dots and dashes, information became sound bites overnight. As a result, people’s tolerance for lengthier, meatier writing began to wane. And newspapers at the time who began getting their news from far away over the telegraph began writing shorter and shorter stories.

It’s the general proposition that I think interests me – as usual – how we as humans go about largely unaware of these sorts of quick shifts and are not very good at assessing whether they are good or bad, whether we are smarter or dumber because of them, freer or less free. The promise and the payout. We no longer think about things that were quite common ideas quite recently, like the information divide – which I think I think is as much due to the general ease of internet access as much as the awareness that most internet use is idle and recreational. No one considers access to a phone as a measure of full functional participation now either.

So, without getting into the goodness or the badness, how far could people go in immersing themselves into the unimportant and the abandonment of individual privacy while still being functional in a democracy? Are they even related? Do I need a coffee?

ADQ Whippersnappers Take Control In Quebec

We are declaring early and not just so we can get in an little extra early snoozing. There shall be a minority ADQ victory in Quebec’s provincial election and we are frankly stunned – but mainly with the realization that people in power are starting to look like they are younger than me. Not that I am not a very young 43. Precocious many say. Dainty. But the point is politicians should look like Lester Pearson when they do not look like John Diefenbaker.

Update: Ok, Ok – so Jean McCurlytop won in a way that can only be considered losing. Who’s happy now? And who is happy that shouldn’t be? And should Stephan Dion just quit now? No one won the pool, by the way. But Jay lost it.

Sports Pool 2007: Final Standings For The NHL

The next question is one that has been long clamoured for so we better give in or we won’t hear the end of it:

5. Identify and put in order divided by conference the 16 teams that will make the playoffs. Ten points for each correct team minus one point of the number of places the team is out of order. For example, picking Detroit for second but they come in fifth makes it a seven point pick.

Get your picks in before April 1, 2007. I better figure out the points so far so this thing doesn’t get out of hand.

Complete sports pool 2007 links here.

Knut Pays The Taxman

[This post was written by Knut Albert Solem aka “Knut of Norway”]

The wait is oknutsbeersver. But the picture of the package on my doormat is not quite how it went. No, there was a new slip of paper in my mailbox, telling me there was a package to be picked up at the post office. So, what was the tab?

  • The alcohol tax was about 100 Norwegian kroner.
  • The value added tax (based on an estimated value of 300 Norwegian kroner!) was about 100 kroner.
  • The fee for the postal service to process this ended up at 180 kroner, including tax.

A total cost of 386 Norwegian kroner. 47 Euros or 61 Dollars. Not the most expensive beer known to man, but pretty close, as these beers retail at a few Euro is civilized countries. But, considering all the man hours involved, it was a quite cheap service. And they managed to stall me from abusing these beers for a month. The beers look fine, they have been carefully packaged, and their warehouse is probably quite cool at this time of the year. So, it is time for a big thank you, to Alan, to Jeff from the Cracked Kettle. I don’t know about the Department of Substance Abuse, though.

Friday Bullet Point Chat…No “-a-ramas” Or Nuttin’

How many ways can you write the same thing week after week before there is any coffee on the desk in front of you?

  • It’s the Kingston Brew Pub’s Wellie Toss tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm. We are talking the kids as this is the closest thing we have to a good cheese roll around here. Wellie Boot Hurling seems to be a legitimate Highland Games activity so maybe I will have a wee nippy sweetie while we are at it. Definitely a KSPC sanctioned event.
  • The Flea and others point out the decision to raise the right flag at the 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge this summer. I added my two cents to remind that Newfoundland had its own flag of its own Dominion and that should be added, too. I even let my mole know. I have a mole again now. A mole with ambition as well.
  • Besides that good move, it was a tough week but was it as tough as the Prime Minister’s? He showed his dopey mean side, practically offering the nation the wisdom of the person who asks the question “are you still hitting the bottle?” while politicizing the troops in Afghanistan for his own purposes. Nice. He may have guaranteed the separatists win in Quebec. Brilliant. He seems to be cooking the books of the electoral reform review. Perfect. Oh yes, and the transparent intention budget leading to the fastest Federal-Provincial tax break transfer in history. I will be so happy to think of that and the other “special interest placation through tax break” aspects the NuGov National Vision as I prepare my own taxes this year.
  • Best Blue Jay’s slag of the week:

    Who else is ready for another season of Jamie Campbell starting his home run call for pop-ups that get caught by the shortstop?

    Days to go now.

  • Rita Joe passed away, too. One of the good things about growing up in Nova Scotia with a cohesive people like the Mi’kmaq in the community, with neat aspects like creation stories mentioning things you take school bus trips to see like Glooscap’s canoe, is you hear about people like Rita Joe when you are a kid and you get fed some respect. Not really enough but some.

That is it for now. Thanks for all the kind thoughts about the Frobster.

Martin Frobisher Cat 1999-2007

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“Frobie” left this life today at the vet’s. He’d been sick off and on for a while but things got worse over the last few days and was in a lot of pain. The time had come.

Really, The Guardian, newspaper of record…or rather “rekerd”…in Charlottetown, PEI, ought to have a headline in the obits “Islander Dies” tomorrow as Frobie, runt of a litter at the Human Society seven and a half years ago, was one of that small land. We were looking for mousers. After buying our first house in 1999, we came home one day to find a mouse party in the middle of the living room. We needed allies in the animal kingdom and so we took on responsibility for the lives of the last two cats from two litters that were in cages side by side. Frobie proved himself as he grew out of kittenhood as a great set-up man, cornering the mice for his lady friend Beaton who finished them off at her, frankly, cruel leisure.

Years passed and the family grew and PEI was left with cats crammed with everything else into two vans. With the lack of mice and even stairs, came effective retirement and Frobes blossomed as an entirely idle mammal. The purchase of light cat food did nothing for him – though he still ate plenty. He spent his days and nights exploring ways to not have his limbs touch the floor and inventing new aromas. His last moments came swiftly and were spent with those who loved him and/or fed him as well as a really nice vet who helped everyone understand how this was all for the best.

Many met Frobie through these many years and wanted to share their thoughts:

“I first saw him in the cage next to the quite stunningly good looking Beaton and wondered for a moment what kind of thing he was. Sickly and thin, he made his life’s work to attain a stoutness that would amazed. He lived the dream.”

“When we lived in PEI, another kid who was visiting dragged him across the kitchen by the tail. He didn’t scratch or meow. He was the nicest cat, just so laid back.”

“Frobie was a really cute cat and a nice one, too. He was cuddly and snuggly. I hope he has a happy life in kitty heaven. There is a huge building filled with just cats where they get to be friends, eat all the time and no one ever bugs them.”

Please share your thoughts about Frobisher in the comments.

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Ask What Your Country Can Do For You

I was wondering what to say about the Federal Budget that came out yesterday and what it says about the vision of the NuGov for a new nation being forged by private enterprise and getting the monkey off everyone’s back. But Andrew says it more plainly than I ever would as he voted for these guys:

Today’s budget is an embarrassment for those who consider themselves fiscal conservatives (especially those who poured countless hours into helping bring this government to power in order to change how business is done in Ottawa). Aside from a few small measures – including a continued commitment to pay down the national debt and some baby steps towards preventative health care, the budget is an undisciplined mish-mash of high-flying spending and ridiculous wealth redistribution. There are no true tax breaks, no obvious signs that government bureaucracy is shrinking and, worst of all, a 7.9% increase in overall spending – far more than the GDP’s growth.

Hokey-Ka-Bokey! Sounds like the red flag is flying once again from the Peace Tower in Ottawa. What is it in the water there that makes everyone a centrist? For me and my family, we get the “you have kids” break and the “you have a spouse” break but no income splitting, the real fiscal imbalance as far as I am concerned. My pal and his wife make what we make and have one kid. They get about $5,000 from the Feds we do not due to the bias against one income households. All so unfair to me.

So I won’t likely vote Tory now…and I was this close. Because if you are going to buy my vote, you really have to buy my vote. Maybe that is what we need now. NuGov 2.0. Personalized tax breaks defined to everyone’s own specifications defined by the person. The ultimate in government for I, me, mine. Maybe in a way then I could vote for me, the only thing that should really matter in an honest values system.

How Bad Is Manny?

While I have a Manny bat, I really do not love Manny. I do admire Coco greatly (and have the t-shirt) because of the heroic diving catches he makes from time to time. But I suppose even the usefulness of that is a question some may go over. Likely there is a little more to go into than when one questions Manny:

All of today’s best P.B.P. systems agree that Ramirez is the worst defensive left fielder in baseball, and by a comfortable margin. This holds true even after accounting for the effect of the Green Monster wall in left field. “Manny is at the far end of the as-bad-as-you-can-get-in-the-field spectrum, said Mitchel Lichtman, who designed one highly regarded P.B.P. defensive statistic called ultimate zone rating, and who consulted for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2004 to 2006. But the experts differ vastly on just how much a single bad left fielder can hurt a team.

Is he that bad? I like the NYT as much as the next guy but I think this is just a hatchet piece. Consider the description of Ortiz: “Ortiz is even less mobile than Ramirez, and given his corpulence, the demands of playing the field may substantially increase his risk of injury.” His corpulence! That is just mean. Worries? No way – it’s just baseball season when you get to pray your favorite fat slobs beat the heartless but trim Yankees.

A Trip To The Snowy South


A few months to go yet.

A nice bomb down to the great state of Ithaca where we had diner at Moosewood with Gary and Maude as the greatest Charlie Brown snow in history fell outside. I wanted to sing “Hark the Herald” to loo-lo-loo-lo-looooo as roundheaded cartoon kids skated. We split a jug of draft Cascazilla which was entirely the right drink at the right time. The Ithaca Holiday Inn has solidified itself as the place to stay. We are down in Ithaca there a lot and others have thrown everything from the hallways that smell like a nursing home, to a “pool” that was about 15 by 22 feet, to that light that flashed all night, to the other pool with the green water and the sandbars forming naturally in the deep end. Go with the Holiday Inn. Room 265 works for kids if you are not in the Room 1000 bracket.

We ended up at State Diner on, no question appropriately, State Street and had a great breakfast. We often end up at Ithaca Bakery for breakfast where I have a bagel with sprouts, guack and a formed veggie patty so between that and Moosewood I have to make sure I balance my man-drum pretend-Ithacan with my townie pretend-Ithacan. State Diner can do that for me now. I eat corned beef hash and poached eggs but only on the road. This was a good one. Solid move on the toast as well with 3 slices per order and a light touch on the butter. But it was butter. Coffee is better at the Ithaca bakery but not by much. The staff are kind and helpful at both.

Next time, we hit the Shortstop Deli.