The Canadian Example

Great Moments In Socialism 16 Comments

The perennial question of defining Canadian identity may have finally been answered. Canadian identity is not, as commonly thought, our socialized health care system, the Trudeaupian mosaic of multiculturalism or even a fanaticism for hockey. At one time any one of those might have been true, but no more. No, we’ve moved well past that.
Today, our national purpose might best be described as “simply to serve as a warning to the United States”.
Via Neale News;

“Please be advised that effective immediately the Ontario region of the Correctional Service of Canada is no longer maintaining an inventory for parole officer applications from the general public.,” the Feb. 19 letter reads.
“Due to staffing resources we will continue to accept applications from aboriginal and visible-minority candidates only.”
CSC is committed to having a “skilled, diversified workforce reflective of Canadian society,” the letter continues, adding that future vacancies may be posted that are open to the “general public.”

The depressing part is that a good percentage of Canadians would think this is perfectly reasonable.
Last weekend a woman who was purchasing artwork from me at the dog show began to ask about “what it was like to live in Canada”. She confided that they had to sell their house while it was “still worth something” and leave before the country was completely destroyed. Her young son’s skills made him very attractive to the military and there was no doubt he’d be drafted. She was enthusiastic about our health care system, and wanted to live in a “more socialist” country.
Sometimes I wonder that there may be some force …. (fate?) …. that places people like myself in just the right place, at just the right time. For a moment I felt a twinge of guilt in the realization that my Canadian citizenship had been twisted into cruel bait for a hapless little moonbat – like savory French cheese perched temptingly in a leg hold trap.
In the end, I let her go – shaken, but unharmed. I’ve promised to only use my powers for good. But I think I detected a stagger in her walk as she made her way back to safety.

Life In The Rall World

Moonbats 7 Comments

As gifted a writer…

“Bloggers are ordinary people, many of them uneducated and with nothing interesting to say. They’re sitting in their rec rooms, regurgitating and spinning what real journalists have dug up through hard work. They don’t have sources, they don’t report, and no one holds them accountable when they make mistakes or flat out lie. Yeah, there’s a new sheriff in town. Unfortunately he’s drunk, he’s mean, and he works for the bad guy.”

as he is a cartoonist.

condirall.jpg

Canadian Save The Blogger Fund

Blogging 9 Comments

Here in Canada, where bloggers are so blessed, where simple basics like connectivity and a healthy hard drive are taken for granted, there is a tendency to forget that others are not so fortunate as we.
Miles to the south, in a remote urban jungle, a CITIZEN JOURNALIST sits facing a darkened screen. The hard drive has fallen silent. The electrons vital to blogging that are so often wasted meaninglessly, have been cruelly denied him.
Look into those sad, dark eyes, the pain only partly concealed behind bloodspattered *, yellow-tinted glasses*.
Help end the suffering. Only you can bring back the Martha Stewart Chronicles. Only you can restore Ted Rall’s Internal Monologue. Only you can grow the facial hair he so longs for.
Give. So the rest of us can go back to ripping off his best stuff.

Home

stuff 5 Comments

Well, the dog show turned out to be a waste of time and effort. I don’t get shut out very often, but it happens. I should be more reasonable in my expectations – I do more than my fair share of winning, certainly more than most owner-handlers. However, it does suck to lose. I hate losing, I really hate losing to entries I know are inferior, and I utterly despise driving halfway across a continent to discover the judge has a few “favorites” and favours to hand out.
Yeah, I’m a bad loser. A really, really bad loser. I don’t make scenes or get in people’s faces, but I bitch and complain with the best of them. I don’t apologize for it, either. An aversion to losing is a fundamental ingredient to competitive success.
“Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser”.
It’s true.
Back to regular blogging shortly. I’ve been out of the loop and have some catching up to do myself.
In the meantime, if you haven’t read the updated link on my brief Hunter S. Thompson memorial post below, here it is again. Song of the Sausage Creature is a classic.

Hunter S. Thompson

What He Said 3 Comments

Some people will tell you that slow is good — and it may be, on some days — but I am here to tell you that fast is better. I’ve always believed this, in spite of the trouble it’s caused me. Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles, Bubba…. – HS Thompson.

“Rest in peace” has been sent back for a rewrite..

Heavenly Daze

Blogging 6 Comments

Well, so far the show has been successful, in a communal, if not a personal, sense. Which means everyone who came on the trip has won nicely, to the exclusion of my dog.
So far, high point has been an evening with Jeff Goldstein and friends at a small pub they located after directing me to meet them at one called “Heavenly Daze”… which turned out to be closed. No small feat finding a locked, dark warehouse type of building in a strange city, after dark, having lost the directions and the address. But all’s well that ends with several pints of Guiness and shooters.
Jeff is having a hard time remembering events after 10:30.
Heh.

Dinner Conversation

stuff 18 Comments

I’m sitting here after dinner, a glass of wine at my side, in a home with automatic gates, servants, and wonderful hospitality, somewhere in Englewood, Colorado. There’s a chocolate dish with Tahitian vanilla ice cream on the dessert menu shortly.
It’s shirtsleeve weather (at least for a Saskatchewanian). You can be jealous.
Listened to Hugh Hewitt on radio for the first time and it reminded me of how far behind the curve Canadian conservative talk radio is in this aspect. I’ve been reading him pretty regularly for a year or so, and it reminded me of one of the frustrations of being a Canadian “amateur” blogger. Why isn’t Canadian talk radio moving into the world of blogging? Ignorance? Station policy? Laziness?
On his Monday show Rawlco radio’s John Gormley mentioned – I believe for the first time – the Eason Jordan affair. That’s all well and good – he certainly beat the news department on the “scoop” – but when a medium as immediate as talk radio is two weeks behind the curve, it’s pretty stale stuff.
On the other side of the fence, bloggers here dig, work to get reader tips due exposure, and swarm as best we can on stories we believe deserve attention. But there’s little chance for momentum to build in a country where television and print media is a virtual house organ of the Liberal party and talk radio has not yet produced a Rush Limbaugh. If they continue to plod along in their insular little regional am wave world, they’re pretty damned unlikely to, either.
The blogosphere in Canada will continue to lag behind the US in our ability to coalesce around a story and move it forward, so long as Canadian talk radio plods along in a 90’s mindset about the internet as little more than a convenient, but largely unreliable source for out-of-the mainstream show fodder.
C’mon you guys. Get on board. Get your blogs up – and by blogs, I mean the real deal, with trackbacks and a blogroll. See Hugh Hewitt. Hell. he has an email address – ask Hugh Hewitt.
Here’s another suggestion – local talk radio has weekly features with regular guests – contests, movie reviews, dvd release shows, “mornings with the mayor” etc. Why not try this – a weekly round-up of the stories perculating in the Canadian political blogosphere?
Stop playing catch up. Get in front of a story for a change.

Reader Tips

Reader Tips 1 Comment

A quick and dirty roundup of reader tips, before I leave;
Another good article on the questionable actions of CNN in allowing Eason to “run wild” for so long, by Brent Bozell
DC Circuit Court recognizes bloggers as journalists.
Ezra Levant in the Calgary Sun;

“It is now clear that Canada could never have the kind of accountability first-rank countries demand of their leaders. We could never have a Watergate in this country, never an impeachment.
“Our leaders are above the law. The Gomery Commission would not have been born were it not for the permission of Martin, a witness and suspect himself. As Chretien demonstrated to the delight of our press corps, its an obviously powerless inquiry that exists to whitewash, not to get justice.“

Hydro-Quebec tries to block a broadcast that reveals they provide virtually no security for their major power installations. Somewhat surprisingly, a Quebec judge disagrees.
It doesn’t pay to be a whistleblower when you work for the federal government.

When I came forward and blew the whistle on the refugee board, a number of negative reactions occurred. They included an anonymous note that I received, calling me a troublemaker and telling me I should quit the refugee board. The executive director took a decision that my access to the office should be denied, and my access card was deactivated. The executive director then wrote me a letter and said, well, we told you that your access card was deactivated and we also told you how you could access the building. In fact, no such directions were given, and through the Access to Information Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and the Privacy Act, I received that information.
I was assaulted by the regional director in Toronto. I was subjected to a disciplinary hearing for seeking the advice and assistance of a lawyer. I was harassed by IRB managers when I was on sick leave. The IRB engaged in a cover-up sanctioned at the highest level of that organization. My health and dental benefits were cut off effective July 1, 2004, and I have not received any pay from the government since March 15, 2004.
I mention this to you because I thought about you committee members last night and about how important you are, because challenging unethical workplace conduct comes at a price. That price includes threats to one’s physical, psychological, and financial integrity. The current system and the proposed system for dealing with these matters are inadequate, and it is you, the committee here, who have an important role to play in terms of giving whistle-blowers who come forward meaningful protection.

A letter from a reader with experts from Hansard. Lengthy, so the rest is in the extended entry. Auditor Generals report on the Liberal government’s unaccountable foundations, recent gang violence and the fraudulent gun registry, and the lack of action on filling manpower gaps in the RCMP. The reader (who requests anonymity) comments;

The media don’t challenge the Minister on her veracity. It simply doesn’t add up.They only have aknee jerk, band aid approach to security for Canadians and she keeps pumping out the bilge. She claims that they are putting $8 billion into security and the media ,like sheep, buy it. How many RCMP and CSIS agents have been hired above those retiring with that $8 billion?
The Senate Report on National security pointed out all the gaps, yet the media sleep.The ports are undermanned, they are closing detachments in Quebec, every unit from white collar crime to drugs, to intelligence are undermanned ,yet she says all is well and the media believe her? The RCMP have 2500 fewer officers today than 12 years ago but everything is under control? The crooks and terrorists are laughing themselves silly.They keep reorganizing, redeploying,with fewer officers and she says that less is more? Where’s the media? or security of Canadians is not important.

Continue reading →

On The Road Again

Blogging 3 Comments

I’m southbound tomorrow morning and will be gone for about a week. I’ll have the laptop but no guarantee of connectivity, much less time to dig up content. We’ll see what happens. In the meanwhile, visit the fine folks on the blogroll.

War At CBS

Media 1 Comment

Drudge is currently quoting the New York Observer, that executives who were offered up in lieu of Dan Rather are fighting back and refusing to resign as ordered:

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER will report tomorrow: ‘Former 60 Minutes Wednesday executive editor Josh Howard has told colleagues that before he resigns, the 23-year CBS News veteran will demand that the network retract remarks by CBS president Leslie Moonves, correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name’…
In the event of a lawsuit, Mr. Howard has told associates that he would like to see Moonves put under oath to talk about his own roles in the network’s stubborn, hapless defense of the flawed segment on President Bush’s National Guard service.
Howard has also indicated to colleagues that he would subpoena specific CBS documents, including the e-mails of top executives.

As they say … developing

Work Stuff

stuff 4 Comments

The bike I painted last week is finally finished, but the client didn’t want to put it back together as there was other work planned. When it is, it’ll look vaguely like this original (computer drawn) draft, though some of the actual design details were altered along the way.
It was originally a bright green, with taped flames, etc. There was a considerable amount of refinishing involved – a couple of parts in progress:
priming.jpg
The finished fuel tank.
tank.jpg
I’ll post a pic of the completed bike when I get one.

CTV News: What Are Blogs?

Blogging 7 Comments

CTV News has been running a promo this morning advertising a feature on blogs, to be run on Thursday.
Now, as none of the well-known Canadian bloggers I read have mentioned being contacted by CTV (please send me links if you know of any), and the blurb includied the grim voice of a pychologist warning about the dangers of “revealing ones opinions” or some such crap, combined with the abysmal quality overall of CTV news reporting… I’ll predict the piece will lean towards a dismissive puff piece, heavy with “risks of” and light on factual integrity.
But I’ll be in the US when it airs, so hopefully a few folks will tune in with fisking fingers at the ready. That includes the readers here – even if you don’t have your own blog, consider sending me your impressions by email, and I”ll compile them in a followup post.
update – apparently this is a local news item. Doesn’t sound like it’s worth looking for outside Saskatchewan.

David Kirton’s DIshonest Reporting

Media 6 Comments

All morning, Rawlco Radio’s CKOM has been playing hourly newscasts by David Kirton. His reporting is often tainted by editorial comment; this morning he’s characterizing Conservative Jason Kenney’s remarks that gays have always had the right to marry in this way;

“Jason Kenney MOCKED same sex marriage….”

Emphasis his. Now, considering that Kenney said nothing less factual or more “mocking” than judges who have ruled against same sex marriage in their decisions, the question arises as to whether Kirton is simply too lazy to bother with basic fact checking, or whether truth takes a back seat to his own bias?

When Dogs Attack

Dogblogging No Comments

Via Cosh, a bizarre blog entry from a woman who is agonizing over having put down their English Setter after it put 40 stitches in the face of her husband. The post is too lengthy to fisk in its entirety, but I’ve chosen some key points; (note: link now dead)

Since late last summer Pony snapped twice at children who approached her unexpectedly when she was lying down, and once at me when I was wrestling with her on the floor. Until the first incident last August, we had been completely certain that she was flawlessly trustworthy with children and adults alike, and we’d taken her into the homes of friends who had children and encouraged kids in the park to pet and play with her if they showed an interest.

I wish I had a quarter for every time I witnessed completely clueless people encourage strangers to approach dogs that were telegraphing that they really would rather they didn’t. If you’re a typical pet owner with your first or second dog, there’s a 95% probability that you miss or misinterpret most of your dog’s communication signals.

We told people about the breed and that Pony was tolerant and good-natured (if a bit aloof in comparison to a Retriever or a Labrador), and they should have no qualms about approaching and touching her whenever they liked. When she barked and scratched at our friend’s son last summer it was an enormous shock and completely rattled our foundation of trust in her.

The dog was an English Setter. English Setter colour is “extreme white”, with coloured ticking in a genetic pattern that resembles that of the Dalmatian. This is important – the all-white colouring is thought to be the result of a gene that creates a deficiency of neural crest cells, which differentiate to function in several ways – some important, some not. One of the important functions is the development of the brain and nervous system. The least important function is to produce melanocytes, the cells that create pigment in the skin and coat. If the neural crest cell deficiency is extreme, the dog will be unable to create significant areas of pigment, resulting in white hair coat, with pink skin underlying it.
Why is this relevant? Because if there aren’t enough neural crest cells to produce pigment creating melanocytes, there may not be enough for the development of nerves required for normal hearing. This problem is so well known that many breeders test hearing (BAER testing) as part of the veterinary screening protocol before sale. For this reason, it is suspected that (like Dalmatians, Jack Russel Terriers, white Bull Terriers, etc.) that a percentage of English Setters are deaf, or partially deaf. (Which may explain why they seem so tolerant of their own incessant barking.)
So, go back to the top and reread the comments about the dog’s snapping when being approached unexpectedly – the context changes a little. Later in the post, she describes the dog’s “hairy eyeball and some serious stubbornness”. While it’s quite possible that this dog had normal hearing, it is not unexpected behavior from a deaf dog.
Then, she made another innocent error – she consulted “dog experts”.

Continue reading →

CNN Reliable Sources: Jordan Discussed

Media 7 Comments

A transcript worth reading. Jeff Jarvis (Buzzmachine) does the blogosphere proud, as expected.

JARVIS: We didn’t fire him, the bloggers. CNN did. I agree it doesn’t fit the crime, because we don’t know the crimes that are in CNN’s heart here. Something else happened here that we don’t know. The story’s not over. We have to see that transcript from Davos. There’s no reason for that to be hidden still, and CNN has to realize that they have to tell us more of what’s going on.
The problem here is that by just asking for the truth, knocking at the doors of the news temple and saying, tell us what’s go on, we’re being portrayed as a lynch mob. We’re not. We’re citizens wanting to know the truth. It used to be the job of journalists to report that. So let’s get to the truth, let’s get to the facts. I think if Jordan had come right out and said, I’m sorry, I blew it, I was wrong, I didn’t mean to say that, he wouldn’t have made any more friends that he has now, but he still would be at his job.

The NYT is unhappy and shows it by lashing out at bloggers with manipulative editing. Which of course, means it’s business as usual.

When Dogs Attack

Dogblogging 18 Comments

Via Cosh, a bizarre blog entry from a woman who is agonizing over having put down their English Setter after it put 40 stitches in the face of her husband. The post is too lengthy to fisk in its entirety, but I’ve chosen some key points;

Since late last summer Pony snapped twice at children who approached her unexpectedly when she was lying down, and once at me when I was wrestling with her on the floor. Until the first incident last August, we had been completely certain that she was flawlessly trustworthy with children and adults alike, and we’d taken her into the homes of friends who had children and encouraged kids in the park to pet and play with her if they showed an interest.

I wish I had a quarter for every time I witnessed completely clueless people encourage strangers to approach dogs that were telegraphing that they really would rather they didn’t. If you’re a typical pet owner with your first or second dog, there’s a 95% probability that you miss or misinterpret most of your dog’s communication signals.

We told people about the breed and that Pony was tolerant and good-natured (if a bit aloof in comparison to a Retriever or a Labrador), and they should have no qualms about approaching and touching her whenever they liked. When she barked and scratched at our friend’s son last summer it was an enormous shock and completely rattled our foundation of trust in her.

The dog was an English Setter. English Setter colour is “extreme white”, with coloured ticking in a genetic pattern that resembles that of the Dalmatian. This is important – the all-white colouring is thought to be the result of a gene that creates a deficiency of neural crest cells, which differentiate to function in several ways – some important, some not. One of the important functions is the development of the brain and nervous system. The least important function is to produce melanocytes, the cells that create pigment in the skin and coat. If the neural crest cell deficiency is extreme, the dog will be unable to create significant areas of pigment, resulting in white hair coat, with pink skin underlying it.
Why is this relevant? Because if there aren’t enough neural crest cells to produce pigment creating melanocytes, there may not be enough for the development of nerves required for normal hearing. This problem is so well known that many breeders test hearing (BAER testing) as part of the veterinary screening protocol before sale. For this reason, it is suspected that (like Dalmatians, Jack Russel Terriers, white Bull Terriers, etc.) that a percentage of English Setters are deaf, or partially deaf. (Which may explain why they seem so tolerant of their own incessant barking.)
So, go back to the top and reread the comments about the dog’s snapping when being approached unexpectedly – the context changes a little. Later in the post, she describes the dog’s “hairy eyeball and some serious stubbornness”. While it’s quite possible that this dog had normal hearing, it is not unexpected behavior from a deaf dog.
Then, she made another innocent error – she consulted “dog experts”.

Continue reading →

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