CommPost

Friday, July 31, 2009

HAPPY OF FEAST OF ESSENCE

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Feast%20of%20Essence

Have a great time this weekend whatever you choose to do. Be safe but have fun washing away those yearly dissapointments!

Cheers,

P

Thursday, July 30, 2009

ITS ALMOST THAT TIME AGAIN....

The Feast of Essence weekend is nearly upon us. If anyone wants the whole sordid history of this grand event please feel free to let me know and I'll shoot you an email. The long and short of it is that its a weekend at the end of July to do whatever one wishes to 'wash away the dissapointments of the past year'.

In preparation for this year's Feast I thought I'd post a few quirky stories that might help get folks ready for festivities.

William Shatner makes fun of Sarah Palin's farewell speech in spoken word poetry as only he can..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0VpFP3FRMM



Next... the most royal sandwich, and a short history of the sandwich.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1203283/Crumbs-11th-Earl-Sandwich-demanded-thousands-pounds-takeaway-used-name.html


Cheers,

P

PS if the links don't work automatically just cut/paste them into your browswer.

Monday, July 27, 2009

SUN... PLEASE... SUN

I can't handle the rain and grey anymore. We've got enough grey and rain in late fall, early winter, and early spring. I simply cannot handle how wet and grey its been this "summer". Please I don't care if its 10C, Just please make the sun come out!

That is all

P

Thursday, July 23, 2009

CAR SHOPPING

Its amazing how difficult it is to shop for a car without one....

Sigh, oh well. At least I made the papers today.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Wildlife+gardens+life+before+council/1818035/story.html

Cheers,

P

Monday, July 20, 2009

FUN SUMMER

So besides the fact that its rained nearly ever day since the end of may this summer has been pretty fun. Especially with the acts and reasonably priced tickets of Ottawa so called 'bluesfest'. Don't let the name fool you, this is not just a blues festival. It is a full on eclectic summer music festival. This year the line up included such diverse acts as KISS, Ludacris, Cake, Styx, Ani di Franco, Los Lonely Boys, STP, Ice Cube and many others. I was only able to take in Cake, Ani, STP and Blue Rodeo and the last song from los lonely boys but they were all good shows! I wish I had gone to the Kiss and Styx show but ah well there's always next year.

I hope the rest of teh summer is as fun. Also need to get a new (used) car. Hopefully soon. I'm getting tired of lugging groceries home.

Cheers,

P

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

ECON 101

There were some stupid comments made by the PM during a recent interview while at the G8 regarding taxes. Apparently he doesn't believe any taxes are good taxes. Now there are myriad reasons why this is an unbelievably ignorant statement (not even Bush said something that dumb) but I honestly just shurgged it off to 'yeah well... thats Stevo'

Apparently Jeff Simpson at the Globe decided that these comments merited a spirited editorial. I enjoyed it so much I'm positing it here. Its really one of his best pieces I think.


---------------
"Jeffrey Simpson

Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2009 08:57AM EDT


You know, there's two schools in economics on this. One is that there are some good taxes and the other is that no taxes are good taxes. I'm in the latter category. I don't believe that any taxes are good taxes.

– Stephen Harper, July 10

This assertion, from an interview the Prime Minister gave The Globe and Mail after the G8 summit in Italy, is one of the most stunning, revealing and, frankly, ignorant statements ever made by a prime minister, let alone one who keeps purporting to be an economist, despite doing so many things that economists deplore.

Think about it: The prime minister of a country is saying, “I don't believe that any taxes are good taxes.”

There is no “school,” to use Stephen Harper's word, anywhere in economics that says “no taxes are good taxes.” Not even Milton Friedman and the Chicago school think that. Nor do Mr. Harper's former mentors at the University of Calgary.

They, like right-wing politicians, might think taxes are too high, maybe way too high. They might think the private sector can do lots of things better than the public sector. They might believe taxes should be lower. But anyone who says “no taxes are good taxes” and “I don't believe that any taxes are good taxes” is wrong economically, and very, very scary socially and politically.

Only libertarian anarchists believe that all taxes are bad, and that society can get along without them. But who will pay, if not citizens, for the military on which the Harper government is lavishing billions of dollars? Who will pay for the police, the courts?

Who will provide, if not the taxpayers, the revenues to pay for the two services that even the most right-wing ideologues agree only public authorities can provide: the defence of the realm, and law and order?

Maybe the Prime Minister misspoke. Maybe he was just using a figure of speech, although he could have said something like “all taxes are a necessary evil.” But even that “necessary evil” idea is different from saying all taxes are bad, because the “evil” of taxation is “necessary,” as indeed it is in any civilized society.

Presumably, there lurks inside the Prime Minister an anger about much of contemporary society that has been built with taxpayers' money, an anger contained by the political reality that the Prime Minister can't do much about this state of affairs.

Indeed, the comment harkens back to Mr. Harper's days shilling for the National Citizens Coalition and early years with the Reform Party, when he believed that just about everything governments were doing was bad and wasteful and led to huge deficits. Since then, and especially as Prime Minister, Mr. Harper has shelved many of those views, since a distinguishing characteristic of his government has been a reluctance to cut government spending.

Not a single major government program has been eliminated since he took office, perhaps because of minority governments, or perhaps because political reality has shackled Mr. Harper's deep instincts that all taxes and, by extension, the programs for which taxes pay, are bad.

His governments cut taxes, which is in line with the Prime Minister's ideology, the problem being that the GST was the wrong tax to cut, as almost every qualified economist in the country has underscored.

Now, with deficits burgeoning, Mr. Harper insists again (the ideology returns) that he will never raise taxes, even though future deficits are going to be much larger than his government has forecast.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer and TD Economics have both destroyed the government's rosy deficit projections (and much else) in recent reports that show deficits stretching well beyond 2013-2014, when the government insists the budget will be balanced.

By ruling out tax increases, and refusing to indicate that big spending cuts will be needed, the government is shackling Canada with deficits stretching into the distance, with more accumulated debt - a strange state of affairs for a nominally conservative government.

Politically, of course, this aversion to tax from a prime minister who believes “no taxes are good taxes” has terrified the Liberals, who are afraid of being honest by telling Canadians that resumed economic growth alone will not restore Canada's balanced budget."

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Breakfast with the Emperor.

Ok so this was really very cool. Earlier this week when the Emperor of Japan was in town on his first visit ever since he took the throne (first visit to Canada since 1953) they let us mere employees stand along the red carpet to welcome him in.

It was pretty impressive to see a sitting head of government, and currently the only one in the world to have the title of Emperor up close and personal. To have eye contact, wave and bow. Pretty sweet.

Tax problems, paternity leave arrangements, and car problems are less fun; but I didn't trouble the Emperor with these mundane problems:)

XO
P

Friday, July 03, 2009

OH CANADA

This is a great editorial from the Globe. If you don't read it, it basically says while we are a pretty good country over the past few year's we've become a bit too in love with ourselves to the point of thinking we are models for the world and things at home are great!. That is one perspective but I can tell you I agree with Simpson, that while we do a lot of good things we have a long way to go before we're world class again and make a difference. We also harm our own ability to critically look for improvements in our society by thinking we're 'the best in teh world'. There is a lot that needs improving in this country.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/yes-we-love-our-country-but-best-in-the-world-get-real/article1204650/

Its worth the read.

Cheers,

P