Ambiguous Birthday Musings

So, today is my birthday. I'm like, really old. At least if "really old" meant "I am not old enough to have seen Walter Cronkite read the news" or, perhaps, "Born after the USSR finally introduced daylight savings time". Take that Saskatchewan.

But, this is sort of an odd birthday. Happy, to be sure: I'll be boozing it up on the weekend. But at the same time, this year's happenings have made today a little bittersweet, and it's hard not thinking about that today.

Incidentally, "bittersweet" is also the best kind of chocolate to put in cakes. Just sayin'.

Ambiguous Birthday Musings

So, today is my birthday. I'm like, really old. At least if "really old" meant "I am not old enough to have seen Walter Cronkite read the news" or, perhaps, "Born after the USSR finally introduced daylight savings time". Take that Saskatchewan.

But, this is sort of an odd birthday. Happy, to be sure: I'll be boozing it up on the weekend. But at the same time, this year's happenings have made today a little bittersweet, and it's hard not thinking about that today.

Funnily enough, "bittersweet" is also the best kind of chocolate to put in cakes. Just sayin'.

Market Affecting Leaks, Redux

From Yesterday's Citizen:

Meanwhile, news of the cuts, which was leaked to one newspaper and posted online an hour or so prior to the announcement, fuelled a rally in federal government bonds.

Mr. Flaherty said the leak of the market-sensitive information was of concern and would be looked into by his department.

Radio Topics, September 26th

As always, we air tomorrow from 7-9am. Those in Ottawa can tune into 93.1fm, all the rest can listen online at www.ckcufm.com.

Shameless Plug

We usually read community announcements in the second hour, but this one bears repeating. The Carleton University Debating Society will be hosting a public debate about poverty issues from 6 to 7pm in room 409 of the Southam Building at Carleton University. It will feature a show debate, including myself and some of the Tuesday Blend's usual suspects, to be followed by a talk from John Anderson, Senior Researcher at the National Council of Welfare.

Mandatory Funding Drive Plug

Two weeks a year, CKCU switches holds its annual funding drive. It's coming up again, running from October 20th to November 5th. If you like this show, or even just the station, I'd encourage you to consider helping the station out a little bit. You can pledge online at the link above, and be sure to list "Tuesday Blend- Hour two" in the show you support.

Messy Week in Ottawa
A number of murders and nastiness in the city last week, including this one. As always, its useful to take a step back and talk about the relative safety of the city, but also to look at what ways events such as this might be avoided.

The Jan Wong Affair
No snippy comment needed, really: This was pretty nuts. For the record, I really like Andrew Potter's take.


Tories Nickle and Dime their way to an extra $1billion in savings
Some good stuff, some bad. Frankly, I was never sure why I had to pay the GST but those visiting the country didn't. That said, $20 million into medicinal marijuana research probably is useful. But apparently it didn't "meet the needs of Canadians", except perhaps those with glaucoma.

The Ongoing Leadership Race
No, not that one. This one.

Okay, Maybe That one too.
But we'll do it shotgun style:

1. Say it ain't so, Joe.
2. Alfonso Gagliano throws his public credibility around.
3. Fry to Rae. Just so everyone is keeping out, three candidates have left, three have gone to Bob.

US doesn't have money to fight the war
So says his Army Chief. Read here how Bush ruined the army.

Feminization of Poverty?
She may not have declared her candidacy for the big job yet, but this is a really good issue to focus on.

FDA faulted for drug safety process
That's not good.

Avast! Radio Topics for September 19th!

As always, we air from 7am to 9am on 93.1fm in Ottawa, and online at CKCUFM.com for everyone else.

In Hour 2, we will talk to a pirate that is upset with the rise in popularity of International Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Madrid Restricts the Super-Skinny from Fashion Week.

Fear of Science Update: "Intelligent Design" goes global.

WHO Authorizes use of DDT against Malaria. The pesticide, not the wrestling move.

The Pope speaks, causes even more controversy

Mexico brings back its strong tradition of electoral problems.

Harper to create "effective" laws in wake of last week's tragedy.

Economy in for a bumpy ride, says TD

The New Brunswick Tories get the most votes, but get to be opposition.

Chavez, who apparently also thinks geography is a CIA plot, pledges to defend Iran from attack.

For profit Philanthropy?

GoogleNews gets hit with a copyright defeat, pulls beligain links.

Pill worse than the poisin: Acne medication can cause depression

I'm no white wizard...

... but it would be really helpful if we could see some of the margins of error in this survey. Or much more of the raw data. The graphs are nice though.

Sigh.

This Peter McKay-Condi Rice thing is getting to be pretty silly. Some questions:

1. What the hell is a verbal-PDA?
   
2. Belinda split with Mckay (and the tories) something like a year and a half ago, almost as long as they were supposed to have been dating. How is that still recent?
3. Did they talk about anything important, like passports or softwood?
4. Shouldn't we all be profoundly dissapointed that the biggest story coming out of a meeting of our two foreign ministers, remembering that we have the single largest trading relationship in the world, is about a non-romance?
5. I'm sure that there are also lots of gender bias issues here.
   

A Fun Game

Let's play a fun game. There is an issue relevant to a local community to which a candidate for council is raising awareness, partly on her blog. When the press picks up the story, how do you think that they will refer to her?

Local residents have also written to their local MPP, Richard Patten, and 17 met with Barry O'Brien, the LCBO's director of corporate affairs, over the issue, according to local blogger Vicky (Miss Vicky) Smallman.

Smallman, who is running for city council in the ward of Kitchissippi and says she is an active member of the Hintonburg Community Association, has generated some discussion on her site.

Now, I won't speak to whether or not the store should open or close, and I had discovered the Miss Vicky Blog some time ago. If you're interested, and you should be because it is well written, you can check out the relevant post here. But, again, isn't it a teensy bit more relevant that someone is an active member of the community and running for council then who also happens to have a blog, rather than the other way around?

Activist Parliamentarians?

Most Canadians have probably never heard of the CCP. And it's budget
is only a little under $3-million a year. Yet no other federal
program or law has done more damage to Canadian democracy. No other
has so fundamentally altered Canadian society without recourse to
Parliament. -Lorne Gunter, National Post, September 8th 2006, page A16

You know, I'd have a lot more sympathy for this sort of position if, even after Parliament passed a law expanding rights to include a previously disenfranchised group, conservatives didn't then push to reopen that same debate in the hopes that this time the answer might be different.

Apparently Parliamentarians can be just as activist as judges and interest groups can be, if you disagree with them.

Radio Topics, September 12

As always, I am on air from 7-9am on tuesday mornings. Those in the Ottawa area can catch us live on 93.1fm. All the rest can listen live on the internet at www.ckcufm.com.


Tuition, redux!

As promised last week, we'll spend a bit of time talking a little bit about tuition and the university life in the first hour. Good starts to the discussion would be a look at Statscan's look at tuition numbers (h/t to JennB). CFS always has something to say, and for different perspective it is always worth skimming what Paul Wells has blogged on the matter. Do your own googling.


9/11, 5 years later.

Here's a bit on the official memorials. Apparently the US now remembers the help Canada gave that day. The re-writing of history is already underway. Has Canada's thoughts to the US changed? More importantly, are we safer?

9/11 and blogs

The only thing more ubiquitous than the phrase "in the post 9/11 environment" in the post 9/11 environment is blogs. Wired takes the chance to look at their rise.

Piracy

Wired also starts a look at the folks behind The Pirate Bay, a bittorrent site, and their legal struggles.

Bye-Bye Ralph Klein

But, beyond a massive surplus and looming environmental catastrophe, is he also leaving Alberta with a little less democracy?

Bye-Bye Tony Blair

Well, in a few months. They continue their British version of the Chretien-Martin feud, and the Guardian takes a look.

The Pope

Apparently has decided to start throwing stones in glass houses.

The LCBO

May start charging deposits on bottles, but not actually taking bottles back. (Previously posted here.)

Larry O'Brian

Has sent the first volley in his campaign out. Some thoughts:

1) Chiarelli/Ottawa Police have been encouraging youth crime?
2) I know that it is the needle exchange program that has been driving people to shoot junk into their veins.
2a) Does this mean that he is pro-AIDS and pro-little kids stepping on needles in Dundonald Park?
3) Why wouldn't police already be using all their legal options to make streets safer?
4) As I asked earlier, since there isn't actually a significant crime problem in Ottawa, does he saying that there is make people feel unsafe?

Afghanistan

The NDP want us out, but the Tanks want in.

Campaigning Cabinet Ministers

Is it right for Ontario Cabinet Ministers to be on the hustings in a by-election? In other news, this is what John Tory is going to use to get in the news?

News of the Odd:

1. It is now illegal to take too many free newspapers in California.
2. Let the bells of Freedom ring; Afghanistan is now producing Coke. (the canned kind).

Nanny State Redux

Ontario is going to add a deposit for liquor and wine bottles, starting in February of next year. Except that you won't return them to the LCBO, where you bought them, but to the beer store.

Some Questions:

1. Why do I need to go to two places to complete my Canadian Club transaction?
2. Apparently the LCBO already pays 5 million a year to the blue box program to offset their lack of deposit program. Perhaps that is more useful than what is proposed?
3. Now, I am hardly a teatotaller, and even I go through less than a bottle of whiskey a month and a few bottles of wine a month. I doubt I am going to keep those aside until I venture to the beer store. So the system keeps that quarter I paid, and I put the bottle in the blue bin anyway.
4. The financial incentive to beer bottles is that you tend to return dozens of them at a time. Ditto for popcans in Nova Scotia. That just doesn't happen with wine/liquor bottles. Maybe the answer is a higher deposit?
   

Fun with the Charlatan

Carleton's student newspaper brings out the best in early year Student Union frustrations. Some inside-carleton venting.

- Shawn Menard, CUSA (the student union) president favours restricting smoking on campus, but still manages to find fault with Admin's good idea. It's kind of like he started to see that they were agreeing with administration, and then backed away.

- Gone are the days, apparently, where the Charlatan ran screaming headlines about how our student pub lost more than 100,000 dollars. This might be the most confusing thing ever written, but here, with more than a half decade of straight losses, is the sign of the manager drinking the oliver's koolaid:

But Portt remains optimistic that despite setbacks, Oliver's is going to have an amazing year.
"It's going to be so different that people are going to say 'wow,' " he said, referring to the bar's renovations, which include a new 30-foot bar, a patio, two flat-screen televisions, a fully-functional kitchen and more.

Apparently they also may look into the advent of some "wireless" technology for the "internet." Only in student politics would it be acceptable to run a "business" that has lost significant chunks of change over the last years that I have been here. Losing money at a bar? On Campus? You figure it out.

- But they (kind of sort of) trim costs and the other campus business?

- That said, I know when I anticipate greater losses, I increase spending on existing priorities and create new ones.

- Admin has withdrawn from the proposed student building plan. Apparently, he took the defeated referendum on the matter last year as a sign that people didn't want to pay for a building. CUSA seems to disagree. Maybe CUSA wants to do the Quebec thing, having lost this past time only on having no clear plan and asking students to spend a fortune. That's how I like to build my mandates for construction. The real shame? I liked the idea of a building.

Fighting the man, whatever way possible

The Rideau Canal's bid to get UNESCO world heritage site designation seems to be getting towards the final stages, with inspectors coming to evaluate the site in the coming months and other interested groups using the bid as a spectre to fight other ills. From the Citizen:

Wendy Hassard of the Citizens' Mining Advisory Group points to UNESCO's concern about possible threats to Nahanni and Rocky Mountain national parks caused by "various mining, mineral, oil and gas exploration activities." Those activities "could have major adverse cumulative impacts on the integrity of the property," a recently released summary from UNESCO stated. (...)

The Citizens' Mining Advisory Group says graphite exploration threatens thousands of rural properties. Ms. Hassard said the graphite search has already damaged the landscape and cut some property values by 50 per cent.

"Mineral exploration could completely close down Canada's bid for World Heritage designation for the Rideau Canal," she said. "We have been waiting for three years for the Ontario government to do something about mineral exploration in this area, but it has done nothing.

"If there is a problem with Canada's bid, Premier Dalton McGuinty should do something about it. The government could give us back the mineral rights, which would protect our rights and the Rideau Lakes themselves."

Many people who found mining claims on their properties have discovered that their mineral rights reverted to the Crown during the 1950s because previous owners had failed to pay mineral taxes.

It's important to note that the Federal government owns both the land and the mineral rights for the canal, so Parks Canada spokespeople have said that alot of this is speculation. What is pretty clear, at least to me, is that this is not so much about being worried about the Canal not getting UNESCO heritage status (which it may not anyway), but to make sure that property owners on pricey peices of real estate don't have to deal with invasive mineral exploration.

Now, I really like the canal, and I really like No. 2 HB pencils, but it is pretty ridiculous that the system allows such disregard for people's property above ground, especially given that there was probably little communication with the then-owners when the mineral rights went up for sale. To be clear, this is also a problem elsewhere in the country. These are all reasonable issues that we should be talking about, and indeed it would be pretty tragic if one of the nicest parts of the country was ruined by an unsightly pencil-lead mine, but do we really need to cloud the issue with the UNESCO designation worries?

Osheaga daydreams

Andrew Potter writes of Sunday's Flaming Lips show in Montreal:

One of the best shows I’ve ever seen, period, at the coolest venue in New York. A close second, concert-wise, was the Flaming Lips two days ago, closing out Montreal’s Osheaga Festival. No one brings the pure joy like Wayne Coyne. A gorgeous end to the summer.

This is the understantement of the year. Ben Harper followed right away, but it is pretty much impossible to match the energy and fun that had just been on stage 100 feet away.

Some other Highlights:

1) Wolf Parade lives up to the hype, even after spending the first ten very frustrating minutes of their set trying to get the monitor levels right.

2) Final Fantasy shows just how much one can do with a pedal and a violin.

3) Bedouin Soundclash wisely deciding to let a Montreal Reggae artist, whose name I tragically forget, take over singing for a third of their set. He sounded way better than a Zeller's Ad.

4) Kid Koala. I missed most of his full set, but he took the mainstage before the flaming lips played. I never really appreciated DJing before, but I sure do now. Best was when he remixed an old piece- I'm guessing the title would be something like "Heartbreaker". Quiet, understated, and really, really awesome.

Dissapointments:

1) Ben Lee, who sounded good as background music on Grey's Anatomy, came off as bland but nice.

2) I've always complained about the food options at bluesfest, but atleast they are standard and the lines move quickly. Waiting in line for 25 minutes to pay 3.25 for a boiled hotdog is beyond outrageous.

I took some pictures, which I may add to this post later.

Asshats With Podiums Make Demands, More at 11.

The cool cats at ProgressiveBloggers have started to rally the troops behind Status of Women Canada, a crown agency that, shockingly, Real Women Canada thinks the tories should axe.

The real issue, though, is not that a socially conservative organization is trying to get a mildly socially conservative government to restrict an organization designed to improve the lot of Women, its that this is yet another situation where the news is focusing on what Bloggers are writing about something rather than focusing on the actual matter.

From the story:

The campaign was kickstarted by REAL Women of Canada, one of Canada's most vocal organizations of social conservatives. It has long urged the federal government to axe Status of Women - but this time its message is being widely discussed and supported among some in the Conservative Internet community.

So, that REAL Women is forwarding the notion is not really news, but I will grant that it is relevant now that they are likely making a renewed push given the change in government. It is not news that a bunch of people on the Internet are agreeing with them. Even if it was, it should not be at the top of the story, before you actually have a comment from the organization behind the initiative.

So, in true idiotsphere fashion, I snidely offer the Canadian Press potential other issues to follow up on:

1. Apparently, Toronto Sports Talk Radio still thinks that the Senators "don't have enough heart".
2. Lunchroom conversation at the local high school seems to think that the new girl is "trying too hard to be popular."
3. Macleans really seems to want to get HBO.
4. Posters on Pitchfork think that the music you listen to sucks.

(I am aware of the profound irony of blogging about the overemphasis placed on blogging.)

Radio Topics, September 5th

As always, we air from 7-9am on CKCUfm, 93.1fm in Ottawa, ckcufm.com for everyone else.

It's Back to School, we will talk to two students that are heading back to school. In the first hour, we'll chat with one of the Co-presidents of Merivale High; in the second we'll talk with someone heading into Junior high.

One down!

Can the greens get the parties to work together? May-be not
(I apologize for the pub. Really. But this won't be the first.)

Fed committee calls for 7 arctic harbours.

Expanding airport security to include behaviour?

Michael Caine accuses today's films of being "banal", apparently forgetting that he was part of "Jaws: The Revenge".

Coke says fizzy drinks not responsible for obesity. Apparently with straight face.

Sadness: Bye-Bye Crocodile Hunter