Just In Case You Are Interested.....

Re: the case of a shopkeeper being charged after apprehending a criminal:

http://www.vracommittee.com/

Ugh More Trash Talk

So the news bins ain't so bad... unless heaven forbid, you park it slightly askew or leave the lid open. This week our friend put his bin out in the morning at the curb like a good citizen but awhile later when the garbage truck came along, he noticed they did not stop at his house. He went outside to look and the lid was open on his bin and the garbage all still in it. He ran down a few houses to catch up to the truck and asked the driver what was going on... the driver said "your bin lid was open, we can't pick it up if the lid is open". Our friend has no idea how it happened, like if it was wind, or someone else threw something in there and didn't close it, or what but it was shut when he left it at the curb. So - the driver would not pick it up. End of story. Our friend asked him why he can't get out of his truck and close the lid and then push the button to pick it up (mechanical arm trucks, I should explain). The driver said he is not allowed. What the heck is this anyway? So now if word gets out (oops my bad, here the word is getting out), the new fun for pranksters would be to run around town simply flipping the lid of these bins open and it could cause chaos with no one's garbage getting picked up. That is just plain stupid. We are paying higher fees but the drivers can't get out and close a lid. It's not allowed. Lovely!

Another point to note is that our local paper reported today that the city was thinking of, yet again, buying us more bins (with our money of course) for composting but charging over $7 a month extra for that. Apparently at least one of our alderman complained and said the people won't be happy with another charge for trying to do something RIGHT for the environment, so they are going back to the drawing board to think up some other fun idea for collecting our yard waste. Meanwhile, the people across the street raked up their leaves after a big wind storm within 24 hours and there are 15 bags of leaves still sitting in the back alley, which the city refuses to pick up.

Going green costs consumers more money. And it's only going to get worse apparently.

totally random musing...

... So I have listened to a lot of right wingers talking of how Obama's White House holds an awful lot of communist/socialist sympathizers and they have been attacked relentlessly for publicizing that view. Mike Church of Sirius Patriot Radio has been calling Obama "Chairman Mao-Bama" for as long as I have been listening to his program (over a year) and a lot of people get angry about it. But then in the past couple of weeks there has been a lot of press over how the White House's Anita Dunn (Communications Director) has singled out Fox News as an organization that the white house is not impressed with... I don't need to go over that, you've probably seen it. But that has caused many others to look into Dunn's past and I've heard a clip from May this year where Dunn was doing a high school commencement address where she talks of how she looks to Mao and Mother Theresa as her two favorite political philsophers. I get Mother Theresa - but MAO? She spoke at length about him and was nearly gushing about his views - he was the leader of the Communist Party of China, held widely responsible for the deaths of up to 50 million people under his regime (famine, etc).

So here is a White House senior official who quotes Mao as being one of her 2 favorites, and she said something like she reads his works nearly every day. There are other instances like this for other senior officials that I have heard over the past year but I'm afraid my brain cannot come up with their names and affiliations right now. But Anita Dunn is fresh in our minds and I thought it was worth a little post... just for your own thoughts and ponderings.

**I read Dunn's response to this recent criticism this morning but I still don't get it - she said her statement was intended as irony, but seems to think that excuses her. Yes, it is ironic that she coupled Mao with Mother Theresa, yes it is ironic that an American in politics thinks of Mao often and lists him as one of her two favorite philosophers... but so? It's ironic, but that doesn't mean she doesn't believe it. She says she took her words from a former Republican, and the CNN article goes on to list other republicans who have used Mao quotes, but did they list him as their fave? Did they say they think of him and read his works almost every day? What is the point of her 'response'? I did not hear the clip on Glenn Beck but I have seen a lot of reports to say he purposefully edited the clip but I have yet to hear 'the rest' that was supposedly cut or edited to show anything different, to show us that she didn't really mean what she said, to show that anything was taken out of context.... I just keep hearing and reading the same clip over and over no matter the news source. So what was purposefully done here? Anything? And as for the CNN report references to past people quoting Mao - is there a difference between quoting something he said, and directly saying you hold him as a fave? I've even read a couple of Left-leaning blogs today that expressed concern over Dunn's comments - citing that if she was talking about his determinism and strength, there are plenty of other less-controversial people to use as an example and they seemed flumoxed as well by her remarks, citing that she said he is one "she turns to most".

White Washing follow up

Okay, so this was kinda funky and strange.... I just wrote about the idea of being forced to paint roofs white in a bid to reflect heat back away from the earth, like what is being done and considered in at least California..... when lo and behold, Sunday night's edition of Extreme Makeover Home Addition showed what the installation of a reflective roofing system can be like.

This was done on a Texas home and the reflective roofing surface was SO incredibly hot, they had to put the roof on LAST and do it at NIGHT. You can VIEW THE CLIP HERE and move the toggle to about 2:36 into the program. It's just a short blurb on this particular clip, and you'll hear them talk of how it's a great system, however the heat coming off it was reflected straight at the roofers and they could not put it in during the day. For the first time ever, the team had to put a roof on LAST, after the walls and rooms were ready.

So here are my thoughts - if the heat being reflected is directly heating the immediate surrounding area, what is that going to be like all day long? What is it going to be like if you have this kind of roofing on everything eventually? What about low buildings next to higher buildings - is the heat from the low roof going to reflect at the sides of higher ones all day long, every day? What effect could that have? In my previous post, a geologist spoke of concern that the heat from these surfaces could end up causing people to have to stay indoors during the day.... and after seeing that Extreme Makeover program, I can imagine that happening.

Another thought - if people are forced to change their roofs to these kinds of surfaces, or at least all new homes, they could end up having a higher bill if night-installation is needed (labour cost), special coverings for the home until the roof can be installed (to protect the inner walls, etc from the elements), special lighting for the night-installers, etc. Is the govt going to pay those costs? Doubtful. Maybe a small tax credit that you get eons after dishing out thousands of dollars - but that would be it. So it's just something to think about. Extreme Makeover Home Edition could not install this roof during the day, it was right there on television for millions of people to see even if it was only a short clip. Yet this may very well be forced on people in California and elsewhere... what's up with that?? Will it be too hot to even daytime install during spring/fall/winter? These are issues that need to be considered before forcing people to make these changes out of pocket in a bid to 'save the planet'. We could very well do the biggest screw-up since the Environmental movement cheered us on about plastic bags (remember, that was done to Save The Trees).

Wild Roses

I found an interesting blog post on Werner Patel's site and wanted to direct you over to it. It's about an interview with Danielle Smith of the Wild Rose Alliance and I think there are some important points in there to think about, such as "When she said that Albertans send $16 billion more to Ottawa each year than they receive back and that the equalization payment system is a corrupt system, it was clear that she, a born and life-long Albertan, would not put up with anti-Alberta nonsense originating in Ottawa or Toronto – or anywhere for that matter."

For many years I have heard along the grapevine that Alberta sends a hell of a lot of money to Ottawa, which is used in the other provinces for all sorts of programs, but then I hear all lot of anti-Alberta sentiment and I often wondered what they would do if Alberta crashed and could not send that money.... I hear attacks across the country about how Alberta is a blood sucker, responsible for Canada being so 'low' on environmental lists (tar sands, etc), and not to mention being called a bunch of hicks and rednecks. It is frustrating because Canada is supposed to be this large loving carefree happy-go-lucky country, but underneath the facade is a lot of in-fighting and angst. I hear a lot about how Alberta is largely to blame for pollution, global warming, blah blah blah - but I wonder how those people would feel if they lost that $16 billion a year for their own provinces and programs?? Would they think it was a valid price to pay for being strong-armed into dumping one of our greatest resources? I doubt it.

Deja Vu!

Hey, I remember this happening last year don't I? US stock market having a little rally but the dollar was still going down. The next thing I knew, the Canukian dollar was par so I went shopping on ebay and grabbed some cute shoes for my little boy. I haven't bought any more since then because the dollars were not par anymore,,, but I think it might happen again and while that's not good, I am going shopping on ebay again! Woo! I heard on the business news network last night that they think the dollars might reach parity by the end of the week! Ebay here I come!

PS - then if I remember right, the stocks went boooooooooom down after that so let's see what happens this time. Then I really will be having deja vu!

Moonies

I can think of many other ways to spend $79 Million +++.

Sure, learning about space, the moon, etc etc is interesting. I find it fascinating. However - at a time when we are trying to fund projects to find cures for cancer, MS, diabetes, rare diseases, and so on and so on, I cannot justify spending this amount of money on an experiment! I just heard on the news that NASA botched this little adventure a bit but I can't offer any confirmation as of yet. Regardless, I am reminded of a line from an Our Lady Peace song that is about the terminal illness of a young child.... several times Raine sings "There's a house built out in space...." and it makes me think that it's mind boggling we have little innocent children dying every single day of illnesses we cannot cure but multi millions of dollars in medical funding may help us move towards finding cures (or may have helped us decades ago), while there is a 'house' out in space. Meaning - how the hell can we manage that, but not help people down here on this planet?

A former coworker of mine is in hospital with her young boy right now because they found out he has leukemia. My bf's daughter had leukemia as a child as well. My cousin had leukemia when he was only two years old. My cousin's wife died of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma when she was in her 20s and had an 18 month old son. My friend's son has an extremely rare neurological disorder that literally causes him to bite himself to the bone so his teeth need to be removed (shocking shocking illness) but it took them 5 years to find a doctor who had even met a child with this before (that's how rare it is). My friend had breast cancer. A child at my daycare had Stage 4 kidney cancer and lost a kidney to it before she was 3 years old. The list goes on and all of us have stories like this ----- but we have to sit and watch billions of dollars being spent on space travel, exploration, and experiments.

We have gotten almost no where with this since the moon landing all those decades ago. There are also people that believe the moon originally was part of the earth until some sort of impact broke it free so would it be a surprise if they found evidence of water on it? I've read many reports that the moon came from the pacific ocean area. So if we find evidence of water, big whoopie doo. There are people dying down here who need help. There are illnesses taking the lives of very young children and people are donating their own cash to try to help find cures but it's no where near what is spend on the space program. The Princess Margaret hospital has been involved with the Weekend To End Breast Cancer for several years and has raised $79 million TO DATE. But NASA could spend that like water in a small experiment that lasted a few minutes? What's wrong with this picture?

Surely this deserves some sort of Prize ;)

I saw this on the news the other night and found the youtube link on another blog.

Trash Talk update

Well I actually like my new bin so far. It's bigger than I thought it would be but still a bit of a pain in the arse. I saw an old man near my work building a new enclosure for it so the truck can pick it up easier and I talked to him about it for a minute. He said this is the 4th alteration he has been forced to make on his garbage bin enclosure in 4-5 years. But he has to do it because it's back alley pickup and if you put the bin outside the fence, it could block vehicles trying to drive down there so he had to dig up part of his veggie and flower garden and make a special space so the truck can pick up the bin with nothing blocking it's way. His old enclosure had a 'roof' over it and was in a different spot. Poor dude lost some veggies to keep up with the city's latest venture. Our problem is that the neighbour across the alley has to put his bin a foot away from his fence and it's right behind where we have to back out of our garage.... it should be interesting in the winter when it's a bit more slippery back there because we only have about 5cm space before hitting it as it is. Backing out at another angle sets us up for hitting the next neighbour's bin or our own lol. I just laugh because I remember getting a ticket in Calgary years ago for not leaving enough clearance in an alley ($150!) and now we are blocking alleys with our bins instead.

But regardless of not minding my bin so much afterall, my thoughts in my previous post remain the same - the mentality of the city employee who told our friend that THEY bought him the bin, when it has been HIS money that went into the system all these years through property taxes and utility bills that actually funded the program.

At work we are finding other examples of fun and games starting up... with the province being in money trouble, they may cut some of the programs they put into place a few years ago, such as Wage Enhancement for childcare workers. I am on the fence with it because while I know it's tax payer money funding these programs, I fear what it could do to the industry. This is why it is SO hard to put these programs into use in the first place - it is VERY hard to get rid of them and remain fair. If the program is deleted, childcare workers in alberta will lose anywhere from $2 to $6 an hour in wages. In order to keep staff at the prior rates, the centers will have NO choice but to raise their parent fees. So - at a time when people are struggling with bills and job losses, wage cuts, etc - the cost of putting their children in care could literally skyrocket. Imagine a large center employing 50 staff having to come up with an extra $5 per hour for EACH worker every month when the only other income is parent fees. These programs might have seemed like a good deal in the first place, but it is NOT sustainable and the Big Cats should have been able to see that. I am ashamed of my past because I actually attended meetings demanding wage enhancement from the govt and signed a petition :( My only excuse is that was when I was in my 20s, before I even had children of my own, and I was clueless about what was really going on. 10 years later, I could kick my OWN ass for not thinking about this more clearly. We got the wage enhancement for several years but having it taken away is going to hit a lot of people HARD.

They might not take it away, we don't know yet, but there WILL be cuts and you can guarantee it will NOT be in the bureaucracy itself. They won't whittle down their own teams of people at the top - they will chop away from the bottom. Parents and employees WILL be hurt in one way or another, most likely with some sort of fee hike for the parents and stalled wages for staff. If I lose my wage enhancement and we do not increase parent fees to make it up, for example, I will be making $1 more than minimum wage after working in this field for over 15 YEARS. People will be leaving the field in droves since they would make more money at Tim Hortons and that in turn hurts parents and children because of high staff turnover or centers even completely shutting down, leaving hundreds or thousands of parents throughout Alberta with no childcare. there WILL be repercussions and it will ONLY hit people who are just trying to work for a living. But keeping the program will further bankrupt the province and make things more difficult for an even larger group of people.