Confessions of a Shiftless Mind

Life sure doesn’t slow down for nothing does it?

I am looking at my schedule for the month of December, and it is daunting. I have 20 venetian blinds to install, including a glass door long one. I have 2 chairs to fix. I have work to do on a new bathroom. I have cleanup to do. I have a bunch of evaluations to fill out in advance of a leadership course I am taking in January. I have to pick up a new piece of furniture over at Ikea. I have to buy my wife a CHRISTMAS PRESENT! Gah!

Then there is the schedule. Tonight, I am a waiter at the church’s Christmas production, so today at some point I need to run out and shop for a pair of black dress pants. Next Wednesday, we have a meeting about a church plant we are participating in. Next Friday is another waiter gig, then Saturday night is the company “Holiday party”. Sunday is the Rwanda Trip Reunion Christmas party. The following week, another church plant meeting on Wednesday, a party night with that same crew where we plan to run into Stanley park with the kids, actually attending Dessert Theatre that weekend, then it will be packing all week for leaving the 23rd for Edmonchuk and the holidays. Thankfully, I have the whole week off and the Monday so I don’t go back to work until the 2nd. Then again, we have to stop in Vernon on the way back from Edmonchuk to visit more family. Then it is 10 hour days followed by long weekends of classes for that course I want to take.

Life won’t slow down until February. Oi. I hope I don’t miss something.

I don’t know if Buzz Hargrove really represents any political stripe in Canada anymore, since he severed ties with the NDP and started courting the Liberals. Until their leadership settles out, it won’t be clear if Hargrove truly has hitched his wagon or not.

However, in light of opposition (Liberal and NDP) objections to Conservatives dismantling the failed Kyoto environmental efforts and creating their own environmental plan (in which they screamed about how Conservatives were going to destroy the environment), I find Hargrove’s latest tirade interesting.

So, it’s fine to bandy about crippling Alberta (and to a lesser extent BC and Saskatchewan) by restricting things like oil extraction and refining, but if those dang Conservatives DARE to regulate the polluting southern Ontario auto industry…

Message: Go ahead and put westerners out of work with environmental regulations. Just don’t do it to Ontarians. Are we clear?

A couple of weeks ago I heard this little nugget of wisdom.

“Any idiot can tell you if there is a problem. What we need are more people who have solutions.”

I think of this right now in terms of the blogosphere. By its nature, this field is made up of voices, and those voices are often driven by a feeling of powerlessness. I know in my case this was one of the original reasons I started blogging on politics. However, as more and more voices join the conversation, it has already been demonstrated by the “echo chamber” phenomenon that everyone shouting about the problem doesn’t actually do any good. Just like an MP standing up and saying, for example, “There are crosses being burned on the lawns of Prince George”, bringing attention to the problem is good but bringing a solution to the problem is better.

I would encourage other bloggers (and non-bloggers) that while they surf the net reading all these voices shouting about problems, that they take a second and consider solutions. Make them known. What this world needs are more problem solvers. Discernment is useless without action.

Did some checking - as you surf at liberal.ca, the banner at the top changes. I got another copy of it now. Here is the rest of the shot:

Now, let’s think about this. The Liberals have spent the last how many years, declaring that the Conservatives are in bed with America. They have attempted to wrap PM Harper in the “baby Bush” moniker. Yet, on their own website, they have their party leader posed with Al Gore. In the banner of all places! Now, Mr. Ignatieff, a Canadian professor who has lived and worked in the USA for how many years, is poised to take over leadership of the Liberals?

For a perfect score, last question: which major political party in Canada bears more signs of climbing into bed with the United States?

Is that Al Gore on the homepage of liberal.ca?

ral?

I took this screenshot from firefox, while looking at the results of the 1st ballot for Liberal leader. I switched over to IE, and it just showed a big green leaf.

What the heck is a profile shot of Al Gore doing on the Liberal Party of Canada’s banner?

No, I am not going to make a list. I think it has all been said by now. If you haven’t spotted the quasi-meme, enjoy.

# EBD Says:
September 24th, 2006 at 1:33 pm

Five things feminism has done for me:

1. Introduced me to the deadly-serious issue of post-traumatic de-funding rage.
2. Taught me that even as I sit alone in a room reading a book I am a raping colonialist steamroller.
3. Made me realize that kids are so, you know, yesterday.
4. Taught me that women who stay with their children in the daytime to nurture and love them are in fact ultra-right wing fascists whose reason for being is to destroy the hard-won gains of urban libertines.
5. Rubbed my nose in the reality of yeast-related trailblazing down to the knees.

I love that one in bold. For more, check out Dust My Broom (make sure to pay attention to the comments), and then for a view from a woman who knows how to pistol-whip with her computer (no mean feat), check out Choice for Childcare.

The kicker is a Progressive Blogger suggested this whole idea! Ha ha ha!

Took my two oldest boys, 5 and 3, fishing for the first time yesterday. We didn’t catch anything, but it was a good time. The oldest has a cool concept fishing rod - it actually loads the weight and the hook into a shell that is fired from a spring loaded gun instead of casting. Needless to say Daddy stores the rod between uses…

He earned that rod by swimming 25 meters in the open ocean at Crescent Beach. It is called “The Tank” swim. Keep in mind this boy is only 5, and until this summer, he was terrified of water on his head. He would cry every time I gave him a bath and washed his hair. His grandmother got him into swimming lessons and he stayed at their house in White Rock for more than 4 weeks this summer. I was so proud of him swimming that pool. He was slower than just about everyone who swam it, but he did it. I had a hard time holding it together.

Geez. What am I going to be like at his graduation? His wedding? Probably a blubbering idiot, but dang. He’s my son.

This is part 3 of a 3 part series on Birth Control. The first two parts here (Part 1) and here (Part 2). All comments are appreciated - I don’t pretend I have it all figured out, these are only my thoughts as of August 2006 and may be changed by this time next year, if I have misunderstood the Bible on this score.

The Stewardship Objection

The first thing I hear in response to this line of thinking is usually, “but God calls us to stewardship. We are told to be good stewards of our time, our resources, and our families.” This is all true. The logical leap meant from this is that kids cost money and kids cost time, and our time is better spent elsewhere. I find it interesting to compare this idea to tithing. Many people feel very strongly about tithing, and its priority. I agree with them when they talk about giving the first 10th of everything to God, not the last 10th. I say, “Amen” every time I hear about a person or a couple who are strapped for cash or lose a job but keep on tithing, and experience blessing as a result. So many people I have heard from have told me about how when they have kept 100% of their money, it seems to get used up and they are short, but when they only keep 90%, God seems to bless that and they always have enough. I don’t know if it is the mindset of the individual, getting away from the desire for more money by dedicating it to the Lord, or what, but money just seems to go farther.

I believe so too with kids. I mean, today we have the highest standard of living ever in the history of the planet. Yet, we are having the smallest families in the history of the planet. Most families have 2 or more cars, while even 20 years ago the average was 1. People eat processed everything, and all that processing you can be sure costs money. The fact is, money is no object to most people. Even those who are “just squeaking by” seem to have so much that nobody had a generation ago. I know families on welfare with XBoxes, eating take-out pizza every couple nights. Sometimes this issue is brought up in relation to going to school, and being able to focus on studies. Again I ask, what did they do before? Colleges had married dorms. Or you simply didn’t get married until you were done your schooling.

But let’s look past that for a minute. Say you are a couple on birth control. Say it fails. You are now pregnant. What are you going to do? Continue Reading »

I have ranted on about asinine decisions by civic politicians before - don’t even get me started about “safe injection sites”.

However, you can all file this one under “gong show”.

Go ahead and read the article, but here it is in a nutshell. Little League tournament, want to put a “nice face” on Whalley, known as much for its homeless population and drug problems as for its world class kids’ baseball program. The politicos tell the cops to move the homeless out of the park next to the tournament locale, and onto a vacant lot next to an award-winning business that has operated on site for 34 years. In the subsequent 2 weeks, the business is broken into a dozen times or more. Nearly every day. The cops have since moved the “tent city” on to another lot, but not before the business has finally made the decision to leave Whalley for a more peaceful neighbourhood.

Do you blame them? I sure don’t. Last I checked the police are there to protect law-abiding citizens and their property. How is it that the police did not establish a regular presence near the building after… oh… I don’t know… the 4th or 5th consecutive break-in after the homeless people’s move? The owner of the business took a look at the lot after they left, and found a number of stolen items - how is it that the police did not search the tent city for stolen property when such a clear causal link was there for them? These people are SQUATTING! They don’t have property rights! The cops had every reasonable cause for searching them!

If I were that business, I’d be suing the city for damages, big time. When a city directive to the police clearly results in damage to your business, and nobody is brought to account, you have to simply blame the city. It was their responsibility to keep the business from danger. The odd break-in happens anywhere, and there is nothign you can do about that. But when the city’s actions precipitate the break-ins in such a direct manner, there has to be justice.

So, I am sick as a dog today, so I am home from work.

I was watching a movie on video while trying to program a universal remote to control the new VCR. It shuts off, because I found the right code, so I am returned to whatever our national public broadcaster was showing.

Turns out, it was live coverage of the UN Security Council’s discussion of the Lebanon-Israel question. I started watching while the spokesman for Lebanon was giving his speech. He talked about how Israel needs to stop their “offensives” and respect the sovereignty of Lebanon. He then launched into a tirade about the litany of UN resolutions that Israel has ignored. Finally he wrapped up, and the narrator said, “And now, the spokesman for Israel.” I got to see his first 3 sentences, where he said basically, resolutions are not needed - actions are needed to resolve this conflict.

And then, CBC came on, announcing the end of their coverage.

Naah. No bias there. They just didn’t have time to show the whole Israeli speech. It isn’t that they think Canadians don’t need to know, it is just a time issue.

Sure.