Canadian Musings

As I mentioned a couple posts back, there was a fundraiser today on Parliament Hill. For a $10 donation to the Red Cross, politicians were cooking up and serving hamburgers, chips, a pop, and a piece of cake for dessert.

Early calculations were done, and a cheque for $125,000 was presented as part of the event. Not too bad at all, really, for a warm and sunny fall day in the Capital.

It won't go far towards Hurricane Katrina relief, but let's face it: every little bit helps, and it's a whole lot better than half as much would be.

Since I have complained before about Ms. Jean's divided loyalties upon assuming the role of Canada's Governor-General, I feel compelled to congratulate her on her renunciation of the French citizenship, apparently completed last Friday.

It is important that Canadians see that our Head of State (okay, the local representative of our HoS) does not have divided loyalties; that her loyalties are solely to Canada and to the Queen, whom she represents.

There are still details which remain troubling about Ms. Jean's appointment, and Ms. Jean could make more emphatic statements about her commitment to defeat Separatism in Quebe in favour of a unified Canada, but once she assumes the office of GG her opportunity for political statements is severely curtailed.

Let's inuslate every idiot from the consequences of their actions.

After all, they're celebrities the instant their story goes on air.

****ing idiots.

Yahoo news "reports" (they aren't reporters) that some family has been harassed since they appeared - and appeared racist - on some television show.

I say **** 'em.

Let them learn to not be racist.

Don't cause them any harm. Don't cause them any real grief. But let them learn.

My brother pointed out a radio show in Chicago years ago. You submitted your phone number. They called it, on the air. If your answering machine message was considered funny (and only they were judges) you won a t-shirt. If not, they published your phone number on the air. In a major radio market.

But let's fact it. Even the most annoyed listeners couldn't keep up their harassment for more than a couple days.

For those who truly deserve it, a few days of the phone ringing is right.

Itsy, bitsy spider, climbed up the water spout.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.
And itsy, bitsy spider climbed up the spout again.

I've posted before about my distaste for the eight-legged. And I believe at the time (since I haven't gone looking for the post again; I'll link to it when I do) I mentioned the size of some of the spiders I have around my house.




Last Sunday, I noticed two of the "large" variety of spider just hanging out in my backyard. Here are a couple photos I took: two of the same spider but five days separated; another of the second spider who took up residence outside by rear window.



I don't know how it is that these spiders have survived all week. Are the birds blind and haven't seen them? Or are the birds scared of them? And will they keep the mice out of the house this year? After all, the spiders are over an inch, from tip to tip, and as it is now their sacs are probably the better part of a centimetre, and expanded out like a balloon.

By the way, does anyone know what kind of spider these are?

Update: I found this website which seems to suggest these might be Common Garden Spiders, or Orb Weavers. See the picture on "Unidentified Spiders 2005, page 3" (August 26) which seems to look just like my spiders.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is inviting its members to nominate what they view as "Classic" - but out-of-print - computer science texts, for possible inclusion in their Professional Development Center and/or the Digital Library.

It should be a good excuse for me to go back and check my bookshelves. Some of the most obvious suggestions don't qualify since they're actually still in print. For example, Kernighan and Ritchie is still in print, as is Kernighan and Pike.

Yup. I'll have to check my bookshelves.

I just got the poster in my email: the politicians are holding a fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Katrina next Wednesday, September 28, 2005 from 11:30 to 1:30 on Parliament Hill.

$10 for the charity barbecue lunch, all proceeds to the Red Cross, Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. Prepared and/or served by Members of Parliament, the Prime Minister, the Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition, and the leaders of the Bloq and NDP. And the new U.S. Ambassador, David Wilkins.

I certainly plan to attend.

And while we're talking about the schedule on Parliament Hill, remember that this coming Sunday is the annual memorial service for the fallen members of Canada's Police Forces. Things get underway at 9am with a reading of the complete list of all names, followed by a choral prelude at 10 and the memorial service itself at 11am.

I've been a bit of a television fanatic for years. I'll usually have the TV on CNN or FOX or maybe a movie while I'm sitting here at the computer, checking the news or my email.

And I'll check the weather or watch a movie on the TV in my bedroom, too.

But a few weeks ago, the old Commodore 64 Monitor which I use as a television started to lose horizontal hold, and it's continued to get worse lately.

And last weekend, my main television (which is about 12 years old) decided to stop working. And I haven't gotten around to calling the repairman just yet.

But I still have alternatives, one of which I had forgotten about. I've got DVD player software installed in my computer, so I can still watch movies.

And I've got jukebox software and the bulk of my CD collection available on computer, so I can listen to music.

I had forgotten that I also have a TV card in a computer, so tonight I get to watch television again. But it reminds me that I want to install another TV card in my Linux box, so that it can manage the bulk of my entertainment and information needs: tv, dvd player, audio player, control my lights, manage my phone system, check email, check news and sports on the internet, and whatever else I might think of, all on the same system. And for want of a couple splitters and remote controllers, manage all that throughout my house, too.

Scrappleface continues to amuse. (No specific entry linked; just read from the top & I'm sure you'll find something amusing, too.)

Media reports that, should the striking CBC employees set up a picket line on Parliament Hill, the Prime Minister (and possibly others, including his whole cabinet) will refuse to cross those lines leave one to wonder: just who is running this farce called a Liberal Government, anyway?

If a few disgruntled employees of a government moneypit can shut down our Federal Government, we have truly decended to farce.

It is illegal to interfere with a Member of Parliament attempting to perform his duties as an MP. The story should be that any strikers attempting to block an MP from accessing Parliament will be arrested, charged, and prosecuted for breaching that MP's Privilege. If several MPs are impeded, multiple charges should be laid, one for each instance.

Government is not an everyday business. It is an Every Day operation.

That Mr. Martin fails to grasp even that simple concept is breathtaking.

Tonight, the Environment Canada website for Ottawa is showing the weather forecast for tonight, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

One can only assume that they have come to realize that nobody is particularly fond of Fridays, and therefore have chosen to drop Fridays from their list of days of the week. We will now go directly from Thursday to Saturday, avoiding all the problems that Fridays traditionally bring.

I just wish I could grab a screenshot of it without having to change to my other machine, or to figure out how to do it on my Linux box that I'm currently using. That would be too much work for the end of the week.

Update, minutes later: I think I've managed to sort out the screenshot thing. It should now show up above. Click on the image to bring up the full-sized image.

In yesterday's Sun newspapers, an article by Eric Margolis contains this little gem:

A "black" surveillance operation run by U.S. Army intelligence inside the U.S. reportedly identified 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta in early 2000 and warned he was plotting to use civilian aircraft in a massive terrorist attack.

But the Sept. 11 Congressional Commission -- a shameless political whitewash -- claimed there was no evidence of Atta or his plans. Not a single Bush administration official was held to account.

Of course, if facts were at all important, we would point out that Bush wasn't in the White House during 2000. He was elected in November of 2000, and took office in January of 2001. President Clinton's administration was never held to account for this national security failure, however, since no such evidence could be procured.

It would seem quite likely in fact that this was the particular security briefing which Sandy Berger had illegally removed from the National Archives in his pants, and subsequently destroyed, while he was preparing his testimony before the 9/11 Commission.

But such is the nature of Bush-hatred in the media: facts aren't what is important. Claiming that Bush did something wrong is the only thing that seems to matter.

I went to the Ottawa Renegades' game tonight with a friend of mine.

And I had a wonderful time except for one, infuriating little detail: upon arrival, we had two hot dogs and two beers between us. And we were charged forty-two dollars for them.

Forty-two dollars. For two hot dogs and two beers.

Lonie Glieberman can kiss my butt for $42. He's hired people who are stealing from his customers, he won't get a lot of return business.

The game was a blast. I'll never return.

Too much has already been said about the failures of the disaster reaction plan in New Orleans. But I need to document a few things.

The blog Captain's Quarters points to the New Orleans Emergency Preparedness plan for Hurricanes.

There are a few key points found within.

• "plans are in place for small-scale evacuations and for citywide relocations of whole populations"
  
• "Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the Mayor of New Orleans in coordination with the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, and the OEP Shelter Coordinator."
  
• "Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life saving assistance"
  
• "Transportation will be provided to those persons requiring public transportation from the area."
  
• "the City of New Orleans has established a maximum acceptable hurricane evacuation time standard for a Category 3 storm event of 72 hours"
  
• "Shelters are provided by the Orleans Parish School Board, while manager training and support activities and supplies are provided by the Office of Emergency Preparedness."
  

We also have the directives for Special Needs Shelters, with no indication that these plans were followed.

There is a mention in the document of "supershelters" and such, but I haven't found any description of preparation for any such protection.

In any event, it is becoming increasingly clear that there were failures in New Orleans planning and execution long before this disaster. Let's all hope that people can recover from those failures.

With tens of thousands of people who ignored a mandatory evacuation order now having been evacuated, and the situation in New Orleans generally stabilizing, it becomes important to put a stop to a game which has been played by several on the Left: Blame The Right.

Mississippi has been an example of all that is good in America: hit by disaster, with as many as thirty people killed in one complex alone, the city of Biloxi and other hard-hit areas have pulled together with the authorities to begin the long work of recovering from this disaster.

New Orleans has been shown to be an example of the worst in disaster planning and recovery. Yet, somehow, various media and several left-wing pundits have tried to pin the blame on President Bush, his administration, and other on the political Right.

How many of them have pointed out that Mayor Nagin, the man in charge of local disaster planning, and the man in charge of this recovery effort, is a Democrat? How many of them have pointed out that the Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, is a Democrat?

Mayor Nagin has been given a large number of resources. He tapped a number of resources prior to the storm, to deliver tens of thousands of people to the Louisiana Superdome as a shelter of last resort. It hasn't been explained how he found buses to take people there, but couldn't find any buses after the disaster, but that's neither here nor there right now and the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (norta.com) website seems to be offline (as would be expected).

He has taken a terrible situation, and made it worse by leaving authority in question. He himself claimed that the city was under martial law, when in fact it was not (and he knew it: he was, after all, still in charge and under martial law civilian authorities are replaced).

But it is important to note that this has been a failure of individuals, and a failure of local leadership. It is most emphatically not a failure of the Left, any more than it is a failure of Up over Down. It has nothing to do with political alignment; it has much to do with local choices, priorities, and execution.