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The Algebra of Infinite Justice

There’s an interesting read at the Guardian.

Author Arundhati Roy talks about tempering the American quest for vengence:

In his September 20 address to the US Congress, President Bush called the enemies of America “enemies of freedom”. “Americans are asking, ‘Why do they hate us?’ ” he said. “They hate our freedoms – our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.” People are being asked to make two leaps of faith here. First, to assume that The Enemy is who the US government says it is, even though it has no substantial evidence to support that claim. And second, to assume that The Enemy’s motives are what the US government says they are, and there’s nothing to support that either.
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WOtd!

A dirty little secret of mine is that I’m a dictionary nerd. I love dictionaries. When I was younger, I used to read the dictionary. I don’t anymore, but that’s because I’ve also become a dictionary snob, and will not be satisfied until I own the two-volume OED set. Which costs an arm and a leg.

But in the interim I thought I’d make use of dictionary.com’ word of the day to educate the masses who visit my site. So, whenever fancy takes me, I’m going to use dictionary.com’s word of the day in some way during a post, and I’ll link the word back to them so you can look it up.

I once considered myself a card-carrying member of the clerisy. However, in recent years, the smug arrogance of my youth has worn off, as I realise more and more that while yes, I’m fairly well-read and well-thought, I don’t contribute anything. I don’t write publicly (well, apart from this now), I don’t go to conferences, I’ve all but stopped reading journals and books related to fields that interest me. I contine to read, but now it’s mostly novels. Admittedly, one can learn a great deal about society from novels, but I think to be considered an intellectual elite, a certain familiarity with contemporary theory, that I currently lack, is required. Also, I doubt that the literati comma-splice as much as I do.

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SHiNDiG (week 4)

So last night was another edition of SHiNDiG at the Railway club.

It was not very good last night, which is a shame, as I was a judge, so I had a hard decision : which of these three bands that I didn’t like should win?

Anyhoo, the first band. ‘Disco Incognito’ was a mess of a band – mixing ska with generic metal. And just plain too loud. They’d already been asked to turn it down, and my ears were still hurting afterwards. Blegh. The second band was a one-man thing named ‘Mr. Plow’. If he wasn’t so clearly a joke, I probably would have voted him first, as he was hilarious. Really dark, bitter humor that I quite enjoy. Included songs such as ‘I hate the Tragically Hip’ and ‘Incest’, an ode to the joys thereof.

The last band, ‘0 as is’ was what you’d find if you looked up ‘no-talent pretentious prog-rock’ in the dictionary. There were definitely the most interesting, however, putting forth a bad mixture of punk and new wave. They got bonus points because their drummer played an iBook, rather than a drumset…

In the end, I voted in reverse order of appearance.

Hopefully next week will be better..

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Horoscope

My horoscope today is:

Today you might go through some staff changes at work, Steve. You could find that some of your coworkers are moving on to a different department. Rapid expansion at your company could leave you a little short-staffed. Don’t take on more work than you can handle. Be honest with your boss, supervisor, or investors if you need more staff to help you with projects. You tend to get very depressed when you are overworked, so take care of yourself now before it is too late!

Which, seeing as yesterday it was announced that are imminently-starting client manager won’t be starting and Pam, our production guru is leaving, makes sense in a way. And, I do have a tendency to take on more than I can handle, but have been much better about it lately.

Finally, if you know of a really good proofreader/administrative assistant, please let me know. Same goes for a client manager/sales person who has experience in the print industry.

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More Gordon Campbell

This comes from Brishen. From where he got it, I admit, I’m none too sure…:

Over the last few weeks the B.C. Liberal government has quietly cancelled or

suspended millions of dollars worth of important programs around the

province.

There were no news releases. No press conferences. The government is simply

hoping that you won’t notice.

Here’s a list of the cuts they don’t want you to know about:

ELIMINATED:

– new science building at the University of Victoria, which has been planned

for over a year ($28 million)

– community archives grants program, which helps community groups foster the

development of historical records ($175,000)

– a program to provide additional financial support to low-income people

temporarily unable to work for medical reasons; about 4000 British

Columbians would have been helped by the program ($6.8 million)

– two of the province’s six residential tenancy offices, which provide

information and dispute assistance to landlords and tenants, will close in

Vancouver and Nanaimo

SUSPENDED:

– $9.41 million construction of Northwest Community College in Prince Rupert

– $5.31 million expansion of Douglas College in New Westminster

– $10.73 million classroom replacement at University College of the Fraser

Valley’s Chilliwack campus

– $1.37 million in renovations at the College of New Caledonia in Burns Lake

– $1.64 million renovations at University College of the Cariboo in Kamloops

– $1.1 million classroom addition at North Island College in Courtenay

– $3.09 million for the Justice Institute of B.C. in New Westminster

– $3.5 million for Kwantlen College’s Cloverdale site

– $3.37 million for Northern Lights College in Dawson Creek

– $1.9 million for the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook

– a program to support low-income AIDS and cancer patients with an

additional $300 in cash, vitamins and minerals each month ($6 million)

More cuts to important programs are expected. B.C. Finance Minister Gary

Collins has repeatedly downgraded the province’s economic projections,

making it ever more clear that the B.C. Liberal’s reckless tax cuts will not

be able to pay for themselves.

Uh yeah. That’s what I call not cutting education or healthcare too.

Other Campbell news found within 2 minutes of surfing.

Continue reading “More Gordon Campbell”

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Good Gord!

So Gordon Campbell is looking to privatize parts of our healthcare system. apparently, the ‘healthcare system is not sustainable as it is and there may be opportunities for the private sector to change that’. Yeah, I think there is. They could bloody well pay taxes. Since the massive tax cuts earlier this year, Gordon Campbell has quietly gone about slashing programs left, right and centre. In addition, he has already revised the growth estimates in the province once, from pie-in-the-sky-fairyland high, to where’d-he-get-the-dank ridiculous right now. The loss in tax revenue spiralled this budget to be the highest deficit in B.C. history, I believe. It’s funny how now all of a sudden healthcare is no longer sustainable. Why isn’t it that massive tax cuts are no longer sustainable? It has been promised that neither healthcare nor education will have their budgets cut. However, several ‘alternative’ programs in each have been scaled back or eliminated altogether. More to the point, if the healthcare system is not sustainable on its current budget, does it not simply make more sense to allocate more spending to it? Nothing is more important than the health of a nation. Healthy people are happy people.

And no, the rich should not by some sort of ‘right’ have better access to healthcare than the poor. Equal access to healthcare must be a right to everyone.

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Today

Today I am angry at myself for being emotional.

Today I am frustrated at my inability to keep on top of my finances.

Today I am angry at Leah for not having a job.

Today I am bored with what I do at work.

Today I am sad that I’m not a bigger person

Today I am happy that it is fall.

Today I am happy that I get to wear a sweater.

Today I am disillusioned with the promise of technology.

Today I long to escape into a book.

Today I want nothing to do with humanity.

Today I am not a person.

Today I am a wreck.

Today I am unquenchably thirsty.

Today I am hungry, but cannot eat.

Today I am sick and tired of televisual stimulus.

Today I am scared to answer the phone.

Today I am ready to sell out.

Today I am not going to play hockey.

Today I am not having a good day.

Tomorrow will be better.

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