Transparent: Easily Seen Through!

Speaker Milliken is to be applauded for taking the high road in the Afghan torture affair. Alas, his follow-up comment that he hopes a compromise can be found, weakens his resolve and his position as Speaker. If Parliament is supreme, why do we need compromise? The relevant documents must be brought forth, intact and uncensored - and without further delay.
Prime Minister Harper flaunted the word transparent when mesmerizing Canadians during his first election campaign. Ever since, he has been decidedly more opaque (impenetrable to sight). The only thing transparent to Canadian citizens is the fact that Mr. Harper and his government are involved in a cover-up. There is an abundance of evidence that crimes have been committed in Afghanistan which deserve scrutiny. Responsible government is a cornerstone of Canada's independence as a nation.

Misstep!

Well, Mr. Clegg (or Leggover) seems to be doing quite well. However, we have just learned that Mrs. Brown, while attending a Hindu Temple, and removing her shoes, revealed "unattractive" and/or "unsightly" feet. Horrors! Poor woman.

It alarms me that the British media has become as sensationalist as the American. Seems OK to take off most bits of clothing, to the applause of the crowd. Show respect for another religion and you run the risk of being vilified for a physical imperfection. That could set off a violent reaction to many of the physical flaws the three boys and their first ladies, have (or may have) attributed to them. What the devil has that to do with the price of tea...as my mother would have said!

Where D'it Go?

"Stiff hike in EI premiums looming, minister says" (April 17, 2010)
In 2008, Canada had surplus Employment Insurance of 57 billion dollars! Paul Martin was largely reponsible for that. A surplus never lies around for long! Hard to tell how, but today the surplus has diminished? disappeared? been spent? and the account is deeply overdrawn. The government is warning, i.e. preparing, us that the premiums will soon be going UP!
$57 billion! That is 57 with nine zeros after it. A lot of money. ($3,800 per Canadian, every man, woman and child.) It is now, "deeply overdrawn." Where d'it go? Can every cent be accounted for by the last two year's unemployment figures? We will never know. We all paid into it, whether or not we were unfortunate enough to be unemployed. If the government ever wrote to me asking what I would like them to do with my money, I never received the letter. Come to think of it, nor did I receive an IOU. Who's the Minister of Finance - David Copperfield? Okay, now make it reappear!
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Stiff+hike+premiums+looming+minister+says/2917700/story.htm

Pilgrim's Progress

What a range! The Vatican is busy covering its...backlog, so to speak, explaining some questionable history of its near and distant past, while over here, to pay for their live-streamed webcast, our Anglicans are flogging pulpit prime space to the rich and wealthy. I guess it was inevitable. The Anglican Church of Canada's national convention this year is fund-raising by offering all sorts of opportunities for hawking goods and giving your corporation or family a boost! Brand logos, signs in meeting places and...wait for it - lunch with the senior Archbishop - are all there for the asking. http://v1.theglobeandmail.com//servlet/story/LAC.20100420.ANGLICANS20ATL/TPStory/National/

For CAN$30,000 (Visionary category) the goodies are too grandiose to mention. Perhaps you can display your family crest above an altar, upon request. A corporation may prefer to be less ostentatious and join the Supporter category (CAN$7,500) with a wall-hanging behind the Chairman of the synod. Coca Cola's slogan "You Can't Beat the Feeling" has a ring to it. The prols are not left out. For CAN$2,500 (Friend category) they may have their names printed in the church's gift guide!

Any assumption that Canada's corporations, which definitely rule our political world, had not entered the world of faith is now dead in the water. Speaking of water, there will be a huge contest for who supplies the baptismal water. The buzz is it could be Evian!

If politics and religion are consigned to the fires of the corporatist world - can the judiciary be far behind? The Anglican Church - i'm lovin' it!

All Clear!

"Let me be clear...;" "It's clear to everyone...;" "There's a clear explanation...;" When anyone in the political world uses the word "clear" what follows they hope, is probably unclear to everyone. "Clear" is a favourite word of Stephen Harper among others. The Liberal Party leader prefers, "It's as simple as that!" Each implies that if we don't find what they say to be "clear" or "simple", we are not too bright. Just like the courtiers in The Emperor's New Clothes?

As they used to say in WWII, is that "All Clear"?

A Comedy of Errors!

Iggy should be laughing a lot as the P.M. gets deeper in the mire with the Jaffer scandal, and Richard Colvin revealing the truth with respect to the Afghan fiction. However, the polls continue to show the Tories rising!

"It's as simple as that," Iggy replies to all or any questions, while never looking at the camera. When will those Liberal back-room boys get the message? OK, they turfed out Stephane Dion and fell over themselves to induct their famous candidate.

This has to be the greatest-ever comedy or spoof in Canadian politics. Unfortunately, the joke's on us!

Steve-o-the-wisp!

After 2000 years, I'm reading Seneca! What he wrote then is as accurate today as it ever was.

To quote one excerpt from his "On the Shortness of Life,"

How many will avoid going out through a hall crowded with dependants, and escape through a secret door - as if it were not even more discourteous to deceive callers than to exclude them.

Sound familiar? How does he remain anonymous? He is an economist and is very economical with his time facing the public. Ducking out back doors to avoid questions is his forte. Seneca would have told him he will have to face the music, eventually!

Smokescreens

Recent decades have seen a welcome reduction in the smoking habit in North America. One reaction of the tobacco industry to this loss was to encourage sales in India and China, etc. A few years ago, tobacco barons, Camel in the U.S., Imperial Tobacco in Canada, introduced SNUS (pronounced snooze) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus to aid those having difficulty contending with non-smoking restaurants and other public non-smoking areas. The recalcitrant smoker can now chew SNUS, a nicotine derivative, which does not require the user to spit like a baseball player! Some smokers interviewed said they had not given up cigarettes entirely, but were now, when forced into non-smoking areas, using SNUS. This seems to mean that smokers trying to respect non-smoking laws, and trying even harder to quit the addiction, can resort to SNUS. One young man interviewed on 60 Minutes said he still smokes twenty cigarettes a day but fills the time in restricted areas with the comfort of SNUS! It is not hard to see the new addiction will keep the addicted under control, i.e. still controlled by cigarettes - and less likely to quit. This approach, started in Sweden, is called "reducing harm." Reducing - but not eliminating. A controversial idea.

I hope that this news will do two things. First, it will urge people to sue tobacco companies for encouraging their addiction. That is long overdue. Secondly, people with self-induced illness and disease, resulting from tobacco consumption, will be denied public health care. It seems totally unfair to expect other citizens to pay for restoring health to those who have freely invited deadly disease by their own hands. The companies who are encouraging this should also be held equally responsible. http://www.smoke-free.ca/Filtertips-6/snus.htm

Recalibrate!!!!

Joseph T. Hallinan has recently published "Why We Make Miztakes: How we look without seeing, forget things in seconds, and are all pretty sure we are way above average." It is a very good read.

I have carried out my own "scientific" check to confirm his latter claim! It appears we do indeed see ourselves as way above average. Using a  psychological assessment ranking with genius at the top and idiot at the bottom, almost everyone I asked placed themselves at least at the 75% mark. You may recall that the PM and all his associates reassured us at the time of prorogation that his government's purpose was to recalibrate. I have searched the two-volume Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and been unable to find the word. The definition of calibrate, however, includes "skill and judgement". May we assume that recalibrate suggests that the first time, those two qualities were not present in his plans and actions? Perhaps the PM also sees himself as "way above average"? Let's hope he calibrates correctly next time. If there is a next time!