Obama’s acceptance speech and McCain’s concession speech were remarkable for different reasons. Obama is always very much aware of the arc of history and he has an uncanny ability to map paths along that arc for both himself and his audience. I envied the crowd in Chicago as tears of joy rolled down their cheeks in concert with his words.  MLK had a dream and now (finally!) Obama is living it and inviting the world to go along.

As for McCain, while he is not a particularly eloquent speaker, tonight he was gracious, transcendent and real. In fact, this was McCain’s most presidential moment since the campaign began and it should be a harbinger of the attitude the Republicans must adopt if they hope to rebuild.

All in all, a truly remarkable evening.

And now, as a Canadian, I wonder how, and if, Stephen Harper can work with Obama. Tomorrow morning Harper may discover that he has gotten up on the wrong side of the ideological spectrum. We shall see. All I know I that I will soon have to change the PenOpticon banner. After all, Tony Blair is gone and Bush and Cheney are starting to pack up their stuff.  Can Harper be far behind?

It is amazing that Americans can shoehorn most of their political views into these two political parties, especially when much of the democratic world requires three, four, five or more parties. As Canada lurches forward with four national parties, it is obvious, that the change we need here is a proportional voting system that will enable these diverse voices to obtain seats in government and work together in a spirit of practical collaboration. Until that day comes, Canada will be cursed with a series of minority governments that will have a hard time getting the job done.

Congratulations President Obama! Now how can Canadians get the change we need?

I'm not sure if it was due to a fear of plants or an asphalt fetish, but my neighbour recently paved his backyard. About 2 months ago, they also took out most of the trees on the property, including two 50-foot fir trees and the remaining fruit trees that had been planted by Vincenzo, the previous owner (may he never return to see what has become of his former home!).  So, as of this moment, about 3/4 of the property is paved or covered with interlocking stone and most of the lot's carbon sequestering capabilities have been removed.  I'm not a hydrologist, so I have no idea what effect this pavement will have on run-off water quality or the water table, but it can't be good. They won't be fertilizing this over-sized driveway, but they will periodically re-tar it and will probably also use pesticides to keep peripheral weeds from taking over. 

The above photo was pieced together using Autostitch from a dozen or so shots — hence the fish-eye effect.  You can see there is plenty of room for hopscotch and chalk art, but little room for plant life. 

I think I've moved beyond anger about the whole thing, but I can not understand the mind or the aesthetic that desired and was willing to pay for such ugliness. Why pavement? Why now, when gas prices are on the rise? Why now, when we are bombarded with messages about global warming, peak oil and the need to curtail carbon emissions.

After Oswald, men in America are no longer required to lead lives of quiet desperation. You apply for a credit card, buy a handgun, travel through cities, suburbs and shopping malls, anonymous, anonymous, looking for a chance to take a shot at the first puffy empty famous face, just to let people know there is someone out there who reads the papers.

Beyond the mechanics of obtaining credit cards, exercising their Second Amendment rights and photographing themselves brandishing weapons, there is little similarity between LHO and Seung-Hui Cho. It seems that every shooter must be insane in his own particular fashion.  What is clear is that Ho's victims were not "in the wrong place at the wrong time", as Bush told Virginia Tech students last week.  On the contrary, as Slinger eloquently writes in the Toronto Star, they were in precisely where they were supposed to be.  With that tired old wrong place, wrong time phrase, Bush attempted to cut off substantive debate over U.S gun ownership and registration, while also  conveniently forgetting that dozens of American children are murdered with guns every day.

Paradoxically, crime rates — including homicides involving firearms — have been dropping across North America for the past twenty years. But, at the same time, because urban population densities are increasing, the effective rate of crime in many places is also rising. Perhaps crime statistics should be given in terms of crimes per square kilometre (mile or cubit if you prefer). Some jurisdictions have been reporting crime stats in this way for some time and the U.S. National Institute of Justice, which recently held their 9th Crime Mapping Research Conference, even offers free GIS crime mapping software.

As for me, I'd rather live with the assumption that the vast majority of people are "mostly harmless" and as unarmed as I am. Better that, than a world in which everyone and anyone may be concealing a Glock or a .38 — even if they happen to be angry, isolated or insane. 'Course I'd also rather we address crime,  crowding, poverty, pollution and climate change issues by allowing populations to fall (naturally I hope!) to sustainable levels, but that's a rant for another day.

All for now. Gotta get me a few hours of hiatus.

I'm a loyal rider and supporter of York Region's VIVA Transit system . I spend at least 2 hours a day on these fast, (mostly) efficient buses. Most of the fleet now includes an LCD TV display at the front of each bus.  It used to be easy to ignore these things (they were turned off much of the time), but over the past few weeks, the incessant, mindless, insulting crap that flickers over VIVA TV is really starting to bug me.  This stream of shite appears to be downloaded over a wireless internet connection and played back in a continuous loop using Windows-based display software. As shown in Exhibit A and B, you get the time, weather, scrolling headlines of "celebrity" gossip and any other headline that includes the word "sex", "scandal" or "explosion" in it.  Apparently we are all dying to know about the lunatic antics of Brangelina, Tomkat, Spears and Hilton, et al.

VIVA and byt^emedia (what dat?) have made a terrible marketing blunder here. Most of the time, most riders simply ignore these obnoxious flickerings. And for those few who mistakenly look up, much of the time, that screen will have already crashed with a Blue Screen of Death, or entered a perpetual reboot & crash cycle. So, it would be best for riders and the VIVA marketing geniuses to just get rid of these things now – it would free up some bandwidth so passengers could check their email, browse the web — or blog their brains out. If you VIVA suits still believe that riders can't survive without the boob tube, at least give us BBC World, or CBC's Newsworld, or CNN. I just don't want to hear about Paris Hilton's latest involuntary gyrations or Tomkat's wonky dance moves.

It's time to torpedo this horrible experiment.  

On the other hand, at least the 407 ETR suits are honest about what they are doing. In reality their approach is not all that different from thousands of "green" marketing schemes — like airlines that encourage flyers to pay an extra green tax to make up for the tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel they are about to ignite in the upper atmosphere. Captain: "We'll burn 183,380 litres of fuel on this flight". Passenger: "Well then, here's 20 bucks. Go plant a tree".

For too long we have allowed corporate interests to appropriate Green as a mere marketing ploy. Do you buy the unbleached coffee filters? Do you heave a sigh of relief when the 60-inch big screen TV arrives wrapped in recycled cardboard (while ignoring the 20 pounds of packing foam)? Do you pay the extra 10 cents a litre for clean gasoline?  If only these token gestures could actually save the place. 

Sadly, the emptiness and dishonesty of these schemes is just a corporate reflection of the established Liberal<=>Conservative (they are interchangeable) political establishment. Any politician who can look people in the eye and bleat about "sustainable development" in a country with high immigration, dwindling fresh water, dwindling air quality and rapid soil depletion is full of CO_{2 (or some slimy, toxic effluent).}

In any case, I was not pro or anti smoking. Smoking was just a fact of life until that fateful day when Smoking Sam and Smoking Sue showed up at school. These were self-contained,  motorized smoking machines that oozed black and brown tars into a test tube to graphically show how smoking poisons the lungs. I’m not sure if they still use these devices to scare the tar out of grade-school kids, but it worked like a charm on me.

Mostly worked, anyhow.  I confess I smoked a few cigarettes in high school — for love I suppose — but after a week or so, the smokes didn;t agree with me and I’m certain I didn’t agree with her. Although I used to put up with co-workers who smoked at work, my tolerance for second-hand smoke has dwindled over the years. Now I dread passing through the gauntlet of smokers that gather outside every entrance to every building where I work. Those of us who do not smoke grimly hold our noses and do our best to stay up wind, well away from the poison. It sounds self-righteous, but really it’s just self-preservation.

 The government has tried taxing the things out of existence, but to no avail. This is primarily because sin taxes create an artificial price differential between jurisdictions with different tax rates. It’s always possible to buy low in one region and sell high in another. Worse, billions of counterfeit cigarettes are now manufactured in China and elsewhere and are smuggled into Europe and North America and sold at rock bottom prices. According to a recent Toronto Star expose, upwards of 25% of all cigarettes sold are illegal and bypass regulation and taxation.

Since the cost of health care for smokers is, on average, 25% greater than for non-smokers, and since smokers are more than willing to purchase illegal smokes, it may be time to use the health care system to discourage the habit and ensure smokers pay their far share of taxes. This could easily be done by charging an extra health premium to anyone who continues to smoke past an arbitrary cut-off date — say one year after the smoking health surtax becomes law. If the surtax is set high enough, it may even be desirable to remove or reduce current cigarette taxes. Lowering the price would bring the cost of legal smokes in line with the street price of the illegal stuff and (hopefully) make life more difficult for counterfeiters and smugglers.  In Canada, we already saw this in the mid 90’s when the Federal and Ontario governments cut taxes on cigarettes to "compete" with illegal smokes.

Now, in the US, more and more employers are using financial penalties and rewards to discourage smoking.  Some employer-sponsored health plans now require smokers to cough up an additional $20 to $50 a month for the privilege of lighting up. If such a policy were adopted by Canada’s provincially-run health care systems, it would change the financial landscape of Canada’s health care system.  Turning a "sin" tax into a high-risk health tax will give millions of smokers a good reason to quit. At the same time, it will encourage die-hard smokers to choose to purchase legal cigarettes over illegal and counterfeit smokes.

With luck, within a few years, we’ll all breath a little easier.

N.B. The use of the Monks "Bad Habits" album cover is used here by chance. A friend happened to play a few tunes from this album and the cover just seemed to fit the headline. I have no idea what the Monks think about smoking, but regardless, this was a pretty good album.

The Hydro One accounting anomalies are reminiscent of the furor over Eleanor Clitheroe when she presided as CEO from 2000 to 2002. Those were heady days when the utility was poised to go public. As Canada’s highest paid civil servant, Clitheroe pulled down 2.3 million a year, made use of corporate limos for her children and nanny — and apparently even for her cat. Clitheroe argued that such perks were provided in lieu of her taking maternity leave. There were other allegations involving home renovations that were billed to the corporation and along with personal country club memberships, etc. But, the nuclear waste hit the fan when we learned of a golden handshake deal that would let Clitheroe walk away with a multi-million dollar pension and three years salary for her trouble. Since getting the corporate boot, Clitheroe went on to become an Anglican priest, though she is still suing the Ontario government over her severance package and pension.

There is little point in rehashing any of this, except that last month’s Canadian Business features this gem of an article by Thomas Watson: An Apology for Eleanor Clitheroe. According to Watson, "Reverend Ellie" was actually a victim in the whole affair. Seems she was double-crossed by Ernie Eves and his Conservatives when they sacrificed her in order to try to save themselves. Well, that sounds about right, doesn’t it? But a victim!!!!? After all, Clitheroe was a willing participant in the whole affair and stood to gain considerable personal wealth from the privatization of Hydro One.

Oh well, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised by the Canadian Business view of the world, but it is sad to see how the media can sometimes be co-opted to defend this kind of rot. It might make the job of cleaning it up (if that is even possible) all that much harder. Ya think?

But I lied. O how i lied. Like Ralph Philips, a minor Looney Toons character from the fifties, I daydreamed myself into dozens of blogging adventures — ranting about Afghanistan, raving about nuclear power and roaring about the Green Party. But it turns out I have not simply been playing — I care deeply about these things and want to make the world right. Typing away in front of this computer screen, with a cup of fair trade coffee at my side, I’ve had a few Walter Mitty-like moments where I thought I was making a difference. But we all know that’s load of bull cookies (as the venerable Colonel Sherman T. Potter used to say).

The problem with world problems is that there are so damn many of them. Even if young Ralph Philips could keep the world safe, he’d spend the rest of his days playing global Whack-a-Mole, battling insurgents here, terrorists there and global warming everywhere. Even when I push the blog cart down the aisles and toss fresh issues into the basket, they often go bad on me before I have a chance to fully cook ‘em. And so I’ve ended up with a growing list of half-baked blog entries:

• Beware of Run and Cut Politicians
• The Past and Future of the David Dunlap Observatory
• Harper replaces Kyoto promises with false premises
• Afghanistan: You’ve Never Seen Everything
• The Perils of Expanding the Canadian Forces
• How the “Will of God” Cheapens Human Life
• The Nuclear Greening of Ontario?

The obvious truth is that I have neither the time nor the skill nor the patience to type the world’s problems away. But damn it, Jim — that’s what I wanna do. Type the world’s problems away. It could be worse. I grew up watching Looney Tunes and always had a soft spot for little Ralph Philips. The kid gets grounded by his mom but quickly escapes via his overactive imagination to save the world from aliens in a most spectacular way. But the reality of Ralph, according to Toonpedia is that he “never appeared in comic books, on lunch boxes, or in any other venue. He’s such a minor character, he wasn’t even with the rest of the Warner Bros. toons in Space Jam“. Hmmm… sounds a lot like me!

Ok, it could be a lot worse. In recent months another Ralph Phillips made the headlines. Ralph “Buck” Phillips escaped from prison last April and played a deadly game of Whack-a-Mole with with upstate New Yorkers by popping up in dozens of towns, hiding out in state forests and shooting three New York state troopers (one fatally). He was finally caught on Sept 8th, 2006. This Ralph was 44, old enough to have watched the same fictional Ralph Phillips that many of us grew up with. Now that Ralph “Buck” Phillips is back in prison (aka grounded), I want to know how he will escape in his dreams. Or maybe I don’t. I’ll just keep typing along my own merry, deluded path.

Comm Ralph to General Staff. Comm Ralph to General Staff. Routine report. Martians captured. World Safe. Over

All of this killing is supposed to be an act of “defense” against Hezbollah, who (stupidly) stirred up this mess by capturing 2 Israeli soldiers. I watched a British BBC correspondent tour the carnage in Beirut, while bloodied women screamed out the names of missing children. Then I watched a British-born Israeli soldier explain how the bombing was done with pinpoint accuracy — just surgical strikes. In another report we see Israeli intelligence analysts sporting 3D visors as they explain how they use a system akin to Google Earth to virtually “fly” through Lebanese streets to define targets. Maybe their data points are just a few metres to the left of pinpoint accurate?

Then we have the world’s only remaining superpower pretending to feel “concern” for the Lebanese people, while declaring that conditions are not yet “conducive” for a ceasefire. In order to prove that conditions are not yet right, the U.S. agrees to expedite a shipment of bunker buster bombs. Can someone help me out here? According to the rules of geopolitical etiquette, when a country ships weapons to Israel and humanitarian aid to Lebanon, is it OK to ship everything on the same airplane?

To further confuse the issue, Israel announces they will not seek to “expand the offensive” (I thought this was defense?) but that they are calling up an additional 30,000 troops.

I can not imagine the political machinations that must be taking place in Washington (while my country’s dopey PM tags along as best he can). Does they Bush administration seriously think all of this death will do anything but guarantee another decade of terrorism? Are they trying to divert attention from Iraq? By hammering Hezbollah do they think they are somehow fighting Iran by proxy?

At the same time, Hamas and Hezbollah would do better to disarm and put their resources into a coordinated publicity campaign to raise awareness of Israel’s border incursions and shameful treatment of Palestinians as others are already doing. Of course, such a campaign could only work if Hamas and Hezbollah refrained from suicide bombings and other terror activities. Oh yes — and they would have to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Or why not just keep on fighting. Keep pouring more money, weapons and blood into the region so that U.S. arms makers can keep their stockholders happy. War hasn’t solved anything in the past and the only thing certain in the region is war not solve any problems in the future. But that is no reason to stop fighting, is it? Not in an area of the world where conditions are not conducive to reason.

“They are not representing a denomination or special interest group. Their mission is to engage with leaders to let them know they exist and what their heart is for our nation as well as to motivate and mobilize young Canadians so they too will become leaders themselves one day.”

Huh? This group seems to have some extremely “special” interests. In addition to actively campaigning for “pro morality” Candidates, 4 My Canada hopes to directly influence Canadian politicians by encouraging young Christians to apply for MP staff positions. After the last election, Kryskow blogged:

“We have just heard word that many MPs on the Hill are scrambling to fill needed job positions for their offices and for various posts on the Hill. We wanted to encourage those of you who can, and who feel the call, to submit your resumes for consideration. We want to see TONS of Jesus lovers get jobs on the Hill!!”

It’s hard to imagine what this group will do with a pro-morality guy like Stephen Harper. After the last election, Kryskow noted: “I pray for Prime Minister Harper and his new team and look forward to meeting with them in the very near future to see how we can walk together.” But, now that Harper has (once again) blindly followed Bush’s broken moral compass by supporting Israel’s “right” to bomb Lebanon, exactly what will this group be praying for? Their supplications are already too late for the 7 Canadians and 130 Lebanese civilians that have been killed by Israeli bombs over the past few days.

Ah well, perhaps 4 My Canada is really just a well-meaning, harmless group of young people. I don’t know if the group brings in enough money from their art, CD and DVD sales — and donations — to be profitable, but they seem to be highly organized and single-minded in their goal to create a Christian Canada. Who knows? Perhaps Faytene Kryskow will become the next Aimee Semper McPherson.

Whatever Kryskow really wants for Canada, she seems to be in it for the long haul. Her aspirations are very different from the more temporal goals of Rev. Beatrice Williams. In May, Williams and eight other Christian leaders spent the day in Hollywood California praying for lower gas prices. “These high gas prices, Lord, bring them down, oh Father.”

I can almost hear Janis Joplin growling in her grave: “O Lord woncha buy me a full tank of gas. My friends all drive Humvees, I must make it last.”