Silly buggers in Ottawa

Kind of like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Hopefully they will not turn this economic disaster into a who has a bigger dick power play.

Silly buggers indeed.

OTTAWA – The spectre of a spring federal election loomed larger Wednesday as Liberals and Conservatives reached an apparent impasse over a $3 billion fund aimed at quickly stimulating Canada's sputtering economy.

Liberal finance critic John McCallum said his party will propose a motion next week calling on the government to itemize precisely how the $3 billion will be spent.

The move followed Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's adamant assertion Tuesday that his party will not approve the fund without details.

Read more at thestar.com

Mayhem requires strong leaders. Where are our leaders?

Hard to stay positive when so many are losing their jobs. The litany of manufacturing jobs that are being eliminated in Ontario is huge; U.S. Steel idles their plants in Ontario, Chrysler lays off 1200, media jobs are disappearing across the country, A-channel, Torstar and Obama takes a beating on his budget from Rush (what an idiot), and where the hell is Harper with his stimulus package? Why is the money not flowing into concrete plans?

Is bailing out dying and unsustainable industries the smart way to go? What about Canada's investment in green. Dalton has talked about it and promised 50,000 green jobs but what is the rubber-hits-the-pavement plan?

Maybe Obama has the answer with trying to spend his way out this mess with investments in green energy, education and health care. Quite a risk but what else can you do.

Can you imagine a way out of this mess and how long will it take for any kind of recovery to kick in? My guess early 2011.

Well at least we have spring to look forward to.

Good day for riding although the rain was a bit intense

Loaded up the bikes today (first time using the bike carrier) and went for a nice ride at the Dundas Valley Conservation area on the rail trail bike path. This was our first time riding there and I must say it was fantastic. Heading west from the trail centre is a nice gentle uphill on fine crushed gravel - apparently you can ride all the way to Paris Ontario.

Today though we only went to the second road crossing (sulphur spring road I think) before we turned around for 2 reasons. 1) the Sprogs were whiny after 15 minutes and 2) a thunderstorm was threatening.

So we turned around and glided downhill back to the trail centre. Young sprog (age 6) and I kept riding for another km or so before the skies really opened up and we were royally drenched. The young one managed to fly uphill though especially considering he is a fairly tall lad on a 12 inch wheeled bike with no speeds. Pretty impressive.

I think maybe it is time to step up to a better bike - he took a spin on one of these today at Brant Cycle and his birthday is coming up so maybe the time has come to fork over the dough...

Why did it take so long

Just got wireless for the 4 year old laptop - why did I wait so long considering I am in the web world. Now I get to work out by the fish pond.

Nice baby really nice.

Summer winds down

The last full week of summer is fast approaching and fall is in the air. The early mornings are chilly and our big maple tree is even starting to turn red and lose its leaves.

Where does the time go.

Find your passion, easy to say, hard to do.

It may be trite and it may be a cliche.

This is the Carnegie Mellon Charge speaker Randy Pausch presenting his insights and wisdom to newly minted grads.

I like this line about finding your passion:

"You will not find that passion in things and you will not find that passion in money because the more things and money you have the more you will just look around and use that as the metric and there will always be someone with more."

UPDATE: Randy Pausch died in July 2008.

Flapping in the breeze!

Doing our bit sometimes means working harder. We have a corner lot in the burbs and we cut it with a reel mower. Takes a bit longer and is more excercise but it is worth it.

In the same realm of harder work is a clothes line. Ontario recently struck the bylaw that banned outdoor dryers off the law books which means that we can all hang our skivvies in clean fresh air and sunlight. Gives a whole new meaning to a good fence makes good neighbours.

So to celebrate the spring sun, new law and fresh breeze we sunk a cedar 4x4 into the ground this weekend and strung our very own Canadian Tire deluxe clothes line.

Very exciting. We'll see how long the excitement lasts - I give it a week of lugging wet laundry from the basement before the novelty wears off.

More bad news: Ontario sinks to "has been" status

Say it ain't so! Ontario has now officially slipped in to "poor cousin" status with federal equalization payments coming our way for the very first time.

The fingers are already pointing at Dalton McGuinty and his mishandling of the manufacturing meltdown. No easy answers but it did make me wonder (fear) what impact this will have on my industry (newspaper media) which is already staggering to its' knees from changing social habits and vanishing advertising.

Should be an interesting couple of years.

Catching up on all the news that's fit to barf.

Lots of negative news in the world these days. Ah happy spring. Where is the good news? Is there such a thing as good news?

Well here is at least one piece of good news.
Ontario pesticide ban looking like a go. And on first glance the ban looks pretty comprehensive. "Ontario's proposed ban on the sale and cosmetic use of pesticides will be the toughest in North America once it becomes law, supporters said Tuesday."

But really so what? We ban pesticides but will there be enough food?

Food prices soaring out of control. "we're plunging headlong into a world food crisis. Rocketing prices are squeezing billions and triggering food riots from Bangladesh to South Africa." Says avaaz.org

Apparently humans were almost extinct 70, 000 years ago.

Gas prices continue their upward trajectory like growing corn at a biofuel farm.

And the loss of high paying, once-secure manufacturing jobs at companies like GM continue to devastate Ontario's manufacturing sector. No wonder considering they still continue to build trucks and suvs that spit in the face (blow smoke up the arse maybe) of peak oil and pretend there is no environmental crisis. Come on people.

But at least the sun is shining today ;-)

First step in the Ontario pesticide ban

I was alerted via an email from Pesticide Action Burlington today that the Ontario Pesticide bylaw process has begun with a call to comment on what that bylaw may end up looking like.

Here is a snippet:

"In November 20, 2007, the government committed to a toxics reduction strategy to help protect Ontarians from potentially harmful environmental toxics. Further to this, the government has made a number of commitments with respect to the proposed ban on cosmetic uses of pesticides, including:

• “New legislation would also ban the cosmetic use of pesticides in our cities and towns.”
• “Legislation to ban the cosmetic use of pesticides to be introduced in the spring of 2008”.
• The ban would apply to cosmetic uses, such as “lawns, private gardens, parks and school yards” with a focus on “small towns and cities, not on restrictions for rural residents.”
• “Agriculture will be exempt. Ontario farmers already have stringent rules on the storage and application of pesticides.”
• “Golf courses will also be exempt but we would require golf courses to develop plans to limit the environmental impact of pesticides.”
• “We will also ensure that pesticides can still be used in situations where it is warranted to ensure public health (for example, to fight West Nile virus).”
• “The focus of our efforts will be on outreach and education on alternatives to pesticides on lawns. Enforcement will be a last resort.”

The government will look at other communities and jurisdictions, including Quebec, that have implemented bans on cosmetic uses of pesticides. Currently, the use of pesticides (including herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, or combinations of any of these) is restricted in a number of municipalities across Ontario. "

I urge anyone with an interest in this issue to follow the link, read the release and send a comment.