Thursday, December 07, 2006
Politics, Thoughts, Stuff
Politics are, for me, fun. I don't know why, but there's nothing I like better than the intrigue, the debates and even the political satire. I told my parents that the best part of being a politician, for me, would be watching Air Farce every night and laughing at their impersonations of me. Maybe I'd make a good politician - but I like programming computers to do my bidding too much.
But today, I was looking through some documents for something I was interested in (let me get to that in a moment) and I realize something unsettling. A large amount of the discussion that goes on, ON ALL SIDES - Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Bloc, independant - is targetted attacks against the other people.
Now in my mind, every party brings something important - the Conservatives have good policies on economics. The NDP is very socially conscious. The Bloc... well lets not get into that. Even the Green party has a contribution to make on the environment.
What do the Liberals offers? They are the glue - they are the only party that can take economics, social justice, the environment and national unity and bind them together to make them work. They are the masters of taking enough right wing capitalism to make our country work in the global world and to give our citizans the tools to suceed, but also take enough from the left wing socialism to give everyone a fundamental level of living. It isn't perfect by any means, but its better than what the NDP or the Conservatives offer. And now they're integrating the environment (or sustainable development, which is a better concept) into them - Dion, the new leader, called it the three pillars of the Liberal party. And I would like to suggest a fourth and a fifth pillar to form the five essental components of government in Canada - national unity and responsibility.
Stephen Harper wants to offer accountability - this doesn't seem good enough to me. There is a difference between accountability and responsibility. Accountability means you have enough oversight in place and enough checks and balances in place so that when things go wrong, there is a way to deal with it - an essential part of responsibility. But responsibility goes further. Responsibility means that our politicians will be good leaders. They will make sure that our tax dollars are spent in a way that benefits Canadians. They will explain why they make decisions as far as they can without compromising security. They won't scumb to infighting and partisan politics - these take us nowhere. Its about doing whats right for Canada and its citizans - not your political agenda, not a single group of Canadians, but all Canadians. Its about building a country where the citizens trust the government, where we are ensuring a quality of life for the future generations by preserving the environment, where we ensure that all Canadians have the same basic rights and freedoms and at least a minimum standard of living and where we ensure that Canadians have the ability to make a living. This is Canada for me - it isn't one thing, its combining all of these things together in the right mix that make Canada a truly special place to live.
And thats why I vote Liberal - because they're the only ones who seem to see a need for balance.
Now, to the days events.
Same sex marriage is here to stay - so spaek Stephen Harper and Peter McKay. By an overwhelming vote, greater than the last one (and note that this time, it was a truly free vote and even less Liberals voted against same-sex marriage (13 compared to 32 last time)), they determined that we don't want to revisit the issue. So I applaud all the Liberals, except the 13 who voted to reopen the issue, the entire NDP, the entire Bloc and the 13 conservative MPs who voted against reopening the issues.
The commissioner of the RCMP gave a touching farewell speech today and said some important things that I hope people watched and thought "wait a moment... this is different from what the media has been force feeding us...". But before I make any comments on what happened, I would really like to read a transcript of what was initally said by him and what he later corrected himself as saying. There are only six different interpretations of this and I need raw data to make my own opinion - if anyone has a link to a transcript, I'd love it. But otherwise, the man demonstrated himself to be intelligent, thoughtful and a person with a good grasp on reality - a person who realizes he will make mistakes and prides himself on trying to make the best choices so as to minimize the impact of those mistakes. A better RCMP commissioner, I don't know if they will find.
I had an interesting comment today from a so-called friend of mine (remembering a previous journal entry on friends?). They commented that I was a, quote, "noob", end quote, for taking an interest in politics. Now a lot of people have disagreed with me on a number of issues, but outright saying that its (in essence) stupid to have an interest in politics boggles the mind.
Here's the connection - everything you do in life involves the government. You pay taxes (GST/PST here, along with income, etc). You enjoy certain standards of living, certain healthcare and education benefits. There is EI, welfare, pensions. Our culture has also enjoyed a very large freedom in terms of human rights compared to other countries... notably the US of A. These all have an impact on our lives - as I said, we pay taxes. We are impacted either directly or indirectly by the human rights - I am a bisexual and, who knows, one day I might want to marry a man. We all know somebody who is affected by these issues - we all know someone on welfare, a person who wants to enter into a same-sex relationship, a woman who is the victim of abuse - the list goes on.
Can we say we don't care?
If you do not follow politics at all, if you don't vote, if you don't have a say (however small) in the direction of this country, you don't care. Because if you don't know about politics, you can't make an informed choice about which direction you think Canada should take. If you can't make that informed decision, then we end up electing a random government or a government which happens to have the popular opinion at the moment, regardless of their policies. And when we elect a random government, they tend to do things that maybe we don't want them to do, but we elected them so they have the right.
To say it is foolish to follow politics and become involved in politics is to be naive. The world and our country is not perfect and the best way to help out is to become involved. Look at the political parties and pick the right one for you. Vote for them, follow what their candidates say, what their MPs say. Look at their platform - does it make sense. Don't go with the popular vote, go with what you think will make Canada a better place for all Canadians. And if you don't vote on election day - then I'm sorry that you can't find a spot of humanity in you.
People will now laugh and say that if you don't vote, it doesn't matter. Its one vote.
But one vote counts. Some elections are won by ten votes or hundreds of votes. There are a large number of people who don't vote every year - they could swing the election if they ALL had voted. Sometimes motions pass by one vote that maybe we didn't want to see pass. And sure - the political parties aren't perfect. Every party has problems with corruption, with greed - every party makes mistakes. Because politicians are humans too - they're not superhuman people. They're just people and they have weaknesses. Some of them aren't all that bad. It doesn't excuse you from not voting. Sometimes you just gotta go out there and pick the party with the best vision, even if they're a bit corrupt.
We hope to have elections soon - possibly in the spring/summer. If we do, I hope each and every one of you will put some serious effort into thinking about who you're going to vote for and why and then have the honor of telling me that you voted.
Onto other topics
---------------------------
Exams tomorrow - English and Networks.
---------------------------
I wanted to write about one more thing before I hit the hay, but I guess I'll save it for tomorrow as I'm exhauted.
Goodnight all!
- Dep
But today, I was looking through some documents for something I was interested in (let me get to that in a moment) and I realize something unsettling. A large amount of the discussion that goes on, ON ALL SIDES - Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Bloc, independant - is targetted attacks against the other people.
Now in my mind, every party brings something important - the Conservatives have good policies on economics. The NDP is very socially conscious. The Bloc... well lets not get into that. Even the Green party has a contribution to make on the environment.
What do the Liberals offers? They are the glue - they are the only party that can take economics, social justice, the environment and national unity and bind them together to make them work. They are the masters of taking enough right wing capitalism to make our country work in the global world and to give our citizans the tools to suceed, but also take enough from the left wing socialism to give everyone a fundamental level of living. It isn't perfect by any means, but its better than what the NDP or the Conservatives offer. And now they're integrating the environment (or sustainable development, which is a better concept) into them - Dion, the new leader, called it the three pillars of the Liberal party. And I would like to suggest a fourth and a fifth pillar to form the five essental components of government in Canada - national unity and responsibility.
Stephen Harper wants to offer accountability - this doesn't seem good enough to me. There is a difference between accountability and responsibility. Accountability means you have enough oversight in place and enough checks and balances in place so that when things go wrong, there is a way to deal with it - an essential part of responsibility. But responsibility goes further. Responsibility means that our politicians will be good leaders. They will make sure that our tax dollars are spent in a way that benefits Canadians. They will explain why they make decisions as far as they can without compromising security. They won't scumb to infighting and partisan politics - these take us nowhere. Its about doing whats right for Canada and its citizans - not your political agenda, not a single group of Canadians, but all Canadians. Its about building a country where the citizens trust the government, where we are ensuring a quality of life for the future generations by preserving the environment, where we ensure that all Canadians have the same basic rights and freedoms and at least a minimum standard of living and where we ensure that Canadians have the ability to make a living. This is Canada for me - it isn't one thing, its combining all of these things together in the right mix that make Canada a truly special place to live.
And thats why I vote Liberal - because they're the only ones who seem to see a need for balance.
Now, to the days events.
Same sex marriage is here to stay - so spaek Stephen Harper and Peter McKay. By an overwhelming vote, greater than the last one (and note that this time, it was a truly free vote and even less Liberals voted against same-sex marriage (13 compared to 32 last time)), they determined that we don't want to revisit the issue. So I applaud all the Liberals, except the 13 who voted to reopen the issue, the entire NDP, the entire Bloc and the 13 conservative MPs who voted against reopening the issues.
The commissioner of the RCMP gave a touching farewell speech today and said some important things that I hope people watched and thought "wait a moment... this is different from what the media has been force feeding us...". But before I make any comments on what happened, I would really like to read a transcript of what was initally said by him and what he later corrected himself as saying. There are only six different interpretations of this and I need raw data to make my own opinion - if anyone has a link to a transcript, I'd love it. But otherwise, the man demonstrated himself to be intelligent, thoughtful and a person with a good grasp on reality - a person who realizes he will make mistakes and prides himself on trying to make the best choices so as to minimize the impact of those mistakes. A better RCMP commissioner, I don't know if they will find.
I had an interesting comment today from a so-called friend of mine (remembering a previous journal entry on friends?). They commented that I was a, quote, "noob", end quote, for taking an interest in politics. Now a lot of people have disagreed with me on a number of issues, but outright saying that its (in essence) stupid to have an interest in politics boggles the mind.
Here's the connection - everything you do in life involves the government. You pay taxes (GST/PST here, along with income, etc). You enjoy certain standards of living, certain healthcare and education benefits. There is EI, welfare, pensions. Our culture has also enjoyed a very large freedom in terms of human rights compared to other countries... notably the US of A. These all have an impact on our lives - as I said, we pay taxes. We are impacted either directly or indirectly by the human rights - I am a bisexual and, who knows, one day I might want to marry a man. We all know somebody who is affected by these issues - we all know someone on welfare, a person who wants to enter into a same-sex relationship, a woman who is the victim of abuse - the list goes on.
Can we say we don't care?
If you do not follow politics at all, if you don't vote, if you don't have a say (however small) in the direction of this country, you don't care. Because if you don't know about politics, you can't make an informed choice about which direction you think Canada should take. If you can't make that informed decision, then we end up electing a random government or a government which happens to have the popular opinion at the moment, regardless of their policies. And when we elect a random government, they tend to do things that maybe we don't want them to do, but we elected them so they have the right.
To say it is foolish to follow politics and become involved in politics is to be naive. The world and our country is not perfect and the best way to help out is to become involved. Look at the political parties and pick the right one for you. Vote for them, follow what their candidates say, what their MPs say. Look at their platform - does it make sense. Don't go with the popular vote, go with what you think will make Canada a better place for all Canadians. And if you don't vote on election day - then I'm sorry that you can't find a spot of humanity in you.
People will now laugh and say that if you don't vote, it doesn't matter. Its one vote.
But one vote counts. Some elections are won by ten votes or hundreds of votes. There are a large number of people who don't vote every year - they could swing the election if they ALL had voted. Sometimes motions pass by one vote that maybe we didn't want to see pass. And sure - the political parties aren't perfect. Every party has problems with corruption, with greed - every party makes mistakes. Because politicians are humans too - they're not superhuman people. They're just people and they have weaknesses. Some of them aren't all that bad. It doesn't excuse you from not voting. Sometimes you just gotta go out there and pick the party with the best vision, even if they're a bit corrupt.
We hope to have elections soon - possibly in the spring/summer. If we do, I hope each and every one of you will put some serious effort into thinking about who you're going to vote for and why and then have the honor of telling me that you voted.
Onto other topics
---------------------------
Exams tomorrow - English and Networks.
---------------------------
I wanted to write about one more thing before I hit the hay, but I guess I'll save it for tomorrow as I'm exhauted.
Goodnight all!
- Dep
*raises eyebrow*
Due to a number of Quebec friends (who really are friends and don't act immaturely) being a bit unsure how to take my more recent post, let me assure you that the majority of people I have ever refered to as close friends of mine don't fit into these catagories. Scrabble - you're one of the most mature people I know (though you still know how to get drunk :P). Vanessa - while having immature moments, you're at least learning sometimes lol. The real people I'm referring to are the majority of students at the College - perhaps because I'm older than most of them (its my third year there, so... yeah). There are always a few exception, and my class counts as most of them, but some of the new people - yikes. Can we act beyond five? Alright, no one's perfect but it gets ridiculous at times. The real people I wanted to single out among my close friends are Daren and Vicki because their behaviour has been, at times, offensive, childish and downright ignorant at times for the reasons outlined in the previous post.
So yes - combination of those two with the environment of generally less mature people makes me long for university and days of intelligent discussion with a bit of booze and some well-tempered comments.
Just thought I'd clear things up
- Dep
So yes - combination of those two with the environment of generally less mature people makes me long for university and days of intelligent discussion with a bit of booze and some well-tempered comments.
Just thought I'd clear things up
- Dep
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Boredom
Me + bored = bad.
Today, I got bored so I went on Google and found two images to splice together. The result...
http://darkelfpoet.tripod.com/flag.html
I hope you enjoy - I know its not flawless, but I think its good for my first attempt at a serious comedic alteration of a picture and has a message lol.
Later
- Dep
Today, I got bored so I went on Google and found two images to splice together. The result...
http://darkelfpoet.tripod.com/flag.html
I hope you enjoy - I know its not flawless, but I think its good for my first attempt at a serious comedic alteration of a picture and has a message lol.
Later
- Dep
Monday, December 04, 2006
Back to the drawing board...
I've been a naughty naughty boy - its been nearly a month since I posted last. Lets see...
I switched back to Windows from Linux because I was getting frustrated with certain aspects of Linux... like not being able to use the wireless at school.
Got back into Magic (yeah I'm a nerd :P), and have spent the last week going through my collection - yeah, nothing too fancy.
School is well - there are but two days left in the semester and then four days of exams - woohoo.
Politics grow more interesting by the day... for those of you who don't really follow, they're reopening the debate on same sex marriage by having a vote on whether or not to reopen the issue. Even though its very very unlikely we'll see the matter completely reopened, its still a shame. At least this might shut certain people up and get the government dealing with real issues... actually, maybe we're better off keeping them away from real issues. Yes I am not a big fan of many of the Conservative actions since they took office. On the positive side, they seem to have been able to piss off just about everyone but the rednecks so we'll be seeing another Liberal majority this coming election :). Ditto the Democrats in America.
On that note, the Liberals also got a new leader whom I'm very much in favor of - Stephane Dion. Not much bad to say about him, lets hope he does well and kicks Stephen Harper back to Alabama.
A scary thought - I actually turn twenty in less than two weeks.
Finally on the mundane issues, the Senators got back on their feet and started kicking ass again! YES!
Robyn and I are still together - we agreed to try and work out the issues we see between us. So far its been a rocky start (from my perspective) but I'm committed to making an effort and so I will. We'll see where we are in a couple of months.
As for the rest of my social life... it seems odd recently. I feel that I've reached a form of threshold and thats whats prompted this entry today. I find myself becoming more frustrated with the vicious forms of humour used by the people around me and a desire for something more... something better, greater... more intelligent. I mean, I enjoy good satire as much as the next person and I'm not above good harmless poking at people (obviously eh Robyn?). But there comes a point where you're just being offensive and laughing at the offense and I find that this weighs heavily on me - even with other people are the butt of the joke, I find myself sitting back and thinking "man... that really wasn't funny", especially when it comes without apology, without a friendly pat. And I look at some of the friends I've kept close and I realize that thats all they do - they make jokes (about me) and laugh and get offended when I get offended. I mean, alright I laugh at some of the fat jokes meant in good humour - my class is great with them and heck I make some good ones at my own expense.
I find it hard to explain, even now. Its a subtle difference between my class where such jokes are a great part of our interactions but they're also very well understood that there are lines and that we're not serious - we have our serious moments where we really demonstrate that we don't mean it. We go out for parties, we play pool and poker together, we get drunk together. Its truly a group of friends. With some other friends, its not the same - its a feeling that they really do mean some of these things to be hurtful. I'm only going to name one name and that is Vicki.
Its odd that she described someone to be as making her feel stupid when he teaches her new things, because this is the way Vicki makes me feel on a regular basis. She always seems to be mocking me, throwing insults my way and whenever I don't quite follow what she's talking about, she treats me like I'm two.
(and I'm going to take a break to apologize for my rant - I'm just getting fed up with people like this)
And its not that I lack the capability to understand what she's talking about, its that I lack the experience. Forgive me for not caring enough about manga to know that its read back to front, right to left - forgive me for not finding fighting skills to have any value in todays society.
I guess it comes back to the fact that these people knew me in my early life - especially Vicki who seems to have obtained these preconceptions about me that are utterly false. And it may seem odd to you but I do think that my closest friends are the ones from out of town who have no contact with me directly and whom I rarely get a chance to converse with - Ash, Tiff, Lisa and Nicky - as well as those from Ottawa who also don't have the pleasure of knowing the Quebec side of my friends - Shannon and Tina. There are also the odd person here or there from Quebec like Jaz and Mike who just seem to get it. It seems odd but I find these people have more respect for me than the majority of my friends here. As for my class... there are some excellent friendships but they don't think like me. No offense to them, but they just don't get it some days.
*makes mental note to check into moving to Sudbury*
Seriously though, its starting to bug me more and more and I think a part of it is me getting older and growing frustrated with the childish nature of it all - it really is childish, we're supposed to be adults and beyond this stuff (then I remember that I'm at least a year older than most of them and that I was once a part of that too). Perhaps its a good sign that I'm meant to move on to university and hopefully find more people who are at least a tad more mature.
In the meantime... well certain people will be seeing less of me I'm sure.
Anyways those are the recent thoughts. There are others, on death which is not a subject I want to do any serious thoughts on ever, and on relationships (which is an ongoing discussion between me and myself in my mind). There are also a series of melancholic moments where I have the urge to go for long walks in the fall (and now winter) weather and simply allow my mind to run out. Times when I wish there wasn't anything else to do and I could allow it all to spill over and out onto someone like I used to do. But now... there is no one is there? No one to listen to the tirades of my mind and make sense of right from wrong... they've had enough of it.
Well - goodnight all and until I get the urge to write again.
- Dep
I switched back to Windows from Linux because I was getting frustrated with certain aspects of Linux... like not being able to use the wireless at school.
Got back into Magic (yeah I'm a nerd :P), and have spent the last week going through my collection - yeah, nothing too fancy.
School is well - there are but two days left in the semester and then four days of exams - woohoo.
Politics grow more interesting by the day... for those of you who don't really follow, they're reopening the debate on same sex marriage by having a vote on whether or not to reopen the issue. Even though its very very unlikely we'll see the matter completely reopened, its still a shame. At least this might shut certain people up and get the government dealing with real issues... actually, maybe we're better off keeping them away from real issues. Yes I am not a big fan of many of the Conservative actions since they took office. On the positive side, they seem to have been able to piss off just about everyone but the rednecks so we'll be seeing another Liberal majority this coming election :). Ditto the Democrats in America.
On that note, the Liberals also got a new leader whom I'm very much in favor of - Stephane Dion. Not much bad to say about him, lets hope he does well and kicks Stephen Harper back to Alabama.
A scary thought - I actually turn twenty in less than two weeks.
Finally on the mundane issues, the Senators got back on their feet and started kicking ass again! YES!
Robyn and I are still together - we agreed to try and work out the issues we see between us. So far its been a rocky start (from my perspective) but I'm committed to making an effort and so I will. We'll see where we are in a couple of months.
As for the rest of my social life... it seems odd recently. I feel that I've reached a form of threshold and thats whats prompted this entry today. I find myself becoming more frustrated with the vicious forms of humour used by the people around me and a desire for something more... something better, greater... more intelligent. I mean, I enjoy good satire as much as the next person and I'm not above good harmless poking at people (obviously eh Robyn?). But there comes a point where you're just being offensive and laughing at the offense and I find that this weighs heavily on me - even with other people are the butt of the joke, I find myself sitting back and thinking "man... that really wasn't funny", especially when it comes without apology, without a friendly pat. And I look at some of the friends I've kept close and I realize that thats all they do - they make jokes (about me) and laugh and get offended when I get offended. I mean, alright I laugh at some of the fat jokes meant in good humour - my class is great with them and heck I make some good ones at my own expense.
I find it hard to explain, even now. Its a subtle difference between my class where such jokes are a great part of our interactions but they're also very well understood that there are lines and that we're not serious - we have our serious moments where we really demonstrate that we don't mean it. We go out for parties, we play pool and poker together, we get drunk together. Its truly a group of friends. With some other friends, its not the same - its a feeling that they really do mean some of these things to be hurtful. I'm only going to name one name and that is Vicki.
Its odd that she described someone to be as making her feel stupid when he teaches her new things, because this is the way Vicki makes me feel on a regular basis. She always seems to be mocking me, throwing insults my way and whenever I don't quite follow what she's talking about, she treats me like I'm two.
(and I'm going to take a break to apologize for my rant - I'm just getting fed up with people like this)
And its not that I lack the capability to understand what she's talking about, its that I lack the experience. Forgive me for not caring enough about manga to know that its read back to front, right to left - forgive me for not finding fighting skills to have any value in todays society.
I guess it comes back to the fact that these people knew me in my early life - especially Vicki who seems to have obtained these preconceptions about me that are utterly false. And it may seem odd to you but I do think that my closest friends are the ones from out of town who have no contact with me directly and whom I rarely get a chance to converse with - Ash, Tiff, Lisa and Nicky - as well as those from Ottawa who also don't have the pleasure of knowing the Quebec side of my friends - Shannon and Tina. There are also the odd person here or there from Quebec like Jaz and Mike who just seem to get it. It seems odd but I find these people have more respect for me than the majority of my friends here. As for my class... there are some excellent friendships but they don't think like me. No offense to them, but they just don't get it some days.
*makes mental note to check into moving to Sudbury*
Seriously though, its starting to bug me more and more and I think a part of it is me getting older and growing frustrated with the childish nature of it all - it really is childish, we're supposed to be adults and beyond this stuff (then I remember that I'm at least a year older than most of them and that I was once a part of that too). Perhaps its a good sign that I'm meant to move on to university and hopefully find more people who are at least a tad more mature.
In the meantime... well certain people will be seeing less of me I'm sure.
Anyways those are the recent thoughts. There are others, on death which is not a subject I want to do any serious thoughts on ever, and on relationships (which is an ongoing discussion between me and myself in my mind). There are also a series of melancholic moments where I have the urge to go for long walks in the fall (and now winter) weather and simply allow my mind to run out. Times when I wish there wasn't anything else to do and I could allow it all to spill over and out onto someone like I used to do. But now... there is no one is there? No one to listen to the tirades of my mind and make sense of right from wrong... they've had enough of it.
Well - goodnight all and until I get the urge to write again.
- Dep
