urbanwriter

Here is the text I sent (the Right Liar) Prime Minister Harper a few minutes ago in response to the Conservative Party’s absolute refusal to perform their duties as a minority government within Canada’s Parliamentary guidelines. I also addressed the email to every one of his elected party members, because each and every of them bears some responsibility for the election writ.

“Mr. S. Harper,

It appears, out here on the West Coast at least, that the Ontario air has had some detrimental effects on your health.

As I recall you, and your colleagues, campaigned against the Liberals (and whoever else) on some constructed sense of moral duty, truth, honesty, diligence, and the like. You made promises, and enacted legislation, that you meant to serve your needs - convincing the Canadian public that you were somehow better than the Liberals - the ‘Naturally Ruling Party.’

You made much of ‘law and order,’ you made much of honesty and truth.

But you were, as so many before, lying. And you are still lying.

The RCMP, the ‘official’ arm of state power, has not once been held in check by your boy from Kelowna. Your performance on the murder of Robert Dziekanski was, at best, shameful, and at worst an outright surrender to the thugs at RCMP headquarters.

Your much-vaunted ‘fixed election date’ has revealed you, and your toadying sycophants, for what you are at heart. A liar, a fraud, a thief who steals in the night (or, in this case, from the public coffers to pay for your advance publicity) because you think you can.

By tradition there is a mark that distinguishes you - ‘Right Honourable’ - but you are a thief sir, and do not warrant such respect. Your cabinet has not the guts to stand up to you, to rein in your actions, and are therefore likewise undeserving of any respect.

And your backbenchers? Lickspittles of the worst sort. Take a look at their pictures - go ahead, look, and see just how many of them have grown fat at the trough - while lying to Canadians about truth, honour, respect.

I have voted in every election since I reached the age of majority. I have never tried to persuade others to vote one way or another. But this election I feel it is my duty as a citizen to see that you, and your mob, are removed as far from power as humanly possible within the context of Canadian law and politics will allow.

And, as an aside, how exactly do you justify lying with you supposed ‘Christian’ values?”

This was addressed to the following members of Parliament (’members’ deliberately lower-case) at the same time it was sent to Steven Harper.

Harper.S@parl.gc.ca, Abbott.J@parl.gc.ca, Albrecht.H@parl.gc.ca, Allen.M@parl.gc.ca, Allison.D@parl.gc.ca, Ambrose.R@parl.gc.ca, Anders.R@parl.gc.ca, Anderson.Da@parl.gc.ca, Baird.J@parl.gc.ca, Batters.D@parl.gc.ca, Benoit.L@parl.gc.ca, BerniM@parl.gc.ca, Bezan.J@parl.gc.ca, Blackburn.J@parl.gc.ca, Blaney.S@parl.gc.ca, Boucher.S@parl.gc.ca, Breitkreuz.G@parl.gc.ca, Brown.G@parl.gc.ca, BrownPa@parl.gc.ca, Bruinooge.R@parl.gc.ca, Calkins.B@parl.gc.ca, Cannan.R@parl.gc.ca, Cannon.L@parl.gc.ca, Carrie.C@parl.gc.ca, Casson.R@parl.gc.ca, Chong.M@parl.gc.ca, Clarke.R@parl.gc.ca, Clement.T@parl.gc.ca, Comuzzi.J@parl.gc.ca, Cummins.J@parl.gc.ca, Davidson.P@parl.gc.ca, Day.S@parl.gc.ca, DelMastro.D@parl.gc.ca, Devolin.B@parl.gc.ca, Doyle.N@parl.gc.ca, Dykstra.R@parl.gc.ca, Emerson.D@parl.gc.ca, Epp.K@parl.gc.ca, Fast.E@parl.gc.ca, Finley.D@parl.gc.ca, Fitzpatrick.B@parl.gc.ca, Flaherty.J@parl.gc.ca, Fletcher.S@parl.gc.ca, Galipeau.R@parl.gc.ca, Gallant.C@parl.gc.ca, Goldring.P@parl.gc.ca, Goodyear.G@parl.gc.ca, Gourde.J@parl.gc.ca, Grewal.N@parl.gc.ca, Guergis.H@parl.gc.ca, Hanger.A@parl.gc.ca, Harris.R@parl.gc.ca, Harvey.L@parl.gc.ca, Hawn.L@parl.gc.ca, Hearn.L@parl.gc.ca, Hiebert.R@parl.gc.ca, Hill.J@parl.gc.ca, Hinton.B@parl.gc.ca, Jaffer.R@parl.gc.ca, Jean.B@parl.gc.ca, Kamp.R@parl.gc.ca, Keddy.G@parl.gc.ca, Kenney.J@parl.gc.ca, Khan.W@parl.gc.ca, Komarnicki.E@parl.gc.ca, Kramp.D@parl.gc.ca, Lake.M@parl.gc.ca, Lauzon.G@parl.gc.ca, Lebel.D@parl.gc.ca, Lemieux.P@parl.gc.ca, Lukiwski.T@parl.gc.ca, Lunn.G@parl.gc.ca, Lunney.J@parl.gc.ca, MacKay.P@parl.gc.ca, MacKenzie.D@parl.gc.ca, Manning.F@parl.gc.ca, Mark.I@parl.gc.ca, Mayes.C@parl.gc.ca, Menzies.T@parl.gc.ca, Merrifield.R@parl.gc.ca, Miller.L@parl.gc.ca, Mills.B@parl.gc.ca, Moore.J@parl.gc.ca, Moore.R@parl.gc.ca, Nicholson.R@parl.gc.ca, Norlock.R@parl.gc.ca, Obhrai.D@parl.gc.ca, OConnor.G@parl.gc.ca, Oda.B@parl.gc.ca, Pallister.B@parl.gc.ca, Paradis.C@parl.gc.ca, Petit.D@parl.gc.ca, PoiliP@parl.gc.ca, Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca, Preston.J@parl.gc.ca, Rajotte.J@parl.gc.ca, Reid.S@parl.gc.ca, Richardson.L@parl.gc.ca, Ritz.G@parl.gc.ca, Scheer.A@parl.gc.ca, Schellenberger.G@parl.gc.ca, Shipley.B@parl.gc.ca, Skelton.C@parl.gc.ca, Smith.J@parl.gc.ca, Solberg.M@parl.gc.ca, Sorenson.K@parl.gc.ca, Stanton.B@parl.gc.ca, Storseth.B@parl.gc.ca, Strahl.C@parl.gc.ca, Sweet.D@parl.gc.ca, Thompson.G@parl.gc.ca, Thompson.M@parl.gc.ca, Ablonczy.D@parl.gc.ca
Cc:   Tilson.D@parl.gc.ca, Toews.V@parl.gc.ca, Trost.B@parl.gc.ca, Tweed.M@parl.gc.ca, VanLoan.P@parl.gc.ca, Vellacott.M@parl.gc.ca, Verner.J@parl.gc.ca, Wallace.M@parl.gc.ca, Warawa.M@parl.gc.ca, Warkentin.C@parl.gc.ca, Watson.J@parl.gc.ca, Williams.J@parl.gc.ca, Yelich.L@parl.gc.ca

Well, I’m back from eastern Canada; Montreal, Quebec City, Riviere du Loup, St. Johns (New Brunswick), Digby, Annapolis Royal, and Halifax (all in Nova Scotia), and a few days in St. John’s, and Trepassy, Newfoundland.

Here’s the short synopsis. Quebec was great. I saw so little of New Brunswick (Canada’s only officially bilingual province) that any judgemnet is unduly hasty. But the tides in the Bay of Fundy (between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) are unbelievably impressive, up to 54 feet of tidal range. Nova Scotia was good. Newfoundland is the land God gave to Cain, with fog, wind, and a distinct lack of green vegetables to make it more endearing.
The food, in a number of places, was extremely good. And some places managed a form a crud that ranks as barely edible. Blech.

Good food or bad, I put on about 4 pounds, so starting today (September 1st, 2008) I have to work those four pounds off, and then try getting another 4 off to stablize just under 190 (86.4 kg mass) with any luck.

I’ll add to all this in the coming days, now that the traveling daze is somewhat lifted.

Seems reasonable to me to keep some of the details of web-site hosting, domain name details, and dates right here where I can find them. If I can remember them at all. You will be charged $****.** on or around Mon 1-Sep-2008.
New expiration date will be Thu 16-Sep-2010.
billing expiration urbanwriter urbanwriter.net

I’m off to Eastern Canada. Montreal, Quebec City, some of New Brunswick, none of Prince Edward Island, a quick tour of Nova Scotia, and then off to Newfoundland. Phew.

Seeing as I’ve never made it east of Calgary, this ought to be a bit of a trip.

Much of the Maritimes is, wait for it, marine-oriented. PEI, where I’m not going, is surrounded by water. Newfoundland should have been Newfoundisland, being as it is completely encircled by the wet stuff. When I cross the Bay of Fundy (world’s greatest vertical tidal range) from Saint John, New Brunswick to Digby, Nova Scotia I’ll be on a ferry designed, essentially, for open-water work. And, while I’ll fly to Newfoundland, I expect to get wet, if only to say I’ve done so.

Damn North Atlantic is cold, even in the summer.

I’m hoping to talk to as many people as possible, to learn what little I can while I’m there, and to go for a row.

And then, when I return to the Wet Coast, I’ll be an expert on Eastern Canada.

Hey, I’m a full-time cyclist, at least I consider myself a full-time cyclist because over 90% of my commuting is done on a bicycle. I ride for pleasure, I ride for exercise, and, when I can, I ride my bike just to ride my bike. And, this year, I’m on course for a yearly total somewhere around 7000 km without ever going anywhere.

But I’ve got a couple of bones to pick with my fellow cyclists.

Slow down, or get completely off the god-damn sidewalk moron. When I’m walking I don’t think I should have to up with inconsiderate, self-centered, irresponsible cyclists speeding down the sidewalk. As I recall the sidewalk is for pedestrians. Cyclists are ‘vehicles,’ and unless otherwise directed, legally required to use the roadway. And, when cyclists are required to use the sidewalk by law, they are also required to yield to pedestrians.

For the Critical Mass crowd. I know that you all suffer from a mob mentality. I know that you think that if there is enough of you, you can by sheer force of numbers, cudgel other people into submission.

Well here is a bit of news for you. Pedestrians have the right of way. I know, most people who ride in critical mass events are too stupid to understand the notion, legal or moral, of ‘right of way.’ So brighten up, or the next pedestrian you try to run over might be me. And I can assure you that you’ll lose. Cyclists look really cute as they go over their handlebars, face first into the sidewalk, where they can then study the most intimate details of concrete and macadam.

To both ‘road’ and ‘off-road’ cyclists: again, I realize that most of you are sheep, and like sheep think that when you flock, you are invincible. No. Best re-think kids.

And to the high-performance roadies - pick up your god-damn inner tubes. Leaving industrial duty, used, black condoms by the side of the road does little to enhance your manhood.

While I’m at it. Why is that virtually every time I see a ‘family’ out on bicycles, where there are two adults, and one or more kids firmly confined in a trailer, that it is the woman doing the towing? Is this so dad can speed ahead to kill dinner? Or is it some re-enforcement of gender roles that assume that mom is more ‘warm and fuzzy’ and so must be closer to the kids? Or is it because dad is too damn lazy to tow the trailer?

And dad. When you’re teaching your kids to ride a bike, think. I know, I know, if some of you were capable of thinking you wouldn’t be a dad. Think about what your bike cost. Think about what your kid’s bike cost. They have virtually the same number of moving parts. The difference in cost is inversely proportional to the quality, accuracy, and efficiency of the bearings, wheels, tires, chain, and gearing system.

For those of you not terribly bright, it means that all those systems in dad’s bike are five or six times better than the kid’s bike.

Right off the bat the kid is doing 5 or 6 times the work, proportional to their weight, that dad is doing. And then factor in the fact that dad’s adult muscle mass is far stronger, more developed, and of greater endurance than the kid’s.

What all this means dad is that the kid might like going riding with you. But if you keep stopping at the top of hill, and ‘waiting’ somewhat impatiently for the kid to arrive, the kid will learn that doing stuff with dad is more punishment than privilege.

Damn, I’m looking forward to just riding my bike to ride my bike in the morning.

An on-line acquaintance, Dunc, collector of cool stuff and doer of interesting things, posted a link today (well, tomorrow probably, given that he is 15 times zones away) that I thought worth linking to as well. Thanks Dunc.

On that note, a lot of what the reviewer says about the book has been covered earlier, and in more academic prose, by my favourite feminist, Camille Paglia.

She is an outspoken, pro-male, pro-responsibilty, pro-feminist (and no, these are not contradictory values), pro-human American academic.

Paglia is the feminist that should be read, or, let’s say, would best reward reading, by guys whose experience is so different from the 60s and 70s versions of feminism as to sugest that they, and their mothers, lived on different planets than Gloria Steinem and her cohort.

Being a modest fan of reading myself (not owning a television, a CD player, cassette, record, 8-track, LaserDisc, or MP3 player, or a radio for that matter) I’d suggest that Paglia’s ‘Sexual Personnae’ is a bit of a heavy slog, but lots of her articles are on-line, and fine reading. “Break, Blow, Burn” is an exposure to poetry that is most definitely not ‘academic,’ ‘feminist,’ or painful. And might even be well worth your time to read.

And now it is time for me to get on my bicycle - the newly repaired On-one - and go and do great things today.

Am I the only idiot on the planet?

Everyone else seems to think taxes are imposed willy-nilly by a bunch of self-centered, egotistical, self-assured, thieving politicians.

I certainly have complaints about how, when, where, why, and for who some tax money is spent. Like the Olympics. Fuck the Olympics. ‘But the Olympics give amateurs a chance to shine.’ Well, I’m an amateur employee, and no one wants to give me money to support my amateur status.

But various rants go around the internet like virii, like this one below, and I finally snapped. I actually spent ten minutes. Yes, 10 minutes, and I had more than enough information to refute all of the contentions in the poem. And then some.

So, read the ‘poem,’ and then my response. Remember that my numbers are out of Canadian history, your mileage may vary.

YES Be a Canadian

The Tax Poem

At first I thought this was funny…then I realized the awful truth of it.
Be sure to read all the way to the end! 

Tax his land, 
Tax his bed, 
Tax the table 
At which he’s fed. 

Tax his tractor, 
Tax his mule, 
Teach him taxes 
Are the rule. 

Tax his work, 
Tax his pay, 
He works for peanuts 
Anyway! 
  

Tax his cow, 
Tax his goat, 
Tax his pants, 
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties, 
Tax his shirt, 
Tax his work, 
Tax his dirt. 

Tax his tobacco, 
Tax his drink, 
Tax him if he 
Tries to think. 

Tax his cigars, 
Tax his beers, 
If he cries 
Tax his tears. 

Tax his car, 
Tax his gas, 
Find other ways 
To tax his ass. 

Tax all he has 
Then let him know 
That you won’t be done 
Till he has no dough. 

When he screams and hollers; 
Then tax him some more, 
Tax him till 
He’s good and sore. 

Then tax his coffin, 
Tax his grave, 
Tax the sod in 
Which he’s laid. 

Put these words 
Upon his tomb, 
‘Taxes drove me 
to my doom…’ 

When he’s gone, 
Do not relax, 
Its time to apply 
The inheritance tax. 

Accounts Receivable Tax 
Airline  surcharge tax
Airline Fuel Tax
Airport Maintenance Tax
Building Permit Tax 
Cigarette Tax 
Corporate Income Tax
Death Tax 
Dog License Tax 
Drivng Permit Tax
Excise Taxes 
Federal Income Tax 
Federal Unemployment  (UI)
Fishing License Tax 
Food License Tax 
Gasoline Tax ( too much  per litre)  
Gross Receipts Tax 
Health Tax
Hunting License Tax 
Hydro Tax
Inheritance Tax 
Interest Tax
Liquor Tax 
Luxury Taxes 
Marriage License Tax 
Medicare Tax 
Mortgage Tax
Personal Income Tax
Property Tax
Poverty Tax
Prescription Drug Tax
Property Tax 
Provincial Income Tax 
Real Estate Tax 
Recreational Vehicle Tax 
Retail Sales Tax
Service Charge Tax 
School Tax  
Telephone Federal Tax 
Telephone Federal, Provincial  and Local Surcharge Taxes 
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax 
Vehicle License Registration Tax 
Vehicle Sales Tax 
Water Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax 
Well Permit Tax 
Workers Compensation Tax 

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? 

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was one of the most prosperous in the world. 

We had absolutely no national debt, had a  large middleclass,  and Mom stayed home to raise the kids. 

What in the hell happened? Can you spell ‘politicians?’ 

And I still have to ‘press 1′ for English!?!?!?!? 

I hope this goes around CANADA at least 100 times!!!!! YOU can help it get there!!!! 
GO AHEAD - - -   be a  CANADIAN !!!!!!!!!!   SEND IT AROUND EVERYWHERE for a change

Cool! It actually ‘cut and paste’ without a million headaches! And here is my response to this intellectually inferior, juvenile, self-centered, self-referential crap.

100 years ago:

No Old Age Pension

No Canada Pension Plan

Welfare? Whofare? The only prominent historical source was the Grey
Nuns, great girls I’m sure, but you really wouldn’t want to ask them
about family planning.

No Federally or Provincially funded housing. None.

No health care - does anyone remember lining up at Heather Pavilion
for the indigent?

Infant mortality was 10 times higher - go to any cemetery in Canada,
look for the ‘un-named’ infants. In one area of Montreal alone the
death rate amongst ‘live births’ was between 75 - 150 per 1000. Today
we average under 5.4 per 1000

1 in 4 children died in their first year of life

Life expectancy 100 years ago was 47 years male, and a female had one
of 50 years, if she survived childbirth.

Life expectancy today is on the order of 76.9 yrs. male, 82.0 yrs. female

100 years ago no one lived long enough to get lung cancer, from the
cigarettes they didn’t pay tax on.

Guys didn’t live long enough to get kidney dialysis.

Women didn’t live long enough to develop Type 2 diabetes, caused in
part by the food they couldn’t afford to by in quantities large enough
to cause diabetes.

No Trans-Canada highway for you to go motoring on.

No Worker’s Comp, er, WorkSafe, or equivalent.

Eugenics was all the rage - you and your ‘feeble-minded’ kids were apt
to be sterilized rather than be an economic and social burden.

School attendance, amongst the entire population: 61% That include the
kids that only made it to grade 1.

Now, sure, there was no airport tax. But there were no airports either.

And paved roads?

What about running water? You know, the stuff that comes out of a tap,
essentially (or so we act) for free.

Or those people silly enough to have boating accidents? Let them
drown. That’s what happened a hundred years ago - there was no Coast
Guard helicopter, hovercraft, Fast Response Boat.

And waterfront fires were an occasion for crowds to gather - there
being a distinct lack of maritime fire-fighting ability.

And, just over one hundred years ago Vancouver burned to the ground.
And then got a fire department.

Oh, and 911 calls? Well, they didn’t exist. The ambulance as we know
it today didn’t exist either. And the big difference between
ambulances today, the ones I saw as a kid? Money. Money for really
cool stuff that keeps me alive. Might keep you alive too.

So, you can complain about taxes. Or you can complain about the
inappropriate expenditure of funds, as you see it. Maybe you don’t
want your kids to live long enough to reproduce - I didn’t have any
because I didn’t want them to reproduce - but I want your kids to fund
my pension. I really appreciate the safety that comes with
wake-turbulence detection systems, radar, fire-suppression and control
equipment, and other mechanical and electronic systems.

We could not bother checking well water; just ask those people in Walkerton,
Ontario, what happens then. Or we could all be resigned to the notion
that dying of typhoid might be a good idea. And tuberculosis was
considered normal. Rickets was just what kids got, and if they were
really lucky, they got polio as well.

I remember kids with polio. I’ll pay the tax.

Oh, and that ‘large middle class’ mentioned? That, just so you know,
is complete and utter crap. The largest Canadian middle class in
history existed through the late 1950s - early 1970s.

Yes. I think the government wastes some money. Maybe they waste lots of money. But somebody has to pay for reservoirs full of clean drinking water. Somebody has to pay the tab for the equipment that stops the airplane I’m in from slamming in to the ground when it is foggy at the airport. I think government money on sports stadiums is absolute crap. But bridges over bodies of water? Well, that I think is a bit of a good idea.

Don’t like how your tax money is spent? Well get your pimply ass off the couch, stop watching television, and call, write, or e-mail your legislative representative. Protest. Show up at planning meetings. Show up at City Hall. Show up at the politician’s office. Show up a lot. Have a cogent argument. Have reasons, ‘just because’ just does not cut it.

And remember, death, and taxes.

A regular reader of Dunc’s blog I’m sympathetic to a wide variety of his views, on an equally broad variety of topics, though I would never claim to agree wholeheartedly on every entry every time. Dunc’s latest entry asks  “are the suburbs killing your manliness?”

While Dunc’s broad point is taken, I wonder if there aren’t other issues to question, and, hey, no offense is intended, and hopefully none taken.

To unfairly summarize the piece Dunc asks if suburbanization as practiced in the United States, Canada, England, Australia, much of Europe, and (based on my observations) a good chunk of Asia, is killing ‘manliness.’ And this is predicated on a very specific version of manliness indeed: fulfilling “the need to scratch that itch that comes from within.. the itch to kill things, make things, fix things, build things,” that supposedly existed in men prior to suburbanization.

But I question whether or not all those idealized traits actually existed, whether they were realized in ‘many,’ or ‘all,’ or if they were in actual fact an unrealized idealization that has been generated over a period of hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of years.

First, I suppose, is the idea that butchers, bakers, and candlestick-makers where real, but that they also represented the idea of specialization in trades and skills. Whether you believe in the modern religion of economics or not, that speciation was evident in the earliest human settlements - for the argument, Ur, in what was Mesopotamia (roughly, very roughly, modern Iraq, circa 2500 BC. So some men haven’t been living up to the modern male image for at least 4500 years.

The guys that made jewelry probably didn’t butcher sheep. The herdsmen may have built shelters, but did they have the mathematical skills to craft the ziggurat?

More modern versions of the problem can be found simply by looking at relatively modern settlers from the (nominally) Great Britain, and the Continent, and their adventures in North America (and I’m sure the Antipodes as well . They starved in many cases. They didn’t have the skills to build, they might have been able to kill if they could find something to kill, and their repair skills were often somewhat less than realizable.

History shows settlement after settlement, in a wide variety of terrains, abandoned because the skills necessary to ‘make a go of it’ were not really there.

The Spanish failed at Jamestown. The French failed at Isle Sainte-Croix (Champlain). The English failed at Roanoke. I’m sure one could find records of virtually all cultures failing because those ‘manly virtues’ were not as widely distributed as we think. And, at least in the North American context, there are endless examples of Aboriginals (First Nations, Founding Peoples, whatever) starving to death in unfamiliar terrain - like some settlers not able to hunt, or kill, appropriately. And this, in some ways, leads to my concern.

While modern suburbanization has many faults, and modern economic society likewise, I’m afraid that what we might consider the loss of manliness, is indeed a simulacra. We never had all those skills - and what I mean is that in virtually any modern society (and modern is relative to its time) there has been some form of speciation, or specialization, of skills. Ricardo’s ‘theory of competitive advantage,’ was only a realization of what had been practice for three thousand years. And when we bemoan the loss of ability to ‘have a son, build a house, and write a book’ what we are doing is buying in to a myth, as old as settlement society at least, that one man can, indeed, do it all.

That myth that one man can do it all is what drives Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ and its protagonist, John Galt. John could, I expect, kill a sheep, build hydro-electric dams, give all women guilt-free orgasms, write several books simultaneously, have sons endlessly, and fix the damn vacuum cleaner. But John Galt is also a self-serving myth of perfection, ability, free-enterprise ascendency, individualism, and the absolute right of the individual over the collective. Sort of like divine right.

And, as I don’t believe, morally, politically, socially, or ethically in the divine right of kings, I don’t believe in a ‘golden age’ of manhood, one that preceded modern suburbanization.

Other views of a world before suburbanization may be found here:

‘The Condition of the Working Class in England‘ A great book, well worth reading, and, surprisingly, readable. Robert Fishman’s ‘Bourgeois Utopias,’ an examination of the rise of suburbs in England, in the 18th Century. Lawrence Keeley’s ‘War Before Civilization‘ paints a very different, very well researched, and somewhat bloody version of ourselves before suburanization.

But all this in perspective. And, Dunc, thanks for giving me something serious to chew on for a while. I’m not completely satisfied with my argument, but I’ll hold for now.

Well, after the power outage, a full two days in a major section of Canada’s most important western city, the power is back on. I lost the ‘post,’ but somehow the original title still seems fitting…

Google “vancouver power outage”

Hey Australians, don’t worry about your new airport.

News flash: the next media event/bombing/terrorist/fundamentalist/wacko/hostage taking will happen somewhere else.

Try this on for size: upwards of several thousand people, close to media (meaning if nothing else, TV helicopters), likely to kill, maim, or inconvenience a large number of people, capable of a serious economic impact, and, as these things go, easy to do.

Hmmm. What could it be?

Well, while armed idiots are going through your luggage to check for illegal CDs, smuggled cigarettes, or condoms, look out the window. See all those speedboats out there? Aren’t they colourful? Aren’t they fast?

Don’t they remind you of the USS Cole?

Those speedboats exist in almost every open port in the world.

And, in many of those open ports, are cruise liners.

Forget learning to fly a large commercial jet, even if landing was never very interesting, this is way easier.
Once that liner is in water deep enough that settling on its keel is out of the question, one wonders just how many water-tight bulkheads will be breached. Will the armour plate, oops, this is a cruise ship and the only armour is around the bellies of its passengers, do much to deflect the shock-wave that progresses at several thousand feet per second?

Just think of the chill that will fall over every cruise ship in the world.

The cruise industry as we know it, if, indeed, any of survives the coming $200 USD barrel of oil, will cease to exist. The privately owned island in the Caribbean (where virtually every Caribbean Princess (or Carnival-owned) cruise stops) will become worth more as a landfill. All those boats, off to India or Bangladesh, for breaking.

And the idiots worrying about loonies at the airport will have to change their outlook a bit.

But, while all this cheerfulness begins my day, I’d ask you to read, or re-read, George Orwell. The truth of the future is becoming more Orwellian by the day.

ps: Carnival appears to virtually ‘own’ the cruise-ship business; in their stable is Cunard, Princess, Holland-America, Princess and others.