Wall Street Protests
Protesters with the Occupy Wall Street movement which began two weeks ago are going to stage another protest October 1st and are claiming that they will continue to keep the pressure up until changes are made when it comes to corporate governance in the US. Calling themselves the other 99% of Americans the protesters feel that the corporate and bank bailouts have done nothing to help everyday people and in fact have only served to enrich an elite few in society. Other issues being brought up include global warming and police brutality.
For the most part the protests have been peaceful but, some incidents have occurred where dozens have been arrested. In these cases the protesters claim the police have been heavy handed in their approach, using what they see as excessive force and tricks to lure protesters into situations where they would be arrested.
Other protests across the US have also taken place. L.A., Boston and Albuquerque NM are just some of the cities where marches in support of the Occupy Wall Street Movement have taken place. The protests against corporate greed show no signs of letting up for the moment.
For complete coverage you can google occupy Wall Street to get the latest news.
Montreal's Bixi Bikes have been getting somewhat of a makeover of sorts. A very crafty individual has gotten the idea to promote several hip hop artists. He is doing so by covering the Desjardins banner found on the back wheel of a number of Bixi bikes. The detail is incredibly well done and unless one took a close look at the rear wheel you'd probably think it was the Desjardins ad but, in all of the cases the names of hip hop artists appear where normally Desjardins would.
Weird or not you decide. But, different this definitely is. Here is a novel idea that you may want to check out A company in Alabama has been formed to give gun lovers and their relatives an option that is a real blast so to speak. The company is Holy Smoke LLC and what they do is take the ashes of the dearly departed and and put them into shot gun shells and pistol cartridges, thus allowing the person receiving said shell or bullets to load a rifle, pistol or shotgun and fire it, yes fire it.
According to the founders of the company 1 pound of ash fills up to 250 shells or cartridges. They have already filled two orders and have received requests for more information from police, military and fire departments as well as the general public.
I have a desire to travel the world but, I would also like to see parts of Canada that I have not had the chance to. There are lots of places on the net to go to to get info on travel and packages. Sometimes thought it is just interesting to find out about a place to go to without the sales pitch. One place on the net I found that showcases interesting Canadian destinations is Vacations Canada TV. Now I do not think you will find then on regular TV but, here on the net they have a presence. Very nice site features include videos and the ability to book a vacation.
Recently I read a posting on the CBC's website which pretty much sounds like a lot of the posts I see on the site. It related to money spent by the government, in this case Quebec for an inquiry into the judicial system and whether politics played a role in the hiring of judges. Michel Bastarache a former supreme Court judge was asked to head the inquiry into influence peddling in Quebec's judicial system after allegations surfaced that there may have been direct intervention by the Liberal Party in the appointment of judges.
Bastarache concluded there was no evidence of influence peddling but, he did note that there were flaws in the system at the time of his report. Ok now that we have established the story lets talk about the comment.
Really for free, Ok and what kind of dope are you on was my first thought. The second was oh please Quebec has a population of 7 million people, so for each man woman and child the amount is a mere 85 CENTS.....As in pennies. Even if we lower the number by taking out children and others who do not pay tax to say around 4 million, that comes out to $1.50 per person.
I am not unsympathetic to taxpayers concerns. There are things that the government does which is a waste of money and there are people in the government who do take advantage of taxpayers. In recent incidents the Minister of National Defence had to explain why he had a rescue helicopter diverted to pick him up at a fishing camp, to the tune of $16,000. Said minister said he was reviewing an exercise that the Armed Forces was holding involving rescue operations and that if an emergency was in progress the helicopter would not have been dispatched. Unfortunately this was not the only ooopsie, it was revealed recently that the 6 challenger jets that the government of Canada has have been used by lower ranking government officials who do not fit the requirements for access to them. There was a note about the fact those not in government also took advantage of taxpayers by flying on the jets. These are indeed clear missuses of the public purse and taxpayers do have the right and obligation to stand up and say not on our dime when these things happen.
However in situations where there is a clear need to investigate and fact find or where the government is at fault for doing something they ought not not to have done. Then despite what may seem to be an expensive amount to pay out the taxpayer, you and I need to remember that as representatives of us they must be held to account and sometimes that includes having to pay for errors they make. In short as the boss in effect we are responsible for their errors. And, sometimes this costs us, think of this as your boss having to pay out money for your error on the job. In this case we are the boss they made the error and now we have to pay to fix it.
Examples of this in the past that come to mind include Mahar Arar, Ashley Smith, and Robert Dziekanski. Arar was the victim of torture at the hands of the Syrians due largely to evidence provided by Canadian and American security agencies. It was later revealed that Arar was not a threat to Canada. However today his name remains on US no fly lists and due to the trauma he suffered has a difficult time living a normal life. Because of Canada's role in his rendition to Syria he was awarded compensation for his suffering. Ashley Smith was jailed for tossing an apple at a postman, then bounced around the system to avoid having to be released from her solitary confinement. The end result was her suicide while guards who were ordered not to intervene watched her die for fear they would lose their jobs if they did the right thing instead of protecting their butts. The family received compensation for her death. It should be noted that in effect she was given a death sentence due to the fact that there were over 500 charges in prisonn laid against her for her behaviour, none corrected her behaviour which was clearly a result of mental health issues. The last is the infamous death of Robert Dziekanski, a polish immigrant who died after being repeatedly tased by police in Vancouver. His mother received compensation for her loss.
All three and dozens more like these are what cost taxpayers money and all of them should not have happened in the first place. We can argue over taxes all we want but, in some of the circumstances the money has to be spent to compensate for the boneheads who run our government and do stupid things. There is waste and mismanagement of money but, on the other side of the coin there are these incidents which we unfortunately have to pay for.
Finally taxes are a necessary part of the equation for the services we want to take advantage of. Health care transit and other services provided by government cost money. Government employees are not volunteers. And, I doubt many would not do the work unless they were paid as the jobs are often thankless. I do rail against the government from time to time and I agree that we need tax reform in Canada. And, a reduced civil service in some parts of Canada would be good. But, as a society we must collectively decide where to reduce and what to reduce compared to what we want. We are not going to be able to have our cake and eat it to.
Lastly when one thinks of the cost to pay for something in terms of millions the amount per person is a ridiculously low amount to complain about. Getting back to the Bastarache example if the investigation cost 6 billion dollars, the average for each citizen in Quebec would be $857 dollars. Now that is something to complain about if nothing got fixed. As it was the price tag for each person in Quebec was 85.7 cents, that is 310.25 in a year. I can say honestly I pay that in just one shot for cable and electricity each month. I would be happier to see those costs go to 310 for a year. And anyway it was important to take a look at what really was going on in the justice system in Quebec as that affects us in more ways than just our pocket books. I have no problem paying taxes and I accept that in cases like the Arar incident I think it is more than acceptable it's the right thing to do to at least help begin to fix the problems that others created in the first place by paying out compensation for errors OUR civil servants made. Now if only those whiners on the CBC could see it that way maybe we'd have less inane postings on that and other news sites.
C. T.
For the most part the protests have been peaceful but, some incidents have occurred where dozens have been arrested. In these cases the protesters claim the police have been heavy handed in their approach, using what they see as excessive force and tricks to lure protesters into situations where they would be arrested.
Other protests across the US have also taken place. L.A., Boston and Albuquerque NM are just some of the cities where marches in support of the Occupy Wall Street Movement have taken place. The protests against corporate greed show no signs of letting up for the moment.
For complete coverage you can google occupy Wall Street to get the latest news.
Bixi Bike Makeover
Going Out With A Bang....Literally!
Weird or not you decide. But, different this definitely is. Here is a novel idea that you may want to check out A company in Alabama has been formed to give gun lovers and their relatives an option that is a real blast so to speak. The company is Holy Smoke LLC and what they do is take the ashes of the dearly departed and and put them into shot gun shells and pistol cartridges, thus allowing the person receiving said shell or bullets to load a rifle, pistol or shotgun and fire it, yes fire it.
According to the founders of the company 1 pound of ash fills up to 250 shells or cartridges. They have already filled two orders and have received requests for more information from police, military and fire departments as well as the general public.
Vacation Canadian Style
Get A Grip
Bastarache concluded there was no evidence of influence peddling but, he did note that there were flaws in the system at the time of his report. Ok now that we have established the story lets talk about the comment.
Job well done Mr Bastarache..
The only thing is that pretty much anybody outhere could have come up with the same findings for free...
instead of using $ 6.000.000 of my money and your money...
Thank you Mr Charrest.
Really for free, Ok and what kind of dope are you on was my first thought. The second was oh please Quebec has a population of 7 million people, so for each man woman and child the amount is a mere 85 CENTS.....As in pennies. Even if we lower the number by taking out children and others who do not pay tax to say around 4 million, that comes out to $1.50 per person.
I am not unsympathetic to taxpayers concerns. There are things that the government does which is a waste of money and there are people in the government who do take advantage of taxpayers. In recent incidents the Minister of National Defence had to explain why he had a rescue helicopter diverted to pick him up at a fishing camp, to the tune of $16,000. Said minister said he was reviewing an exercise that the Armed Forces was holding involving rescue operations and that if an emergency was in progress the helicopter would not have been dispatched. Unfortunately this was not the only ooopsie, it was revealed recently that the 6 challenger jets that the government of Canada has have been used by lower ranking government officials who do not fit the requirements for access to them. There was a note about the fact those not in government also took advantage of taxpayers by flying on the jets. These are indeed clear missuses of the public purse and taxpayers do have the right and obligation to stand up and say not on our dime when these things happen.
However in situations where there is a clear need to investigate and fact find or where the government is at fault for doing something they ought not not to have done. Then despite what may seem to be an expensive amount to pay out the taxpayer, you and I need to remember that as representatives of us they must be held to account and sometimes that includes having to pay for errors they make. In short as the boss in effect we are responsible for their errors. And, sometimes this costs us, think of this as your boss having to pay out money for your error on the job. In this case we are the boss they made the error and now we have to pay to fix it.
Examples of this in the past that come to mind include Mahar Arar, Ashley Smith, and Robert Dziekanski. Arar was the victim of torture at the hands of the Syrians due largely to evidence provided by Canadian and American security agencies. It was later revealed that Arar was not a threat to Canada. However today his name remains on US no fly lists and due to the trauma he suffered has a difficult time living a normal life. Because of Canada's role in his rendition to Syria he was awarded compensation for his suffering. Ashley Smith was jailed for tossing an apple at a postman, then bounced around the system to avoid having to be released from her solitary confinement. The end result was her suicide while guards who were ordered not to intervene watched her die for fear they would lose their jobs if they did the right thing instead of protecting their butts. The family received compensation for her death. It should be noted that in effect she was given a death sentence due to the fact that there were over 500 charges in prisonn laid against her for her behaviour, none corrected her behaviour which was clearly a result of mental health issues. The last is the infamous death of Robert Dziekanski, a polish immigrant who died after being repeatedly tased by police in Vancouver. His mother received compensation for her loss.
All three and dozens more like these are what cost taxpayers money and all of them should not have happened in the first place. We can argue over taxes all we want but, in some of the circumstances the money has to be spent to compensate for the boneheads who run our government and do stupid things. There is waste and mismanagement of money but, on the other side of the coin there are these incidents which we unfortunately have to pay for.
Finally taxes are a necessary part of the equation for the services we want to take advantage of. Health care transit and other services provided by government cost money. Government employees are not volunteers. And, I doubt many would not do the work unless they were paid as the jobs are often thankless. I do rail against the government from time to time and I agree that we need tax reform in Canada. And, a reduced civil service in some parts of Canada would be good. But, as a society we must collectively decide where to reduce and what to reduce compared to what we want. We are not going to be able to have our cake and eat it to.
Lastly when one thinks of the cost to pay for something in terms of millions the amount per person is a ridiculously low amount to complain about. Getting back to the Bastarache example if the investigation cost 6 billion dollars, the average for each citizen in Quebec would be $857 dollars. Now that is something to complain about if nothing got fixed. As it was the price tag for each person in Quebec was 85.7 cents, that is 310.25 in a year. I can say honestly I pay that in just one shot for cable and electricity each month. I would be happier to see those costs go to 310 for a year. And anyway it was important to take a look at what really was going on in the justice system in Quebec as that affects us in more ways than just our pocket books. I have no problem paying taxes and I accept that in cases like the Arar incident I think it is more than acceptable it's the right thing to do to at least help begin to fix the problems that others created in the first place by paying out compensation for errors OUR civil servants made. Now if only those whiners on the CBC could see it that way maybe we'd have less inane postings on that and other news sites.
C. T.
1 comments:
This is a smart blog. I mean it. You have so much knowledge about this issue, and so much passion. You also know how to make people rally behind it, obviously from the responses. Youve got a design here thats not too flashy, but makes a statement as big as what youre saying. Great job, indeed.
Vimax
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