6.05.2009
Six In The Morning
1 NO-NUCLEAR SHOW Nuke reactor fans in Saskatchewan got a rough ride at last night's uranium forum. (Leader-Post)
2 PIG PLAGUE SMITES CITY SCHOOL There's only been one confirmed case of swine flu at a Regina school, but with a third of children home sick there are fears of an outbreak. (CBC)
3 OUT OF SHAPE Saskatoon kids are overweight and unhealthy, says a new report. (StarPhoenix) I bring this up partly because there needs to be public policy responses to problems like these, and partly because here in Regina our education leaders don't like kids walking to schools. (Dog Blog) Last I heard, getting bussed to school doesn't burn a lot of calories...
4 JUDGE TO GOVERNMENT: STOP BEING TOTAL DOUCHEBAGS TO THAT POOR GUY AND BRING HIM HOME, YOU STUPID DICKS (PARAPHRASED) A Federal court judge orders our federal government to bring home an exiled Canadian who was imprisoned in Sudan thanks to shabby accusations and half-assed evidence. (Globe And Mail)
5 ABORTION DOCTOR'S ACCUSED KILLER HAD CONNECTIONS TO ANTI-GOVERNMENT GROUPS, HISTORY OF FINANCIAL PROBLEMS Sounds like a real solid citizen. Seriously, this is yet another example of the problems with the anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-science, pro-Libertarian agenda, It breeds terrorism. (The Wichita Eagle)
6 TOMORROW IS ANTI-TAX PROPOGANDA DAY An organization that wants weak government, private health care, fewer social services, no crown corporations and pretty much everything else that makes your life better wants you to be angry about paying taxes. Angry! Grrr! (Toronto Star) Because if you're mad about taxes, you're less likely to be angry about real problems. (Globe And Mail)
2 PIG PLAGUE SMITES CITY SCHOOL There's only been one confirmed case of swine flu at a Regina school, but with a third of children home sick there are fears of an outbreak. (CBC)
3 OUT OF SHAPE Saskatoon kids are overweight and unhealthy, says a new report. (StarPhoenix) I bring this up partly because there needs to be public policy responses to problems like these, and partly because here in Regina our education leaders don't like kids walking to schools. (Dog Blog) Last I heard, getting bussed to school doesn't burn a lot of calories...
4 JUDGE TO GOVERNMENT: STOP BEING TOTAL DOUCHEBAGS TO THAT POOR GUY AND BRING HIM HOME, YOU STUPID DICKS (PARAPHRASED) A Federal court judge orders our federal government to bring home an exiled Canadian who was imprisoned in Sudan thanks to shabby accusations and half-assed evidence. (Globe And Mail)
5 ABORTION DOCTOR'S ACCUSED KILLER HAD CONNECTIONS TO ANTI-GOVERNMENT GROUPS, HISTORY OF FINANCIAL PROBLEMS Sounds like a real solid citizen. Seriously, this is yet another example of the problems with the anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-science, pro-Libertarian agenda, It breeds terrorism. (The Wichita Eagle)
6 TOMORROW IS ANTI-TAX PROPOGANDA DAY An organization that wants weak government, private health care, fewer social services, no crown corporations and pretty much everything else that makes your life better wants you to be angry about paying taxes. Angry! Grrr! (Toronto Star) Because if you're mad about taxes, you're less likely to be angry about real problems. (Globe And Mail)
6.04.2009
David Carradine Found Dead
Somebody killed Bill. Actor David Carradine (Kill Bill) was found dead in his hotel room in Thailand were he was shooting a movie (Globe & Mail). There seems to be conflicting reports on what exactly happened - apparently it wasn't a suicide it was an accident - maybe, maybe a kinky accident. But the fact remains that he will be missed.
One of Carradine's first big roles was playing a TV version of my namesake Shane.
But of course David Carradine will always be remembered for Kung Fu. Playing a role that was originally written for Bruce Lee. But I can't find a really good Kung Fu clip. But after Lee died Carradine starred in Lee's unfinished movie The Silent Flute aka The Circle of Iron which was just released on Blu-ray. And I found a trailer for it.
One of Carradine's first big roles was playing a TV version of my namesake Shane.
But of course David Carradine will always be remembered for Kung Fu. Playing a role that was originally written for Bruce Lee. But I can't find a really good Kung Fu clip. But after Lee died Carradine starred in Lee's unfinished movie The Silent Flute aka The Circle of Iron which was just released on Blu-ray. And I found a trailer for it.
New Dog!
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You can tell it's the day the magazine's out; there's been all kinds of long, thoughtful posts from Dog Bloggers who feel a little more peppy now that the June 4 issue's Deadline Of Damocles isn't hanging over their heads. Speaking of the June 4 issue, it's being distributed through Regina right now. Here's an overview.
GENERAL FOOLS' FESTIVAL Regina's long-running improv team celebrates its 12th anniversary with this four-troupe laugh carnival. Stephen LaRose talks to the fools and their friends in funny.
THE NDP'S NEXT TOP POLI Stephen LaRose breaks down the race for Saskatchewan's second most popular provincial political party, and it is a Serious and Important Piece Of Journalism That You Should Read. Also, Rosie tells you how high you should rank candidate Yens Pederson in your hockey pool.
THE SCHNITZ MEETS THE FAN Stephen LaRose, AKA Rosie, AKA Baron Von Rosenstein, AKA He-Who-Wrote-This-Whole-Issue, do takes a trip through memory lane back to Regina's classic live music venue on the eve of D.O.A.'s return and the revival of vintage Queen City punk legend.
ALSO! NewsQuirks by Stephen LaRose, opinion by Stephen LaRose, fashion by Stephen LaRose, Queen City Confidential by Stephen LaRose, listings by Stephen LaRose, Ask Greg by Stephen LaRose, Gwynne Dyer and David Suzuki by Stephen LaRose, and much, much more, all by Stephen LaRose. You've been warned.
UPDATE: And stuff on the "condo situation", by Paul Dechene. Because apparently people are wondering about that.
More on the great selloff
While Whitworth can work himself into a pig-biting mad frenzy regarding the Cons’ mulling of selling the CBC, I have to take that with a grain of salt. Given that Jim Flaherty’s handling of Finance has been so beyond-the-pale lunatic that Harper would have been better off turning over the whole department over to Bubbles from the Trailer Park Boys and his economic stimulus plans (YouTube -- NSFW), it’s not surprising that the Tories would be willing to sell the silverware in order to pay the bills. They already did. (prairie dog).
The problem with turning over the government to people who don’t really believe that government should work is that they run the show in a way that confirms their hypothesis, like a little kid that won’t eat his supper because “I HATE IT!” even though he has never eaten a mouthful in his life. Mr. Flaherty’s $57 billion deficit – which the TD Bank economists are saying will expand to $157 billion in five years (National Post) without, you know, cuts in federal spending (how about closing some tax loopholes or raising taxes on people who don’t pay them?)
The deal is, however, that right wing governments actually like deficits. It gives them the excuse to cut programs they don’t like but are politically popular – daycare programs, medicare, the CBC – under the guise of a ‘financial emergency,’ even though their own spending habits did more to create the deficit than circumstance. Ever notice getting out of Afghanistan – where we’ve spent more than $15 billion on the past six years (not to mention the lives of more than 100 soldiers) and got sweet effin’ all out of it – is never on the agenda? Nobody calls sending our army to fight – and lose – a war they can’t win financially unworkable.
But we won’t have to worry for two reasons. It’s more than likely that we’re going to have a federal election (my bet is by Thanksgiving) as the Liberals under Iggy re-amass their financial warchest and watch the Cons self destruct. These Grits will sweep Atlantic Canada, get about 25 seats in Québec, and win a bunch of three-way races in southern Ontario to win the next election with about 175 seats. So, Harper won’t have time to sell off the CBC even if he wanted to.
Secondly, the CBC has already emasculated itself. As Mitch the Alphabet Boy (University of Regina) has told me, politicians appoint their friends to power. And a broadcasting corporation whose first role isn’t to make money is no friend to those who are rich and powerful. That’s why the CBC board, over the years, has installed a management system that has reduced the CBC to little more than a taxpayer-funded support system for Hockey Night in Canada. The 2005 Canadian Media Guild lockout was done during the summer, in an attempt to starve union members back to the bargaining table by the time the season began in October – and the CBC management wrote off coverage of Regina’s Canada Summer Games and Alberta’s and Saskatchewan’s centenary celebrations in its cynicism.
Similarly, the CBC crowed about its great ratings this spring, when they were listed in metropolitan areas. At the same time, they sought to cut services in Northern Saskatchewan., northern Manitoba, and northern Ontario. Why? Simple. Around the same time, the Cons’ culture minister – now there’s a contradiction in terms – suggested the possibility of selling advertising on CBC Radio broadcasts.
Then again, it would be stupid for the CBC to get into the advertising sales business – or for the Cons to sell off the CBC in a media market where CTV is begging the CRTC for the right to have cable subscribers pay an extra $15 a month for local television stations, and Canwest Global is so broke that even its creditors don’t want to foreclose because they can’t see any future for the company either. (Planet S) Then again, what do ostensibly pro-business governments know about the business world? From experience, I would say they don’t know the first thing about running a business. That’s their excuse for getting out of broadcasting – I would suggest just as equally a valid case – if not more valid—could be made that these political parties should get out of the business of government.
EDIT: for some reason, blogger didn't record my url links. I've reinserted them.
The problem with turning over the government to people who don’t really believe that government should work is that they run the show in a way that confirms their hypothesis, like a little kid that won’t eat his supper because “I HATE IT!” even though he has never eaten a mouthful in his life. Mr. Flaherty’s $57 billion deficit – which the TD Bank economists are saying will expand to $157 billion in five years (National Post) without, you know, cuts in federal spending (how about closing some tax loopholes or raising taxes on people who don’t pay them?)
The deal is, however, that right wing governments actually like deficits. It gives them the excuse to cut programs they don’t like but are politically popular – daycare programs, medicare, the CBC – under the guise of a ‘financial emergency,’ even though their own spending habits did more to create the deficit than circumstance. Ever notice getting out of Afghanistan – where we’ve spent more than $15 billion on the past six years (not to mention the lives of more than 100 soldiers) and got sweet effin’ all out of it – is never on the agenda? Nobody calls sending our army to fight – and lose – a war they can’t win financially unworkable.
But we won’t have to worry for two reasons. It’s more than likely that we’re going to have a federal election (my bet is by Thanksgiving) as the Liberals under Iggy re-amass their financial warchest and watch the Cons self destruct. These Grits will sweep Atlantic Canada, get about 25 seats in Québec, and win a bunch of three-way races in southern Ontario to win the next election with about 175 seats. So, Harper won’t have time to sell off the CBC even if he wanted to.
Secondly, the CBC has already emasculated itself. As Mitch the Alphabet Boy (University of Regina) has told me, politicians appoint their friends to power. And a broadcasting corporation whose first role isn’t to make money is no friend to those who are rich and powerful. That’s why the CBC board, over the years, has installed a management system that has reduced the CBC to little more than a taxpayer-funded support system for Hockey Night in Canada. The 2005 Canadian Media Guild lockout was done during the summer, in an attempt to starve union members back to the bargaining table by the time the season began in October – and the CBC management wrote off coverage of Regina’s Canada Summer Games and Alberta’s and Saskatchewan’s centenary celebrations in its cynicism.
Similarly, the CBC crowed about its great ratings this spring, when they were listed in metropolitan areas. At the same time, they sought to cut services in Northern Saskatchewan., northern Manitoba, and northern Ontario. Why? Simple. Around the same time, the Cons’ culture minister – now there’s a contradiction in terms – suggested the possibility of selling advertising on CBC Radio broadcasts.
Then again, it would be stupid for the CBC to get into the advertising sales business – or for the Cons to sell off the CBC in a media market where CTV is begging the CRTC for the right to have cable subscribers pay an extra $15 a month for local television stations, and Canwest Global is so broke that even its creditors don’t want to foreclose because they can’t see any future for the company either. (Planet S) Then again, what do ostensibly pro-business governments know about the business world? From experience, I would say they don’t know the first thing about running a business. That’s their excuse for getting out of broadcasting – I would suggest just as equally a valid case – if not more valid—could be made that these political parties should get out of the business of government.
EDIT: for some reason, blogger didn't record my url links. I've reinserted them.
THE ARCHITECTS ARE HERE
I have always said that when the College buildings go, so do I. One sniff of a wrecking ball and I am out of here and never coming back. I mean it.
It was distressing to hear almost the same thing coming from Dakota McFadzean at last night’s Regina Public School Board meeting during his presentation about the coming demise of Scott Collegiate. I didn’t know that Regina’s continual self-destruction depressed other people to the point they start thinking of packing up and moving on, but of course I can't be the only one. Each building that is destroyed is one closer to the limit of what I can stand, not just for the architecture itself, but for the unthinking motivation behind it.
One of the statements that seemed to stick in the Scott supporters' craw yesterday was RBE member Russ Marchuk’s pithy statement “If the horse dies, get off,” in reference to Scott’s supposed failure to support its students architecturally.
I can’t help but think about the hundreds of slum houses around the Scott facility – each a tiny marvel of architecture in its day – that have been used to pump money out of North Central residents and into slumlords’ pockets for decades, with the complicity – if not the outright blessing – of policy makers in every level of government.
Who knew it was all architecture’s fault? Thank goodness the architects are going to come and fix it for us. So glad that's sorted.
Maybe we needed to have the dead horse image planted in our heads whether we want to see it or not. If that’s how the school board sees its buildings, we’re better off knowing.
How do we communicate back to our representatives that the horse isn’t a building, a learning model, or even a school board, but the city itself? Who sees us as we step off and walk away?
NB: One of my recent favorite books is Michael Winter’s The Architects Are Here. The title of the book is fictional shorthand for a kind of impersonal, lurking force of doom, like accidents, distruction, and poverty.
It was distressing to hear almost the same thing coming from Dakota McFadzean at last night’s Regina Public School Board meeting during his presentation about the coming demise of Scott Collegiate. I didn’t know that Regina’s continual self-destruction depressed other people to the point they start thinking of packing up and moving on, but of course I can't be the only one. Each building that is destroyed is one closer to the limit of what I can stand, not just for the architecture itself, but for the unthinking motivation behind it.
One of the statements that seemed to stick in the Scott supporters' craw yesterday was RBE member Russ Marchuk’s pithy statement “If the horse dies, get off,” in reference to Scott’s supposed failure to support its students architecturally.
I can’t help but think about the hundreds of slum houses around the Scott facility – each a tiny marvel of architecture in its day – that have been used to pump money out of North Central residents and into slumlords’ pockets for decades, with the complicity – if not the outright blessing – of policy makers in every level of government.
Who knew it was all architecture’s fault? Thank goodness the architects are going to come and fix it for us. So glad that's sorted.
Maybe we needed to have the dead horse image planted in our heads whether we want to see it or not. If that’s how the school board sees its buildings, we’re better off knowing.
How do we communicate back to our representatives that the horse isn’t a building, a learning model, or even a school board, but the city itself? Who sees us as we step off and walk away?
NB: One of my recent favorite books is Michael Winter’s The Architects Are Here. The title of the book is fictional shorthand for a kind of impersonal, lurking force of doom, like accidents, distruction, and poverty.
6.03.2009
Walking to School: A Radical, Dangerous Idea
I kicked off a really glorious Wednesday of wandering around the city at 8:30 this morning by taking my daughter out to join the Walking Schoolbus.
The event was put together by Carla Beck and others through the Real Renewal group. It was a dry run at something they're hoping will take off this September. Basically, the idea is that kids will get together in the morning with some chaperons and walk to school together, gathering more and more kids along the way. Going to school in a big group is a way to mitigate all those nasty parts of walking there that parents fret over -- cars being the primary threat.
And, there are other benefits, like keeping kids active and fostering a local community. Plus, it can reduce the number of cars needed to shuttle students to and from school.
The kickoff event this morning was a big success. Over 70 kids and parents showed up to make the trek from the Holy Rosary playground to Connaught school. And some of the local media made it out too. Didn't hurt that it was just about perfect weather for it.
You'd think this would be the kind of progressive, feel-good, cost-them-nothing kind of idea our public school board would be getting behind. Promoting even.
Sadly, no.
According to Beck, she was advised that for "liability issues" Regina Public Schools could not get behind or promote the Walking Schoolbus.
In fact, Beck mentioned that she was contacted on Monday by Regina Public Schools director, Don Holum. In what she described as a cordial conversation, he told her how he supported the "idea" of kids walking to school but that so much has changed in the last 50 years that he couldn't support the Walking Schoolbus. He cautioned her about liability issues and suggested that she didn't know what she was opening herself up to liabilitywise.
Beck counters by pointing out that the Walking Schoolbus is hardly a radical idea.
"I didn't make this up," she says. "It's well established around the world."
She notes that organizations across Canada are supporting Walking Schoolbuses in their communities. Organizations such as Safe Kids Canada, the government of Manitoba and the city of Saskatoon.
Of course, one has to wonder if there isn't more to RPS's opposition to the Walking Schoolbus than mere concern for student safety on the wild and wooly streets of Cathedral. The event was organized through Real Renewal, afterall. They're the group organizing against the school board's 10 year plan. And RPS are noted boosters of that 10-year plan.
I asked Carla Beck if the Walking Schoolbus was something of a polite protest against the plan. She replied, "It is."
While she notes it's an idea she's been intrigued by for years (and she thinks she first read about it in Today's Parent magazine), she says, "What solidified the need in my mind to start [a Walking Schoolbus] here as a broader movement was what I heard around the board’s 10-year plan and community response to it."
She says that her children go to Connaught School where they're enrolled in French immersion. if the board's plan comes to fruition, they'll be bused to Massey, a forty minute ride.
And, she notes, the goal of the plan is that at the end of its 10 years, 46 per cent of elementary school kids will be bused to school.
It's an alarming idea if you're one of those people like me who believes in the considerable benefits of walkable communities. And thanks to legitimate concerns over global warming, energy scarcity and peak oil, making communities more walkable is a cornerstone of most city and neighbourhood plans these days. (Take our own Downtown and Core Neighbourhood Plans for instance.)
Keeping schools small, numerous and one of the central features of communities is essential to making neighbourhoods pedestrian friendly.
It's a no brainer, then, that building a school plan around the idea of shipping kids out of their communities is short-sighted and half-baked.
But the public school board seems hell-bent on getting their 10-year plan through. No big surprise then that they wouldn't be big fans of the Walking Schoolbus. As one parent I was speaking to during the walk pointed out, if you have a bunch of people organizing around the idea of walking their kids to school and then you try to get rid of their school, you have a group of people already mobilized against you.
"It was trippy," says Beck, "at last night's Scott [Collegiate] meeting, [Trustee] Russ Marchuk was saying if the horse is dead get off. Well, excepting [Trustee and prairie dog columnist] John Conway, the dead horse they’re riding is not the small school model it's this 10-year plan."
"I think the only way to stop them," she concludes, "is to change the board."
And October 28, Regina will get a chance to do just that.
The event was put together by Carla Beck and others through the Real Renewal group. It was a dry run at something they're hoping will take off this September. Basically, the idea is that kids will get together in the morning with some chaperons and walk to school together, gathering more and more kids along the way. Going to school in a big group is a way to mitigate all those nasty parts of walking there that parents fret over -- cars being the primary threat.
And, there are other benefits, like keeping kids active and fostering a local community. Plus, it can reduce the number of cars needed to shuttle students to and from school.
The kickoff event this morning was a big success. Over 70 kids and parents showed up to make the trek from the Holy Rosary playground to Connaught school. And some of the local media made it out too. Didn't hurt that it was just about perfect weather for it.
You'd think this would be the kind of progressive, feel-good, cost-them-nothing kind of idea our public school board would be getting behind. Promoting even.
Sadly, no.
According to Beck, she was advised that for "liability issues" Regina Public Schools could not get behind or promote the Walking Schoolbus.
In fact, Beck mentioned that she was contacted on Monday by Regina Public Schools director, Don Holum. In what she described as a cordial conversation, he told her how he supported the "idea" of kids walking to school but that so much has changed in the last 50 years that he couldn't support the Walking Schoolbus. He cautioned her about liability issues and suggested that she didn't know what she was opening herself up to liabilitywise.
Beck counters by pointing out that the Walking Schoolbus is hardly a radical idea.
"I didn't make this up," she says. "It's well established around the world."
She notes that organizations across Canada are supporting Walking Schoolbuses in their communities. Organizations such as Safe Kids Canada, the government of Manitoba and the city of Saskatoon.
Of course, one has to wonder if there isn't more to RPS's opposition to the Walking Schoolbus than mere concern for student safety on the wild and wooly streets of Cathedral. The event was organized through Real Renewal, afterall. They're the group organizing against the school board's 10 year plan. And RPS are noted boosters of that 10-year plan.
I asked Carla Beck if the Walking Schoolbus was something of a polite protest against the plan. She replied, "It is."
While she notes it's an idea she's been intrigued by for years (and she thinks she first read about it in Today's Parent magazine), she says, "What solidified the need in my mind to start [a Walking Schoolbus] here as a broader movement was what I heard around the board’s 10-year plan and community response to it."
She says that her children go to Connaught School where they're enrolled in French immersion. if the board's plan comes to fruition, they'll be bused to Massey, a forty minute ride.
And, she notes, the goal of the plan is that at the end of its 10 years, 46 per cent of elementary school kids will be bused to school.
It's an alarming idea if you're one of those people like me who believes in the considerable benefits of walkable communities. And thanks to legitimate concerns over global warming, energy scarcity and peak oil, making communities more walkable is a cornerstone of most city and neighbourhood plans these days. (Take our own Downtown and Core Neighbourhood Plans for instance.)
Keeping schools small, numerous and one of the central features of communities is essential to making neighbourhoods pedestrian friendly.
It's a no brainer, then, that building a school plan around the idea of shipping kids out of their communities is short-sighted and half-baked.
But the public school board seems hell-bent on getting their 10-year plan through. No big surprise then that they wouldn't be big fans of the Walking Schoolbus. As one parent I was speaking to during the walk pointed out, if you have a bunch of people organizing around the idea of walking their kids to school and then you try to get rid of their school, you have a group of people already mobilized against you.
"It was trippy," says Beck, "at last night's Scott [Collegiate] meeting, [Trustee] Russ Marchuk was saying if the horse is dead get off. Well, excepting [Trustee and prairie dog columnist] John Conway, the dead horse they’re riding is not the small school model it's this 10-year plan."
"I think the only way to stop them," she concludes, "is to change the board."
And October 28, Regina will get a chance to do just that.
Last thoughts on the cabinet shuffle
Probably the best way to look at Brad Wall’s recent cabinet shuffle (Government of Saskatchewan) is to put it in context of the NDP leadership race. Wall thinks (correctly,) that Dwain Lingenfelter is going to win in a walk, so Wall prepared a wartime cabinet.
That’s the main reason why Wall has removed three people (Sask. Party website) who (for Sask. Party politicians, anyway) were doing not that bad a job, and replaced them with three hard-core ideologues (Sask Party website). Wall is expecting that the next months in the Legislature will resemble trench warfare in the First World War – massive expenditures of manpower, time, money and effort for little or no gain.
Then again, I’m sure Wall would rather see Link as NDP leader than anybody else, for the same reason why the Pentagon would rather fight a conventional war than a war of counter-insurgency. It’s what they know; it’s what they think they’re good at.
As for the other factors? Surprised that former Regina city councilor Bill Hutchinson was dispatched to Indian and Métis Relations: in Wall’s philosophy, that’s a dead-end job. I didn’t think he was doing that bad in Municipal Affairs. Christine Tell was a low-level screwup at Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport, so I was kind of surprised that she stayed in cabinet, instead of replacing her with say, Laura Ross. Daryl Hickie botched Corrections so badly that Wall should have grabbed him by his ears, stuck a handful of stamps to his keister and mail him home to his mama. His replacement (who thanks to spell-check and to the fact I won’t trust my eyesight totally until I get my new spectacles, I will refer to here as “The Yogic Flier”) campaigned in the late 1990s on bring in boot camps, so the Sask. Party’s knuckle-dragging camp won’t be totally dissatisfied by Wall’s increasingly metro-sexual dress up façade.
But Saskatchewan’s political power base has shifted: the further you get away from Swift Current, the further you’re getting away from power. As well, The Jurist (Accidental Deliberations) has a good analysis about what the shuffle means for Wall’s campaign for a SaskaNuke.
(Yes, I know. It's late. And conflict between MS Word and Internet Explorer that refused to allow me to cut-and-paste from Wod really frost my buns, kids ...)
That’s the main reason why Wall has removed three people (Sask. Party website) who (for Sask. Party politicians, anyway) were doing not that bad a job, and replaced them with three hard-core ideologues (Sask Party website). Wall is expecting that the next months in the Legislature will resemble trench warfare in the First World War – massive expenditures of manpower, time, money and effort for little or no gain.
Then again, I’m sure Wall would rather see Link as NDP leader than anybody else, for the same reason why the Pentagon would rather fight a conventional war than a war of counter-insurgency. It’s what they know; it’s what they think they’re good at.
As for the other factors? Surprised that former Regina city councilor Bill Hutchinson was dispatched to Indian and Métis Relations: in Wall’s philosophy, that’s a dead-end job. I didn’t think he was doing that bad in Municipal Affairs. Christine Tell was a low-level screwup at Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport, so I was kind of surprised that she stayed in cabinet, instead of replacing her with say, Laura Ross. Daryl Hickie botched Corrections so badly that Wall should have grabbed him by his ears, stuck a handful of stamps to his keister and mail him home to his mama. His replacement (who thanks to spell-check and to the fact I won’t trust my eyesight totally until I get my new spectacles, I will refer to here as “The Yogic Flier”) campaigned in the late 1990s on bring in boot camps, so the Sask. Party’s knuckle-dragging camp won’t be totally dissatisfied by Wall’s increasingly metro-sexual dress up façade.
But Saskatchewan’s political power base has shifted: the further you get away from Swift Current, the further you’re getting away from power. As well, The Jurist (Accidental Deliberations) has a good analysis about what the shuffle means for Wall’s campaign for a SaskaNuke.
(Yes, I know. It's late. And conflict between MS Word and Internet Explorer that refused to allow me to cut-and-paste from Wod really frost my buns, kids ...)
6.02.2009
Quirky Association
Due out in the June 4 issue of prairie dog is a review I did of Heather Benning's new show Field Doll at the Dunlop's Sherwood Village Branch Gallery. As will be obvious from the cut-line I wrote for the photo that accompanies the show (above), it put me me in mind of a certain classic SF TV series. (YouTube)
Cons To Sell CBC?
Give me a freaking break (Leader-Post). Then again I'm not surprised. Rosie will blog on this later (I hope), and we'll have more in Thursday's paper. Bottom line: attacking the CBC is a naked attack on an informed public.
(Fumes)
Harper's government is a nightmare and it has to go.
(Fumes more)
And it's funny how this gets proposed at a time when media everywhere is crashing and having enough trouble doing it's job. Jee. Zuz. Funking. Christ.
(Fumes even more)
Well, at least the Globe And Mail says a CBC sale isn't likely. So maybe this is what the politicians call "a trial balloon"--you quietly release information on controversial policy changes to see how badly people will freak out. (Okay, I know the info came out of a Freedom Of Information request, but someone nudged a reporter in the right direction.)
Anyway, I am prepared to freak right out over this. I like living in a (semi-) informed democracy with easy access to news, intelligent opinions and facts, and am pretty tired of politicians actively destabilizing our political system by screwing around with the best national media outlet--no thanks to decades of cutbacks--we've got when they should be working to improve it.
Those dirty rats! It's an outrage, I says!
(Fumes)
Harper's government is a nightmare and it has to go.
(Fumes more)
And it's funny how this gets proposed at a time when media everywhere is crashing and having enough trouble doing it's job. Jee. Zuz. Funking. Christ.
(Fumes even more)
Well, at least the Globe And Mail says a CBC sale isn't likely. So maybe this is what the politicians call "a trial balloon"--you quietly release information on controversial policy changes to see how badly people will freak out. (Okay, I know the info came out of a Freedom Of Information request, but someone nudged a reporter in the right direction.)
Anyway, I am prepared to freak right out over this. I like living in a (semi-) informed democracy with easy access to news, intelligent opinions and facts, and am pretty tired of politicians actively destabilizing our political system by screwing around with the best national media outlet--no thanks to decades of cutbacks--we've got when they should be working to improve it.
Those dirty rats! It's an outrage, I says!
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