For more on the stuff here, see my LJ (there’s a switch)

Oh I should mention an important fact(thanks Saskboy for pointing this out); I work for the NDP.  I am not an NDP member, so my views aren’t necessarily even close to the NDPs, but I should be pointing this out nonetheless.  I don’t intend to mislead you by neglecting to mention this, I just started there not that long ago and I haven’t quite picked up the habit of putting this disclaimer up routinely yet.  In my mind I’m pretty much just a university student still.

Layton: Tax cuts

200$ tax cut package

May; lower dollar

Harper: Net job gain
<What kind of jobs?!! No mention of what pay>

Layton: keeps interrupting harper

Duceppe: Sauceanble development

Tax investment to buy machinery equipment

Layton: Elizabeth is right on,
elizabeth is right on what’s going on in the Real Economy

Dion approach would be “Far too socialist”
* invest in infrastructure
* cut taxes on income, savings

Layton:
Dion is full of shit, since he’s followed the CRAP
Pin everything on tax cut, everything will be well
real economy

Dion cherrypicks sweden

Manufacturing jobs:

Harper,
100,000 they are coming back,
we should be getting jobs of future
Automobile/aerospace sector gets us those jobs
Science & tech strategy

May
* we need to Bring pulp, paper, manufacturing back
Families need jobs in the communities where they live
grow athabasca at all costs is a bad idea
Billions of dollars in coast guard

Layton:
* Forests dissapearing, going elsewhere
screw division of labour between countries, exporting raw resources
and letting the US do the higher development
* We can get the jobs back IF we get them back

Dion:
* Don’t lose manufacturing sector, it’s a terrible thing
* Investments in manufacturing sector, flahrty says we are not
here to choose winners and losers

Harper:
* We are not bailing out banking system
* we have best infrastructure investment, gas tax transfer, we have
special investments in forrestry, aerospace, etc
* We are not laissez faire
Moderator: but is it working?
* we are keeping economy on course
* we can do better in area, but we aren’t in the economic crisis in the US

Duceppe:
Buy Canadian

Layton:
* Buy Canadian
* _E Bad trade deals
* The strategies aren’t there
* Plans to keep factories working in the short term
worked in BC, can work in canada

May:
* Buy Canada
* Defense is contracted out to china

Dion:
* avoid deficit, boost R&D investment, capital tools

“Where is your platform, in your sweater?”

Deficits?

Harper:
We can stay in surplus

May:
The market may leave us with a deficit

Dion:
We will not tax

NDP:
We will Absolutely Not have an imbalanced budget

Duceppe:
Anti-deficit law????

Dion:
Carbon tax makes us more competitive, by decreasing
taxes on what creates wealth; investments, savings
This is for the workers & families

Harper:
Carbon tax is actually a net tax increase
Balancing economy/CO2

Layton:
Unwillingness to act.
make big proposals pay
use every penny to stimulating the new energy economy,
public transportation, energy efficiency

Duceppe:
1) Apply Kyoto, choosing 1990 as year of reference
2) Actually have targets
3) CO2 exchange
4) Each province will apply their own plan.  NDP/Liberals support territorial
approach
SK increased CO2 by 60%

Harper:
Dion’s Tax increases are twice the increase.

Dion: he’s a liar
40B$
20,000$ == family in poverty
Green Shift

May:
Technically, the tax shift AS it has worked in the rest of
the world is more like the greens

Duceppe:
Each province will have its own plan between based on 1990-2006
Does harper

Harper:
Companies pay into tech fund if they don’t meet profit(this isn’t taxes?)

Duceppe:
EU approach for CO2
Absolute targets in country
In addition, local targets for each part of the country

Layton:
Intensity based target
…they can increased BBl/d,
Tarsands
We are missing out on new energy economy!

Dion:
Cost of fossil fuels is big
if we act now, we’ll be fine
if we ignore issue, we’ll be in trouble in short, med, long term

Harper:
Tarsands
Toughest targets are on the biggest producers
Carbon capture on tarsands
Prohibit export of raw bitumen

May:
* weakest target in the western world
* the shame of canada to be the only Kyoto signatory
* obstructed progress even more than bush at UN conferences
* canada works better when there’s leadership on federal level

Layton:
New projects would have to be virtually

Dion:
Our plan is liked by the authorities

Harper:
Oilsands targets,
Expanded protected areas, protected great bear rainforest
largest marine sanctuary in the world
indoor air quality
lots of

May: well done on protected areas, but everything else you said was
a lie

———-
Healthcare
———-
Doctor shortage in canada

Layton:
That’s one of the most important things we have
increase by 50% the # of doctors trained in canada,
60%
forgive student debts if they commit to medicine in canada for a decade
Harper says, cut taxes, and say it’s up to the provinces

Duceppe:
This is a provincial/quebec jurisdiction problem.  Ottawa is telling
provinces what to do.  Old story, ottawa knows best.
They should be taking care of aboriginal people/food inspection, stuff
that IS a federal matter(HAH, diverting blame and

May:
We lost 21% of hospital bed 93-97
Cut back on doctors, sick people stay in hospitals longer
* Healthcare for Everyone
Doctors don’t have student debt, Hospital beds to meet need
NAFTA CH11 says that we can’t do shit

Dion:
Doctors are aging.  This is a problem
Provinces are asking us to be part of soln
Work with Assn of doctors & nurses

Harper:
* Liberal govt made cuts in healthcare/schools on healthcare,
that has consequences
(ignores the reason they made those cuts)

Layton:
You lead the student groups

Harper:
Our party has been committed to universal healthcare <jamie says: insurance> system
1B$ to insurance

Dion:
* We saved healthcare from conservative disasters<?>
* waiting lists is a broken promise
* we need to increase doctors & nurses count

May:
IMF if we have credit rating, we need to cut hospital bays
NAFTA CH11,
yes cuts in 90s, but these were due to international pressure
Check out
Vision green, risk under Ch11 for profit medicine coming into

Duceppe:
Provincial jurisdiction
When ottawa has money, they intervene
when they want to cut, they let provinces handle it

…

Dion:
Drugs are not free, and yet they may be necessary
in “Catastrophic drugs” situations

Harper:
national cancer strategy
mental health commission of canada
cooperate with provinces

Layton:
health of aboritinals is left untouched by harper
Coverage for medication for what they need
Pharmicare was promised by liberals…never happened

—-
Arts
—-

Duceppe:
* Is a family artist
* thinks its awful for harper to make cuts
* how can you cut culture…the soul of a nation
Conference board 8% of GNP 85B 314,000 jobs

May:
* Censorship is an issue here
* there is a creative class, great investment, economic progress, health
* it’s part of who we are, hollywood is overwhelming us, protect canadian
identities

Dion:
* it’s fun. We need to have more fun.
* big industry, govt roi is good
* it’s our identity

Harper:
* plays piano!?
* <appeal to family>
* 500$ tax credit for every child, this somehow translates to cultural activities

Layton
* he’s going to
* arts is poorest workers we have
* first 20,000$ made on copyright tax free

<extrapolate for jamie why this was a potentially disasterous frame>

…

Duceppe:
* raised 8% increased, BUT part of culture within that culture 8% reduced

Harper:
* budget for arts & culture has gone up
* reallocated money around within to what we think has better roi
* we’ve increased cbc
* “more effective”
* manage money durring difficult times

May:
* mean spirited cuts are due to data mining

Layton:
* Censor & limit freedom of expression on criticism
* the programas that get cut are the ones that take controversial ideas
forward
* foreign promotion of small films

Dion:
* we planned to double budget on arts, crap cancelled it

Duceppe:
We asked for the Cost-benefit reports, the conservatives refused to show
analysis

Harper:
but we’ve increased stuff, there is no ideological bias here!

Layton:
* Arts budgets should not have to be justified.  Job creation flows…
My riding needs this

——
increase of violent crime

May:
* News coverage of events is up…but rate of violent crime is down
* ban handguns, semiautomatic weapons
* rural canadians need to have less complex/less burdonsome system
for regulation of their weapons
* meaningful sentancing

Dion:
* violent crime is human tragedy
* meaningful sentancing,
* CAUSES of crime. poverty, addiction, mental problems.
* liberals will solve these

Harper:
* Problems: Gangs, guns & drugs
* we’ll deal with Young offender repeaters
* the REAL issue is property crime

Layton:
* stray bullets / gangs downtown killed 3 of my voters
* ban handguns in streets, law enforcement officers are the only ones who
need them

Duceppe:
* Quebec is decreasing more than anywhere
* Young offenders is decreasing
* Harper government hasn’t got right targets,
instead of putting people in jail, better education
* we should be hitting hardened criminals, tough measures
* none of the above have plans for victims

May:
* Literacy is an essential element in keeping kids out of crime
* Harper killed 17B$ on literacy

Harper:
* We cut 17B$ because the program didn’t work
* We have to invest in literacy
* Serious violent crime has serious penalties. other parties don’t do this
* Property crimes are the only ones worth mentioning by harper

layton:
* give families with kids 400$/kid/year so that poor families can get
right start in life, that will reduce crime (????)

Layton:
* Harper wants to Deprive judges of their ability to judge,
* Judges think harper is going too far, it will not make things safer
* harper will jailing young offenders

Harper:
* In extreme and violent cases,
* 40% of house arrest is violated (in some areas)
* rings of property crime

Duceppe:
* Quebec works well, we don’t need philosophy imported from US,
more people in prison, this isn’t quebec

May:
Around the world, minnimum sentances doesn’t work
22$m in BC alone, because you don’t want judges to determine sentances
Current act seperates young people from hardened adult criminals

Layton:
* shameful percentage of aboriginal people in jail
* 4 family jammed into house built for 1, 18 kids sleeping in shifts
* no schools to go to
* water they can’t drink
* food they can’t afford
* how are they going to make their way?  This is a national
* we need to do better, an appology only makes sense if you do change

Harper:
* police, victims groups, terrible violent crimes, sentances that are
not sufficient, violent criminals back on street in short order
* “compassion for victims as we have for criminals”

Dion:
* harper increases incarceration but not safety
* Layton got into coalition to kill kelowna

Layton:
Not true.  Do your opposition supported the canadians

———–
Afghanistan
———–

Harper:
2011, canada will have been in afghanistan for 10 years, we can’t be
Pacify the country, train police, afghan military & police
karzai agrees
<ignores taliban>

Layton:
no soldiers serves in vain, you serve parliament
withdrawl troops
we should be a voice for peace,  not war
karzai recommends
<ignores taliban>

Duceppe:
Not balanced mission, need more humanitary aid, less military
large peace plan in middle east, afghanistan is part of middle east

May:
* this is not a history free zone as harper is treating it
* humanitarian crisis leads to vacuum of power
* destruction of poppy only turns people to taliban
* poppies into medicinal drugs for developing countries, decrease taliban
and bring islamic world in to afghanistan

Dion:
* we are there for the afghanistan people’s interest
* peace, democracy
* 2011 security for people of afghanistan (from taliban)
* stay the course

Harper:
* if we never leave, will the job ever be done
* let the afghans deal with this crap
* afghanistan is a UN operation, was a UN operation
(lie, this is a NATO/ISAF mission)

Layton:
* we can’t trust you, since this is all derived from bush philosophy
* we can’t trust liberals, committed to 2009 withdrawl…then 2011 he’s
changing his mind
* withdrawl troops, start when I’m elected

Dion:
* we can’t leave immediately?!
* we’ll respect end date but we need

Duceppe:
* situation is so tough in afghanistan because of bush going into iraq
* harper supported george bush in his plagarised

Harper
* Mission of UN
* obama increase america in afghan

May:
* NOT UN mission
* UN sanctioned it yes, but it’s not a UN mission
* we need to have it NOT be percieved as a western mission against islam
* you’re boasting that our development is going to afghan
* CIDA is turning our back on africa because of afghan
* make poverty history
* WHERE are other leaders on the 0.7% GDP on international development

Dion:
* 2011 is only because of election, not the thing he said before the election
we can’t trust him on this

Layton:
* long term commitment of liberals/conservatives is the same
* afghan distracts from making poverty history(?)
* peace dividend

Harper:
* appreciates dion’s support
* dion has changed his position 3 times in 3 years, thanks for agreeing
with us btw

Dion:
* harper says ‘we don’t need an end date, stay until job is done’
* we don’t want george bush

——————-
First thing that you’ll do
——————-

Janice bernier:
fixed election dates lol

Layton:
replace 50B$ corporate tax cut, with investment strategy
low income/seniors, key sectors(environmental sectors)

Duceppe:
1) i’ll ASK the one who WILL be PM to help manufacturing sector
help the victims, old age workers, seniors, huge challanges with their health
2) Apply kyoto
3) blah blah quebec nation

May:
* women can multitask.
1) proportional representation
2) CO2 emissions, stimulating economy

Dion:
we will deal with US economic crisis
take care of savings, morgage, pension
* we’ll prepare fiscal update to be sure WHERE canada is
* propose best cabinet canada has ever had

Harper:
<Global economic uncertainty>
* keep country in surplus
* affordable tax cuts, increasing age excemption for senior citizens
* first time home buyer tax credit
* deisel tax cut
* reduce taxes on small business
* paper burden on small business

Layton:
* Savings, pensions, homes, jobs of canadians
* 50$B tax break to exxon/banks
* dion’s own liberal premeir thinks his plan is bad(missed which plan)

Dion:
* Layton is nuts, the liberal premeir does not think that plan is bad

Moderator:
* premier of ontario, finance/former finance minister said not to make
green shift

Dion:
* cheif economist of TD bank recommended green shift

May:
* Green shift is a green party plan originally
* green shift is what we need to do;
* energy efficiency is important
* fossil fuels will get more efficient
* cut taxes, payroll taxes, we replace those taxes with taxes on pollution
* why are we taking 5B$ from mairried couples, why do you punish
people who are married?

Harper:
* income splitting for pension
* how much is it?

May:
* 5B$

Harper:
* We can’t afford that
* we have good systems of financial regulation in our country, the only
thing that can upset that, is more taxes, to fund taxes that we can’t afford
* “I will not raise taxes, Never”

Dion:
* when harper talks about economy, look at what harper did at income trusts

Harper:
* income splitting for pensioners is something Dion supports

Dion:
* we can do better. the green shift www.thegreenshift.ca

—————————————————-
Unkept Election promises, kissing babies and caring
for seniors until the election
frustrated young voters, rhetoric
.
Trust
—————————————————-

Duceppe:
* What people say before & after…are they representing people…
we should deserve confidence before & after election…
…current action is broken promises
* Fixed Elections
* guarantee income for seniors

May:
* Canadians need to be involved between elections
* Canadians Deserve Better than what they have

Dion:
* Duceppe said all parties are the same
* Canada would have been in iraq had we a conservative govt in 2001-2002
* Same with healthcare, conservatives would get rid of it
* There are Differences between liberals and conservatives
* reconcilling mankind & planet is the big issue of 21st c

Harper:
* every voter has a responsibility to vote
* look at our platform

Layton:
* There is no platform
* the sweater is nice, but there’s no promises for you to even break
* the kitchen table problems are NDP problems.
* take a deep breath and vote for us

————-
flip flopping
————-

Dion:
* changing minds is okay, but breaking your word is different (atlantic accord)
* social net is trust. We need trust

Layton:
* redbook after redbook,

Harper:
* atlantic provinces disagree on atlantic accord
* ?

May:
* transparency is key
* strange finance canada decisions
* atlantic accord was a Contract.  Harper ignored contract,
* “your word is law is no way for a PM to behave”

Duceppe:
* does quebec have a seat in unesco?

Harper:
* Yes

Duceppe:
* you’re a flamin’ liar

Moderator:
please, some civility

Dion:
* I never interrupt you. it’s a matter of trust
* harper said he will “walk all over” CWB,
…problems with safety at nuclear plant? fire the person who claims this
…elections canada

Harper:
* CWB…market voted for it. western farmers want the right to market
* a strong canadian wheat board is what we want
* (?dual market to strengthen the wheat board)

<layton hugged may awww>

You log in to your computer, and log on to the class website to do an online quiz for your class. You nod to your webcam; the webcam that was put there by your professor. The professor isn’t necessarily watching you, but your webcam tracks your every movement, so that when the quiz begins, you’re not caught looking at your textbook across the room, getting up to go the bathroom(and hence, obviously cheating, much like if you got up to go to the bathroom during a regular exam). There’s a microphone on your computer that’s listening to everything you say, and every rustle of paper. If it picks up any sound, it alerts your professor to pay attention to you—to make sure again that you’re not cheating.

But since this is mandatory, and since every class has this setup, there’s more—You accidentally think back to what lays across the room and remember you have a copy of 2600(a dissident magazine, the possession of which is liable to get you convicted on TERRORISM charges) laying in the open. You panic…you had gotten stoned last night and hung out with your secret hacker friends and had forgotten to put it away. You can’t look at it…the camera tracks your eye movement—you have to stay focused on the screen, focused on the test.

The camera detects something funny about your body movement, and the professor is alerted. She notices the magazine, and calls the cops. Before the test is done, the SWAT team kicks down your door, shooting your dog, and before you know what happened you’re unconscious in a black bag heading for a secret prison in cuba.

Sounds far fetched? Not really.

Check This out (at 18:15). It’s an Off the Hook episode which deals with a company selling the 1984-esque Mandatory Webcams. This is something you’ll probably have to see for yourself.

I have taken WebCT class, and I could probably have cheated, but didn’t. There was no point–WebCT tests are far easier than their paper counterparts, at least the ones I took. Actually in retrospect, it now makes more sense why the class average was so high.

I’ve got a webcam that I voluntarily put on my desk. It doesn’t work half the time, but still—-I’m probably on the ‘privacy is dead/useless’ side of most things, but even so, here in this case I don’t think it should be mandatory in order to go to university to subject yourself to this massive breach of privacy. Pretty much everything else in the above story has happened to someone, somewhere, there are no missing pieces of the puzzle anymore — if this system becomes commonly used(or worse, made mandatory by the government), it really will be the end of free society.

I have been listening to the zencast podcast since a little before I worked at SaskTel. It helped keep a sense of perspective, and helped me to keep calm while dealing with irate customers on the phone. The kinds of things that it discussed I found new, and insightful. Christianity deals with some of the things, but only in passing, and only in a ‘read this passage’ way, where the passage says ‘don’t be afraid, for god is with you’, ’suffer, because god loves you’ or something like that–nice in principle, perhaps, but doesn’t actually *help*. The point being, the kinds of things that Christianity usually tries in order to help people’s lives have tended to be

1. Appeal to Authority
2. Appeal to the Afterlife

A better mind, a clearer perception of the world, these things are not what Christianity is about. To (especially early) christianity, the world is not understandable, and it’s best not to ask too many questions. Everything that you need to know is in the bible, which is read to you because you shouldn’t know how to read. Sure, there are exceptions, but they tend to be later-christianity hacks to make the faith seem less absurd in light of more secular opposition (before science could stand on its own feet, it really didn’t make much more sense than christianity. By the 19th century, there was little doubt, but before that time there was still work to be done, and both science and christianity proper benefitted from this era of competition).

Buddhism, on the other hand, deals entirely with the material world, kind of. All that is required is the belief in the existance of suffering(which is really a psychological/objective fact, at root). Buddhism then looks into the nature and causes(and effects) of this suffering, (and in doing so, the nature, causes and effects of pleasure). It’s a little pseudoscientific. However, it’s only so because it’s utterly personal, subjective but based on objective truths. Even if the ancients who hashed this stuff out couldn’t know it at the time. The whole idea is trying to make the human experience bearable, livable, to improve life itself, right now, starting with things we can do today. And it’s not like you can’t question their tactics, either. I’m pretty sure you can — sure a lot of buddhism is based around the teachings of the buddha, but I don’t think it’s actually necessary–it’s the quest that’s important, it’s the goal, it’s the intent. Once you accept that(really, the 4 noble truths) you are compelled to accept the rest by logic, science and the bayesian method. And if there is an error in the interpretation of buddhism, well, get on the wiki/publish-or-perish deathmarch/corporate gravy-train and improve our understanding of that, right?

I meditated. I learned some things about myself that I might have known earlier, but realistically did not take seriously(unless there was intense pain involved–for example my heart needs kindness and care. I know for a fact that it does because of the pain it has given me, but I could have known that by just paying attention to the way my heart feels when I treat it poorly, instead of ignoring it). It sounds simple, but these kinds of things are downplayed if given any time at all in modern economic and pragmatic worldviews, even those associated with judeo-christianity(and I suspect, Islam). One of the books I read(I think it was ‘patterns of educational philosophy, brameld(?), Uhawaii, 50s) right before I started university suggested that the peak of american thought up until him was Zen buddhism, Deweyan Pragmatism and I think existentialism. He may have been on to something; amid the repetition, the redundancy, the secretness(non-american buddhists have a heirarchy of secrecy to their discredit, and like a modern university or scientology-like cult, there is a whole staircase of levels to go through in order to become enlightened, definitely more than necessary), I think in the western understanding of the world, there is something missing. When taking Econ296(ecological economics) I read a paper(I think it was “buddhist economics” by E F Schumacher) on a suggested buddhist economics. He wasn’t very explicit–but later on in the course, the entire economic system was simplified into 3 things–the achievement of pleasure, the ridding the self of suffering and I think the third thing was related to identity/society (can’t remember that, either). Really, the course was, in it’s entirety, about simplifying ecological economics into ecology/systems theory/biology, non-ecological modern economics and buddhism. Again, the point here is that economics and buddhism are two pieces of a single puzzle, two ways of looking at a single problem, and although they deal with somewhat different things I think that they should both be learned, or neither.

One way this could manifest, I think, is that it would do *incredible* good for vipassana(sp?) to be taught in late elementary school through early highschool… far better than Channel 1, probably just as good as ritalin. Easy to understand, calming, and something to guide you as you live. Who wouldn’t want kids to be calmer, more perceptive and happier? Granted, I only have a part in that question as a former child, as a former peer, but I encourage those of you who do and will have children to take a serious look at this question, and the question of what you want society to do with children in general(is education merely passive? to get jobs? to become a citizen/human being? etc)

Where the shock came in, is when Gil(name?), on Zencast, suggested a per-class donation. It wasn’t required, just suggested, for simple things, building maintenance, bandwidth, whathaveyou. I tallied up my listens, and tried to figure out what it was that Zencast had suggested as far as payment and, well, I won’t tell you what the number is but it is big enough to be worth taking a second look at the whole situation.

Hypothesizing away my own poverty for one moment, from preachers on TV asking for money to spread the faith to SKTFM who suggested that “corporations and churches both want to steal your money and rob you of your soul”, giving money to churches is in my mind something of a verbotten activity. It’s just not done, because they can and will rob you blind.

And yet, in a sustainable society, we would have both economics and buddhism(and if you’re into that sort of thing, a (monotheistic) religion (like christianity)). We would have an understanding of ourselves, the world, and an idea how to make ourselves and the world better. So it is not really unreasonable for the Zencast monestary to ask for a pittance so that they can maintain their temple, while the property values around them hit the roof(nearby houses, outside of the slum which they sound like they are in, easily top 1$M). Now let’s assume that I was willing to give them something, through Ripple, even.

First of all, it’d mean more work. But what does work entail? Usually, causing suffering. Both in myself, possibly the customers, and the ‘external’ of the externalities inherent in both capitalist and really, when it comes down to it, communist/similar production. It would mean not paying attention to myself, the suffering both in myself and elsewhere in the world, and exiting the buddhist arena, and going into the economic arena, to toil for awhile. Much like going to work to afford school, I suppose. Would it be enough to just try my best to work rightly? To consume rightly? To bear responsibility of society, and to act always towards the optimal, most efficient path? The golden mean?

This is something that there has to be a balance of, but in my mind in part this undermines part of what Buddhism(and in doing so, I guess economics, and in part, the (meaningfulness?(word?)) I’ve found that both economics/science and buddhism give theis approach to life) is doing—I can’t even try to be happy more, that it makes more sense to suffer, and to be purpesfully unable to deal with suffering, so that others may have a chance at not-suffering?

I guess when written down like that it sounds whiny/simple. Sometimes you can be happy, sometimes you can’t, and the stoic/buddhist path is well defined in either case.

A related problem to all this is the biopolitical definition of a citizen. Who deserves to be a citizen? Is it right for me to squish the bugs in my house (for failure to pay rent)? What about to eat meat? To kill bacteria/viruses/fungi who threaten me? What about other human beings, even monsterous ones who we might otherwise kill/jail/exile? What the hell do we *do* with other people who clearly violate the law/cause harm on others in a serious way/cause mass suffering? Who choose not to be part of the (deme/socially acceptable group/society/future)? I think it is a related problem. I think it’s a problem that is in essence a political sub-problem of sustainability in general.

So, to sum up

Is Zen Buddhism/Vipassana(sp?) really something that is not just reasonable but which gets at something fundamental in life, something that actually makes human life better in a serious and effective way? If so what kind of church/educational structure should Zen Buddhism (the kind which we ought to support) be/be taught from? Is it ok to give existing structures your material support/help them change into different kinds of structures that might be better, in case the first question is answered as something different than what they currently have?

Is such an institution part of a sustainable society(with our without religions(christianity, islam, judaiism, atheism, etc to go with it)?

Another example; it is clear to me that I should not drink coffee, or at least, not treat it like I usually have in the past. Yet, if I do so I might be able to get short-term productivity gains that would enable me to give material support to the institution in question, allowing it to sustain itself. But then, what is that but exploitation, even if willful? Is that kind of thing part of a sustainable System of the World? An ethical one?

WHEREAS the law in Canada and elsewhere is borderline psychotic in regards to psychoactive substances; it does not allow for health benefits to be had, and does utilize the authority used in relation to those substances as a means of blunt, violent control of SOCIETY, in doing so makes harder a truly peaceful existance for all. It is absolutely against all common sense and turns person against person, citizen against cop, and ruins arbitrary lives for an act that almost all people in Canada partake in.

WHEREAS economic opportunities abound in marijuana distribution and production, and the free market can generate wealth in the respective countries by the removal of each state interference in the production and distribution of the materials and plants involved. Furthermore, that the taxes gained from legalizing marijuana can benefit SOCIETY at large or fuel growth in sustainable technologies.

WHEREAS the whole matter is a cover for raw American power and authority to be used and exercised within Canadian borders without benefit to the PERSONs in Canada. And since American power is currently irresponsibly used, and used without goodwill or concern for the future of most PERSONS in the world

BE IT RESOLVED that we converge on The Global Marijuana Protests this coming Saturday, everywhere around the world, and partake in some form of protest or support for the ending of prohibition against Marijuana and other psychoactive agents.

Regina: 4:20, Vic park downtown, Saturday the 3rd;
Elsewhere Click this link

I did not count, however on the following

China has in a series of announcements indicated that it’s going to be loosening the strings on it’s purse containing it’s 1+ trillion dollars of US dollars, and has indicated that it is going to be trading them in for loonies and euros. This would in effect increase the value of the Canadian dollar, and decrease the value of the american dollar. It would also gives certain signals as far as what kinds of things might be profitable in the future.

At the same time, The Bank of Canada, in it’s recent self-defeating stance, has vowed to continue to deflate the loonie if anyone tries to make it more valuable. There’s a few ways of doing this, but one way includes being willing to buy american dollars at below market prices(ie overpaying for american dollars, ie giving wealthy americans money for nothing in return), and creating(”printing”) more money. Although it’s not clear exactly what the inflation rate is right now in Canada(the Bank of Canada claims 1.5%. yeah, right. Even their own data gives this away—their other estimates range around 4-5%. This could be considerred an extreme low bound)

While this is going on, the US economy has some deep seated problems. Between printing their own money to pay off debt, trillions of dollars of worthless loans backed by worthless property, a federal government that is bankrupt all in name, and a costly war, along with a growing tendency to import from china(trading US dollars for yuan, and yuan for goods) — they have ensured that their economy will not recover for the time being, or at the very least, that there will be continual pressure on china to increase the value of the yuan.

However we’re back to China again. So there’s 3 competing tendencies here; The Chinese government inflating the US dollar and deflating the Canadian dollar, the Bank of Canada in inflating the canadian dollar and deflating the US dollar, and the US are merrily inflating their dollar. In effect, a loop is formed; this structure is much like a particle accelerator for money; the money moves, but the only effect is prices change, and social institutions which rely on a static value of money are affected.

So

1. All 3 countries should expect inflation to rise, although perhaps not immediately.
2. The locus of authority in the market is moving; from our pockets to closer to Bejing/Wall street. And we’re getting nothing in return for this. Okay, that’s not technically true; it’s a wealth-redistribution thing; Ontario vehicle manufacturing, and anything that deals with China/US export basically is taking subsidy money from the rest of us, whether or not we pay taxes. Especially those of us in Saskatchewan get the short end of this 3-nation stick, in effect making the deal we’re getting for ruining our environment, and selling our most valuable material resource(oil) a really poor deal.

But it is hard. Sometimes, the hardest thing to do, even, is just to pull yourself away from the shallow mindless link propegation and the big glowing tangled mess of connectionist meaning and just go project your influence somewhere.

Okay, so this is the first post of my new blog. I’ve been wanting to get a new blog, and consolidate my posting for quite some time, now that

• LiveJournal is owned by a Russian corporation with ties to the mob. They also have been slowly letting censorship creep into the LJ service, and have more or less abandoned the LJ community
• StumbleUpon has gone pretty much perpetually downhill since 2005; No longer a sleek, lightweight browser plugin and website; both the tool and the blogs they create are bloated, and restricted — non-Stumblers do not have access to the full SU archives. SU walled themselves in, and have never really been a freedom-friendly service.
• nanoblogger, it’s a good idea, but my webserver is constantly getting hammered; I’ve got a 5000ms pingtime to my isp, and am using something like 98% of the peak theoretical bandwidth that my ISP is giving me, throughout the whole month. It’s amazing they’ve let me do this without complaining about it, or just throttling me(especially since I haven’t been so good this past year about paying my bills).
• reddit, isn’t really a blogging platform, as I had onced hoped

I could go on, but I don’t think I need to. This space is probably going to be dedicated to my more political side, but not entirely so; there’s a lot of spaces to be filled, and I’m going to see what this blog can do for me before settling down on it.

To start with; I tried posting a screenshot image; the image posting mechanism didn’t work, but that’s ok. You get what you pay for (but in this case I *have* offered to pay for a service here).

In the meanwhile So far my project can see when a(slowly spoken) vowel(or chinese syllable) starts. Still working on detecting the end of the tone. I’m going to continue working on this today.