It's all attitude, Baby.

What is Birdtail Sioux First Nation Chief Ken Chalmers doing differently than the other four Dakota chiefs?

Just as Enbridge Inc. moves to improve and formalize relations with aboriginal populations across Western Canada, the oil and gas pipeline giant has given $100,000 to each of Manitoba’s five Dakota First Nations as a goodwill gesture. -fp-

Chief Chalmers took the $100k and built a new general store and gas bar for his people. “A lot of people are on social assistance,” Chalmers said. “This way, they can stretch their meagre dollars.”

"I know (our people) were frustrated in the past ... We don’t want the future to be full of blockades. We want to move ahead here. My people are tired of this.”

Seems (from the article) to be a reasonable and intelligent guy who is making the best of the situation and is approaching the partnership in a positive manner. The other Chiefs, maybe not so much:

Canupawakpa Chief Frank Brown says Enbridge has not come through as they promised. “The other Dakota are standing behind me too. We’re all in the dark. We all got fooled the same. We all got lied to the same.” If he does pull out of negotiations with Enbridge, Brown says his band will keep Enbridge’s money

That's the spirit, Brown. You tell 'em.

By they way, Chief Nelson, has Chavez gotten back to you yet?

Brother, can you spare a living?

I got around to reading Brian Huycke's column about welfare in the Freep. It confused me a little bit. He starts off, all sympathetic, explaining that not all welfare recipients are lazy: "I am here to tell you that there are actually a small group of people who really need welfare." Then he finishes with: "We should have never started up the soul-destroying system." Huh? What about those people who really need it?

Worse, now that the "soul-destroying system" is in place, there is nothing that we can do about it: "The best the government can do is APPEAR to be doing something." What kind of an attitude is that? "oh well .. I guess we have to let these souls get destroyed. Too bad for them. I wonder if Dexter is on TV tonight?"

I agree that not all welfare recipients are lazy. I agree that the system is broken. I disagree that nothing can be done about it. The current system is set up such that any income earned by a welfare recipient is clawed back from their welfare payments. This why welfare is a "trap". There is a tremendous disincentive to getting off welfare because one would have to work many hours to earn even one extra dollar. Welfare recipients are also punished for saving money, making them more dependent on monthly payments. In other words, the current system encourages recipients to either cheat, or be lazy. Those are the two choices.

A policy change is needed to allow welfare recipients to keep a portion of their earnings if they choose to work, until they reach a certain income level at which point welfare payments would cease. The change should also allow recipients to build up some savings for emergencies or personal financial security. This will encourage more people to enter the workforce, save money, and eventually get off the dole. The government CAN do something to fix the system, so that maybe a few less souls will get destroyed. I suspect the political will to tackle this issue is missing though, because of a fear of public scorn from tampering with our sacred social safety net.

Rock The Casbah

I picked this up today:


I'm dating myself here, but I remember when CDs first came out they were $20. Now I can pick up 31 songs of classic punk rock for ten measly bucks. No doubt Limewire and Torrent play a part in this deflation. Plus maybe nobody listens to The Clash anymore. (Although they should.)

Bipole disorder: It's not too late to go down the east side!!!

I am glad that Welch wrote her synopsis of Hydro's state of affairs. Allow me to comment of a few of her points:

on power rates:
"lawyer Williams said there could be a debate that starts percolating over just what Manitobans ought to pay for power -- the cheap rate we pay now or something closer to the real market value, which might spur people to conserve their megawatts."

Start percolating? Get with the program already. It's been debated on the internet many times already. YES we should be paying market rates, at least on marginal power consumption. If you maintain low rates on the first 200 kwh or so, and jack up the rates on the incremental consumption, you'll promote conservation without hurting the low incomers. You can employ market forces while feeling all warm and fuzzy about protecting the vulnerable people. That's the best of both worlds for a liberal province.

on wind power:
I don't know what's going on here, but there obviously isn't any motivation to make this happen. "The Doer government has promised to build another 600 megawatts of wind power." He also promised to get rid of hallway medicine. Next ...

The dams:
" 'We've got a lot of stuff going on, but everything seems to be under control,' said Hydro CEO Bob Brennan," who added: "NOT"

Cap and trade:
I am generally a fan of market-based mechanisms like this, but I was listening to a dude who works in the power industry in Vancouver and in his opinion there are major flaws with this plan. I must do more research to comment on this.

Bipole III:
"The province did finally table long-awaited legislation to help protect the east side's boreal forest from development, paving the way for a UNESCO World Heritage site and effectively killing any chance of a power line down the east side."

Grrrrrr. This is sooooo annoying. For those who are not familiar with the facts of the issue, let me summarize:
1. The east side of the lake aleady has development in the form of logging and mining and other such things. A new road is being proposed to access remote communities. The bipole line would not damage this area to any significant degree, and therefore this area does not need "protecting" any more than the Upper Fort Garry gates needed protecting.
2. The proposed west-side route will fell near as many trees as the west side route due to the longer distance. Some of those trees may be in protected aspen parklands. Plus, accoring to Jim Cotton (on some previous post), there is already a wide swath of land cleared down the side of the lake.
3. The Bipolee III power line does not preclude qualification for UNESCO membership, nor does the absence of said power line guarantee membership.
4. UNESCO membership means bugger all. What is it going to do? Fill the forest with eco tourists? No. The same hunters and fishers will visit the area then as they do now. Jake and Margaret from Vermont aren't going to vacation in the middle of a mosquito infested forest because it has a UNESCO designation. And the question has to be asked: do we even want tourists in this pristine area? Would it be better protected by keeping it below the radar? Why is this designation so important?
5. The proposed west-side route is far more expensive to build. According to Welch: the PUB "is a little worried about Hydro's financial future." As am I, by the way. Which is why I don't think we should be wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on a longer path for Bipole III.
6. The west-side route will waste thousands of megawatt-hrs of electricity per year, resulting in the loss of around $7-15m per year according to my calculations here, not to mention a shit load of GREEN power. If you are at all concerned about the environment, you should be outraged by this callous waste of green electricity. Every megawatt wasted will be replaced by dirty power somewhere down the line.

It's not too late to reverse this idiotic decision!!!

Babysitting job from hell

Just another day at the trailer park:

Police say an angry four-year-old Ohio boy grabbed a gun from a closet and shot his babysitter. ... Witnesses told police the child was angry because Beavers accidentally stepped on his foot.

Four teenagers were in the house: the victim (Beavers), the uncle of the shooter (witness 1 from the police report), Brandon Fisher - the other guy who got shot, and 17 year old witness 3. How much do you want to bet that these guys were drinking and completely ignoring the kids? According to the report, the kid "stated that he took a shotgun shell out of a desk drawer in the living room, while everyone was sitting there and no one seen (him) get the shell." i.e. the "babysitters" were too busy drinking and watching tractor pulling on TV to do their "job". I put "job" in quotes because I kinda doubt this was a formal babysitting arrangement.

The other thing that stands out, besides the bad grammar in the police report, is the fact that shot gun shells are in a drawer in the living room and the gun was not locked up. Oh sure, my grandfather had a gun leaning up against a wall and a box of shells on the window sill, but that was out on a farm where various critters required shooting. This incident occurred in a trailer park (according to the blogger below).

Go here for more fun news from Ohio, including: Drunk arrested after striking wife with tube of gift paper.

h/t stop annoying me for the police report link

What am I?

I sometimes wonder about this blog. About what I'm doing with it. The intention has always been to share what's on my mind. Simply a diversion for myself. But that results in a shit mix of posts that vary from semi-serious discussions about civic and political issues to frivolous posts with no point whatsoever. Each type of writing has it's place. I sometimes go to blogs like The Pissed Kitty Cometh just to read pointless but funny ranting. I sometimes go to websites like Last Of Iraqis for quite the opposite sort of reading. If I want to read about a dog sticking its head in the snow (which I don't) I'll go to Ace Burpees blog. Many of the blogs on my blog roll offer excellent commentary on local and national issues with varying points of view and levels of snarkiness. The point is, when you go to one of these blogs you generally know what to expect. Truncated Logic is a new blog, but already I get the gist of what Baloo is trying to doo.

As the new year approached, I thought about putting my blog on medication to treat it's multiple personality disorder. Maybe if there was a little more consistency in the types of posts that I, um, post, then maybe my readers would get more out of it. However I think I'll let it be for the time being. Ultimately it's not about you, it's about me. (sorry). This is still an outlet for what happens to be on my mind, whether it be important or not. "It is what it is", as they say ("they" being at least one person in every single meeting I've attended at work over the past two years.)

Having said that, I am still interested in what you think. I always welcome your comments, and if there are have been particular posts that you've enjoyed or despised, feel free to let me know. You can email me at cherenkov -at- rocketmail.com if you want to keep your thoughts about me being a retarded bag of shit* between you and me.

Cheers, and Happy New Year!

*also let me know if I swear too much.

Since you brought it up...

Here's the old abortion debate again, courtesy of an either bored or shit-disturbing Rod Bruinooge. He wants to push a pro-life agenda into the spotlight once again.

Very few Canadians appreciate the fact that essentially until a child takes its first breath, it has less value than a kidney -cbc-

That's just nonsense. If you could sell a fetus on the black market, the value of the stem cells alone would be worth far more than a kidney.

Wisely, the PMO is distancing itself from this crap hole of an issue. Stuff like this invokes the old fears of a hidden social conservative agenda that threatens to Americanize Canadian society.

So, Mr.Bruinooge, are you proposing that all abortions become illegal again, or are you proposing some kind of a compromise? For example, we could chop up (sorry, bad term ... um, segment?) pregnancy terms into trimesters: First trimester: all the abortions you want. Second: only under specific conditions (eg. pre-natal blood test shows that the baby is likely to be a socialist). Third: only if medically necessary. If late term abortions are rare anyhow, as pro-lifers claim, then is there anything to be gained by pursuing legislation like this? Is the status quo somehow broken enough to warrant opening this can of worms?

Those, like Bruinie, in the pro-life camp obviously feel that the status quo is not acceptable, and by not acceptable, I mean that people are getting abortions under circumstances that they do not deem to be appropriate. However that is a values question, and the values of the pro-lifers are most often driven by their religious convictions, and religion as we all know, has no place in the legislation of the nation. Stop foisting your bible-thumping ideals on us, Brunie, and let us be.