The Liberals found an interesting quote from Harper worth noting.
Mark Francis put on facebook:
“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.” – Stephen Harper, Canadian Press, April 18, 2005
Last year I noticed that my neighbours at a Boardwalk rental property were throwing out many dead tube lights. This has the effect of putting mercury, a neuro-toxin, into the city’s landfill, and eventually the water supply. The tubes break, the rainwater will wash the mercury into the ground and into the drinking supply for some unlucky people in the future.
City: Regina
Dear Boardwalk,
I saw something that concerned me, which I’d like to draw to your attention. At the Boardwalk properties on [my street], where I live, I saw numerous fluorescent lights being thrown into the dumpster. As you may know, these lights have a lot of toxic mercury in them, and should only be disposed of properly by recycling them.Fortunately there is a recycler of these tube lights, and also Compact Fluorescent Lights, right here in Regina! http://www.klightrecycling.com They’ll even do pickup for a small fee.
For the sake of our water supply, and the reputation of Boardwalk as being Socially Responsible as you state in your business Code of Conduct[PDF], I encourage you to correct the mistake of improperly disposing of tube lighting in any and all of your many locations across Canada, but first Regina.
Thank you for your consideration, response, and ultimately your corrective action.
Sincerely,
[Saskboy]
- a concerned neighbour
I’ll post any reply they give.
I was reminded of this problem when my condo board started looking into recycling of tube lighting at the site I live on. I’m in the process now of convincing the board to proceed with the recycling option, which will cost approximately $200/year for 11 buildings.
UPDATE:
Boardwalk gets some cred for replying early on this. We’ll see if they take the required next steps without prodding.
5 January 2010 17:17… See More
subject Re: Rental_Inquiry – [Saskboy]
mailed-by webmail.livexchange.com
Dear [Saskboy]
Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.
We have advised your on site Customer Service Representative of your concerns and they will ensure that the issue is dealt with as soon as possible.
We thank you for allowing us to serve you with your housing needs. If you have any further concerns, please call our 24 hour Customer Service at 1-800-310-9255.
Sincerely,
Customer Service
Boardwalk Rental Communities
On Saturday I watched “Hackers” [6/10]. Saw a slightly cliché [7/10] “Sherlock Holmes” the other night. It stole suspense scenes from Star Wars of all places.
It’s been warm the last few days, which has been a nice change from the -25 days that graced us around New Years.
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Hat tip to Alec
The Martian winter is coming, and there’s now the threat that the Spirit rover won’t live to see Martian spring. It’s bogged down in sinking-sand, and might not be salvageable. There’s no MAA (Martian Automobile Association) to call for an emergency crater-side tow. I did invent the MAA several years ago, but sold no more than one membership for some reason.
If NASA can manage to turn Spirit on its side enough to face the sun, then they can get enough power to the heaters to save the rover, otherwise the extended 6 (Earth) year mission comes to a whimpering end.
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Environment Canada, or a portion of the government blew a gasket at a clever parody designed to embarrass the Harper government. Given the government’s heavy handed reaction, it seems to have worked at least in part. The details are here.
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Have a Happy New Year!
I’m drowning in a sea of paperwork. I guess I should pay bills, and catch up on emails, as well as do the laundry, cook a late lunch, and do some banking. Then there’s a movie tonight and party tomorrow after a tea-house meeting in the morning. Who said holidays are easy?
And in case you were wondering, Saskboy really is a guy.
A topic on the minds of many at this time of year is, “How am I going to pay off the credit card bill this time?” If you’ve put yourself into a hole by overspending at Christmas, you’re not alone. You’ve got social expectations to meet, and if your pocketbook doesn’t live up to your sense of generosity, you’ll find yourself in a hole. You’re also going to need a plan to climb out, especially if you’ve never been good at money management. As I was looking for what the “ribbon” is in Microsoft Office 2007, I stumbled across these debt reduction techniques.
The Debt Snowball payment method is an easy way to pay off your debts. If you’d like to pay debts even faster, and more efficiently (saving you money), there’s the easy Debt Avalanche method. If you like to hold garage sales or sell odds and ends online, you’d probably find that Debt Snowflaking is the fastest way to pay the bills.
Credit cards have the worst interest rates, worse than loans and lines of credit, so if you can be disciplined and not put more onto your credit cards, I’d recommend getting a line of credit to pay off large credit card bills, so you can pay off your debt twice as quickly. You can also make next to no money (1.2%) on a savings account at the moment, while you could save up to 20% in interest payments by being credit card debt free. It’s a no-brainer to put as much money toward your debt now as you can, so you’ll have money to put toward savings instead once interest rates get higher again.
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If you want to start a savings account now, I have an ING referral code which gives you, and I, a $25 bonus when you open the account with an initial deposit of at least $100. Your money is not locked in, you can get it back pretty much anytime you want, from the phone or Internet, or a bank machine once you get your ING bank card in the mail. (more…)
Jordon has had two run ins with severe drug abusers in Saskatoon lately. Here are his thoughts:
I know many say, get tough on crime but as a parole officer reminded me, the average sentence is only 60 days which is enough to cost you your job, get you evicted but not enough time to get help in jail. Also, there is almost no drug programming available in provincial jails. For some reasons the same governments who like to get tough on crime also favor cutting back rehabilitation funding in prisons (it makes no sense to me because unless you plan to give everyone a life sentence, without programming they will return to their life of crime but this time with a better criminal network). While I am not opposed to longer sentences, I do want them to get help when they are there to stop recidivism when they get out.
Here’s what I would do to fix the problem, and you can do it too:
For one thing we have to stop electing governments that will shut down work training programs in prisons (contrary to conservatives in the States even!). Start zoning cities with the requirement of local green space for community run gardens. Give a tax break to anyone who sells produce to, or at, a farmer’s market.
We need more state run harm reduction sites to get the drug users into clean and safer environments where they may be coaxed back to reality at some point. Stop chasing pot growers and users, and focus on imported drugs instead. Tax marijuana sales (not possession), and punish growers and dealers for tax evasion (if they don’t pay up).
We need more affordable housing. It’s virtually impossible for someone on minimum wage to purchase a home, that has to change (With Conservatives in charge, it gets harder to buy a home soon, but still easy to accumulate credit card debt.). Even with a partner, home ownership is still unlikely. We have to change attitudes about debt too, so wealthy (and poor) people don’t use credit cards as debit cards. To fix this situation the state should be providing post secondary education to all who apply and meet a minimum grade requirement. Credit for retail purchases should be more difficult to obtain, and credit for food or major purchases or businesses, such as a house or car, more available.
And as Jordon said, we need to improve the sense of community. For instance, television isn’t doing that, and it’s probably harming society a great deal more than it helps. We have the Internet now for global information, so broadcast television should focus on local news, information, and entertainment (instead of consuming itself in its death throes).
As It Happens has the best theme music on radio. Alas, it’s nearly impossible to find on iTunes or anywhere on the Net. Fortunately there’s a version of it on YouTube, here. The closing music “Koff Drops” is somewhere out there too. The musician, Moe Koffman, passed away in 2001.
This is a fun video from Saskatchewan, that appeared in the Leader-Post.
The Conservatives’ bloggers have a message for you Canada. Our international reputation in shambles is less important than a photoshopped picture of Stephen Harper.
Devin says pretty much everything that needs to be said about this photo that so few Canadians know about anyway.
Give it a rest already. Jeff says that “[t]he photo was unacceptable, way beyond good taste, and should never have gone online” and yet you think “[t]here is no admission of the root cause of the problem”?? Sorry, you’re wrong on this one.
The photo was dumb. Posting online was dumb. But it’s been removed now and the Liberals have apologized. Move on.
As to your claim that the Conservatives have never posted an “assassination photo” on their website, I think that Jeff does a fairly good job of pointing out the falsehood there. And yet, have the Conservatives removed the image he identified? Have they apologized for it? No. And that, it seems to me, makes the Liberals adults and the Conservatives hypocritical and disingenuous.
And before you accuse me of being partial for the Liberals, consider that I am a New Democrat. For us, the Liberals are the biggest strategic obstacle. I have written very critically about the Liberals and their policies. I have no reason to defend them here – except my interest in a reasonable and civilized discourse. The Liberals made a dumb mistake. Fair enough. Now get over it and move on to more important things.
If that isn’t enough of a rebuttal to Janke’s ridiculousness, CC finishes up rather well too.
 | Kateland on Just The Facts |
 | saskboy on Just The Facts |
 | Leeky on Just The Facts |
 | Mark from Slap on Just The Facts |
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