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The sport of curling got a lot of heightened interest this year during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, both in Canada, the United States, Great Britain and around the world. I've seen an astounding number of tweets in what I assume are both Japanese and Chinese scripts using the #curling hashtag. (Thankfully I have automatic translation built into my favorite twitter client and I can read what they say.) I've been chatting with one of the most amazingly fascinating group of people I can imagine on twitter - most of them have self-grouped into the "space enthusiast" category called the Space Tweep Society. It includes astronomers and shuttle techs and just interested (and talented) citizens and amateurs and one great big dorkasaurus named me. A few months ago I mentioned I was rushing out to my curling game and suddenly I found out just how many of my fellow Space Tweeps were interested in the sport of curling. I've been a fan of curling for years, and it was really interesting to see so much interest in something I find so much fun. Many of my friends had never watched curling before, very few have actually played. I remain very impressed with how well my friends have grasped the basics as I've explained the game and I have gotten a list of very good and insightful questions posed to me using the #curl101 hashtag. So in this post, I would like to address my friends who have found an interest in curling, who have learned about the rules and the etiquette, and would like to go out and try it themselves. The very first thing I express is that anyone can curl. It is a very inclusive sport where men, women, men and women, kids, and seniors can play - whether you're in a wheelchair or not. You need not be an elite athlete to start - indeed pudgy 40-something guys are out there having the time of their life. You have to have certain skills in order to curl. You should be willing to try new things, you should be willing to understand and adhere to the etiquette of the game, and you should be willing to stand on a sheet of ice - perhaps wear a light, loose fitting jacket and good, clean running shoes. Just because anyone can curl, understand that you will not be able to curl up to the standard of the athletes we observed playing in the Olympics. They train physically, mentally and emotionally for years to hone their skills and you cannot expect to step on the ice and be able to curl at that level. It is only when you try curling yourself for the first time that you begin to understand it is a sport unlike any other and requires it's own particular athleticism. Your body is stretched in atypical ways and you will use muscles you never knew you had. So, you've watched the curling, you've talked about it with your friends and you've heard me talk about the basics online and now you think you're ready to go give it a try. I sincerely encourage you to give it a shot right now. Most curling clubs are very aware of the heightened interest after the Olympics and have set up open houses (pun fully intended) and are doing their best to welcome and accommodate beginning curlers right now. If there's a time to strike, this is it! If you want to find a curling club near you, Wikipedia has a pretty good starting list right here. If you're in the USA, you may want to start here instead. In Canada, there are thousands of clubs available. The little town of 300 people I grew up in has a curling club and is not listed. Canada is richly blessed with curling popularity. Contact the nearest club and ask about an open house or a beginner's class. You may also wish to ask if they have a bonspiel if you want to watch a game live. Curlers are generally friendly and welcoming people - it's part of the etiquette of the game. You should expect to feel at home when you walk through the doors of the club. One of my best friends was one of the 500 people to the open house held at the Schenectady Curling Club. He was taken by how sociable the game of curling can be. Curlers shake hands and introduce themselves, wishing the other team a good game before each match. Most curling arenas have a lounge where the curlers enjoy drinks together after the game. Often it is traditional for the winning team to buy the losers the first round, and then the losing team to buy the winners the second round. It's a game where you play your best competitive curling, but the game itself gives you time to laugh and joke with the other team, congratulate them on a particularly great shot, and generally enjoy your time on the ice together as you plan your next shot. Curling at it's best is a very social game that encourages participation and sportsmanship. Ask the club what you will have to bring to the open house. Things that you will certainly need include: Loose fitting clothing that is not binding or restrictive, you will need to bring good, clean running shoes which hopefully will have good grip on ice. Hopefully the club will be able to provide brooms and sliders for you. Curling is very inexpensive if you just want to try it out a few times. I recommend purchasing your own broom and special curling shoes for yourself should you decide you want to play the game - but borrow your gear for your first time out there. If you need to purchase gear, a basic broom should cost $40-$50 and a slider should cost about $25. That will give you the ability to curl in a league for years. Facility fees vary widely depending on the club: My league costs roughly $250 a year. The people are warm, the rinks are cool. Most people will want to wear a light jacket on the ice. Breathable fabric is best, if you are brushing rocks it takes a great deal of energy and effort and you will break a sweat if you're doing it right. Fleece jackets are good to wick the sweat away so you don't get cold between rocks. I personally curl in a t-shirt and sweats (proper curling pants are still on my Christmas list). Most open houses will have an introduction to the game that happens off-ice. They will explain the basic rules of curling, the game's etiquette, and sometimes specific rules applicable to that facility - so be sure to pay close attention even if you think I've explained all there is to know about curling. There is a great deal I haven't explained. Two things always come up when someone curls for the first time: It's a lot harder than it looks and your legs get really sore afterwards. When you "throw" a rock, the idea is to not actually throw it with your arms but to propel yourself and the rock down the ice using the powerful muscles in your legs and release the rock gently. You need to have good balance on the ice and a soft touch. It takes time to develop this skill. The primary point I want to make is that you should prepare yourself ahead of time. Because you'll be using unusual muscles in your legs, stretching both before and after you attend an open house is very important. If you can do gentle deep knee bends, it will help stretch some of those muscles. One of the ways I combat stiffness is to simply walk. Thirty minutes of walking both before and after the open house helps move blood through your legs. Flexibility is a key attribute for curlers, the more flexibility you have the easier it will be on your body. Curling with special needs is still possible and encouraged. My friend Sawyer reminded me of how popular wheelchair curling is. It's a great sport that can be played competitively for people who don't have as many options for sports. Really good competitive wheelchair curlers can actually play and beat league curlers. I hope some day soon we actually play a game together with the rest of the Space Tweep Internationally Curling Team. Curling can be hard on legs and knees. If you have knee problems, you may not be able to deliver your rocks like regular curlers, but instead you may with to use a special broom that lets you throw more upright or a delivery stick that lets you throw while standing. I'm not endorsing either, I'm only throwing up examples of tools you can use. Anyone can get out there and play in a fun league. Get out there, find a club near you, and get into an open house or beginner's lesson and give it a try to see if curling is for you. It's a lot of fun, it's a great way to stay active in the winter months, and it's a fun, social sport that's a good way to meet nice people. Now's the perfect time.
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10. You often mumble, "Hurry--ish."
9. You see an easy double and think you need to add a triple axel.
8. You twirl your broom like Fred Astaire waiting for the throw.
7. You consider cross-checking every time that other skip sweeps your rock.
6. The only call you make on the ice is to your mother.
5.
4. Every time you throw the rock, it sinks.
3. On the first day of practice, you brought a Swiffer.
2. You hate this game.
1. You look at the angles and they all seem obtuse.
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On Friday, November 20, 2009 the Executive Director of the Alberta Maintenance Enforcement Program, Manuel da Costa, was interviewed on the Calgary Eyeopener. The interview was preceded by an unfortunate woman who was having difficulty collecting child support from the father of her child. She had lost her apartment and had to move back with her parents. The father was, in her story, doing drugs and avoiding his role as parent to the child. It's a disturbing story, a compelling story, and not at all unrealistic to be exactly as she portrayed. The interview itself was framed around the $2.5 billion dollars owed to parents in arrears. The interview may be available from the Eyeopener website, available only in Real Audio format. I make no promises if it will be available or for how long. I was angry. Even before the interview I started firing off tweets of complaint on twitter to @eyeopenerbob. @ Hold up! I'm a "beat dead" dad. I'm living in poverty paying child support for my kids. I have reported MEP for abusing me
@ There is endless frustration dealing with a mindless, heartless bureaucracy that hides behind cherry picked stats and no...
@ no responsibility for their own abuse or the abysmal way they treat parents - BOTH parents.
@ They do not live up to their own code of conduct. I want fairness and balance. I expect none.
@ Please, PLEASE stop using the term "deadbeat" parents. It's a huge black brush tarring everyone with a strawman argument.
@ There is an entire department in place to enforce the financial half of the court order. Where is enforcement of the rest?
@ How about the way MEP throws out penalties for late payments? I'm struggling enough. Penalties just add to my burden.
At this point, the interview started. Some of these tweets are direct rebuttals at Mr. da Costa's comments.
@ How about the equity behind the statistics? How valid are they? You cross the line, you get tarred and there is hell to pay
@ "No matter how much pressure we put on them." The first thing that happens is they take your license.
@ They have a single big hammer and slam it down relentlessly.
@ They go after anything and everything. If you don't fit into their preset pattern, they assume you're a "deadbeat."
@ NONSENSE! I talk to them and I get abused on the phone or told, "You have to meet your resonsibility."
@ Payment arrangement? Pay now, pay by direct withdrawal, or we're going after you HARD.
@ Money is enforced. The rest of the court order does not matter. I don't have the money to cause enforcement.
AWGH. Odds of me getting back to sleep after THAT interview are nil. Might as well get on with the day.
It was not an easy interview to listen to. Mr. da Costa sounds very suave and makes the situation seem unfathomable that anyone could possibly be in arrears without willfully cheating the system or lying to the Collections Officer. I know very well the situation on the ground is very different and the treatment I have received from MEP most definitely does not meet their mission statement or their values statement.
I have personally run across Mr. da Costa previously. When I complained about exceptionally poor treatment I received at the hands of the Maintenance Enforcement Program's Collection Officers, the end result was that my concerns were brushed away and the 'apology' I received from Mr. da Costa was, "We're sorry that you feel that way." It is, without doubt, the least sincere non-apology I have ever received in my life.
So when I heard him in an interview talk about how fair they were to debtors and how easy it was to set up payment arrangements with the department I was very upset and cynical.
Happily, I received the message, "Thanks for the note. Could one of our show producers call you for your side of this story?" Absolutely, yes.
My story is long and complicated, like pretty much every single other divorce story out there. It's filled with two villains and two heroes (both the same people, by the way) and is virtually impossible to fit into a ten minute description. My encounter with MEP runs just about as long as my separation and is every bit as complicated. After trying to explain as much as possible, the producer asked if I would consider writing a commentary in response to Mr. da Costa. The script I wrote follows the clip.
This isn't about paying Child Support, this isn't about my divorce, this is about the horribly shoddy treatment meted out by the Alberta Maintenance Enforcement Program - to both parents. They've done a terrible job as an organization, reform is warranted and long-past due.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I am a divorced father of two and pay child support monthly.
Parents who do not pay their allotted child support anger me, because
they make my dealings with the Maintenance Enforcement Program much
more difficult.
On Friday's Eyeopener, Manuel da Costa said that in times of
financial distress, one could simply call the MEP and make payment
arrangements. My experience has been quite different from what he
described. When hard times have come and I have had to speak to a
Collections Officer at MEP, I am at their mercy. The majority try to be
helpful and cooperative, but I have been treated unfairly and
discourteously when I felt I most needed help.
When experiencing financial hardship, I have been held under a
suspicious microscope, accused of hiding money, accused of dodging my
responsibility to my children. I have not been offered payment plans, I
have been threatened with the withdrawal of my driver's license and
garnishee of my wages.
Collection Officers are brusk, rude and sometimes offensive
towards me. Those same people are polite and professional when speaking
with my lawyer or payroll manager.
The amount of arrears owed to parents is staggering. That number
comes from the court orders in the divorce or separation process. The
Maintenance Enforcement Program actively and aggressively enforces the
court-ordered child support payments. But there is no government
program for the non-financial part of the court order. If non-custodial
parents are having problems such as access to their children,
their only recourse is expensive legal help.
Mr. da Costa minimizes how difficult it can be to have meaningful,
significant communication with the MEP. By focusing on only financial
issues, the MEP has a very narrow view of the issues at hand, and great
power to enforce collection. It isn't working well for either custodial
or non-custodial parents. It is time for a meaningful discussion on the
program as a whole.
For the Calgary Eyeopener, I'm Mark Zaugg.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Life has been so turbulent in the past few months, and particularly the past few weeks, that it's been a huge struggle lately just to keep my feet on the ground. There are a few things I can count on. Remembrance Day has long since been one of the rocks I can rely on to tie my kite down. Most years I try to take notes and kinda keep track of highlights and particularly good moments or thoughts that are presented. This year it all went out the window, and I stopped even trying to take notes and just kept trying to stay focused in the moment. Remembrance Day, for my friends who are not Canadian, is on November 11th, the day of the signing of the Armistice ending World War I. In Canada it is a commemoration of those who served in World War I, World War II, the Korean conflict and in our Peacekeeping forces around the world since Lester B. Pearson created the idea of modern peacekeeping forces. Canada is no different than many other countries who have went through generations of peace. Remembrance Day has waxed and waned over the years. Just a few days ago, I heard some lady on the radio talking about how she would just keep right on talking through the two minutes of silence because war is bad. Yes, yes it is. And thank you to the soldiers and sailors and airmen who put their lives on the line so that you have the opportunity to talk through those two minutes of silence. Tyranny knows no bounds, but it is in the acceptance of a differing opinion that we defeat tyranny - even if we must sometimes protect the other opinions with force. I definitely stand with those who remember. I always have. It's a personal conviction and with great gratitude that I say I remember. My grandfather fought WWII with the Soviet army - artillery I believe - until he was taken prisoner and placed in a Nazi POW camp. My friends have served - some still serving - with the armed forces and I consider them amongst the finest, most honourable people I've ever known. It's a tradition I've shared with my children for the past - wow - nine years. From those first years of holding my daughter on my knee as she strained to see the brass band and holding an infant son trying to comfort him and keep him from crying through the minutes of silence to attending with two of the most marvelous and honourable young people I've ever had the pleasure to know. Today I brought a Tamagotchi for my son to play with while waiting for the ceremony to begin. Once we were seated in the Jubilee Auditorium he reached it over to me and showed me he had collected 1914 points and whispered, "Dad, that's the year World War I began." Just when the ceremony was about to begin I leaned over to him and whispered it was time to put it away and realized he was already stuffing it into his pocket. My daughter was translating some of the French for me, talking about facts and figures from the history of Canadian armed forces, and sat proudly and respectfully throughout the ceremony. How good does that make a father feel? Particularly a father who feels like he's being sent scurrying in every direction right now? I feel wonderful and proud of my children. I feel very grateful that we can spend a day together in remembrance of the service of others. I feel very pleased that we have some traditions together that are just accepted and a touchstone in our lives and no matter how scattered our world gets, we have something solid to hold fast. Our annual tradition is to shake the hand of someone in uniform. Thank you to the kind gentleman who freely shook our hand this year, thank you for serving in our air force. You, sir, are a man I admire wholeheartedly. I'm thinking much of the family of Sapper Steven Marshall today, and for 132 other families who have lost loved ones serving in Afghanistan. My heart goes out to you all. I thank you through remembrance and by teaching my children remembrance and respect. It is well and truly the least that I can do. So tonight I feel that I have a little better perspective and a lot more resolve to deal with my piddling problems. Tomorrow, I will not forget.
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"I had a dream last night that I had a brick house and you were in the basement inventing weird stuff.
"We were wearing accordions and lederhosen that were festooned with croquet mallets. Had to play the accordion and kick legs out to make the mallet heads hit a large rubber ball back and forth.
"I don't think it was polka music."
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" Oki napa - Welcome." I only wish I could speak with the graciousness and eloquence of the Siksika elder, Clement Bear Chief. (Thanks Mom!) I feel great shame I didn't write down his name so I could give him proper credit. If you know it, please write a comment, I want to fix that.Please, before reading this take a look at Alan Dyer's gorgeous photo from the evening to set your mind in the feel of the story. The elders of the world carry the wisdom of a lifetime of experience. I often think that it is the great generation that is passing before us. A generation that should be lost and unrecoverable to us. But as the elders pass they are replaced by those who take up the mantle and carry the wisdom anew. It is our responsibility to listen, to hear their strength and wisdom, and to pass it along to ourselves and our children. It's also a shame that the Siksika's rich heritage and stories could pass from us as well. I am a white man. However I very much felt welcomed amongst some wonderful people last Saturday as they shared their skies with me and my kids. I took notes as quickly as I could, but they pale with regards to the stories that were told. I could go back a hundred times and sit in absolute wonder over and over again. Mistakes are my own and I wish most to share just a fraction of the magic of last Saturday night. For one night, I felt the Great Maker included me with his peoples and the stories are true for my family as well. I truly mean no disrespect or to cause offense, I hope it to be a statement of the welcoming I felt. --- The elder started with the firm belief that we came from the stars, and we will go back to the stars in return. If the white man had only listened when they arrived, they would understand that the Siksika knew about the skies from the legends they told. The legends are from below, upon and above the earth. Each legend is intertwined; as one story concludes, it is the point upon another story begins, and the legends meet and relate to each other. The elder said he could talk all night relating the legends, of that I have no doubt whatsoever. He mentioned the legends give peace and relaxation, and many people fall asleep while listening to them. I dearly hope to experience that. One of the first tales he related is most important to what I relate here: A man climbs up a mountain and once he reaches high upon the slopes he sees a most beautiful tree, perfect in size and shape. The man is amazed by it's beauty and wishes to share it with his friends and family. But he knows that not everyone will be able to climb the mountain and see it with him, so the man decides to chop down the tree in order to share it with others. When the tree reaches the bottom of the mountain, the results are predictable and the people do not see the tree in it's beauty. --- The Creator had finished creating all of creation, the plants and the animals, the world in which we live. He sent down his people and he worried about how to feed, clothe and to shelter his people. The Creator called all his animal creations together, and all the animals gathered - except for the moose and the elk, which were off elsewhere, and the antelope which were away running as usual. The mouse came forward and offered itself to the Creator to feed his people. But the Creator knew the mouse was much too small. It would take far too many to make shelter for the people. Badger, wolf and bear all came forward, but each was not enough to care for the people. One of the creatures turned and saw a tornado approaching. The earth trembled and all of creation became afraid. However it was not not a tornado at all, it was the dust from a giant bull, at the head of the buffalo. The giant bull did not stop or even slow as it approached the gathering. The crowd of animals parted in order to let the herd pass, fearing that the giant bull was disrespecting the Creator. Instead, the bull stopped nose to nose with the Creator, and he volunteered his people to feed, clothe and give shelter to the people. The Creator agreed, because he saw the buffalo were numerous and large enough to provide for his people's needs. After this, the buffalo came down in the evening, night after night. Behind them they left the Buffalo Path - the Milky Way - as a memorial for the protection and care the buffalo provided to the Creator's people. The buffalo were protectors in many ways for the Siksika. They provided food and shelter. They stood between the people and the soldiers that came to bring them harm. They are an important creation. --- The stories point to where we came from. They are a clue as to who we are, and what we are doing. Where we will go. The designs on the Siksika tipi always have stars. The Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Orion, the cluster of stars (Pleiades?) where Spider-man lowered the women to the sun dancers. The elder said it was through the listening of the stories that he met and understood the people in the stories. My personal thanks, I dearly hope I can listen again soon and meet them myself and understand them better.
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Orion. Ursa Major. The Pleiades. Cassiopeia. Cygnus. Draco. Hydra. Canis Major and Canis Minor. These are my old friends. Very old, much older than myself. Many a winter's night I've walked home with my defender hovering over my shoulder. Indeed, the greatest of my friends has always been Orion the Hunter. He lives low in the sky through the winter months in Canada, and regularly I'll look up from the horizon to draw strength and courage during the cold nights. It has always been so. From my earliest memory, I have always known Ursa Major. But when I was ten or twelve I was taught to look for Mizar and Alcor. Today I marvel at the power of eyesight, if it wasn't so cloudy I'd be outside right now trying to see if I could differentiate the double star system. Like many people following the moon landings I acquired a keen interest in space exploration. Like thousands of kids, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut and going into space. Okay, I have a heightened interest, but I'm far from an expert. Other than my friends listed above, I really don't have a great memory of the constellations and asterisms up there. Living in the city, I don't have a great view of the sky anymore. I very much treasure my chance to go camping in the summer with my kids and be able to see the full panoply of stars I remember from my youth. Precisely one year ago, the kids and I were camping near Lake Louise. The excitement was we were out at the time of the Perseid meteor shower. I got to keep my kids up until after midnight with the three of us staring up as the meteors came down. To see their eyes light up with the opportunity to stay up way past bedtime was cool to itself. It became an entirely different magic to see their eyes flare up the moment a Perseid flared directly overhead framed between lodgepole pines. We tried again the next night, but it was far too hard for the kids to stay up two nights in a row. Having taken vacation earlier in the year, we were not together for the Perseids this year. When I asked my daughter if she saw the meteors this week, her first reaction was, "Did the Perseids happen this week? Are they still on?" The disappointment in her voice matched her excitement from last year. I've watched the Perseids on my own in the past. My favorite year was spent outside my Mom's place where there's less light pollution. I woke up at 2:00 in the morning and spent the next two hours agape with amazement to see the sky lit up minute by minute. But my favorite moment of all was last year with my kids. It was a thousand times better sharing it with someone who had never seen that miracle before. This year, I've been swept up into the Twitter mania. One of the messages I saw was announcing Twitter's Meteorwatch. It sounded fun and exciting, and the chance to hear about meteors across the world was enticing. I had no idea what I should expect, but I knew it was worth the time to hop on and check it out. I did expect to meet wonderful people from across the entire world. That happened. I did expect to meet real astronomers with genuine interest and knowledge of what we were observing. They are outstanding and I have the greatest of respect for each and every one of them. I did not expect to feel so much excitement seeing others discover meteors on their own for the first time. I never thought that I'd see the magic I saw in my children in the tweets of others from across the world. Answering questions as they came up was easy - my favorite questions were those from people who had never before seen a meteor and my absolute joy above anything else was to hear back from someone I'd never met talk excitedly about seeing their very first meteor ever. It's an addictive rush, and of great relief from the day to day stress to have an element of joy from others that I can feed from. And feed from it I did. Apparently I ranked fourth in contributors to the #meteorwatch discussion. I was shocked considering I was there primarily as a participant and certainly not as an expert. I know I drove friends crazy with a massive burst of #meteorwatch discussion; I literally tripled my post count in two days. I hope I made it a little better for the other #meteorwatch participants, and I'm so very grateful for feedback from those who found their first meteor ever over the past few days. I have so many people to thank for the past week. Thank you to each and everyone who I spoke with during Meteorwatch. A very special thank you to NewburyAS for getting the event going in the first place. An equal thank you to ksastro for the friendship and the photos. I would never have gotten as involved without you first asking and without your encouragement online. And one last thank you to RGphotographic for getting this photograph - it's my other favorite of the night. And a thanks to nscafe for the local touch.
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Well, the Braidwood inquiry is starting to seed some results.
And it's great to see Alberta leading the way. Well, except for B.C.
who jumped on this last week. But Alberta is still on the leading edge
of the front line of the first responders to this terrible and tragic
situation, right?
What a crock and I'm sickened by the doublespeak over this. This is far too little of a response which comes far too late in time. This is policy which should have been set in stone before the first zap of a taser was ever permitted in this province. Yet again, we have a vacuum of leadership which will sing and dance pandering for the "Get tough on crime" vote, but blinds itself to the consequences of it's own rhetoric.
My opinion on the scenario has been set in stone for a while now. We
had four cowboys in Vancouver going off on a rampage to use the new toy
they were trained in. They need to be held accountable for their
actions, and their own accountability varies amoungst the four. It
should not be the all or nothing deal on charging the officers as it
has appeared to be when the decision to not lay charges was originally made.
Yes,
I believe tasers are less lethal than a firearm. I am immeasurably happy
that Justice Braidwood has said that tasers can cause heart failure and
thus has quashed the nonsense that tasers are non-lethal in and of
themselves. They can cause death and they must be used responsibly.
Taser International be damned, these are weapons first and foremost and
like all weapons can have lethal consequences.
I do not believe in a moratorium on taser use, but I do believe that
the police have used them carelessly and to the point of recklessness.
There is absolutely no justification for transit cops using a taser on
fare jumpers. There is absolutely no justification for repeated use of
tasers on people held in custody. What happened to Robert Dziekanski
was criminal.
What needs to be recognized today by each and every person in Canada is
that this is a massively significant decision that impacts literally
every one of us.
You can be pulled over by a cop for no reason at any time. Any person
can be arrested and charged at a whim of suspicion. If you get
arrested for breaking into your own house, you're probably not going to
be invited to 24 Suffex Drive for a beer. If you are stopped, you are
wholly and completely reliant upon the arresting officer's scruples,
judgment, ethics and mood.
The standard of "active resistance" has been clearly abused in the
Dziekanski case (and others) and is not an acceptable standard for using what could
potentially be a lethal weapon. Let's get this back to the average
Canadian. Ever been pulled over for a traffic violation, say running a
stop sign? Didn't pull over fast enough for the cop's satisfaction?
He can call that active resistance and whip out a taser. Oh, but
that's ridiculous! No cop would ever do that, right?
How about throwing a laptop and a small table? Is that active
resistance enough for you? How about holding a stapler in a
threatening manner?
The second part to this is that the cops are going to have to submit
reports back to the province about when tasers were used. These
reports are essential and should be part of the public record - how
were these not collated before? Situations where tasers have been used
need to be analyzed so we can actually determine when and how the
police are using (and abusing) these weapons. There needs to be a
public accountability how tasers have been used, instead of just the
standard response (to date) of brushing it under the carpet and blaming
"excited delirium."
Back to the average Canadian again. If you refuse to drop a knife and
start swinging it at a cop, I think we'd all agree that's pretty clear case of potentially causing bodily harm. Swinging a stapler? No. But
in a real situation, the cop may still whip out the taser and blast
away. It's after the fact, in the analysis of the report, where we can
start holding that cop accountable. "I thought it was a butterfly
knife and when he didn't drop it I hit him with a taser and discovered
it was a pair of childrens scissors." Look, mistakes happen, but we
can at least start asking the question: Why are we hiring cops that
can't tell the difference between a knife and children's scissors? Are
those the people we want trying to protect us?
The third part, and we can thank the CBC for going through the effort
of checking, is that the tasers themselves have to be tested to ensure
they function within operating guidelines. Many have already proven to
be malfunctioning. Once again, Taser International be damned for
declaring the tests faulty. Stop bitching about the tests and
contribute to make them more valid. Clearly some of the units have had
problems. Whinging about the testing process doesn't invalidate the
results. Accept the lumps and start fixing the problems. You'll look
a lot less like whingey jerks.
This inquiry is about much more than Robert Dziekanski. This inquiry
is about how the police can treat you and me. This is about what
threshold of danger that has to exist before they can start pulling out
weapons of various lethality. This is to ensure that as little force
is used as absolutely necessary, with the least amount of risk to our
persons. This is about holding that arresting officer's scruples,
judgment, ethics and mood to the light after the fact so we can keep
the police responsive to us, the people they are charged to serve and
protect.
It's not just a buzz phrase. It's their responsibility.
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I've been riding my bike back and forth to work for a while now. It is what ended my iPod heading into work theme until the fall. Double-plus good. I need the exercise. I need to strengthen my lungs and my cardiovascular system after the pneumonia. I need to strengthen my knees before the arthritis takes them from me. Arthritis? Seriously? I'm only 40 for ghod's sake. Err.. 41. Well, nonetheless nothing has made me happier the past week or two than when I've been out pumping the pedals. Calgary is a quirky city. Land of the car. If you don't drive, you can't live in this town. It's too sprawled, transit is too eratic, I cynically think this city has been so poorly designed it's going to take another hundred years to make it into a truly functional city again. Barring conquest, war, famine and death that is. This is the city that completely and utterly clogs during rush hour because we can't get any traffic flow in and out of downtown, but the city is eternally blocking off the right hand lane from commuters with "traffic calming devices" to grind everything to a halt. Awesome work, gents. I see a lot of irritated traffic out there, not a lot of calm. And in the heart of it all, we have the bike paths. Did you know they are among the best in North America? Perhaps so, I can't really judge other cities, but I consider that damning praise for bicycling in North America. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying cycling in Calgary is bad, not by any means. For a city that really started it's growth in the past 50 years or so, we really do have a relatively good system of pathways. You can find a pdf map of Calgary's bike paths here. What it doesn't tell you is the state of a lot of the bike paths. Most of the paths are - I'm guessing - eight to ten feet wide paved paths that run along the creek and river valleys. It gets insanely congested downtown - especially on a nice afternoon - so they've actually twinned the path splitting walkers and bikes. The outlying paths are a different story, though. They tend to be roads and side streets that have signs proclaiming they're - watch the car door, Ma'am - bicycle friendly. My biggest beef besides the - hey, give me some space jerk - traffic is that it takes a couple of times up and down the pathways to figure out where the paths are actually supposed to go. Nothing like getting lost in a residential cul-de-sac wondering just how you're supposed to get three blocks and one major thoroughfare over. They either have one sign that's supposed to guide you for the next twenty blocks, or they have three signs all in a row because, apparently, every street is bicycle approved. Take your pick, I guess. Something new every day. Older sections in the city are tough. I rode my bike down to my Dad's place in Acadia. There are zero safe routes to get directly from downtown to the heart of Acadia. We need better commuting routes for bicycles. Lanes that are marked off for bikes. Pathways that are for bikes only, none of these 20 km / h speed limits that few actually adhere to. It would make for some real improvement in the city we desperately could use. Not that I expect a lot of the lard ass-SUV drivers would take advantage of it, but it would do us all some good. Before we wake up some day and realize we've turned 40 and have bad knees. Ahem. 41. I wish this was entirely my thought process, but other than the general rant and dissatisfaction, most of it came about through Twitter of all things. I've become much more engaged with some of the city's thinkers, movers and shakers over the past few weeks. One of the blogs I hit was Carshare Cody who set me off to Green Drinks Calgary and Bike Calgary. Yeah, it's going to take me a while to get up to speed with everything that's actually happening out there, but I'm feeling more and more connected with the actual city these days. I've actually rediscovered some of the joy of Calgary - so long as you stay out of the traffic that is. And the geocaching has been a lot more fun lately.. Now, can we do something about that suicidal gopher just south of McKnight?
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Sorry for flubbing "Tomcat Prowl", Doug, but don't you just remember the time I nailed "Nobody But Me"? Takin' it Day By Day, Mr. Bennett.
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I have called for the officers in the Dziekanski's death to be charged before. We have a new tidbit today. Gary Mason at the Globe and Mail has a much better explanation than I can give. And I add one from Ian Mulgrew. "I am obviously appalled," a clearly upset Braidwood said. I share his revulsion. I'm sickened that not only four power-crazed, bad cops with terrible judgment have put themselves in such a bad light by dipsying and dodging the truth as bad as Bill Clinton with a crusty dress tucked under a desk, but even worse that the brass have demonstrated that those same four cops have absolutely golden judgment and scruples when it comes to freely and fully revealing the truth. The whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The four attending officers should be held accountable in a court of law. Charges should be forthcoming at once. Their performance and actions was not in accordance with a fair and just society respecting the rule of law. I'm fully willing for Mr. Braidwood to finish his work, but charges must be laid. *I* have most certainly judged the officers and I find them incapable of performing their duties, but they must be held accountable in courts. The senior officers above them must be held accountable as well. First I fully expect them to explain themselves in front of Justice Braidwood. They deserve a serious grilling as to why they have not been forthcoming, they deserve to be most seriously questioned about their complete lack of discretion about releasing honest information. Subsequently, we need a real, independent inquiry to look into THEIR actions and determine if criminal responsibility lies in their actions as well. A man is dead. Four RCMP officers have shown themselves to be dangerous to the general public and have subsequently ruined their careers. At least two senior officers have minimized and covered up serious improprieties and have damaged trust in the RCMP and probably took a serious hit in their own careers. Did their mother's tell them to never tell a lie? Not even a little white lie. It builds a lot of it's own momentum. That's a hell of a lot of damage for a very atrocious decision. These people are civil servants, they serve society and are accountable to us all. Charge them now. It's funny, I was reminded of a quote from Mahatma Ghandi: Seven social sins: Politics without principles, Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, And worship without sacrifice.
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Mr. Bug's forcing me to do it here. From Phasorburn here. One copy. One pastie. Voila! 1 – Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random… Read More”
or click Here
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 – Go to “Random quotations”
or click Here
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3 – Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click Here
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4 – Use photoshop or similar to put it all together. Now if only I knew how to use my ratsofrassin' blog. I hate you, Bug. Click on the attachment.
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Last Thursday or so, my Lady-love brings in her laptop and says, "It's wrecked. Fix it, you sexy geek of +3 studliness."* "Uh-oh," I think to myself. She pulls it out of her bag, I see a hinge standing straight outwards and a shower of broken plastic bits where the outer shell used to be. Crap. I hate fixing laptops. It's bloody impossible without just getting entire new parts. May as well just go buy a new one that's modern and up-to-date rather than fixing it or you're guaranteed to be toting around a decrepit piece of junk that's patched together with bailing twine and horse gum. It's impossible to properly fix anything with broken plastic. Laptops are the one and only thing for which I strongly recommend getting an extended warranty. I never get an extended warranty for anything else, but I expect a laptop to last me three years before I get a new one and if anything busts on it, I damn well don't want to fix it on my own. Furthering the complication, she didn't buy it on her own so I had no idea if it was still covered under warranty. Okay, before I permanently destroy it, let's call Asus. Dial them up. Get a tech on the other end. Explained what happened. Provided the serial number. Got an RMA. Asus shipped us a box to pack the laptop into for return. That's it! Most painless return I've ever endured. Good customer service, a decent tech who knew what he was doing, what a great experience. I'm not at all concerned with having problems with an Asus laptop again. So how do you top a good experience like that? Sunday night I'm flipping though some tech sites and my screen hashes out on me. Think something along the lines of "blue plaid shirt" screen effects. "UH-OH!" I thought. "Looks like my Mac overheated." Well, it was late, it was easier to shut it down and take a shot at troubleshooting on Monday. Monday night I got home, opened the Mac, and... core dumped. Notwithstanding the incredibly fortunate pun of a Mac core dumping, I was wondering what the hell was going on. Rebooted. Opened Firefox. Screen gibberish all over my Firefox tabs and then my computer hangs. That can't be good. Reboot. Open Safari, see the same junk on my screen and the computer crashes again. At this point I'm really happy I got AppleCare. So I call Westworld and ask for service. I didn't even get that far, the woman I spoke with tells me to bring it in for a tech to diagnose. Oooookay.. Take it in, their service tech takes it to the back, returns less than 30 seconds later and says, "It's the logic board. Three to five days." Now, not being one to speak Applease, but being one who's just thrilled that it's covered under AppleCare, I'm happy to leave my laptop behind and have it repaired. "Logic board" means "motherboard" to most people, and the long and the short is my MacBook needed some expensive love and care. $1,236 plus labour, thank you very much. I feel smarter for wasting my $300 or so on an extended warranty. So tonight - Wednesday - I get a call just as I'm leaving work. It's Westworld and I'm feeling the dread well up inside me considering what WON'T be covered by warranty. Excess dog hair in the fan? Unapproved music in iTunes? Dead hooker in the trunk? How much extra is THIS going to cost me right now? "Sir, your MacBook is ready to be picked up." It was fantastic. The timing was perfect. All I had to do was go get my laptop. Easy. Easier than easy. Absolutely painless. When I picked it up, I'd left the work order at home. I wasn't expecting it to be ready until Thursday at the soonest and possibly next Monday. I had to present my drivers licence and... Well, I had to wait for her to clean my computer. Yes, my computer is officially as clean as the day I bought it. And normally it's the same texture as my stove. Sooo.... That's it! Customer service that's been a complete joy to deal with. No messing with stupid, recite by rote service droids. No incomprehensible accents. No scrambling to find original packaging. No hidden charges. No panic. No problems. No issues. Except, of course, our original issues, which were resolved. Well, mine was resolved. My Lady-love's are still in process. Westworld wins the speed race, but there was no shipping involved. We'll see how Asus does in the next week or so. It's a long, long ways away from the bad old days of craptastic service. Yay. *All conversations may have been filtered through the brain of a man and may not be exactly as represented.
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Oh dear, I knew this day was going to come sooner or later. I saw the video for Metal Queen when I was 16. That probably explains it all right there. Lee Aaron still has a fantastic voice and has transformed into a jazz singer these days, but like so many testosterone fueled nerdly dweeboids, I remember and love her best for the mind-numbing goodness of the past. It wasn't until I tracked down a copy of Metal Queen that I realized just how.. erm.. appealing to testosterone fueled nerdly dweebs the songs were. Wow, am I glad we've all moved on. Well, some of us, anyways. I have this charming mental image of Ms. Aaron walking onstage in a gorgeous gown, crooning a soft number in some upscale music hall, and a dozen morons like me standing at the front of the stage ripping their shirts off to spell out "PLAY METAL QUE." There's always a couple jerks that don't show up. For what it's worth, here's one of the better songs on the album.
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