The Gospel Of The Clueless

"There is an almost universal quest for easy answers

and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people

more than having to think."

- Martin Luther King

Do you get the feeling lately that there aren’t very many people paying much attention these days? I don’t mean paying attention to an individual issue, I mean paying attention period. Everywhere I go whether it is online or in the real world, I run into people who are so lost in their own little time and place they are completely oblivious to what is going on around them.

I was downtown the other day, stopped at a red light. A nicely dressed man, about forty, crossed the intersection in front of me with his finger buried up his nose. I can understand people in their cars forgetting that their windows are actually two-way glass and indulging in a little nasal mining but out on the street?

He struck gold and hauled it out of his nose to take a good look at it in the middle of the intersection, pausing to hold his finger up to seriously examine his find. What in God’s name could anyone possibly have up their nose that they would want to examine it? Were they expecting that this one time, whatever it is would be different than the hundreds of times before?

It’s incredible. People are completely tuned out.

Everywhere I go people are on their cell and smart phones. They’re texting, emailing and talking and they do it while they’re driving and while they’re trying to cross the street without regard to personal safety or the safety of others. Too often, they are so focused on the momentous communication they just received that they are completely unaware of the half-ton truck in front of which they’ve just walked.

I watched one young woman walk out into an intersection against a red light. She was so focused on her mobile phone, she didn’t notice either the light or even the intersection until the traffic slammed to a screeching halt to avoid running her over. Then, of course, she was suitably annoyed that someone almost hit her and forced to look up from her phone.

It is life without thought; life without even an attempt to think.

Earlier today I was listening to a radio talk show I particularly enjoy and they were discussing the issue of swaddling. You know, swaddling; as in “and Mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manager.” That kind of swaddling.

After centuries of swaddling newborns, apparently it has suddenly become dangerous. It arrests the development of newborns, could cause hip dysplasia, lead to SIDS and death. Where is the evidence to support this nonsense? Where are the overwhelming reports of cases of swaddling having threatened, injured or killed babies?

There aren’t any, of course. Like so many of the solutions being offered today, they are solutions by self-anointed experts looking for a problem.

The sad thing is that because we have become dumber, a lot of people will jump on the anti-swaddling issue just as so many jumped on the “vaccinations cause autism” bandwagon. God, even Oprah was behind that cause and her devoted fans followed her mindlessly as if she was a female reincarnation of Moses leading them out of bondage to the Promised Land.

It was a crock, a fraud by a single doctor in England who falsified a study for no more noble reason than the cash he received from a pharmaceutical company. Hundreds of thousands stopped having their children vaccinated for diseases like polio which was all but eradicated and is now making a comeback thanks to this stupidity.

It wasn’t that there wasn’t more than ample information available at the World Health Organization and government health departments around the world that contradicted the report. There were but people were too lazy to do any independent research. People like Oprah and Jenny McCarthy said it was so and that was good enough reason for them to risk their children’s lives.

To this day, even though the fraud has been exposed, there are still far too many who believe that vaccinations cause autism because people like Oprah once said so.

We have more information available to us than ever before thanks to technology but technology has dumbed us down to the point of becoming almost mindless. It has made us intellectually fat and lazy; too lazy to actually research things for ourselves and then analyze critically what we’ve learned. Why bother when you have Wikipedia and thousands of blogs and social media sites just itching to tell you the truth?

We can no longer separate fact from opinion let alone from fiction or fantasy.

There was a time when we actually paid experts to provide the facts for our encyclopedias. Now, any idiot with a keyboard and an Internet connection is an expert and there are plenty more idiots just willing to believe whatever they type.

It is the Gospel Of The Clueless.

The technology whiz kids predict that soon our refrigerators will maintain an inventory of the food they contain and when we’re running low, they will order more for us. Samsung is already producing a refrigerator with Wi-Fi for that amateur chef who suffers separation anxiety from being away from the computer for more than a few minutes.

Isn’t that just what we needed; machines that think for us and keep us connected to the Great Mindless Void that the Internet has become? Our phones are already smarter than too many of us and now we’re getting ready to have household appliances that will be smarter than us as well.

At this rate, we’ll be lucky if most people remember how to tie their shoe laces in the not too distant future although some bright light will probably develop an app to do that for us.

Whether it is political debate or an understanding of the major social issues challenging us today, most people have no more clues about what drives them than their toaster, although it appears their toaster may soon have enough technology to figure it out.

Everything has been reduced to emotions now rather than analytical thought. Emotions are easy, thought is difficult and requires some effort but we are becoming a society that is unprepared to make much of an effort to do very much of anything.

We don’t even want to pay our own way anymore. It’s just easier to whine about how difficult life is and demand that someone else pay for a part, if not all, of what we want.

University is expensive and working to earn enough money while going to university is hard so, make someone else pay. That’s easier and doesn’t take any effort at all.

Voting based on a candidate’s record actually means having to examine the record and compare it to the promises that were made in the last election and that, we all know, is hard. It’s just easier to support someone based on our feelings. If we like him or her, or think they’re cool; that should be good enough reason to vote them into office. What damage they might do while in office is really irrelevant compared to what we feel.

We’ve reached a time and place where nothing matters but what we’re doing at the moment. We don’t plan, we don’t think and we are unaware of the bigger world around us. We go online, see a few tweets about an issue and thanks to Twitter or Facebook or whatever, we have all we need to know to decide whether or not we will support or oppose it.

Thinking is not required. Neither is being aware let alone committed.

You don’t have to take my word for it, look at the inane comments from both sides of the Presidential election argument currently on Twitter. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear it was a badly written comedy show starring Charlie Sheen or an episode of the Jerry Springer Show. The amount of rational thought or critical analysis that has gone into the discussion is less than is required to slap together a piece of Ikea furniture.

Ok, bad example. Assembling Ikea furniture isn’t all that easy but neither is thinking. It takes effort; more effort than picking your nose in public or fiddling with your iPhone. It takes assembling information; real information, not the opinionated articles of this blog or others and once you have that information, it requires analyzing it.

I know that’s a lot of effort for many but if deciding who you’re going to trust to govern your country isn’t worth that effort; then you might as well let your refrigerator vote for you because it will probably give it at least some serious thought before casting its ballot.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Follow The Bear on Twitter: @maggsbear or connect on Facebook: Maggie's Bear

And The Stupidity Continues - Now Peanut Butter Is Racist

My grandson is allergic to nuts; violently allergic as it turns out and that necessitates being very careful when he’s around. When he comes to visit, everything with which he might come in contact must be sanitized before he arrives in case it came in contact with someone who had eaten a peanut butter sandwich for example. It is a serious allergy but a minor inconvenience for the delight of having him visit.

My grandson’s allergy has made me aware of the need for caution in places like schools and I don’t criticize schools for being careful and even banning peanut butter where there is a possibility of a child going into anaphylactic shock. It can be terminal.

Where I draw the line, however, is when the politically correct step in and decide something like a peanut butter and jam sandwich is a subtle example of white racism in language. 

And that is exactly what they did in Portland, Oregon.

In keeping with recent ‘equity training’, one principal has decided that peanut butter and jam sandwiches are an example of white privilege. It’s part of a training program known as "Courageous Conversations" that has been introduced into Portland schools over the past few years. Staff members at this particular principal’s school have been going through sensitivity training and various classroom exercises which include reading current articles in the news and then discussing them as an issue of “white privilege."

White privilege? It's a statement that takes my breath away. Only a politically correct mind, uncluttered by any semblance of rational thought would think to characterize something that was developed by an Afro-American as a symbol of white privilege. It's stupidity on a scale that threatens to make your head explode.

The idea that the children of some immigrant families to the United States might not eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches, or even sandwiches for that matter, is hardly a racial issue. It’s a simple cultural difference. The problem with wingnuts like these educators (and I use that term loosely) is that they never look beyond their own sanctimonious bias at the bigger picture. They're in too big a hurry to demonstrate their sensitivity and moral superiority.

They have way too much time on their hands!

What’s next, Kraft Dinner? This lunacy ranks right up there with those who accuse as racist, anyone who has the temerity to question President Obama's record before deciding whether or not to vote for him. There is no room for common sense when it comes to accusations of racism these days.

I don’t know what’s happening to education but it is overrun by idiots who shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions, carry scissors while they walk from one classroom to the next lest they hurt themselves and definitely not be allowed to come anywhere near our children.

What I really don't understand is why we continue to allow it to happen.

When they’re not marching in Canadian and American streets demanding outrageous salary increases (but only for the benefit of the children of course), teachers, and the education departments for which they work, are hard at work, developing the most bizarre and contradictory policies and programs possible. 

Some schools in Canada have banned Halloween while others have changed the name to Black and Orange Day. Some have banned costumers at Halloween while others have decreed that students can dress up but must wear costumes related to public service or public safety occupations. So much for the true spirit and heritage of Halloween.

Most schools in both countries now ban Christmas concerts, Christmas trees, Christmas cards, even the mention of Christmas although both Christians and non-Christians alike still actually know that the holiday is called Christmas.

In New York City, the Department of Education has banned words like dinosaur, dancing, evolution, divorce and, my particular favourite, bodily functions. Now there was a phrase that was threatening the fabric of society.

In Texas, the State Board of Education has decided to place Senator Joe McCarthy, a man who made witch hunts more than just fashionable, in a more favourable historical light while downplaying the contribution of people like Senator Ted Kennedy. Clearly there is no political bias there, only the best interests of students are being considered.

It is an animal show of stupidity by stupid people and it knows no national borders. It is spreading as easily as peanut butter on a piece of white bread (another symbol of white privilege and racism no doubt).

The educational system seeks to protect children from words like dinosaur but introduce them to adult concepts like sexual knowledge before they’ve learned tie their shoes, or for that matter, discovered the joys of puberty.

In this 21st Century, one would have thought that the ability to think would have been a criterion for teaching and administrating education, or at the very least, there would be a requirement for a modicum of common sense. Apparently not! No idea is too outrageous it seems. In fact, it appears that only the outrageous is even being considered. 

Fortunately, the morally superior educators in Portland have overlooked peanut butter cookies and Reeses Pieces.....for now (apparently they aren't racist) but they should be warned. I have drawn a line in the sand. I've had enough of this absurd nonsense and I am prepared to rally the troops and go to the barricades if they try to ban Kraft Dinner.

As for Ben, we’re concerned about his allergy to all nuts when he starts attending school full-time. I appreciate that there are still some good and committed teachers out there (pray God) but considering the growing number of nuts at the front of the classroom these days, Ben's health may be in serious jeopardy. 

There is already no doubt that his education will be.

RELATED POSTS

Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get More Stupid

http://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2012/03/just-when-you-thought-it-couldnt-get.html

How Much More Stupid Can It Get?

http://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2012/04/sheep.html

Teaching Children To Achieve Mediocrity

http://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2012/05/stupidity-virus-is-spreading.html

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Follow The Bear on Twitter: @maggsbear or connect on Facebook: Maggie's Bear

A Really Bad Idea - Installing A Dimmer Switch

I have a life outside of writing and I devote a significant amount of time to it. I don’t have a choice really, we live on a fairly large property which is as demanding as a government tax auditor and I spend a considerable amount of time mowing the lawn, cutting dead tree limbs, trimming stuff that seems to grow despite periods of drought and fixing stuff. There is always something to repair, fix, change or replace.

I wrote a couple of months ago about the joy of assembling the new barbeque we bought to replace the one we had. For those of you who missed that article, it can be summarized by the phrase “fixing stuff doesn’t come easy to me.”

Despite this simple reality, I am very enthusiastic about trying things that inevitably should be left to those who actually know the name and purpose of all the tools and gizmos that are required to fix, repair or assemble something.

I never, however,  let terminology stand in my way and it was with this cavalier, optimistic attitude that I decided last week to install a dimmer switch in the library.

Installing a dimmer switch is easy. I know this because I looked it up on line before I got started and it said that it was easy, right at the beginning of page one on the web site. I should have read page two of the instructions. Apparently there is more than one meaning for the term easy.

I trundled my bones down to the local hardware store which is as mysterious a place to me as a Masonic Temple and bought a dimmer switch. I made my selection based on colour because I am a fairly visual person. As it turns out, I should have made my decision on whether or not I needed a single or double-pole switch.

I was to learn the definition of those terms later…….much later in the process. They were buried on page two as it turns out and would subsequently discover when I got around to reading it.

I didn’t tell Maggie I was going to install the switch. I like to surprise her like I did one time after she went to work and I rearranged all the furniture in the living room or the time I decided to paint the bedroom a deep Chianti red while she was on a trip to Cairo. I think it makes her life more fun or at the very least more secure if she doesn’t know what I’m up to until after I’ve done it.

When I brought the new dimmer switch home, I remembered to turn off the power before removing the old light switch. This has not always been my policy when doing electrical stuff but after getting a rather significant electrical jolt and watching a screwdriver fly through the air and embed itself in the opposite wall a few years ago, I tend to be somewhat rigid in adhering to that practice now.

I took off the switch plate, pulled the old switch out of the wall and unscrewed the wires. I then prepared to install the new switch.

Problem number one: the wall had a red and three black wires; the switch had two black and a green wire. I realized that I probably should have observed which wire had been connected to which wire on the old switch.

I went back out to the garage, threw the circuit breaker to on and went upstairs to my office, rebooted my computer and the modem to look up wiring diagrams. Problem solved and back down I went, turned off the power and went to the library and connected the wires as shown on line, pushed the dimmer switch back into the wall, replaced the cover plate and went out to the garage and turned on the power.

I went back to the library and turned on the dimmer switch. There was no power. I don’t mean that there was no power to the light to which the switch was connected; I mean there was no power in the library at all. None of the lights worked, the phone had no power nor did any of the wall sockets.

Damn.

Just to add spice to the moment, I became aware that there was no power in the front foyer either. The ceiling fan in the clerestory ceiling had stopped turning, the overhead light didn’t turn on and neither would the outside lights at the front door.

Oops.

Because there was power in the rest of the house, I was pretty confident I had merely popped a circuit breaker so back out to the garage I went but all the breakers were unbroken.

I don’t handle complexity well and this was starting to get complicated.

I turned off the power, went back to the library, removed the wall plate and pulled out the dimmer switch. I wired the switch to a different r black wire, pushed the switch back into the wall, replaced the plate and went back to the garage to turn on the power and after checking to see if it worked, tried connecting the switch to the third black wire and turned the power on yet again.

I wasn’t quite as optimistic when I went back to the library because I had this sinking sensation growing in my stomach that this was going to be like assembling the barbeque had been but the library had power. The light in the library was on and the switch dimmed it. Unfortunately, the library now had too much power. The new dimmer switch now controlled and dimmed all of the lights and sockets in the library and as a new added bonus it also controlled the ceiling fan, outdoor lights and ceiling light at the main entrance foyer as well.

I felt like the switch was battling me for control of the house electrical system and I was caught up in an expanding power struggle.

It wasn’t quite what I had intended but I had somehow managed to connect a dimmer switch that now controlled lights and power sockets in two different parts of the house simultaneously. I decided it was time for a drink and a cigarette so that I could weigh the possible advantages of leaving things as they were; starting with answering the question, "Will Maggie notice?"

There weren’t any advantages that I could see and I was pretty sure Maggie would notice. She's pretty sharp and quite observant when I've screwed something up. (To be honest, after Cairo, I think she looks for things when she gets home from work) So after my cigarette, I went back to the garage, turned off the power and decided to take a look at the light switches in the front hall to see if I could rectify the situation. at least in the hallway.

Bad decision.

The hall had all of its switches connected to each other in series which necessitated returning to the garage, turning the power back on, going up stairs, rebooting the computer and modem and looking up switches wired in series. That information is readily available on line; it is also as mystical as trying to understand the Kabala.

While it hasn’t served me all that well in my life, I resolved to fall back on trial and error as the only recourse open to me.

Another bad decision but apparently when it comes to this kind of stuff, I am a creature of habit.

For the next five hours, I went back and forth from the front hall to the garage to turn the power on and off more often than a five year old asks ‘why’ after you’ve answered their original question. I tried all kinds of different wiring configurations and alternately had the ceiling fan and the outdoor lights working but not the overhead light, the overhead light working but not the ceiling fan and the outdoor lights or nothing working or everything working but all still connected to the library’s dimmer switch.

Even more troubling was the fact that no matter which configuration I tried, I always had two or three wires with nothing to which to connect. I was pretty confident that wasn't helping the situation.

I finally decided to put everything back the way it was and simply remove the dimmer switch in the library and install the original light switch which was almost a good decision. What would have made it a very good decision is if everything had gone back to the way it was before I tried to install the dimmer switch.

It didn't.

For reasons I still don’t understand, the library switch is still now controlling power in both the library and the front hall which means we have to leave it in the on position at all times.

We can’t dim the lights in the library and now have to turn them on manually rather than using the switch and while the outdoor lights and overhead light in the front hall are working again, the ceiling fan isn't.

Fortunately, we tend to only use the fan in the summer so it is my hope that I will be able to get an electrician in to fix things over the winter before Maggie notices next spring.

She thinks I’m really handy after I assembled the new barbeque over a two-day period and I don’t see the point in spoiling her illusions. I'm thoughtful like that.


RELATED POSTS

Barbeques and Dirty Words
http://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2012/07/barbeques-and-dirty-words.html

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Follow The Bear on Twitter: @maggsbear or connect on Facebook: Maggie's Bear

Sinkhole Of Common Sense

This past summer we experienced about five weeks with no appreciable rainfall at all. It was a drought that has devastated some crops and which caused two mini-forest fires within city limits. Both fires were contained fortunately but there was a significant amount of damage and threat to surrounding residential neighbourhoods.

The city’s first responders, in particular its fire department, did a solid job and are to be commended for their efforts. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could say the same about the bureaucracies behind them?

We can’t.

It took the first fire which went on for a couple of weeks to make the bureaucracy realize that it should be cutting the grass in its parks down to the bone. The grass had turned to straw which could be set afire with a carelessly tossed cigarette and that could easily spread to trees and other foliage also dry and almost like tinder.

Fortunately, the city did finally realize the danger and it did cut the grass down to the bone. Unfortunately, other levels of government that also own and maintain parkland within Canada’s capital did not.

They were bound by legislation to protect nesting water fowl rather than being bound by common sense.

Daily, during the drought, we would drive along the river through parkland where grass that was dryer than kindling, stood two feet high and not just out in the open. It bordered trees and small thickets, homes and businesses.

This is environmentalism gone mad.

I’m all in favour of protecting nature but when it is at the expense of protecting people, I part company with my friends in the environmental movement. What amazes me about the decision to wait until the nesting season was over to protect birds was the thought that if the nesting area caught fire and burned to a crisp, what would all those birds do then?

Given a choice, do you think the birds would prefer a closely trimmed, inconvenient environment for a month or two or no environment for years thanks to devastation by fire?

Nobody who makes the decisions about these things asked themselves those simple questions. They are bureaucrats and they are paid to implement legislation. They are not paid to think.

Last week, a sink hole emerged on a main route out of the city core into its large suburban east community. One unfortunate fellow drove into the hole but was unhurt fortunately. The same can’t be said about his car which seems to have pretty much disappeared.

Apparently a very large pipe that is part of the sewer system broke and that caused the sinkhole. The city had applied back in April for emergency repair to the pipe although they are now saying there wasn’t really an emergency.

It appears the city was denied the permit by another level of government that is tasked with protecting the fresh water fishery. The repair work the city wanted to undertake would be right in the middle of spawning season for various fish species and we can’t permit that, no matter how much damage and expense that decision may subsequently cause.

The river is huge and extends for miles, disrupting the spawning season in one small section would have had very limited, if any, impact on the river’s overall fishery. The decision, however, has had a major impact on people.

Traffic in and out of the east end of the city is virtually in gridlock. The cost to the city for repairs is significantly higher than it would have been six months ago before the pipe burst and in terms of additional transit resources it is now using to try and expedite getting people in and out of the community.

Here’s what I don’t get.

What if someone had been killed as a result of this decision? It is more than conceivable that the person who drove his car into the sinkhole could have been seriously injured if not killed. What if it had been a family with small children? How important would the environmental movement think those bloody fish were then?

The simple fact is that we have become so narrow in our focus these days that we are incapable of seeing beyond the ends of our noses. Nobody makes the connection of the possible outcomes of the decisions they take and virtually nobody in government or NGOs applies common sense. They blindly follow the narrow dictates of their policies and government legislation, only realizing after the fact, that the decision was the wrong decision.

It inevitably costs us money. It costs us time and lost productivity and sooner or later, it’s going to cost somebody their life.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Non sinas bastardi tere te deorsum

I had a conversation on Twitter yesterday although to call it a conversation is to do the term a disservice. It would be more accurate to say that I was accosted by a fervent supporter of President Obama who decided that there was a need to straighten me out on a few things. She had jumped into another 'conversation' being led by yet another fervent Obama supporter who was offended by comments I had made on my blog.

She started by talking about all the jobs created by the president and it is true that over the past 29 months, the United States has seen consistent job growth and a decline in its unemployment rate from just over 10% to 8.3%. When I pointed out that this was still significantly higher than the 6.1% unemployment rate in 2008 when President Obama was elected, I was informed that the unemployment rate was fluid.

Fluid? Of course it is fluid; that was never at issue. The issue was, and remains. is it higher or lower under this president and according to the United States Board of Labour, it is higher. I was then sent a blog post by someone who went to great lengths to point out that the president wasn’t responsible for anything that happened during the first nine months of his presidency. Therefore, the steep increase in unemployment was the fault of the previous administration.

Sometimes the contortions people go through to try and avoid facing reality amazes me.

How Much More Stupid Can It Get?

There are days when I have to remind myself that I am living in the 21st Century and not the late 1800s. Some of the commentary and opinion, the beliefs and prejudices that get thrown about are so out of touch with today’s reality that I wonder if the Internet and the iPhone are part of a technological conspiracy to warp us back in time to a bygone era.

This week, for example, Missouri Rep Todd Aikin mused about ‘legitimate’ rape on national television. It wasn’t just his attempt to characterize rape as legitimate and illegitimate that was so bizarre; it was his assertion that the female body can actually prevent pregnancy in cases of legitimate rape. Apparently Mr. Aikin is of the opinion that a woman’s body not only can differentiate between the two but will actually make a judgment call as to whether or not to allow the pregnancy to proceed.

Is it possible, in this day and age, to get more stupid than this?

Well….actually yes it is.

Hot, Sticky and Stupid

The weather has just been flat out stupid this summer. 

It has been unbelievably hot, humid and we haven’t had any real rain in over a month. Some days, I feel like a slab of over-cooked meat. Before my friends in the Climate Change Brigade start rushing around yelling “I told you so” and “the sky is falling, flee the village”, we’ve seen this before.

Every now and then, the weather (like some people) just gets flat out stupid.

It has been so hot this summer that my garage door sticks when I press the remote, our grass looks like kindling and all the plants and flowers Maggie worked so hard to plant reach out and grab our ankles as we walk by whispering in parched little voices, “water, water, please…..some water.”

It’s so hot that even our Springer Spaniel, Jasper, is hard-pressed to be his usual psychotic self and spends much of his time sitting in a corner and staring at me with with a far-away accusatory look in  his eyes and his tongue hanging out as if the weather is my fault. It isn’t!

I recycle (not happily but I do it). Even though we live in the country, we use our car less than the average suburbanite and we use only electricity in our home. No green house gas emission there boy. We use air-conditioning sparingly, barbeque most of our meals and bag most of our groceries in ridiculously too large or too small cloth bags. We're careful about energy consumption and do what we can to keep our little part of the world clean.

In other words, we are living the dream. Like so many others we're following the mantra (or at least most of it) of the environmental movement and guess what? The weather is still hot and I personally don’t believe it is because there is Styrofoam in the landfill, gas-driven economies or plastic bags.

The earth is a hostile environment. It is beautiful in many places but hostile. It is filled with dangerous places, dangerous creatures (some so small you don’t even see them before they bite and poison you) and guess what? The earth has a dangerous climate because the earth is part of a dangerous solar system that is powered by a highly volatile star; we call the sun that is constantly throwing off sun flares which have a very dramatic impact on our world.

There were a number of serious solar flares over the past year and here we are with stupid hot weather. The solar flares burn off all that space dust that acts as a barrier between us and the sun’s harmful rays. Less dust, more heat gets through and my lawn turns to hay and Jasper's tongue comes out and his eyes start to roll.

None of this will matter, of course. The environmental fanatics will be down at the climate-change temple complete with its Icon of Al Gore, holding hands in a prayer circle to try and use positive energy to bring the world together in eliminating greenhouse gas emissions. Either that or they will be celebrating the fact that they were right and the end of the world has arrived.

Unless the temple is air-conditioned, I won’t be joining them. I’d rather burn a little more energy to cool down whatever room I’m in and I’m prepared to risk climate change to get my body temperature back down to 98.6 or somewhere near it.

What really annoys me though is not that our weather goes through periods of extremes like it is this summer but that it has those extremes upside down. It really is stupid. Smart weather would put some of the extreme hot period in winter where it would do some good and some of the extreme cool weather in the summer. That way, we might get some balanced temperatures throughout the year. This would be smart weather because it would be environmentally friendly (not to mention people friendly). It would cut down on the use of power consumption for air conditioners and furnaces to start with.

I’d like to blame politicians for the weather because it just seems to fit so nicely with everything else they’ve screwed up but the truth is, the weather isn’t their fault. I do believe, however, that our weather is a perfect metaphor for our politics; extreme and stupid (C’mon, you knew I was going to mention politics somewhere in the post).

But, in the end, this stupid heat wave isn’t the fault of politicians. It isn’t my fault or the fault of greenhouse gas emissions, SUVs or plastic bags either. It’s just part of the natural order of things and I suspect we would be a lot further ahead if we stopped worrying about who or what to blame for it and started devoting more time and resources to learning how to adapt to it and live comfortably and safely with it.

While you guys work on that, I’m going to get a cold drink and go sit in the air conditioning for awhile. It looks like it might rain soon. I’ve been fooled before by the weather (it’s such a tease) but there is always hope. 

Let me know what you come up with.

RELATED


George Carlin & The Bear On Saving The Planet
http://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2011/09/screw-green.html

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Canada's Council Of Fools

Canada's Council of the Federation

The provincial premiers of Canada met this past week in what they have come to call the Council of The Federation. These semi-regular get togethers used to be called First Ministers’ Meetings but that appellation was no longer grand enough for a group of political hacks who see themselves as leaders and statesmen.

A better name for the meeting would be The Council of Fools because that is precisely what they are, a group of cynical, self-serving politicians with little to no vision and just enough authority to be dangerous to the nation's prosperity and future.

For decades, this group of provincial premiers gathered regularly to condemn the federal government while at the same time begging for more federal money. They met, had nice lunches and dinners, provided quick sound bites for the television news shows, posed for photographs and then trundled off home after agreeing to study their latest 'agreements in principle'. It was then, as it is now, all talk which accomplished nothing.

The Official Opposition To Reality

Queen Elizabeth II, Canada's
head of state and a grand and
noble lady.

Canada is a parliamentary democracy. In fact, it is actually a constitutional monarchy but the Queen is tied up with the Olympics right now so we’ll just deal with the parliamentary part of it.

Unlike the republican form of government in the United States, Canada does not have an executive branch. Our government is comprised of the House of Commons (the legislative branch), the Supreme Court of Canada, (the judicial branch) and the Senate (where former political hacks and bag men go to retire in taxpayer funded comfort before dying). Only our House of Commons can pass legislation that has been introduced either by the Commons or by the Senate. Typically it is the governing party that introduces legislation but individual members can also prepare and introduce legislation but these bills seldom get passed.

Our system is a first-past-the-post electoral system. Like the United States, we have political parties because like Americans, we haven’t figured out how to get rid of them yet.  The party that gains the most seats in an election forms the government. If the total number of government seats outnumbers the total number of opposition party seats, it is called a majority government. If the opposition outnumbers the government, it’s called a minority government. (They actually have government committees who come up with the official labels for things like this)

We do not have a president who is elected separately by the people. The prime minister is just one more member of parliament who represents an electoral riding like the other members. He or she becomes prime minister because they also happen to be leader of their political party. 

I know that’s all a big yawn and I apologize but it was necessary to lay it out so that we could get to this point.
The party in parliament with the second highest number of members is called the Official Opposition. Currently, the New Democratic Party is the Official Opposition which provides them with a few extra perks over the other opposition parties; the Liberals, Bloc Quebecois and the Green Party who who get no perks beyond their six figure salary and gold-plated pension.

If you find all of that a little confusing, you should try living under that system for awhile.

You Didn't Build That - Somebody Else Did

Throughout the centuries there have been men and women who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own creativity, imagination and determination. They had access to all of the same things to which others had access but it was their vision determination to do something that set them apart.

Others saw the opportunities that presented themselves as a result and built on those original ideas or added complimentary services and products to what others had developed while the rest just stood by and watched.

It started when someone got tired of dragging heavy things around and started to develop an idea to make it easier. Nothing motivates innovation like inconvenience.

Sharpen Up The Blade Boys, We Have Some Banking To Take Care Of

Mickey Mouse is pretty much the perfect logo
for the way banks do business these days!

I am so angry right now I could spit!

I just got off the phone after speaking to my bank branch about the post-dated check fiasco from last Friday. My concern was not about reversing the transaction, Maggie and I covered it. My concern was that clearly someone had made an error that could have put the money in our bank accounts at risk if that kind of error was allowed to happen randomly.

It wasn’t an error, or at least, my bank doesn’t feel it made an error. Any mistake made was by the bank that deposited the check. My bank feels it has absolutely no obligation to confirm details on a check that has been deposited by another bank before it releases the funds.

This, apparently is the how the Canadian (and I presume the international) bank to bank system works.

It’s all very cozy, isn’t it? The rules they impose on you and I do not apply to them and the reason given is that it would be inconvenient, requiring additional work at some expense. I actually had the manager at my bank say that to me.

 Unbelievable!

Don't Bank On It! - They Aren't Called 'Piggy' Banks For Nothing

So, it was time to renew our mortgage.

This should be an easy process……right? Wrong. Nothing is easy if you’re dealing with one of the Big 6 Canadian Banks. These guys are so bureaucratic they make the government look positively innovative. 

We ‘used’ to deal with the main branch of the bank that still held our mortgage and went in to discuss renewal well in advance of the renewal date with the bank. The young guy who apparently was our account manager had it pretty easy up to this point because we had moved our checking and savings accounts to another bank months earlier because of continual mistakes and errors. at his bank.

The Politically Correct, Multicultural Rocky Picture Show

I am part of a multicultural family. We are Caucasian, Asian and Black. We live in North America, Asia and Europe and we are Christian, Buddhist, atheist and agnostic. We are gay and we are heterosexual, young and old, liberal, conservative and apolitical. Our nationalities are varied. We are Dutch, Canadian, Japanese, Chinese, British, Nigerian, American and Pakistani. We are united as a family.

It works for us because we share the same values as people.

Some countries have tried with varying degrees of success to accommodate a similar approach to multiculturalism. Increasingly, those attempts are failing and the reasons why are fairly easy to figure out.

UN-believable! UN-workable!

Add caption

The United Nations is one of those ideas that is almost a good idea…..at least on paper. What would make it a great idea is that all, not just a few, of the countries who were members actually lived up to the august principles set out in the UN charter.

They don’t.

The United Nations are anything but united and the organization has become just one more forum for dictatorships, tyrannies and oppressive governments to legitimize their suppression of human rights through collective support for each other.

Government Client Service At Your Service

"Color me impressed with Service Canada- Adele's

birth certificate took 2 days from the online registration to arrival

at my front door via courier. Now THAT is impressive.

Why can't all gov't agencies be that efficient?"

 - posted on Facebook by an optimist

Now there is a relevant question. Why can’t all government agencies be that efficient or, at least, sort of in the ballpark? The lack of thinking and motivation that goes into the bureaucratic process at all levels of government is staggering.

In Canada, every citizen has a Social Insurance Number. I was a teenager when the government decided that numbering us was better than simply using our names and I still remember getting my first SIN card. It was white plastic with black lettering and a red Canada flag logo proudly displayed in the upper left hand corner. Its purpose was strictly limited for dealing with the government in terms of taxation and Canada Pension payments.

Over the years, the SIN number became a broader form of identification. Banks required it when new accounts were opened. Credit card companies required it as part of the process of approving you for a new credit card and it was used to run credit checks, background and criminal checks.

Paris - Day 1: Les vaches disent moo!

It was my intention to write and post daily from Paris about our trip but upon our arrival, I discovered that my laptop wasn't working. I did, however, keep a daily diary and over the next five days, will share the experience that passes for travel these days.

Well, wasn’t that special!

We have arrived in Paris and are finally settled in our hotel room despite the best efforts of a significant number of people on both sides of the Atlantic.

A Foot By Mail - See? There Really Is An Advantage To Using Email!

I just spent thirty minutes on the phone with Sears Canada trying to arrange a service appointment for my John Deere lawn tractor. Making the appointment took about three minutes. The rest of the time was spent by every person to whom I was transferred asking for my phone number, my address and how long my male equipment might be. 

I understand that the person who makes the actual appointment needs to know where I live because the service technician is coming to the house but I resent being asked for that information by everyone I speak to before I get to that person and before they even know why I’m calling.

Hung Like A Porn Star

I receive a fair number of tweets on Twitter, direct messages, comments on my blog and emails. It is even more correspondence than I used to deal with when I was working in high tech and I appreciate that so many take the time to contact me. Most of the messages are supportive and complimentary, some are critical and a small number are outright bizarre. I think sometimes I enjoy the bizarre ones the most, if only for the comic relief.

Lately, however, I’ve received a number of emails from companies and people that really touched me. These are messages that are reaching out to me to try and help me get the most out of my life. I am not overly sentimental but I confess that I have been deeply moved by their concern and generosity of spirit.

This morning, for example, I received a few that were particularly thoughtful and I would like to share them with you.

Now available in handfulls

The first came from an online organization that is concerned about my mental health. Unlike a few who have written to tell me I’m nuts, this group wrote to offer me discounted anti-depressants and with no prescription needed. I thought that was damn nice of them. They were offering to not only reduce the price of drugs but to cut out the  middle man, that doctor guy who only gets in the way of self-medicating.

Related to that email was the second offering to provide me with discounted Viagra. Again, no prescription necessary, all I needed was a credit card or a PayPal account and a limp biscuit, so to speak. You have to admire a company that is not only concerned about the well-being of their customers but their wives and girlfriends as well.

I have to admit that the offer was tempting but there are so many logistical issues involved like would I have to buy bigger underwear, that I finally decided to pass. But I did appreciate the generosity of their offer. They were going to sell me thirty pills for only $19.95 and would double my offer if I acted right away.

When you care enough to give
the very best

It sort of reminded me of Sham Wow Vince and his, “You know we can’t do this all day” ads on television. I imagine if he bought some of those discounted Viagra pills he probably could do it all day.

Interestingly enough, the next email continued the theme but was a little more direct and moved away from pharmaceutical solutions to life. It was concerned with the length and breadth of, what the books my mother used read refer to as, my “throbbing manhood”.  They didn’t put it quite as delicately as her literature, the headline was: “Now You Too Can Be Hung Like A Porn Star!” 

Bob's engineering schematic

At first I thought it was a little personal for someone I didn't know to be concerned with my equipment but I was intrigued because it offered a technological approach to making Bob bigger. (yes, I call my equipment Bob…I named it after my brother-in-law who wasn’t nearly as honoured as I thought he would be). 

I’m not a hundred percent sure how the thing worked but it was big (a lot bigger than Bob), involved inserting Bob into a tube and electricity. I never expose Bob to electricity and I’m not very good with tools so I decided this offer, as well intentioned as it was meant, was probably not for me. 

How nice is that?

I was getting into a bit of a topic rhythm but the last email took a 180 on me although it was the most generous of the bunch. They weren’t selling anything. I can only assume it was from a philanthropic organization located somewhere in California because they wrote to tell me that my loan had been approved. I thought this was particularly generous of them considering I hadn’t applied for a loan. Usually when you apply for a loan you have to go through all kinds of hoops at your bank including a full colon examination but this group just randomly pick people and regardless of their credit or economic circumstance, provide them with a loan. How nice is that? Maybe Occupy has done some good in getting the financial industry to become more sensitive after all.

I was so touched that even though I don’t need the money, I wrote and thanked them and told them to go ahead and send me the money by email transfer. I didn’t want to hurt their feelings by declining such a generous offer.

I know some of you are skeptical about all the scams and snake oil sales people out there but there are some good folks and I heard from a few of them this morning. That’s why I’m sharing this with you today.  I wanted you to know that there are some decent people in the world committed to trying to make the world a better place by offering us products and services that will give us confidence, reduce our anxiety and make us proud to be naked and all for less than you would pay at Wal-Mart or Target.

If you thought the Interet was nothing more than a Flea Market for hucksters and quick buck artists, I hope this article has helped to restore your faith in our fellow human beings,

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Stand Your Ground (But don't pee on the electric fence!)

I used to watch the Jerry Springer Show. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking the same thing Maggie thought and voiced. She wondered how I could watch something that not only had no socially redeeming value but which clearly illustrated the worst in human behaviour.

And that is precisely why I used to watch it.

It was like watching a car accident. You know you shouldn't but you can't pull your eyes away. The behaviour is so unbelievable. I used to tell Maggie that the next time she wondered how our countries got into the various messes we were in, she should remember the Jerry Springer Show. I told her I watched it to remind myself that the people on that show could not only breed, they could vote and that explained a lot about what is happening to our societies.

Teaching Children To Achieve Mediocrity

The most depraved type of human being is the man
without a purpose.

- Ayn Rand

I get up every morning and embrace hope. Honestly I do. I wake up, slowly I admit, but filled with the hope that this new day, I will not stumble over more stupidity beyond government stupidity to which I am pretty much resigned.

I woke up this morning with cautious optimism. I say cautious because I knew Occupy would be on the loose today and who knows what stupidity they’re capable of implementing.

My caution was well placed and my hope was dashed on the rocks of idiocy. No….it wasn’t Occupy, as hard as that is to believe. In fact, it wasn’t even government. It was amateur soccer.