ripple.ca

Rocco Rossi over Ford and Smitherman

Bill — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:53:15 +0000

I’m glad to see Rocco Rossi’s campaign for Mayor revving up. Frankly, if Toronto elects Rob Ford as mayor, it is a hick town. George Smitherman’s role in the billion dollar eHealth fiasco just makes him too expensive to consider.

For me, Rossi is the best alternative… socially progressive but fiscally conservative. He has clearly defined his policies and offers practical plans for managing our city’s infrastructure shortfalls, operating expenses and transit woes.

I like Rossi’s espousal of term limits for Councillors. We have not been well served by the career politicians who get into office and then survive behind rules that make incumbents almost impossible to dislodge. Two terms are enough. We might be able to draw upon the talents of more able and willing citizens if they knew that no longer commitments were to be asked of them. Let’s see government as public service again, not as a lifelong career, or worse, as a public trough.

Anyway, I think it’s high time that we put some fresh thinking into city hall. So far, Rocco Rossi makes sense to me and I hope to see his candidacy rising further in the polls.

Book review: The Wayfinders

Bill — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:28:51 +0000

The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World by Wade Davis, 2009.

I’m happy to recommend this little book, not for the answers it gives, but for the question it raises in the subtitle. Wade Davis is a well-travelled anthropologist who understandably regrets the fact that many ancient cultures are disappearing every year, all around the world. Our global-trading, technologically overpowering culture is wiping them out.

Davis does a good job of describing some of the alternative world views that are lost. In doing so, he reminds us that our own beliefs in what constitutes “reality” are no truer than anyone else’s. Indeed, he suggests that we are riding for a fall. Having seen how popular beliefs and “facts” have changed in my lifetime, I agree that reality is rooted in our imaginations, fluid as dreams.

While our ability to overrun other ways of life seems to testify to our technological superiority, it is educational to read of Polynesian navigators who are able to sail vast ocean expanses without gadgets. Pretty clear who’s smarter. Similar stories abound about how our dependance on technology has dumbed us down. We all know that, don’t we, but try not to think about it.

Davis would like us to think twice when our progress-driven ideology puts us in conflict with other cultures and he is prone to use emotionally loaded words to shore up his pleas. I’m sympathetic, but inclined to think that cultural clashes, changes, losses and adaptations will continue. If current practices and policies of the dominant culture result in ecological catastrophe, Nature will make the necessary corrections, I’m sure. Might be kind of tough on our species, but nothing says we are destined to last.

Our culture has all kinds of built-in contradictions that derive from our fuzzy notions about individual and collective rights. Property rights, real and intellectual, create a lot of trouble for us, not to mention police forces, prisons, law courts and so on. Expensive!

Many other cultures are based on systems of sharing and social obligations to give and receive gifts. We have a bit of that, so the notion isn’t entirely foreign. It’s a matter of degree. I think we could learn something in this department.

Most of all, I respect Wade Davis’ revulsion at cultures that willingly butcher those whose belief systems are at variance with their own. Canada has a tainted past in this regard, and if you think about NATO military actions, a questionable present, too.

Are Ontario Liberals under suicide watch?

Bill — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:06:55 +0000

Someone really ought to look in on Dalton and company every few hours. Self-destructive tendencies seem to be getting worse. Why today’s severe clipping of auto insurance benefits, with no corresponding reduction in rates? Incredibly, Dwight Duncan says it’s a fraud-fighting measure. Yup, reduce benefits and Dwight says you’ll reduce fraudulent claims because they won’t be so profitable! For real… I just saw the poor man on CTV News.

I guess Dwight didn’t think of it, but if fraudulent claims DOUBLE, profits for fraudsters will remain constant. The only losers will be the honest victims of auto crashes.

Perhaps Dwight is not really insane and is just making a silly excuse for screwing the driving public while fattening insurance company profits. But just in case, let’s do the humane thing and keep these people under close observation.

OK, I want one in a few months.

Bill — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:53:32 +0000

Looks like Apple has finally come out with the finished iPod Touch, complete with the camera it should have had long ago and HD video recording to boot.

People are complaining that the camera is too lo-res, but it’s all I need. [Update] My sales resistance is improving. The camera in the iPod Touch is not as good as the one in the iPhone counterpart, so why not wait until Apple fixes that. Could even happen before Christmas.

A 2 minute splash on YouTube

Bill — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:45:31 +0000

As threatened below, here’s the action film of Donna, Diane and Sue as they gulp down a lot of Ottawa River.