Democracy, does majority really rule?

So back sometime last week I posted a link to this article on my facebook page.  At the time I had only taken the time to read the article but none of the comments.  I later took the time to read the comments left by others and  started to realize that the way in which the article was written definitely helped inflame a passion for something that has bothered me for years even though the story itself was not really relevant to the actual topic.

I want to start by saying that I do not feel that I am in anyway prejudice against any single group of people, culture, religion or any other defining characteristic. 

What I do get frustrated by (and based on many comments that I read at the end of that article I am not alone in this) is the idea that it sometimes feels that although we are a democracy, it's still the squeaky wheel that gets the oil.  I unfortunately think that Muslim's are getting more then their share of attention in this matter do to what many westerners feel a extremist type views on religion, plus the fact that we have had soldiers in Muslim based countries for the better part of 2 decades.  The media seems to portray them as people that refuse to integrate and instead wish for Canadians to change instead. 

This is certainly how I felt when the turban was allowed to be part of the RCMP uniform.  To this day I think it is a shining example of 2 things.
1) A single person with a strong enough belief in something can change the "world"
2) The squeaky wheel gets taken care of in Canada.

I as a white male Canadian am now made to feel ashamed of using words like Christmas, Christmas Tree, and any other number of Christian based holiday's that we the "conqueror's" of this land celebrate.  I state it that way since there was a comment from a Muslim woman stating that we were all immigrants and if we didn't like her religious views we could all go back to our native lands.  Well yes it's true, we are for the most part immigrants to this land, and right or wrong we did "conquer" this lands native people.  When it comes to war, the winners get to make the rules for the last 200 or so years we've been a christian based nation. 

Okay well I could go on and on but I think I've described how I feel about this.  What is more important to me is how do get back to a majority rule while protecting the rights of those that may need help. 

I read a quote while doing some research for this... I can't seem to find it again, but to paraphrase; "Democracy is the highest form of government to have evolved so far".

I think that is a very valid statement because agree or not with my thougths above I doubt there are many people who believe democracy is without some flaws.  How do we continue to evolve our form of leadership to better represent the masses?  Also how do we start leveraging this new information age... the always connected world for more then just political marketing.  We've had referendums... an expensive and messy process... What if all major issues were up for debate at the citizen level.  What if we all had a voice... not once every 4 years or so... but daily... I'm thinking at first the squeaky wheels would continue to win as the standard Canadian pacifist mentality continues to rear it's ugly head... but I'm thinking in short order people would start to take notice...

Okay I know... even if you have a majority of people voting for something does not necessarily make it right... or smart... we all see how that plays out with common sense... but we need to do something... I don't wish to see democracy die by any means, I love the idealism of democracy, but with how I am being made feel as a homegrown Canadian I want to see change.  I want to celebrate Christmas, not because of religious beliefs but because it's what my family and I do.  I want to be able to go to the store and buy stuff for Christmas... not holiday stuff.. Christmas stuff... not a holiday tree... but a Christmas tree.  Why can a Turban be worn in the RCMP or a sword carried in the house of commons and I can't buy a bloody Christmas tree?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this!
Thanks for reading!

Valetine's day... Why celebrate but once a year?

There are many, many topics these days that I wish to wade into, but today I am going to take a moment to discuss something more personal.

Donna and I decided this year to forgo doing anything for Valentine's day.  We have a trip to Cuba coming up and with the unexpected expense of replacing a furnace and A/C this summer, it wasn't fiscally responsible to spend more on some big event to celebrate something that we celebrate everyday.

We spoke of it again last night when she asked if I had gotten her anything.  She was confirming that I had stuck to the agreement and was not going to ambush her :) 

I told her I had stuck to the agreement and stated that I felt we already celebrated our Love on a daily Basis.
Everyday we supported each other through life's challenges. 
Everyday one or the other will say something to make the other smile. 
Everyday we will take a moment to hold each other and affirm our Love. 
Everyday we enjoy the present and look forward to the future (together). 
Everyday we Love each other.
(Apparently she agreed with me :) )

On the way into work this morning I listened to the radio and they mentioned a survey that stated that no matter what the girl said (unless it was "yes do something"). it was a lie.  That no man would survive the day if he took a woman at her word and did nothing.  That seems like a sad statement on Love.  This is one of those generalization about women that the media is so good at promoting... that a woman speaks her mind but you must read between the lines to truly understand what she means. 

Well I am glad to say that I have already spoken to Donna today and she did mean what she said.  And I am not in the dog house.  I am not saying that it is wrong to celebrate Valentine's day or that I won't in the future plan nights of extravagance and romance.  But just to remember that one day a year is an awfully small percentage of time out of a year to celebrate what is suppose to be the most important part in your life.  We spend more time bitching about the weather then we do celebrating Love, Devotion and Friendship.

So here's to you my Love!  Thank you for everything you do on a daily basis!  Thank you for being my friend, my confidante, my partner.  Thank you for your support and your Love!  I love you Baby!

(oh and one last thing, Valentine's day is a celebration of Love, not of men worshipping women.  So to all you women out there, it's okay to do something special for your man as well.  You know how to make reservations right?)

UBB unites a country?

Well there you have it, Canadian citizens have shown an ardor that I didn't think existed.  I've already stated my views on the dispute and won't belabor further about them.  What has me both intrigued and disgusted at the same time is that something so petty is what has gotten Canadians to finally unite and speak up.

We won't speak out against ever increasing Income, property or sales taxes but be warned the corporate giant should they charge more for the Internet!  We Canadians can now be known for our beer and our defence of the Internet against the corporate giant.  Boy that makes me proud... I mean sure it's fun to talk about that water Americans consider beer, but really is this what we really want to define us as a nation? 

Or how about a nation that rebelled against traditional media delivery... that's right... I cancelled my TV service to save money and I am NOT going to pay more to the company that now provides me the same service.  No way, no how,,, I want my Internet to be free, and I want my TV to be free and of course I only download public domain movies because 50 year old movies is where it's at.

I don't care that taxes are through the roof, and I don't care that our health care system is ailing (it's good but it's not the best).  I don't mind paying exorbitant prices on gas, and I kind of like the constant fluctuation because when it now drops to $1.10 I feel like I am getting a deal!  and when it goes up on weekends it gives me something else to bitch about other then the weather.

So there you have it my fellow Canadians!  You have saved the Internet and we can now go back to being the blind, obedient sheep our Government is so used to dealing with. 

I can't wait to see what will get our panties in a bunch next time... Tim Horton's doesn't bake their doughnuts fresh anymore, guess we missed that event (or the Internet hadn't matured enough, to give use FB, Twits and blogggs).  Lucky for Tim Hortons eh!

Any thought? 

CRTC, The Beast with two heads - Part 2

Okay so I know I was kind of long winded in the last post without actually stating my position, but I wanted to show how someone with 20 years working with the Internet, a strong working knowledge of ISP infrastructure from both the view of a large Corporate entity like Bell and the smaller ISP's... I've worked for both and with all that background it is still very difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Oh and to be clear... as an ex-employee and customer of BCE's many subsidiaries, I am definitely not a fan of the Bell companies.

So here it is, maybe 300,000 people signed an Internet survey... but from the comments I have seen posted online on the many news sites and personal blogs discussing this decision... it is painfully clear that most if not all those who signed are clearly lacking any concrete understanding of what this decision meant. 

What amazes me is the numbers involved here... the Globe and Mail quotes a recent survey that showed 90% of users had no idea they had a bandwidth cap... Something that has been the norm with the large ISP's for years...  So if you didn't know I am guessing that you never busted that cap... and if you never busted that cap then why all of a sudden do you care?  because someone told you, you should?  Because we have a Industry Minister that uses Twitter?  People are citing Netflix as a reason to allow unlimited caps... but what is Netflix doing for our countries infrastructure?  The other thing that I know for fact as I know many fellow geeks that are upset by this... downloading HD movies using peer-to-peer networks is one of the largest uses of bandwidth amongst my fellow geeks... now I won't get into the right or wrong debate about downloading videos... but I don't feel that, it makes for a strong argument to keep unlimited bandwidth caps.

So there you have it... we have a gov't using this debate to help them keep from being forced to call an election,,, and 300,000 people who are poorly informed are being aloud to sway a gov't that is suppose to represent all of it's people not a small minority group. A gov't has now decided that it can and will overturn any decision the CRTC comes to no matter that they may have actually put real time into coming to this decision... that's right I am siding with the Bell companies and the CRTC on this...

The CRTC, The beast with two heads...

So I spent the better part of this weekend, (in between fixing computers for family members and spending quality time with my beautiful wife) trying to dig into this Usage Based Billing (UBB) that some many are up in arms about... so much so that our gov't actually stepped into the fray... something that in my experience, Canadian gov't rarely does (listen to the people).  But I didn't want to just wade into this argument unarmed or uneducated.

The first things that came to mind was;

1. That damn CRTC is at it again, I'm not a huge supported of many of their past decisions. 
2. We are already overpaying for Internet services compared to European countries.
3. The CRTC should be protecting us from corporate giants like Bell, Telus and Rogers.

 This was the frame of mind that I was in when I started googling for all I was worth... Boy was that an exercise in frustration.  First thing I went to prove was how expensive Internet is here compared to Europe... well the best I could does was find some price comparisons that went back to '07 and '08...  but they don't seem to pay for Internet in the same way we do.  All pricing was per MB/s of speed per second of connection time (or that was how best I could decipher the numbers, see for yourself here, or here)

Once I figured that wouldn't work (without a year of work and a Ph.D.) I thought lets see what teh CRTC's mandate really was, again this was no small bit of work since (who knew) the CRTC traces it's roots back to the Canadian Railway Act... but eventually I did see this: "Today, the CRTC supervises and regulates Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications while remaining independent – so it can serve the needs and interests of Canadian citizens, industry and government. It reports to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage."  Well That sounds reasonable, somehow they are suppose to keep an unbiased view and protect us the Citizens, the Gov't and Industry. No sure I believe that are managing but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. 

So after all this I figured meh... let's see what I can make of the media's reporting on this situation... The first thing I noticed was the very polarized quotes the media was using, from a Bell Employee (VP level) stating that it's easy to give away bandwidth when you don't have to pay for the infrastructure (this targeted at small discount ISP's that provide unlimited bandwidth usage) to a student stating that we would all end up with 25GB caps, which was only enough to download one game per month.  Wow well if this is what are being used as reference points I should be called as an expert witness!

Okay, well I've set the stage but will stop here for now to keep this posting but busting my bandwidth cap! :)

I will post my conclusions later this afternoon.

Do we really want more relaxed border security?

Now I'm no political scientist, and I know as an average Joe Citizen I don't have all the details, but when looking at the news yesterday I had to wonder.

First was an article about Israel's shock at the US's change of face in regards to President Mubarak.  A long time ally to the US now suddenly when there is an internal dispute the US is suggesting they may step in... that Mubarak should give in to public pressure.  This change can be seen as either naive political gamesmanship, or more importantly back stabbing you ally.  Will Obama turn Mubarak into the next Franz Ferdinand?

Will they ever figure out they can't control, change or win this type of conflict... how many times do they need to fail to figure this out?  What I found even more is how the US govt is clearly looking to have rules applied to others that don`t apply to them.  They got caught red handed trying to destabilise the Cuban government and now they are threatening that if the "spy" not be released their could be ongoing repercussions.  Starting to sound to me live Big Brother has outgrown their usefulness and have lost sight of the ideals our parents and grandparents fought for in 2 World Wars.

Now living in a democracy it may be tempting to immediately throw support in the direction that brings another country into that philosophy but I wonder how the US may react next time separatist in quebec manage to get a head of steam for their political views. 

Don't get m wrong I'm not a big supporter of war... But I think that if a country wants change it should be handled at a local level... We seem to forget that our very young North American governments were created through bloodshed and that was only a century or 2 ago.  Why is every country or people expected to just bow down and accept something that we have.  Maybe democracy is not for everyone, or maybe democracy has challenges based on geographic variables... I mean it's not like we have a lot of neighbouring countries to worry about conflict with, well except for the one that seems to have decided it can overthrow any gov't that disagrees with it.

That's it for now...

to the right, please move to the right... why won't you please move over?!?

Ever found yourself saying these thing to the person in front of you while driving down a multi-lane highway?

I have, nearly everyday!  I don't get it.  Why do people insist on sitting in the left lane, while travelling slower then the center lane? (thinking of our wonderful 417)

Now I am all for following the laws and do not in anyway feel that people should be allowed to intimidate others to go faster, especially on dangerous single lane highways like #7.  But seriously, if you can barely manage to reach the speed limit (and have failed to figure out how to use the cruise control function in your car) Please, PLEASE, move over. 

And while on this topic... stop tailgating!  Doesn't anyone understand that tailgating leads to slower moving traffic?  It impedes people try to get on and off the highway which reduces the overall traffic flow.  IT also leads to much more stop and go because when you are going 100Km/h and you see the brake lights in front of you, you will apply the brakes relatively hard to ensure you don't end up in the trunk of the car in front of you... this has effect ripples back from you and slows all traffic down (and often leads to accidents)

3 seconds people!  leave 3 second between you and the car in front of you and if everyone did that we would all get home sooner!

Spam... Spam... Everwhere SPAM!

Now to be clear, I am not referring to the King of Canned meats... No I am referring to the much more exasperating invention of the 1990's.  Yep SPAM emails, or is it email SPAM... potato, potahto... either way I hang my head in shame today as yesterday I had one of my email accounts compromised. Now I know I'm not the first, to have had such a thing happen, but for someone that considers himself somewhat of a Geek, that is Geek not Hacker (I am nowhere near dedicated enough) it is still embarrassing.

The interesting thing I found was the book that I was reading, "Daemon", had a short side story that was related to SPAM.  It was a headline in national news (in the book) that stated "8000 Murdered, all victims were known Spammers, SPAM down 80%".  So I'm not saying spammers should be killed or anything but it did get me thinking.  Not only do I want revenge on this puke that hacked my email account, but more importantly, why are we reacting to SPAM and other malicious types of technology attacks by sitting on our hands? 

This is the first change in the way I was thinking of SPAM.  Is it, or is it not an attack on that person?  And if so then with it being as proliferate as it is, it is an attack on society.  Okay so now I am at war... what do I do?  This was the second 'light bulb moment".  Thinking back to the 12 and 13th century I have this picture of a castle under siege.  But instead of defending with weapons, they are putting all their effort into rebuilding the walls (firewall) that are battered by catapults and only "deleting" (spam filters/anti-virus apps) the attackers that make it in to the castle.  Eventually you know that castle is going to be overrun.  No when a castle was under siege they defended with arrows and other weapons that kept the attackers at bay and when the attackers got too close they would use boiling tar and oil.

So as I see it, if we keep sitting on our hands we will lose this war.  With that in mind I suggest that any and all of you that have an interest in this new way of looking at SPAM to reach out to me and see if we can come up with a way to make the spammers pay?  Make it less profitable, more difficult or just impossible. I've got some ideas, but would love to hear yours.

That's all for now, oh except...  To the Ottawa city workers that cleaned the streets overnight,  Thank you!  You all did a fantastic job!

SNOW-MG!

Okay so I stole that from the radio show this morning... but seriously... what is wrong with people?!?!?  Heading in to work at 5:30AM, I get on the 417 at pinecrest and before I can make it to woodfroffe I need to slow down to a crawl because some idiot put himself in the center median (riping off his back bumper).  Now by the time some of you are reading this you may think I am being overly critical, but I swear to god, allah or Stephen hawking (your choice) that the roads were pretty much bare.  oh sure there was a little accumulation between lanes (<1"), but we were all moving at a steady 90-110Km/h depending on the lane and there were no problems... except for the idiot who was blocking the left lane. 

So what is it?  Is it that people don't know how to drive?  Are they stupid? ...  I just don't get it.  I mean if you are that nervous that you need to go 30 on the 417 then please stay home.  But I guess also if you can't drive under 140Km/h then maybe you should stay home as well. 

Well many of you will be stuck in long lines of traffic this morning but won't want to support my views because they are to narrow and un-empathetic... but maybe this will get under your skin... my commute was still only 20minutes today (which it is every day)... How was yours?  30 minutes longer?  60 minutes longer?  more?  Was it your fault?  (of course not) but then who's fault is it... and don't tell me it's mother natures, or the roads fault...

well I feel better now...  I'll wave to you all as you rip your hair out while stopped on the 417!

Will it snow? will it storm?

Okay so it's the 1st of February and we might get our second or is it third "snow storm" of the year... now I'm not saying that 15-20 centimetres (or ~7 inches) isn't a fair amount of snow... but all day in the news, in the office all you hear about is will I be able to make it in tomorrow.  What the hell is wrong with you people??? If people would; a) use their brain, 2) stop tailgating and iii) slow the hell down we would all get to work with no deaths, injuries and without it taking hours.   Oh and if you think it will take longer get up EARLIER!! instead of trying to drive faster in bad weather! 

Some days I am truly amazed that we as the human race have managed not to kill ourselves off completely already.  The level of stupidity that we demonstrate in our day to day lives is in complete opposition to the technological advancements we have accomplished.

Oh and while I am in the mood to rant.  I am all for the PC gov't and fiscal responsibility but I have to draw the line at this boondoggle they've created of evacuating people from Egypt!!!  In my opinion, even if the Prime Minister's oath of office does not explicitly state that he is to protect the citizens of Canada.  Should it not be the primary focus of the Government?  And all the Government can manage to do is charter some flights to somewhere in Europe and is charging them $400. on top of that they had to pay an airport tax/bribe to get on the plane?  I'm not saying we should spend $94 million to evacuate them but maybe we could find a happy medium here?  The Government state there were 6000 Canadian citizens in Egypt.  I'm guessing someone in the private sector who's head isn't stuck up his posterior orifice could find a solution without bankrupting the country.

Well that's enough for now... hope you all make it to work in the morning.

And so it starts...

As stated in my profile, I am not yet clear as to the purpose of these blogs nor do I know why anyone would possibly be interested in reading this.  I will however give it a shot as perhaps it will be fun to believe that more then just myself and my girlfriend (a very patient Lady) are hearing me rant about day to day events that irritate me.

You can expect to hear about my thoughts on politics, current and or past events and will hopefully get a chance to share some of my photography as well.

If anything I hope that my right winged, conservative (progressive) outlook will generate debate and piss some people off.  :)

Also I plan on taking random polls about my petpeeves and use this data to rant even more.

Thanks for dropping by.