Summer happenings

Oh how I’m lazy, no blog since June, but as an excuse I must say that I was rather busy this summer. I went trekking in the Parc de la Gaspésie (arguably the best place to go hiking in Québec if you like mountains). Then later on Mrs. BB and I spent 3 weeks traipsing around France getting in as much of the country as we could. Now being the lazy person that I am and since a photo is worth a thousand words, here is my summer in pictures to make up for the blogs I didn’t have time to write. :o) There should be a couple of thousand words here. The photos are from the Massif Central in the centre of France and of course the Loire valley and its castles. Part 2 tomorrow. :o)

Short sightedness

The end of the school year approaches and has not been made easier by the fact that our road infrastructure in Montreal is literally falling to pieces. Last week they had to close one of the four bridges to the south shore because the gussets which hold the steel beams together had rusted out. The next closest bridge is also under inspection/repair pretty much on a permanent basis since as they so euphemistically say it "has reached the end of its lifespan" (read it’s falling to pieces also). Add to that the Turcotte interchange where three highways congregate also has really big problems. They have closed some exits and reduced lanes on others because of safety concerns. They originally didn’t put in enough steel bar to solidify them so they are now falling apart. So to say the least, our island roads look pretty much 3rd world. Now add to that, that all traffic must cross onto the island to head westward because there is no ring road around Montreal to avoid the city (it’ll be finished late in 2012 maybe) and you have a recipe for chaos.

Now why is that? Well it’s pretty easy to understand. There has been massive underfunding of the upkeep and inspection of the roads and bridges for the last 50 years or more because the politicians don’t see those as being very sexy and politically advantageous. In the last 50 years we’ve spent money for the Olympics (we’re still paying for t he Olympic stadium), spent money on two referendums and all the feasibility studies that went with them, we are even now, as the roads and bridges are falling apart, spending 400 million on a new arena in Québec City so they can get a NHL hockey team. These are all nice to have, but they should be paid for, if and only if, there is money left over after having taken care of the essentials, such as roads, bridges, health care, education and all the other essential services.

Out society today needs lessons in pragmatism and in looking longterm. Our politicians can’t see farther than one or two years and the next popularity poll. I suppose that throughout human history it has been pretty much the same thing... « bread and circuses » as things fall apart around us.

Oh the rapture

Well we're still here, no feeling of lightness, no looking skywards for me or Mrs. BB. So I guess we just are not among the chosen, but then again so are 97% of the population.
Not being raptures doesn't really bother me but can you imagine the problems this 3% would have caused as they were lofted skywards?
First of all they would have had to dodge all the news helicopters trying to get exclusive footage of the event. If you go through the helicopter rotor blades will you still be raptured? Raptured in pieces, could be rather messy.
Then there is the problems of the Raptured living near the major airports such as JFK, Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle where there are always hundreds of planes in the air at one time. Going through a turbofan jet engine leaves even less pieces than the the rotor blades. Hitting the front of the aircraft like an oversized seagull is also not good but at least the Rapturee will still be in one piece albeit a bit smeared across the windshield.
Then there are the family members who will just not want to let go of the loved one.
"Johnny will you stop playing with that rope, that's your grandpa not a balloon for you to play with!"
Right now we've been having thunder storms. I wonder if the Rapturee going through the clouds would disturb the water vapor enough to cause an ionization trail that would set off a lightening strike? Fricassee of Rapture, heavenly crispy critters.
For the rest of us there might also have been fun things. I was thinking that if the Rapture had been placed at a more convenient time, at 6 pm it is still light out, let's say midnight, we could have gone around with piles of old clothes and shoes and laid them out on sidewalks and lawns in the shape of a human that had been lofted skywards. The looks on people's faces the next morning would have been priceless.
This the second Rapture I've gone through (there was supposed to have been another in 1994) predicted by the same looney-tunes preacher. Why is it that religion brings out the craziness and credulity in otherwise sane human beings? I'll let you find the answer to that since I have to go and live my post-apocalyptic life.

- Posted from my iPhone

Can you spell democracy Mr. Harper

We’ve always known that the Prime Minister liked being in control and that he and his party were found in contempt of parliament (stonewalling the elected representatives of the people about information they needed to do their jobs) but this week Mr. Harper and his party has proved it without a doubt.
Usually when there is a public meeting or rally, it is supposed to be public not just opened to the party faithful. The Conservatives have been making the Canadian voters register if they want to attend a Conservative rally where the Mr. Harper will be speaking. They then do a background check and if you do not pass their loyalty criteria, you are out of there, escorted by the local bouncers.
Can this be real, oh yes. Last week Awish Aslam, a 19-year-old University of Western Ontario student and her friend, went to a Conservative rally where they were told that they were not welcome. Why might you ask?  It was because they had been to a Liberal rally the week before and had posted a picture of themselves with Michael Ignatieff (see previous post)  on Facebook. Miss Aslam has been going to all the different parties' rallies to get a better idea for who to vote for, which is what voters should do. Was it just a slip up of overzealous political organizers? Nope, it seems that this is not the first time that this has happened. Did the Mr. Harper apologize to the people? Again no, he feels that it is OK to do this kind of screening, but what can you expect from a politician that limits the number of questions the press may ask to only five un-embarrassing questions per photo op.
Now kicking out the « undesirables » seems to be standard practice with the Conservatives. Gentlemen, can you spell D-E-M-O-C-R-A-C-Y, where the people are allowed access to the politicians to ask questions and get answers before making an enlightened decision??? What is really ironic is that they closely screen the voters and yet in the PMO (prime minister’s office) one of his top advisors is Bruce Carson, a man who has five fraud convictions. Hmmm,  makes one think doesn’t it?

Read The Montreal Gazette article here

It's that time again.

If you haven't heard yet, we are in the middle of electing our beloved leaders. BS is flying fast and furious everywhere and promises to make our lives a veritable paradise abound.
Who are the protagonists in the epic clash, well for those of you who do not live in our beautiful land here is a rapid who's who.



Stephen Harper: leader of the Conservative party. Comes from the Reform/Alliance (radical right) party before they took over the conservatives after having united their fortunes. He is known to be autocratic and doesn't really feel that he needs Parliament except to rubber stamp his decisions from the PMO (prime minister's office, a kind of unelected executive). He is a kind of "Bush lite". His platform is mainly law and order (even if the statistics prove that crime has gone down), more military, tax cuts to the large corporations (which probably means that I will be paying more taxes to make up the difference), Republican style attack ads and scare mongering. Has ties to the oil industry and the religious right.




Michael Ignatieff: Liberal leader, liberals being analogous to the Democrats in the US, is an unknown quantity since this is his first election as leader. He is an academic and was at Harvard before becoming the Liberal leader after coup-d'état against the last leader who had even less charisma. His popularity is not the highest at the moment and his chances of forming a government are pretty slim. His platform is left of center and contains promises for families and the middle class. If he does not have a good showing or Harper gets elected with a majority, his days will probably be numbered.




Jack Layton: the leader of the New Democrats. This is a socialist party a bit like the Labour party used to be in the UK. Jack is probably the best liked of the leaders. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy. His party advocates for higher taxes for corporations and the rich, more social programs and more environmentally friendly actions. He is a nice guy but nice guys usually finish last.





Gilles Duceppe: leader of the Bloc Québécois is a big bad separatist, according to Harper he has horns and a forked tail. He is a charismatic and pragmatic leader and is probably the best statesman of the bunch. He is wildly popular in Québec and his party stands to win about 50% of the popular vote here. He usually wins most of the seats for the province. His platform is socialist with the added bonus of wanting to take the province out of the Canadian Federation. His party runs no candidates outside of Québec but that doesn't stop him garnering popularity outside the province.





Elizabeth May: leader of the Green party. This party garnered about 10% of the vote but has elected nobody to parliament. As the name says their platform is principally about the environment and socially they a also a socialist party (kind of goes together). Doesn't have a chance in hell of forming the government but that isn't stopping them from trying.
So there are the choices. If you haven't yet figured it out I'm not a great Harper/Conservative fan and I can only hope he doesn't win enough seats to get a majority because, with apologies to my American friends, I really don't want to live under an American style Republican Right government. There is also my feeling that Harper's style of social policy will play into the hands of the separatist Parti Québécois (provincial separatist party with ties to the Bloc) who will use the fact that Canada has values that we in Québec (we usually have more socialist values here) can't live with. They will then have a referendum and might just win it.
So on May 2nd it's off to the polls we go. I only wish sometimes that there was always a final choice on the ballot, "None of the above". I'm willing to bet that this option would get the most votes.

- Posted from my iPhone

Traveling again

At the moment we are on the road again. This time we are spending A week in the south of Spain at Marbella on the Costa del Sol. You see Mrs. BB and I were a bit tired of the cold, damp and cold. I usually don't mind winter but since we had a warm spell that melted the snow an then a cold snap that refroze it all I haven't been able to cross country ski so it has been rather boring. There is also the Rénovations we are having done in the house. Camping in the basement is not all it is cut out to be and we had to be out of the house anyhow when they varnished the floors. So here we are making my lil' sister Jazz grind her teeth, with the sea, blue skies and temperatures in the 20's celsius.
Here are a couple of pictures for you.






Our plane





View from the hotel





Our hotel





The mediteranean





The water front





Old town





The arab walls 9th century





- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Plaza Puente de Málaga,Marbella,Espagne

Hell it’s February

I’ve been brain dead for a while and couldn’t seem to get the energy to write something. No sun does that to me. To the contrary of my lil sister Jazz I like the cold crisp air of winter as long as I can get my dose of sunlight. No sunlight gets to me every time.

Now what is going on in our part of the world. First of all our elected representatives are being their usual brainless selves. Last week they voted unanimously to ban the kirpan from the National Assembly. Why, because it is a weapon of mass destruction and the person would be able to take them all hostage and create murder and mayhem. Mind you a kirpan is a small dull bladed knife about 3 inches long, in fact the table knives of the National Assembly restaurant are probably longer and sharper. (If someone did however take them all hostage with a kirpan, I for one would vote NOT to pay the ransom...) I sometimes wonder what could possibly go through politician’s heads besides currents of air. Are they obligated to get a brainectomy before taking office. Small wonder they are less popular than a Jehovah’s witness going from door to door.

This morning I was listening to the CBC when I heard a news report about Scott Newark’s new crime statistics report where he states that crime is really going up and the Stats Canada statistics saying that crime is going down are all flawed (with a soupçon of "Is there a conspiracy » thrown in). Now seems to be legitimate until you realize that it is the same thing that the Conservative Harper government has been saying to justify spending billions of dollars to beef up the prison system because they want to get tough on crime. Then you realize that he was the senior policy advisor (which also led to a scandal) to the minister of public safety, Stockwell Day, the same man who is pushing hard for more prisons, longer sentences because don’t you know.... OH MY GOD, CRIME IS GOIN' UP EVERYWHERE... PUT THEM ALL IN PRISON AND THROW AWAY THE KEY. (He is probably also a closet believer in capital punishment, but can’t say it yet...). Scott Newark is also the man who said, 

"Anything effective in law enforcement will inevitably be forbidden under the Charter [the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms]. As we always say, the charter helps only murderers, pedophiles and judges. » 

Talk about respect for the highest law in the land from a law and order guy. Anyhow, I can’t imagine that the politicians think that we’d be taken in by such an obvious ploy, do they seriously think we are as stupid as they are? Hmmm maybe they do.

Twas the night before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there,

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night. »

Merry Christmas to everybody. May you all have a peaceful, lovely Christmas with those you love.

Life of a teacher

Sometimes it isn't easy teaching but many times it is very satisfying. I could always pass up the paperwork and the endless meetings but what keeps me going are the kids.
Often adolescents are said to be lazy and will amount to nothing, yet each year they amaze me with their work and creativity. My students are in Secondary 2, the equivalent of grade 8, so they are 13-14 years old. They are on the cusp of becoming adults balanced between childhood and adulthood and they go back and forth between the two. It is a remarkable age because you can see the child that they are and at the same time, the adults they will become. Their enthusiasm for new things is a wonder to see and when properly focused they can really do great things.
We have just finished the Christmas Project where they researched different countries, their Christmas traditions, songs, food etc. They were presenting all this week and their work was excellent considering that it was all done in their second language. They also had to bake Christmas cookies from their country to give to their fellow students after the presentation. Let me tell you that the cookies were good and I'll have to do some extra exercising to get rid of the calories.
Some of my former students have gone on to do great things. There is one studying in the Université d'Ottawa and is presently working as a page in the House of Commons (the equivalent of Congress for our American cousins), another is studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. We have some studying in medicine, science, law and education. One is presently doing an internship as an radio host on local radio. Needless to say that I am proud of them all. :o)
I am a lucky guy. I have a wonderful family that I adore and a job that I love. What more can you ask for in life?

Weird Canada III

I haven’t blogged in a while, well make that a long while. All blogged out I guess, no inspiration and when I get home from a day of teaching, there are always odd jobs to do such as correcting and preparing classes. When I finally finish I just haven’t got the energy to think up something original to write about. Anyhow here is some weirdness about the Great White North that I picked up in the last edition of the Bathroom Reader, just to prove that we are not any less wacky than the rest of the world.

YOU WANT THE TOOTH, OFFICER?

Outside Samia, Ontario, in June 2010, a driver flagged down a police officer on Highway 402 to warn him of a semi truck meandering all over the road. The officer caught up to the truck and pulled it over. The driver's explanation for his erratic driving: He was attempting to pull out one of his teeth. No longer able to deal with a toothache, he tied one end of a piece of string to the bad tooth and the other to the roof of his cab. "One good bump" and it would come right out, he told the officer. As it turned out, he was right‑the officer could tell by the bloody tooth on a string sitting on the seat.

BEEFY VINO

In Japan, Wagyu cattle are fed beer and massaged with sake each day. The result is the richly flavored and expensive (more than $100 a pound) Kobe beef Seeking to create his own specialty beef market, Bill Freding of Southem Plus Feedlots in Oliver, B.C., has developed his own booze‑based method: wine‑fed cows. Like the cattle at other high‑volume beef producers, Freding's cattle eat a diet of primarily grain. But they also drink a liter of wine every day for 90 days prior to slaughter. The red wine is from wineries in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, and Freding claims the beef tastes "sweeter."

ANINUL ACT

Wildlife officials in Deer Lake, Newfoundland, had to put down a moose in 2009, after someone reported the animal collapsing from exhaustion in their backyard. Witnesses reported seeing three teenage boys chasing the moose for hours and hitting it with sticks The teens were quickly caught, brought up on animal cruelty charges ... and acquitted. Why? One of the boys' fathers testified that they couldn't have been abusing the moose, because at the time they were busy vandalizing a local church.

PLEASE KNOCK FIRST

For Valentine's Day 2010, the Toronto restaurant Mildred's Temple Kitchen pulled out all the stops for romantic diners‑serving intimate meals for two ... and openly encouraging couples to "couple" in the restrooms. A handful of concerned citizens reported the Mildred's promotion to the Toronto Public Health office. The agency investigated and found nothing wrong with the idea, as long as frisky patrons stayed out of food‑preparation areas.

THE LAW IS THE LAW

In June 2010, Marika De Florio's five‑year‑old neighbor was driving her crazy, riding his battery‑powered four‑wheeler past her Seeley Bay, Ontario, house over and over again all afternoon. She asked the boy's grandparents several times to keep it down, but to no avail. So De Florio went outside and, in full view of the boy, took off her shirt. That, she reasoned, would convince the boy's grandparents to bring him inside. Indeed, Mike and Nancy Berry quickly hustled their grandson inside and then called the police on De Florio. No charges were pressed, however‑it's legal in Seeley Bay for women to be topless in public.

DIRTY YOUNG MEN

Professor Simon Louis Lajeunesse of the University of Montreal's social work department began a project in December 2009 investigating how pornography affects the way men view and relate to women. Part of that research required a "control group" for comparison, so Lajeunesse advertised around Montreal to recruit 20 young men who did not view pornography. He received zero responses.

BANADA

In the 1910s, Toronto police had full authority over movies, including the right to ban films they considered offensive. The criteria: Any movie that showed a pro‑America attitude, murder, or an extramarital romance could be banned. Any movie. In 1911, an inspector reported, "I witnessed a moving picture show of Hamlet, written I think by Shakespeare. That's all very well to say it's a famous drama, but it doesn't keep it from being a spectacle of violence." A few weeks later, the same inspector banned a film version of Romeo and Juliet.

Halloween in snow boots

We got our first snow fall last night so it looks like the kids will be doing Halloween trick or treat in snow boots this year.
It's a pain since I wanted to take down the gazebo this week-end and now I can't. Hopefully it'll get warmer and we'll be able to finish all the garden stuff before the snow gets here for good. We'll have to start looking to change our summer tires for the winter ones sooner than we thought I guess. Hell, we're still on Daylight Saving Time. Oh well it comes from living in the great white north. I'm sure that Jazz is seriously pissed off this morning. ;o)






- Posted from my iPhone