Fri 3 Nov 2006
Wherin I Extend to POW Paul, My Enthusiastic Congratulations
Posted by william under Friends/Social1 Comment
Congratulations Paul! Your Emeritus self is too shiny for my eyes!
1 Comment
Fri 3 Nov 2006
My Constituents Weigh In
Posted by william under Direct Representative Democracy , Politics & World , Social Musing[2] Comments
In response to my post on introducing a political party whose only platform plank is to deliver representation for the riding’s voters, we had insightful comments from both Jocelyn and POW Paul. Paul writes speaks for our favorite Scottish Religious leader: Edmund Burke:
“Your representative owes you not only his industry but his judgment. He betrays rather than serving you if he sacrifices his judgment to your opinion.â€
Paul then chimed in with a keen identification of one of the main issues:
One of the finest benefits of the admittedly imperfect system we call representative democracy is that, at its best, it allows us to select people who are smarter than us to create innovative solutions that we might not have thought of…..Do we really want Joe Schmo to decide our positions on medical research, greenhouse gases, and war policy - if he’s not an expert in any of these fields himself?
Jocelyn agrees with Paul, and not just because he is dreamy. She too thinks the MP has an independent role to play:
“I think what Paul thinks too…Particularly when it comes to delicate matters that are contentious, such as assisted suicide or gay marriage or when life is really alive, I think it pays to have people with some expertise behind the votes.”
I have considered the viewpoints you express. We currently do not elect MPS that can boast any particular aptitude in any policy area. At best we vote for MPS for their affiliation to a party leader we think represents our views or have a good bunch of advisers.
This United Independents is essentially a work-around. The current system is build for representative democracy but the views of the people are never expressed. What you may like on social policy in one party, may be balanced against a foreign policy you hold as repugnant.
Each riding office could publish the running poll status on an issue. Those registered to vote in the riding would all have a chance to vote and I believe many would if the process was made easy and multiple voting platforms were made available (Internet, mail, phone, in person). The goal is not “perfect government policy†the goal is accurately representing the views of the constituents.
I hope I can make a post out of these comments alone. Keep em coming!
Wed 1 Nov 2006
The United Independents
Posted by william under Direct Representative Democracy , Politics & World[3] Comments
That is what we’ll call them. They will be united and independent. I am talking about a new political party people. An idea of a generation. A political movement that will change the Canadian Political Landscape forever. The United Independent Party.
Think of it. The perfect synthesis of modern communications technology and the representative political system. The right time and the right place. In each of our 308 ridings, a candidate runs on a simple yet powerful platform: to vote the preferences of thier constituents. The party determines the riding candidates on a basis of background pre-qualifying and riding preference. The party determines a code of conduct and publishes and presents the foundation document of the party, the Social Contract.
The Social Contract is a document that outlines what constituents can expect from their representative and how the system works. Each UI MP agrees as a condition of their membership to vote in the House of Commons as their constituents direct them. The constituent’s line is the party line. The role of the MP is to deliver the opinion of their constituents in Ottawa and maintain a constituency office that both informs the electorate and survey riding opinions. In practice, it works like this:
As a vote nears in the House of Commons the constituency office educates the riding on the issues at hand. The information is presented in an unbiased way and opinion pieces are presented from the various stakeholders. The office collects the opinions of the voters in the constituents based on the voters list and standard statistical principles or reliability. The MP then votes the will of the constituents in the house. If the opinion of the riding is not determinable through statistical significance or is against the charter of rights and freedoms, the MP will either abstain from the vote (or vote their personal preference I have not decided).
Thus the will of the people is realized in the legislative home of our nation. Well, I’ll think about it some more.
Wed 1 Nov 2006
Briana Laughed Particularly Hard
Posted by william under Foolishness , Friends/Social , Politics & WorldNo Comments
Truely funny. Picture Jon Stewart having a sleep over with GW Bush at the Whitehouse. Can’t? Then look at this. Rick Mercer in Stephen Harper’s Jammies.
Sun 29 Oct 2006
A Cold Shiver of Death and…. Comfort
Posted by william under Cultural Interlude , Family[2] Comments
I am chilled to the bone. My gooseflesh is so bad I have to tell you what it is called in German: Geizenfleisch, yup, Geizenfleisch. I am just that wigged out.
I have just seen this video on www.youtube.com. The video can not be embedded here by the request of the author or I would have just stuck it in this post but you all have to see it. ALL OF YOU! IN FULL SCREEN MODE. I am serious people. Watch it RIGHT till the end.
The Cremation of Sam McGee is one of the family poems / pieces or writing like that of Kipling or Wm. E. Henley we read at family gatherings and remember our parents, grandparents and good times we all have shared. It is a comfort to share some of these year after year and a topic of constant explanation to guests.
The video I am referencing here is of a man skillfully reciting the Robert Service Classic The Creation of Sam McGee in a slow, erie and deeply personal way. I applaud him for his artistry. See the video! Here then, so that you all can read along, is the text. 
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam ’round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he’d often say in his homely way that he’d “sooner live in hell”.
On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we’d close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn’t see;
It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.
And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and “Cap,” says he, “I’ll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I’m asking that you won’t refuse my last request.”
Well, he seemed so low that I couldn’t say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
“It’s the cursed cold, and it’s got right hold till I’m chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet ’tain’t being dead — it’s my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you’ll cremate my last remains.”
A pal’s last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.
There wasn’t a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn’t get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say:
“You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it’s up to you to cremate those last remains.”
Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows — O God! how I loathed the thing.
And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I’d often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.
Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the “Alice May”.
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then “Here,” said I, with a sudden cry, “is my cre-ma-tor-eum.”
Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace roared — such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.
Then I made a hike, for I didn’t like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don’t know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.
I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: “I’ll just take a peep inside.
I guess he’s cooked, and it’s time I looked”; . . . then the door I opened wide.
And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: “Please close that door.
It’s fine in here, but I greatly fear you’ll let in the cold and storm –
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it’s the first time I’ve been warm.”
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
Wed 25 Oct 2006
Where I Become Just a Little Older
Posted by william under Family , Friends/Social , Holidays[2] Comments
I have become 29. To celebrate, you get my photo. 
Yes, I know 29. I once used to say “but I still feel 16!” Now I say “but I still feel 26!” But to be truthful, I have felt 45 since I started high school.
No No, that is not true. I have felt like I am my own age, but in the 50s, since I was in highschool. “What are those crazy kids up to now?” I would ask the unhearing occupants of a lowered Honda Accord with more decibles than horsepower. In my day the kids all drove jeeps left over from the war…
So I am not really surprised that I am about to enter my 30s. I have a sweet sweet wife, one sweet son, am excellent puppy and a condo. I even have something to do each morning, fulfilling the need for marine appliances all over the world! But there is so much to do!
Wm Ernest Henley dis not say ” I am the Third Mate of my fate/ I am the bosun of my soul”. No! He said he was the captain. I am promoting myself to Captain from now on. Captain Wm. Tomkinson of the Indiaman “Hubris”. Stand-by to reef topsail halyards! Beat to quarters!
Well I’ll let Briana be the skipper sometimes too. We are in the same boat now you know.
Thu 19 Oct 2006
I have found this picture on Wikipedia and I think it is beautiful, so here it is, right from Arizona,
Sun 15 Oct 2006
THis is from something on YouTube called “Hope is Emo”
Sun 15 Oct 2006
Briana will be having her eigthh birthday tommorrow! Yay! She will be a whole quarter of a century old. New Husband, Puppy, Job, Condo; so much change and so much done for my dear spouse. Charge your glass! Hoist your arm! Cry cheers to Briana and her wonderfullness that even the deaf shall hear our joyful noise!
Huzza!
Flickr Photo Download: DSCF1652
Blogged with Flock
Thu 12 Oct 2006
Ok People! Send Us Your Wedding Photos!
Posted by william under Blogging /-osphere , Family , Friends/Social , Holidays1 Comment
Alright everybody, it is time to pay the piper. We have posted photos and anecdodes of our wedding and our honeymoon. It is your turn now. Lots of you took pictures at the wedding and we are really looking forward to seeing your photos.
Email them to one of us at our gmail accounts with your best shots. I bet they will be awesome. If you don’t have our address, leave a comment here and we will mail it to you. Also, if you have a funy story about the wedding that you think we may not have heard, post it here.
Awesome guys. Thanks.
