The View Ahead for 2008

Post on: Your Money and YOU
The year almost past has been turbulent to say the least. In the Canadian province of Ontario that I live in, thousands have lost or will soon be losing their jobs due to a slowing economy. Factors outside the province have contributed to this. The rising Canadian dollar against the weakness of the American dollar, the collapse of the subprime market in the US which is setting off alarm bells around the world. Economic forecasts for 2008 is that credit markets around the world will tighten. Some more than others. -- read more

Who Killed Bhutto?

Posted on: Out of the Shadows
Much of Pakistan remains restive today, three days after the death of Benazir Bhutto. The government of Pakistan has pointed the finger of blame at Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, a 34 year old pro-Taliban militant reported to have thousands of foot soldiers at his command as well as trained suicide bombers. The government claims to have intercepted a call between Mehsud and Maulvi Sahib aka Mr Cleric in which the two discuss and congratulate each other on the assassination. -- read more

What Motivates You?

Posted on: It's About Motivation
Being three days before New Year 2008 it seems fitting that this is the first post to a new blog. This blog will be about motivation and its various aspects. What drives you? What stirs up motivation, passion, desire to succeed or to change in some way? Self understanding is often the first step towards changing, growing, evolving.

This is an appropriate year for me to start this blog. The year 2008 contains the birthday for me that marks my first half century of wandering around in this life. It seems to me that I need to turn it into the year when I decide what I want to do when I grow up and then seriously work in that direction.. -- read more

Learning to Appreciate My Computer

Posted on: Ides of May
It’s human nature to not truly appreciate the value of something until we’re denied either in part or in full it’s presence in our lives. The last couple of weeks, I’ve been learning that about my computer. It is easy to be complacent about the use of it, the instant access it gives me to the internet and the data I store on it. I could even say I was somewhat smug about the fact that I had a desktop sitting idle while I used my laptop as my primary system. I wouldn’t be without my computer, one way or the other. -- read more

Was Bhutto A Democratic Champion?

Posted on: Out of the Shadows
As Benazir Bhutto’s body is buried in Sindh, her home province, it appears her spirit has gone on a rampage across Pakistan. People across the country have lashed out violently at the loss of one they placed their hopes of democracy in. Bhutto was seen by her supporters as someone who could lead Pakistan to become a full democracy, as an effective opposition to the increasing anarchy under Musharraf. -- read more

Bhutto Reported Assassinated

Posted on: Out of the Shadows
Having escaped injury or death in a suicide bombing attack in October on a parade celebrating her return to Pakistan from exile Benazir Bhutto, has been assassinated. Reports from Pakistan indicate that Bhutto was shot in the chest and neck as the entered a vehicle following a rally in Rawalpindi. The attacker then blew himself up killing up to 20 others. Bhutto died a short time later at a local hospital.

Twice Prime Minister of Pakistan, she was the first female elected to lead a post-colonial Muslim state. Both of her tenures were ended by the Pakistani President of the time on charges of corruption. In 1998 she went into exile in Dubai until her return to Pakistan in October. She was running in the Pakistani elections due to be held January 8th. -- read more

Christmas Day

Posted on: Ides of May
Well, it is Christmas today. For the most part it is not a day I particularly care for but, like the other 364 days in the year, it will roll around regardless of my opinion of it. So, well others are busy doing their thing and making whatever merry they want, I’m cocooning into my house, listening to the quiet as I tinker at bits and pieces of house work, updating some badly neglected blogs, including this one and maybe even reading some of that email archived in my inbox. -- read more

Oscar Peterson RIP

Posted on: Out of the Shadows
A legend of jazz music, Canadian Oscar Peterson, has died at the age of 82. Peterson was born in Montreal on August 15, 1925 to immigrant parents. He started his musical life at the age of 5 playing the trumpet and the piano. After his lungs became damaged due to tuberculosis he focused on playing piano. His friends and fellow musicians include jazz greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. -- read more

Are Tasers Dangerous?

Posted on: Out of the Shadows
After several high profile deaths following being tasered, questions about the taser’s role in the death continue to be debated. Originally tasers were meant to be an alternative to lethal force. Those situations where either the suspect or others were in imminent danger of death or injury yet police couldn’t readily move in to subdue the person. -- read more

Schreiber Talks to Committee

Posted on: Out of the Shadows
One of the most difficult things to determine when Karlheinz Schreiber opens is his mouth is the question -- is he hoodwinking us into letting him stay in this country or ripping the lid off the seedier side of Mulroney’s days in office? My suspicion is that we’re getting a bit of both.

Schreiber is a showman, that is pretty clear. However, so is Mulroney which really leaves this whole developing soap opera worthy of several seasons worth of juicy material before it goes into reruns... oops... this isn’t a soap opera, it’s happening in real time. -- read more

Drunk Faces Dangerous Offender Designation

Posted on: Out of the Shadows
An Alberta man is facing becoming a dangerous offender, for chronic drunk driving. If the Crown is successful, he will become the first in Canada to be so designated. The man had three previous drunk driving convictions prior to stealing a pickup truck in 2006 and slamming head on into a vehicle containing a mother and three children, all of who died. He was driving while under suspension at the time and just prior to the collision police had tried to stop him. He sped away from police, lost control and slammed into his victim’s vehicle. -- read more

Dion Talking Election

Posted on: Out of the Shadows
After weeks of abstaining from votes in the House of Commons and being the butt of derision from the Conservatives Liberal leader Stephane Dion is now indicating a federal election could come as soon as February. Something must have happened that I totally missed, not that it takes much for me to miss things.

A month or so ago, Dion was willing to take one for the team of the Canadian public knowing that we just didn’t another election so soon. This was a really good thing for several reasons, not the least of them being, Dion couldn’t look much higher than his toes and really was clueless as to what would make Canadians vote for him. Maybe he found his knees to contemplate. -- read more

Cabinet Minister at Public Trough

Posted on: Out of the Shadows
The Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn has been using a private jet to travel from Ottawa to his riding of Jonquiere-Alma in Quebec. In order to hide his largesse, he’s been billing the flights to the Economic Development Agency of Canada which comes under his area of responsibility. The 14 flights he took between April and August 2006 cost a total of $68,000. Several of the flights originated in Ottawa on Friday and returned on Monday. -- read more