At last Someone at the Wall Street Journal is getting it Right

I have been saying that the situation facing Britain, Canada and America is far worse than they will ever admit. These countries may not default, but there are other ways creditors can be screwed:

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

The Identity Crisis that is Grand Bend

At the Citizens for Good Governance CFGG meeting tonight at the school in Grand Bend, Ontario, we collectively suffered an identity crisis. It is my humble assessment that the good governance issue is far more important than I could ever imagine. The citizens of Grand Bend are collectively being abused by an electoral and governmental system that is not up to the task of good governance.

In my view, the municipality acts of Ontario are somewhat lacking and instead of leading to good governance, they are leading to the self destruction of communities and bad governance. Reformation of the parliamentary system may indeed be needed because larger governing bodies may suffer from the same weaknesses as the municipalities. The whole province may harbour pockets of communities that may be governed corruptly.

Having lived in Quebec during the time of Duplessis, It would not be the first time governing bodies abused their electorate and the whole system was fundamentally deficient.

It seems that even if the majority of people are against some thing in Grand Bend, they can be forced to accept it, because they live within Lambton Shores, a municipality that has more authority. Yes, quite! And, it has more scope for bad government, or corrupt government.

The issue of sewerage systems is an environmental issue, but the identity of those being forced to change to an environmentally inferior system is at risk. It's like a city closing down a forest because it does not like trees. Yes! You my reader can understand that a city that closes down a forest because it does not like trees is not good for the forest.

In Grand Bend, a community within a city is being force into making changes that will alter the character of the village. Just the process of change will destroy a struggling community spirit of the village, pitting people against each other, and will cut into the forest to make changes that it claims are an improvement, but which village says it does not need, nor want. The city also says that the village must pay for these unwanted changes. In essence, the city is a bully, is environmentally destructive and fails to meet the challenges of good governance.

An earlier comment in my blog pages was that sewage systems engineers can come to govern a community. This notion was taken from someone with long experience in fighting an ineffective sewerage system. This person, a lawyer, claimed that no one else knew more about sewer systems.

The identity crisis facing Grand Bend is happening because of the linear thinking process that governs the projections into the future of trends that cannot continue without fundamentally altering the character of the Ontario environment.

When villages should be villages, the community has now to behave like a city. This is a recipe for disaster. A village needs to be a village if the community is to pull together.

One could be forgiven if one thinks that the shit methods of the city and it's problems are being foisted on an innocent village community and a sewer of a problem is destroying it's spirit.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Use Google Voice on Your Iphone!

This I have not yet tried, but you see the Iphone on this Google page:

http://www.google.com/mobile/voice/

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Free Telephone Calls Using Google and Flash - What Next Apple?

Google's new free phone service lists Flash as a requirement. Does this mean Apple Iphone users are excluded? No! Apparently not!

http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?answer=115067&cbid=-18pk27qyp1tad&src=cb&lev=%20answer

See discussion in:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/25/AR2010082504174.html?wpisrc=nl_pmtech

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

The Democratic Process, Environmental Politics, and Choice of Sewer Systems in Grand Bend

At the heart of the debate in Grand Bend about sewers and the new CFGG group that wishes to participate in the political process is the question of choice.

Some feel that their elected representatives went beyond their civil roles when they made the choice of sewer system for Grand Bend based on the recommendations of a third party, namely the Dillon Corp. Others complained that the company assigned to research alternatives did not really consider very deeply the choices available, and especially the choice that the community had already made historically which favored septic systems.

In the future, the community will have to make choices, and it is a big question whether households will be given the opportunity to participate in those choices and take them on board. It really does matter in Canada that people have the freedom to choose for themselves. It is a cultural value that people here will fight vigorously for.

That the issue of which sewer system revolves around choice is quite apparent to me because of the discussions I have had with a number of very bright people of different cultural backgrounds.

Please view the following TED talk and see whether you might alter your view as regards the political process affecting which sewer system is chosen in Grand Bend.

http://blog.singhanuvrat.com/miscel/ted-talks-sheena-iyengar-on-the-art-of-choosing

Now having viewed the video on your computer or iPad, you may feel as I do that what has happened in Grand Bend is a matter of how different people might view the question of choosing which sewer systems and where. The fact is that there are many choices wrapped up in this single choice.

Overall, I am convinced that individual households need to have the freedom to make their choice whether or not it is the correct choice. Thus, I am in favor of the septic system since it is my choice. However, I do realize that there are authors who say that the government should decide for me which system to implement. My response to that is that it is too radical a departure from my original understanding of what would be my choices in the future. It is so radical a departure that I would feel greatly justified in pursuing the matter in a Court of Justice.

The issue then becomes one of whether the Court would decide in my favor given that it is the Government that is limiting my choice. In response, I would feel that it is the government 's role to respect my choices in matters that represent radical departures from what I am expecting when I engage in a long term commitment to manage my property in a reasonable citizen like way. As a citizen, it is my responsibility to make choices that do not detract greatly from other peoples enjoyment of living close to me. Thus, as a good citizen, I would not do anything to endanger them like having a large bonfire in the back garden which could get out of control and start a serious forest fire.

Thus, it is that the choices a government might wish to make are limited just as my own choices are limited. Both I and the government have the moral responsibility of not departing too radically from what would endanger the people of e community. I would argue that it is the government's responsibility to refrain from taking choices away from households where they can make effective decisions and ones that protect the community.

Where governments go wrong is where they assume they can make choices for citizens beyond what is expected by the citizenry. Thus, to take away environmental responsibility from households would be a bad step and would open up the destruction of the role at citizens play in researching choices and in making them based on their role as good citizens.

We are not a dictatorship in Canada and we honor our citizenry and the education system we have that enables that citizenry to make good and wise choices, household by household.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Is the Light Bulb in Your Fridge Warm?

You may be heating your fridge with the light bulb.

Do a test.

Touch the bulb carefully for second.

If it is cold, you are not heating your fridge, but if it is warm chances are you can save on more energy by replacing it with a cool low energy bulb!

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.