Daniel Craig in drag for sexual equality

And he doesn’t look half bad. Too bad M doesn’t make a very good case for Craig to keep his lady kit on in explaining all the problems women have to deal with in today’s society.

I like the message. I think it could certainly have been cropped down significantly (and probably was for the televised part), or Craig could have said something back in character, but otherwise, well done.

Daniel Craig in drag for sexual equality
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CRTC: a pawn in Harper’s larger game?

In reading news about the CRTC of late, I can’t help but notice a few converging threads. I legitimately feel that I am above conspiracy theory, and I like to say that without evidence, our understanding of reality is potentially unreliable. Therefore, I write this post tentatively, knowing I may be drawing incorrect conclusions.

Source: Wikimedia Commons. Click for original.
Pictured: the CRTC.

But if they are correct, they are damning conclusions indeed.

The Tory government appears to have a greater strategy of discrediting and generally casting as an anacronism the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Council for at least the last year. Harper’s government — not to be confused with The Harper Government, which you can protest such use by signing this petition — overturned the CRTC’s decision last year to disallow Globalive from entering our wireless market due to regulations requiring telecom companies to be locally owned. On this point, I agree with Michael Geist, that content, not ownership, preserves Canadian culture. The overturning of this decision, while well-founded, undercut the CRTC’s ability to make a second ruling — as they so often have done, given the fullness of time and understanding of the public and experts’ opinion in such matters — with the overturning coming so shortly after the original decision. The problem with this is the impression left of the CRTC as an impotent body that cannot make regulations that under any circumstances contradict what the ruling party happens to believe.

Continue reading “CRTC: a pawn in Harper’s larger game?”

CRTC: a pawn in Harper’s larger game?

Orange-faced lies from Boehner about #netneutrality

I don’t know where this man comes up with this stuff, but his priorities thus far — despite his protestation that his first priority is to create jobs — have been to reduce government to only small enough to control every vagina in the land, and now to remove all impediments to the ability of internet providers to turn the internet into a toll highway. The concept of net neutrality — the state the internet has been in since its inception, whereupon ISPs are not allowed to charge extra for use of certain routes, and that all traffic must be routed equally — is one that should be held sacrosanct to anyone who wishes to benefit from the democracy-enabling powers the internet provides. Speaker John Boehner, representing the Republicans in the freshly-flipped House, has made the following statement.

“Right now, freedom and free expression are under attack by a power structure in Washington populated with regulators who have never set foot inside a radio station or a television studio,” Rep. Boehner said during a speech at the annual National Religious Broadcasters convention.

“We see this threat in how the FCC is creeping further into the free market by trying to regulate the Internet,” the congressman continued. “Network neutrality, they call it. It’s a series of regulations that empower the federal bureaucracy to regulate Internet content and viewpoint discrimination. The rules are written vaguely, of course, to allow the FCC free reign.”

[…]

“There is no compromise or middle ground when it comes to protecting our most basic freedoms,” Rep. Boehner said, adding that the Republican majority in the House was committed to fighting the new regulations.

“We’re also going to do what we can to see that no taxpayer dollars are used to fund these net neutrality rules,” he said.

In December, the FCC passed regulations that prevent service providers from choking certain routes until you pay more to use them. These rules do not go far enough — they open the door for ISPs to apply for rights to create priority routes for pay — but claim that most, if not all, such applications would not pass muster. It is this legislation that Boehner lies bald-facedly about. It is this legislation that keeps the robber barons from your throats. It is imperfect legislation, to be sure, but it is worthwhile legislation nonetheless.

Studios and stations get mentioned, but not the people who would be screwed. Funny, that. The ISPs in the States are trying to meter the internet in such a way that only the rich can use it effectively, and meanwhile, Koreans get unlimited transfer gigabit connections to their doors for ~$27 USD a month. The rationale is that being forced to build infrastructure costs money, and companies like Netflix and Youtube are jeopardizing the very old infrastructure that’s already been built, eating into ISPs’ profits. Cry me a river. If the Koreans can do internet right, and cheap, then you’re doing something wrong.

Meanwhile, what was that nonsense about your priority as speaker being jobs, Boehner? So far you’ve done nothing but push for money grabs for companies, and rights revocation for the people you claim to serve.

Orange-faced lies from Boehner about #netneutrality

#Religion + politics = theocracy. And this #Christian doesn’t mind. #atheism

We Need a Christian Dictator
Uploaded by OnKneesforJesus

Seriously. Wow. Where else but in the mind of the faithful elect would you find such an argument made seriously? Even if I strongly suspect that he has a point — that being uneducated about politics or about the world leads you to make errors at the ballot box that we all pay for — I don’t think he realizes that he’s the one that’s grossly misinformed. And I don’t think I’d ever argue for his right to vote to be removed, or for a religious test to be put into place for voting much less for being elected.

Wow, hashtags in titles are kind of ugly. Wish I could make a “tweet version” of the title without having to hack the plugin I’m using…

#Religion + politics = theocracy. And this #Christian doesn’t mind. #atheism

Speaking up about Agriculture

Written by my wife Jodi, her account didn’t make the migration for some reason.

I meant to write a follow up to my post on the 2010 agricultural report, but I’ve been distracted by writing to my provincial government instead. There is a big rezoning issue going on in my area right now, and since it’s important farmland at stake, I wanted to get involved.

Here is the letter that I wrote to add my voice Continue reading “Speaking up about Agriculture”

Speaking up about Agriculture