Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

This tale starts with a job search, and ends with a job. My girlfriend Ashley was attempting to obtain a criminal record check of her clean history to present it with a job application. There’s been a string of people robbing the provincial government [and even Mounties] blind, so employers really like to have them these days.

Ashley contacted Regina’s RCMP depot because she is studying at the UofR and lives on campus without a vehicle. The Mounties informed her of the $35 fee for a full check, and noted that they don’t typically deal with people from Briercrest area. She then phoned Moose Jaw city police where she’s obtained a Canadian Police Information Check (C-PIC) before, and her mother has obtained 4 C-PICs from Moose Jaw, always with a Briercrest home address. However, this time the police were “snotty” and told her that she couldn’t obtain a check from them, and she must contact the Moose Jaw RCMP instead.

Moose Jaw RCMP then told Ashley to contact Milestone RCMP if she couldn’t make it to Moose Jaw. Her mother phoned Moose Jaw RCMP to book an appointment and they told her she needed to go to Milestone. She asked why they couldn’t serve Briercrest residents any longer. Only after Ashley’s mom protested and mentioned that they’d earlier promised to give the form in an earlier phone call did the RCMP in Moose Jaw suggest that maybe the Depot in Regina would give the form.

After explaining the hoops to Regina RCMP, they agreed to give the C-PIC to Ashley, while noting they don’t serve the Briercrest area. I was intrigued that the RCMP could be so ignorant of their jurisdiction, so was inspired to phone the Briercrest Village office and ask who they pay for police service. I was assuming that municipalities pay detachments for policing services, but it turns out Sask Justice is who gets the cheque.

I phoned at 5:16 PM Wednesday, and spoke with Sandra who told me that she couldn’t give me the information about who the village paid for policing. I explained I was doing a report for my blog, and was interested in rural policing data. She asked me to fax her the details of my report before she’d give out any information to me.

Why should someone asking for public knowledge have to fax for a simple question? I guess the village office just likes paper work.

I faxed my question to the village last week. “If I were in Briercrest and needed non-emergency policing services, which RCMP number would I phone?” A week later… I have no reply. Good thing it’s not an emergency, eh?

Ashley now has her C-PIC, for free, from the Regina RCMP. And she’s got the job she was looking for. And the most logical policing service point actually provided excellent service after first giving her the run-around. If I feel like it, or if anyone would like to know why Briercrest didn’t respond to my question in a timely way, I’ll phone them back to ask.

I had discussions with people on eBay.com forums in 2002 and 2003 concerning the war on terror. I argued that by invading Iraq we’d destabilize a country, killing many parents of children who would become radicals and devote their lives to killing Americans. I really regret being able to say 4 years later, “I told you so”. A random Canadian with a computer science degree and an interest in politics should not be able to out-plan the entire American government. I hope in four years I’ll be wrong this next guess, and Iraq’s civil war will be over, and there will be no terrorists from Iraq attacking in North America or Europe.

AmericaBlog has the American security report released/leaked the other day. Big surprise, but Bush is mad that the leak might swing the US elections. Well I’m sorry Mr. Bush, but maybe you could have avoided deceiving the country into going to war, and your Republicans wouldn’t have to lose control of Congress over your failed war that to this point is doing the bidding of the terrorists you claim to fight.

He sounds oh so rational now, saying that if we pull out of Iraq the terrorists will say they chased the Americans out. Perhaps they could say that, but if Iraq descends into further civil war, they don’t exactly have the American occupation to blame for their own petty strife either, do they? Nothing says the troops can’t go back in if things are worse after a withdrawal.

I’m sure he’s tricked his followers into thinking:

Yeah, you can’t declassify something that shows Bush’s war has had the opposite affect on world terrorism! That would, like, give the terrorists the advantage. It’s not important that the War in Iraq is what gave them the advantage, but it is important that the words on paper have emboldened the enemy to kill thousands more Americans than they previously have in Iraq.

Olbermann sums up Bush’s bottom line nicely: He’s a coward who is blaming his mistakes on the past government using the proxy of Rupert Murdoch and ABC, and has led the country into a futile venture more deadly than 9/11 was.

There’s a YouTube video of CSPAN covering Bush dodging a question by saying he’s “not going to comment on other comments”. Then he launches into an appeal to legalize torture in America! And also a denial that invading Iraq is making America less safe.

UPDATE: Pample notes that the Canadian media isn’t hopping to the defense of captured Canadians who may in the future be tortured because of Bush.

John Gormley on Tuesday said that Layton doesn’t support the troops, because he doesn’t want them to fight in the Afghanistan war. This is a lot like Rider fans that are accused of being anti-Kerry Joseph when they chant for Rocky Butler the backup quarterback.

As for the Riders, problems at the quarterback position leads to the chants from the crowd for Danny Barrett to do something about the offensive production. Joseph isn’t bad overall like some QBs we’ve had over the last decade, but when you can only put up 10 points in 3.5 quarters, it’s time for a QB change, about a quarter and a half ago. There’s nothing saying he can’t come back in three plays later, according to CFL rules. But Butler hasn’t let us down this year, and when Kerry fumbles on the 5 yard line with 2 minutes to go and only gets a lucky bounce and an eager Fantuz #83 to save us, it is not a convincing performance. It’s more like a gong show on wheels - and the flat is never changed, so the show limps along all night.

Rod Pedersen hopefully noticed that B.C. had no trouble changing their quarterback, and when they did make that change on us last time, their backup Buck beat us. Giving Butler a chance to bounce B.C. isn’t admitting defeat under the leadership of Joseph, and is only a lasting blow to Kerry’s apparently fragile ego if he lets it be. The blow to his ego should come from only earning 17 points through 4 quarters plus all of overtime. Danny never changes the star quarterback unless they are injured, and it’s cost us several games over the years.

I’m not saying that we’re not “scoring enough points” in Afghanistan, but there are serious problems with some aspects of the mission, so to say that people who have alternate solutions to the political problems in that country are somehow against the military, isn’t fair. Unless Layton is making statements concerning the wellbeing of the troops, he can’t be accused of not supporting the soldiers. I’d consider calls to reduce military supplies, funding, veterans benefits, health care, or operational support as something that’s anti-troops. Putting our troops into combat without competent air support could also be considered anti-troops.

[I am only defending Layton on this issue because I haven't heard him say anything anti-military. I don't agree with his position that we can negotiate with the Taliban, but he's welcome to take his party to the grave. Gormley could criticize Layton for being out of touch with reality, but to use the tired attack of "you don't support the troops" is lame and wrong.]

A call to bring our soldiers out of harm’s way where they are [possibly] not being used in an effective or necessary way, is not anti-troop, it’s anti-war and pro-troops. You wouldn’t say generals in World War I were “pro-troops” when they ordered them over the top onto enemy machine gun fire. Sending soldiers to certain doom with no winnable outcome is decidedly anti-troops. If Bill Clinton and Gwyn Dyer for instance are right and we aren’t putting enough troops in Afghanistan to actually win, then perhaps we are committing our soldiers to a violent and dangerous task when there is no hope of them reaching the goal of a peaceful Afghanistan governed by a democratic government that respects human rights.

Please everyone: Stop saying people don’t support the troops if they aren’t glad that soldiers are dying overseas. According to Harper we can improve our International reputation by getting bloodied up like the other countries in the war on terror. That’s gotta be bad for troop morale, to hear exactly how highly he values their life and wellbeing. Their deaths make him more chummy with Bush because he’s getting Canada to “chip in”.

In the first of what could be a very long and never-ending replay of what I wrote last year on the exact same date, I bring to my readers what I wrote in 2005. Remember the good ol’ days when DeLay was indicted, and CBC was locked out so their radio sucked?

September 28, 2005

Make Poverty History in Canada. Canada should cancel the debt we demand 3rd World countries pay us, since it’s at least partly our fault they are still in debt today.

Today, Tom DeLay the US House majority leader was indicted for campaign shenanigans. It’s about time, he’s been known to be a slime ball for more than a few months now, if not years. In other “American money” news, the US announced a new $10 bill coming out, and I’m sad to say it will not be purple. How hard would it be for them to standardize their background colours with Canada’s? It wouldn’t be hard at all, so one can only guess they didn’t realize it would be a good idea.

The CBC Lockout continues, and I’ve discovered CBC Unlocked a news site created by CBC employees who aren’t being treated fairly by CBC management.
Last night it frosted, but the sunflowers still seems to be unaffected. I’ll have to see if there are any viable seeds ready, and if so it might be time to take it down and put some away for planting next year.

Here’s the reason people dismissively say “out west” when referring to provinces west of Ontario. You see, “out west” means that you get 11 fewer Members of Parliament votes in the House of Commons, than Quebec does for the same number of people living in your provinces. Do we have Representation by Population? I don’t think so. Fortuantely we have people like Elizabeth May working to fix that problem.
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I’m not a math genius, but isn’t $55 Million less than $650 Million? If so, does the following Conservative logic make sense to you:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his senior ministers were unapologetic [about cuts to social programs]. They defended their choice in cuts as in the best interests of Canadian taxpayers by, for example, saving $55 million by ending a summer employment program for youth that provided subsidies to employers. They also touted their move to put the unexpectedly large budget surplus towards paying down more of the debt.

“We will pay about $650 million less in interest this year as a result of the reduction in the debt,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said, brushing aside NDP complaints he had not consulted Canadians about how the near record surplus should be spent.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but couldn’t $55 Million dollars come from the $650 million we don’t have to pay to banks, and thus maintain our social programs designed to help people read, stop smoking, and get jobs? Conservatives are big on people having jobs instead of living on welfare, so I hope they have an employment strategy for youth. Reading and writing is important when it comes to employment.

Literacy advocates said the government is sending a worrisome signal by cutting $17.7 million that had been earmarked for literacy and learning skills at a time when the country is facing a looming labour shortage.

…Studies have said as many as nine million Canadians between the age of 16 and 25 do not have the literacy skills needed for today’s workforce.

Where’s Harper’s Made In Canada plan to teach people how to read?

It’s sad to see that we haven’t wiped out the spread of Tuberculosis while we have the drugs to do it. Our window of medical technology may close, and we should do something about preventable disease now. The government doesn’t appear to have a plan that is working.

Thanks to Saskblogs for the tip on the story.

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Saskatchewan is also losing population. The numbers are down yet again. In the 2001 numbers, Census Canada did such an incorrect job counting the residents of Wood Mountain, SK, it’s entirely possible that the population of Saskatchewan is no greater than 600,000 people. We don’t count the gophers, not even Gainer.

We could stand to lose two losers in Saskatoon who attacked an 81 year old for her purse. Fortunately some other bystanders cancelled out their bad deed, and a cyclist captured the pair for police. I vote we punish the pair of muggers by stuffing them full of marshmellows.

Or we could send them to Pakistan, where the fairweather foe Musharaff would downplay their Canadian theft effort. “In Pakistan, we have 500 roberies every minute, and you have what? Four or five? You don’t hear our 81 year olds whining about it either.”

A friend of mine suggested that OPEC ramped up oil production recently, so that gasoline prices would fall and voters would forget that they were paying [$1.20/L] just a month and a half ago. Why else would the price of oil be so low right now? High gas prices are bad news for incumbent [and oil friendly] governments. It could be a coincidence, but why would oil companies elect to suddenly make less money right now when they’ve aclimatized consumers to the idea of $1.10/L+ gasoline?
The prices across Canada make no sense either. Southern Ontario is paying roughly 80¢/L while prices around Saskatchewan (which produces gasoline) remain in the low to mid 90s!

Here’s another blogger that noticed the fortunate timing of this oil price drop. Timing is everything after all.

5 things Feminism has done for me
1. Given me a mother who can work, or stay at home with kids.

2. Allowed my girlfriend to attend University.

3. Gave women the right to vote for me.

4. Gave me the right to vote for women.

5. Allows women to speak out politically, even if it attacks rights won for women.

Bonus 6. Created women who are more interesting intellectually than door mats. Speaking of a woman looking for people to walk on them:
KShaidle at smalldeadanimals says: “anti-SoW blogburst [by Blogging Tories] … helped cut $5-million from the Status of Women budget — heh.”

Shaidle’s claim that the Blogging Tory anti-woman blogging had anything to do with the Conservatives cutting of a pro-woman program, is about as baseless as me claiming my email to the Transport Minister last week is why they are relaxing the rules on fluids carried onto planes.

Having not followed the Blogging Tory echo-chamber closely on this issue, I may have missed where the government pointed to the blogburst as the reason for cutting funding going to what’s supposed to be repressed and underfunded female members of society.

UPDATE: Mary commenting at SDA, “Before the feminist movement, men and young boys treated all women with respect. They never swore or used foul language in their presence, and any that did were soon reprimanded by other males in the crowd. They did not tell sexist jokes in front of women, hit women and so many other things that they did in front of men, or in male settings. Women wanted to be treated like men. They also wanted to act like men and started to discuss sexual partners, swear, use the F word, and other male locker room talk.
So, men started treating them like men. Lepine was a perfect example. Mass killings of men by men had gone on for years...”

You have a funny blind spot in your reasoning Mary. While men were busy “respecting” women’s rights to not hear bad language and only encounter open doors so they could get through without their hoop skirt tipping upward, the men also wouldn’t let them vote, work most jobs, be highly educated, or seek birth control. You’re also incorrect that men didn’t use to hit women before women’s lib, and you’re down right crazy to suggest that feminism is to blame for mass murders of women.
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In other WTH news is the cover of Newsweek not quite matching from country to country. “Losing Afghanistan” on the cover around the world, and in the States its “My [celebrity] Life in Pictures”. Becky’s right that the reason so many Americans are ill informed is because of a celebrity focused media. John Gormley this morning was talking a bit about that, and how in Canada right now it’s all about Belinda and Domi. Well who cares, really? He said that too, but he was still talking about it for more than the 10 seconds it deserved. The Monday morning “Dish” segment is something on his show I have to turn off too.