Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Answers? I meant Stonewalling, sorry for the typo.

Feds Slow To Respond

By Sarah Mills
Updated May 13, 2008 - 2:58pm

The federal Infrastructure Minister is all but ignoring Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco’s plea for action on the Building Canada fund.

Fiacco insists the government is dragging it’s feet on handing out the infrastructure funding and that the construction delays on the IPSCO Place redevelopment will cost an additional million dollars.

But Lawrence Cannon won’t speak to the media on the issue.

Instead releasing a written statement that acknowledges IPSCO Place was agreed to be a priority, but insists the process is continuing WITHOUT delay, following it’s intended course.

Other Saskatchewan Conservative MP’s have not returned calls for comment either. Gerry Ritz, who made the announcement on behalf of Cannon, declined to comment.

I added some bold text to highlight the problem.

Chris has some disappointing news, presented in an amusing way.

“That was really close,” one councilor said. “Just imagine. If we’d created those bike lanes, cyclists might have gotten used to them! Heck, some people might have even tried biking to work in safety for the first time and enjoyed it. It could have been habit forming.” When asked if he was trying to equate cyclists to drug users, the councilor replied, “what do you think?”

Another councilor agreed. “Drivers can rest assured that this council will not do anything to jeopardize their unquestioned supremacy on the roads,” she said.

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Comment moderation gets turned on at Rawlco radio news site/blogs. For the time being, my comments sections will remain open, and I hope they always will be able to be, since that’s really the standard of blogs on the Internet (at least the blogs that the most people enjoy the most).

One problem that not moderating eliminates, is being accused frequently of deleting comments. I was beginning to wonder where my comments on John Himpe’s ridiculous rant about cyclists, had gone. Then I figured out that the same terrible blog post was on both 980 and 650 news sites, and the comments don’t transfer from one to the other. I was looking on 650, but commented on 980. Fortunately, Michelle who also works at a Rawlco station, had much better thoughts on the subject.

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UPDATE:

Commuter Cycling Workshop

Learn How to Ride Your Bike to Work : safety tips, road skills, and much more.

Workshop 1 - “Bike Commuting 101″

Thursday May 8 @ 5:30 pm

City Hall Forum

Light Supper provided

Workshop 2 - “Cycling On” (Practical)

Saturday May 10 @ 9:00 am

SIAST Wascana Campus

Bikes and Helmets Required

(Pre-requisite: Workshop 1)

To register, email greenribbon@regina.ca with “Commuter Cycling” in the subject line. Registration is free.

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Answers to Questions about Cycling

Canadian Cycling Association: ABC Bicycle Check

City of Regina: Multi-Use Pathway System

I can guess what prompted this radio appearance:

Thursday morning, Amber Jones the leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan will be on the mail bag section of The Current on CBC.

She will be talking about women in politics. If you get a chance, tune at 9:30 and have a listen. If you’re busy, you can go to the CBC website and download the segment.

Thank you for the tip, anonymous blog reader.

The last couple mornings I’ve tried two different radio stations to wake up to. The first one, Z99, was rambling about Miley Cyrus (the pseudonymously famous daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, I later learned) who apparently set off some controversy for posing partly nude for a trashy [are there any other kinds?] checkout magazine. She’s only 15 years old.

Tuesday morning I switched to the new Astral Media country station “Big Dog”, and they were talking about guess who? Miley Cyrus is the correct answer. They mentioned how former Rosanne child actor M. Fishman (or someone anyway) was on The View (the trashy media just keeps on rollin’) and his comment on the Miley story was that it was “great”. It must mean the Iraq War is over if that’s what the news is now. Zing!

I can’t wait to hear what station number 3 presents on Wednesday morning. :-\

UPDATE: Country 100 in Moose Jaw didn’t talk about Miley, yay! Here’s another blogger’s take on the controversy.

The protest was in response to a blog entry by John Gormley Live producer Tammy Robert. In the post (which doesn’t reflect the official position of the Rawlco radio station, apparently) she criticized Amber Jones, the leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan, for breasfeeding her infant while off stage at a news event.

- Photo courtesy CanineCaptures.com through Facebook for Saskatoon Attachment Parenting/ Natural Family Living Group

There are two versions of the story up at Rawlco (times two, because it’s duplicated at 650 and 980), and no other sources for information the protest can be found by me at this time.

About 35 breast feeding mothers brought their babies with them to protest a News Talk Radio blog site at the Saskatoon station.

Last week John Gormley Live’s producer Tammy Robert wrote about breast feeding politicians who use their babies as political props.

Green Party president [sic] Amber Jones had her baby at a news conference where she breast fed the child.

Jones has been invited to do a guest blog on News Talk Radio, and guest on one of our talk shows.

Opinions on blogs are one person’s opinion and not those of the the radio station.

What’s funny, is that Tammy appeared to be looking for a way to slam Amber, and lacking any policy reason, she took offence to Amber’s supposed use of her baby as a political prop. Well, Tammy finally got to witness first hand what it looks like when a mother (a whole group of them) breastfeeds a child in a political demonstration.

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UPDATE: A random bit of funny stuff. At the bottom of my blog I have Google Ads. One displayed on my homepage the following:

Breastfeeding Baby
Join the program today & get free samples, coupons, emails, & more!

*confused look* “free samples” :-S
Naturally it’s an ad for formula, not breastfeeding support. Note that the company stresses that their formula won’t cause brain and eye deficiencies! Sign me up!

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And there’s some real, and serious news too. “Prepare to be shocked.” Indeed.

Food Prices On The Rise

By Sarah Mills
Updated April 28, 2008 - 1:44pm

Your grocery bill is going up.

No food rationing yet, but that is the case in the United States right now and starvation is becoming more serious in poorer countries.

Inflation rates have been fairly low since the 80s.

But business professor Dr. Ian Lee, of Ontario’s Carleton University, is predicting hard times ahead.

With a recession and people possibly losing their jobs, he argues people can’t put off buying food for a few years while waiting for the economy to recover, like they can a big purchase.

Lee claims since people under 30 haven’t seen a big economic crisis before, they will be the most shocked.

Where’s food rationing taking place in the USA? [In Sam’s Club, and Costco, where law allows.] I’d be more shocked if I hadn’t been expecting something like this for many years now. I don’t think I’m alone, but those who have seen and lived through worse times are going to be better prepared. I’m sure it will be a lot harder to accept when it actually hits here. [The comment in the link to the Coloradoan story, is probably correct. Even though the US may produce most of its rice, if the rest of the world is struggling, most of that rice will be exported for more money to be made! Patriotism doesn’t pay the bills in the USofA.]

I got a tip about this story, because I missed it before (obviously). It seems Tammy of News Talk Radio in Saskatchewan needed something controversial to write for her blog, so she picked on Amber Jones of the Saskatchewan Green Party (not a hard target given how many people are pro-nukes in this province). Many people have already smacked down her insults(including Kelly Patrick, Pres. Green Party of Sask.), and Tammy has offered no retraction after having a chance to rethink her prudish, and outdated opinion on breastfeeding (not to mention the apparent facts of the press conference format). Coupling that with her uninformed, and apparent burning need to slam the Sask Greens over non-policy issues, and it says something about her (and her organization) that isn’t flattering.

(more…)

I had another close call with a four legged Bambi today. After noticing a loner antelope on the way into Saskatoon the other day, it made no attempt to cross the highway in front of my car; it was never a danger. But coming home in the dark tonight from Saskatoon, I had a close encounter, of the four legged kind. I saw a flash of fast moving fur hurtling into the ditch from a field, on a collision course with my car, and another car was quickly coming up behind me to pass. Fortunately it was a divided highway, and the car behind me didn’t smack into me from behind when I braked sharply, as I laid on the horn. The deer threw on its brakes too, it’s legs looking almost parallel to the ground at the mid-point of the ditch, and it avoided the looming fight with my fender as it took off in the opposite direction.

It can be very important to avoid collisions with animals.

That was the end of my excitement (and hopefully the deer’s too) for the ride home. I had a new Bon Jovi CD to listen to, and got part way through, because the new Saskatoon radio stations were interesting to listen to. Rawlco has a new one called Wired (I think) and Hot 93 is now The Bull 92.9. Rock 102 was surprisingly good while I was there as well, and there was an oldies station, and 95.1 too. I never even bothered with the AM stations.

I finished watching “Splash” [5/10] the other night, and wasn’t too impressed. It had a very weak ending. And a weak middle.

-Chamberlain’s church for sale

Air Farce has set a date on pulling the plug on itself. It’s been on radio and/or TV for quite a while, and I stopped watching it years ago when it was surpassed by 22 Minutes and The Daily Show for political snark. It’s always been good for a chuckle, but it’s hard to do side splitting humour and keep up with a daily show. The market is saturated. Blogs have pounded every joke for a situation into the ground by the time a weekly show rolls around.