Pandora is a web site that plays music. Its developers devised what they call the music genome. Like the human genome, our particular combination of DNA, the music genome creates a unique creature.

In the case of Pandora, you tell it a few tunes or artists you like and it creates a unique music radio station just for you. The developers claim to have established hundreds of characteristics of music and then set up a program to analyse music for the combination of characteristics shared by the music and artists you like. You can also pick genres of music for your station.

You can have as many stations as you like and mix and match them for any mood.

In my opinion, it does a fine job. You can even tweak it by giving a thumbs down to any tune it plays that you don’t like.

I think that what editors have done with newspapers for the past 500 years has some similarities.

Abandoned art?

Now that the printed versions of newspapers seem on the way out, I wonder what will happen to the science and art of the organization and layout of newspapers. In the digital age, fragmented audiences can find very specific information and points of view. Might the newspaper editor’s art be abandoned?

When the objective was to get the reader to read as much of the paper as possible, editors developed all kinds of tricks to lure readers in and on.

My father used to say that people going on vacation take a book. People going to the hairdresser take a magazine. People going for coffee or lunch take a newspaper. I think I came up with the analogy that reading a newspaper was like eating salted peanuts. No one ever intended to eat the entire jar.

It is the editor’s job to get readers to eat as many news items, peanuts, as possible.

It was not done to cheat the reader but to enrich him, her. We all have found ourselves interested by something about which we would have denied any curiosity.

Incidentally A Rod

Incidentally, I can’t stop raving about the St. Petersburg Times. They do such excellent work there. They do many of the things community newspapers do.

Every paper, TV and radio network had the story about Major League Baseball, Yankees star, Alex Rodriguez being caught in a lie about taking steroids.

The Times went to a local playground, found a kid wearing an A Rod baseball shirt and interviewed him about how he feels about his hero now. Madonna’s name did not come up but that is another story for a different section of the paper.

I can almost smell the editor’s brain smoking as he remembered the timeless quote from the White Sox 1919 World Series scandal. All the Sox but one took bribes and threw the series.

As team star Shoeless Joe Jackson left the courthouse, a boy cried out “Say it ain’t so Joe! Say it ain’t so!”

To get back to the subject, editors use pictures, headlines, subheads, boxes, graphics, white space, colour, italics, bold face and the placement of items to get you to read.

Just to give one example of one challenge. Ed Arnold was a giant in the field of newspaper layout. By fitting readers with goggles that tracked their eyes as they read, he learned that the reading eye is subject to gravity. The western world eye goes to the upper left hand corner of the page as we were taught when we first learned to read. As it moves from left to right across the newspaper page, it tends to sag. It traces a lazy backwards S down the page. It tends to miss what is in the upper right hand corner and the lower left. Arnold called these the fallow corners like dead fields where nothing grows.

To combat that, editors know they have to put something punchy there or use the space for another purpose. That’s why you see the UPC code and directory data in the lower left on many front pages. You often see the weather in the upper right.

Done well, layout enriches the readers’ experience without the reader being aware of it. Quick now, how many vertical columns of type are there on the pages of the paper you read? Would you be surprised to learn that their width is important to your reading ease? There is no reason for you to know or care. You are the customer. I don’t know how my car works. That’s another amazing field of expertise.

When layout is done badly, you get those magazines that promise a story on the cover you can’t find inside. You get a goat’s breakfast of pages that you cannot tell apart from the advertisements. In a good magazine, not only can you tell editorial from ads, and tell which pictures go with which stories, you can recognize the page as being that magazine even when you see it without its cover. When Macleans put the captions for all the pictures on a page with just one of the pictures, that was some artist’s ego trumping your ease.

Bad graphic editing also leads to all those screaming, swirling, intros we see to TV shows. Many of them have nothing to do with adding to your ease of comprehension or enjoyment. They are simply unimaginative ways to try to attract your attention.

The good ones add to your enjoyment like the crazy tune at the opening to Boston Legal segments or the seedy New Jersey scenes and urban cool music at the opening of Sopranos episodes.

It will be interesting to see how your modern information sources balance giving you the precise information you want with broadening your range of interest, if they even try.

I hope they do. Your world will be narrower if they do not.

Isn’t it important that super stars know some young boy needs them to behave like the heroes he thinks they are? Whether a mother cares a whit about baseball or not, do you think she might be interested to consider what it means to her child? Shouldn’t she be?

I hope Pandora works in Canada. You can try it at:

www.Pandora.com

On we go!                                          DAC

The St. Petersburg Times had a story about Fred and Doris Dillon, retired Canadians. Fred died at 102 in a local Pinellas County, Florida, nursing home hospice. His wife, Doris, 92, died the next day. They were both in the same home. Staff had rearranged a room and put their beds side by side. The home’s chaplain said people would stop by at night just to see the two of them holding hands.

Son Michael Dillon, of Fredericton, said the family is comforted to know they were together to the end.         The rest of their very interesting story is available at:  http://tampabay.com/news/article976250.ece .

Miramichiers Red Lachambre, his wife Jean, and Jack Yates and his wife Isabel, each died within a couple of months of their spouses last year.

That happens quite a lot. When it happens after a long and full life together, we salute the couple for their good fortune.

Some wise person said, “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

I think Jean, Isabel, and Florida’s Doris got a bargain at the end. They did not have to pay as long as most.

Here’s to them all!                           DAC

Over 800 New Brunswickers, including more than a dozen Miramichiers had a nice picnic at the beach on Monday, February 16. There were fiddlers and dancers and Acadian Goofers and dozens of prizes. There was even a New Brunswick MLA on hand and a letter from the Premier. The main entertainment seemed to be wandering around the grounds and the beach looking for friends and acquaintances, and arranging visits and golf dates.

It took place at Fort Desoto Park at the toe of a peninsula enclosing Tampa Bay.  It is simply a delightful place.

http://www.pinellascounty.org/park/05_Ft_Desoto.htm

It was arranged by New Brunswick members of the Canadian Snowbird Association co-ordinated by CSA Atlantic Canada Director, Ron Steeves, of Fredericton.

The organization is closing in on 50,000 members. It lobbies governments for snowbird health benefits and travel privileges, contracts for insurance and provides a ton of information people planning an extended visit outside the country can use to prepare. It even provides a checklist of things to do to prepare to leave your home unoccupied.

The CSA website is at: www.snowbirds.org .

At times like this, I wish I still had a newspaper column. This picnic is a local story for every paper in the province. I think every New Brunswicker knows someone who was there.

On we go!                              DAC

Class actions are becoming ridiculous. One of the most insane recently concluded in Florida. It originated when the state vehicle and drivers licencing bureau sold access to its list of drivers and car owners. Canadian provinces do that. How else would the War Amps know you are a potential client for key tags and where you are? Apparently it violates a privacy act in the US.

In Florida, four, yes FOUR citizens initiated a class action against the state. The case wended its way through the courts for six years. Finally, there was a settlement for $10.4 million.

The four citizens who launched the action will get $3,000 each. The rest will be distributed to people buying licenses. This year, they will each get a one-dollar credit on their licence purchase. Ya*******hoo!

Five law firms got in on the case. They will share $2.85 million. That is just a titch shy of 27.5% of the loot.

The costs to the state, of course, are considerably higher. In addition to the costs of the settlement, the state must pay its own lawyers and pay for the operation of the court system. There was even a considerable amount of expensive time used up arguing about the fees charged by the law firms. For research staff who cost a total of $30 per hour, the firms were charging $235 per hour to the settlement. Some people thought a $700% markup excessive.

The punch line of course is that the very same people who get the dollar credit are the ones who will pay the settlement and all the costs. The state has no place to get money except from taxpayers.

The net result of the court battle is that the Floridians moved all that money from one of their pockets to another and paid law firms more than a quarter for every dollar moved. Including the state’s costs, it probably comes to about half a buck per buck.

It is as if a lawyer came to you and said “I can get you a deal where you receive $1.00 for every $1.50 you give me.”

Why can’t you and I get millions of people to go for a deal like that? Captain Jack Sparrow would be all atwitter at the idea. He would never need leave shore again.

Now here is the combination punch line.

As a retired geezer with all of my empty bottles converted into mutual funds of one kind or another, I own teensy, tiny bits of dozens, perhaps hundreds of companies every year. So do you, even if your only participation in the market is the money the Canada Pension Plan fund invests all over the world. If you have an RRSP holding mutual funds, you are a player.

Every couple of months, for the past few years, I have received fat packages of papers in the mail from some law firm. They want me to fill out pages of documents to qualify for a share of a settlement they either won or hope to win. I can never tell.

If I prove I owned shares, or a share of a share, for a share of the time the company committed whatever sin it is alleged to have committed, I might receive a share of the settlement. In most cases, the shareholders’ shares might come to a few cents or a few dollars each, like the Florida case.

You and I could spend $50 to get a buck. Occasionally the payback might be enough to make the claim worthwhile but have you ever heard of a mutual fund investor getting a big windfall? I have not. Lottery tickets are probably a better investment of the cash value of your time.

Now, let’s go back again to where the settlements come from. They come from the company. Who owns the company? Well, on some particular day at some time in the past or present, you did and I did. So, if our company pays out a settlement, where will that come from? Why, from the profits our company would have had and might have paid out in dividends or increased share value to you and to me.

It is just another case of the more we win, the more we lose.

This is not to say that companies ought to be able to break the law or cheat shareholders with impunity. Officers, directors and staff ought to be held accountable for their actions. Federal exchange regulators should investigate complaints. Offenders should go to jail when they break the law. They should be fined, suspended, fired, or, banished from their industry or profession when they are negligent.

There is an expression that “He who robs Peter to pay Paul can usually depend upon the support of Paul.”

Peter should not support Peter’s lawyer to rob Peter.

DAC

Probably because internet email makes it easy, I receive dozens of messages every day. Many of these have to do with the frailties of age. For example, you know you are getting old when you and your teeth sleep in separate rooms.

Others have to do with how the world is in a state of rapid moral decline or specific examples of the fanatic perfidy of people of other races, religions and political persuasions.

Still more have to do with how great things were in the good ol’ days.

I am more and more discomfited by them.

There was an antique show in Gulfport, Florida, this weekend. It featured old signs, brochures, and thousands of old post cards.

Among them were many that were sickeningly racist. One shows a group of black children playing on the shore as a large alligator approaches. The caption reads “Gator bait.”   Another shows an alligator making off with a black man in its jaws. The caption reads “Free lunch in the everglades.”

Most of the cards showing blacks or Seminole Indians show them in demeaning, or stereotypical poses.

The cards portray women too in the standard condescending images of 50 to 80 years ago.

Good old days? Want to go back? Not me!

Wallowing in old

I also wonder why so many people seem so content to wallow in the downside of being older.

Sure, we do all decline physically a bit as we age. In actual scientific fact, I think it starts when we are about 18.

On the other hand, for people of my generation there are things like hip replacement, knee replacement, cataract removal, modern dentistry, access to fresh fruit and vegetables and dozens of different exercise options. Surgery now routinely fixes things that we once just had to learn to endure.

Many of us are not only healthier than previous generations but also healthier than we ourselves were in our prime working years. Quite a gang of us quit smoking.

Certainly, we would all like to have the fabulous young bodies we see all around us. On the other hand, many of us never did have those bodies. We tend to forget how physical beauty determined so much of our social life. The most intelligent, sensitive and creative people among us were often the loneliest.

I wish I knew and could give credit to whoever said, “Until we are 40, nature is responsible for our face. After that, we are.”

Warmth, wit, generosity, optimism and wisdom are what make our friends’ faces beautiful.

It would be great to have our lives ahead of us. The present and the future are exciting indeed. On the other hand, many of us saw Bobby Orr play hockey and partied to Matt Minglewood and Dutchie Mason and Sam Moon in our own local bars. We would like to have youth but we wouldn’t want to give up any of the jewels in our memory vaults.

Great grand hotties

I am also starting to hit on great grandmothers. They are a completely new field for me. Some of these women are more fun than a toy steam engine. They seem to like it. At the same time, the young women are naturally less threatened by a flirting geezer. Some of them are fun too.

Finally, why spend time reminding ourselves about things we cannot change and deluding ourselves that society was better in earlier decades?

At one time, I started the Miramichi Nighthawks International. It was people who liked sunrise but would rather stay up for it than get up for it. It was also a defense against the smug morning people who seemed to feel morally superior.

The club grew to a couple of thousand members before becoming suddenly extinct. As self-appointed High Hawk, a suitably ambiguous title, I had arbitrarily issued all memberships to expire on December 31, 1999. Who knew any of us would survive that party? At the stroke of midnight, the movement suddenly and completely expired.

Perhaps it is time I started a new one with memberships to expire on December 31, 2999.

Getting back on topic, should we start a movement of people who reject whimpering about getting older and whining about the good old days?

For starters, please delete my name from any distribution list of reminders of the failings of age. Ditto for ones about how great things were when white, Anglo Saxon, Protestant, heterosexual men had all the rights, power and smug sense of moral superiority.

If you are with me on the idea of forming a movement to celebrate the wealth of knowledge, experience, friends and memories we have and continue to build, please add your ideas.

Being the wise people we are, we should concentrate on a very loose organization. Night Hawk meetings were called after they were held so there was always perfect attendance. A group of people would be partying and notice a rosy glow in the sky. Any Hawk in attendance would then call a meeting and, of course, everyone there was present.

We need policies and procedures no more demanding than that.

Let’s just concentrate on enjoying to the best of our ability every healthy, comfortable minute we have.

On we go!                     DAC

            The day after the inauguration of US President Barak Hussein Obama, Alice McLerran sent the following message to Willa Mavis, a friend of mine. Willa forwarded it to me.

            I thought her words and the Sunshineccc08 video were a beautiful expression of the mood of the throngs at the ceremony. Alice gave me permission to post it here.

Willa
            I  was explaining to a friend from another country why the theme of “Simple Gift”  (also used with different lyrics as “The Lord of the Dance,” woven into a beautiful piece of chamber music offered just before Obama’s speech, seemed so wonderfully appropriate to offer at the climax of yesterday’s historic inauguration,.

             I realize that he, and friends in many other non-American cultures, may not even know the tune. Not every American familiar with the tune may know both sets of lyrics.

             When I looked up a recorded version of the music to which I could send a link I found a video that was ideal.

            Watching it brought back the elation I felt as I watched the inauguration.  I’d like to share both its presentation of the music, and the two sets of lyrics, as many people as possible.

             I’m continuing to rejoice that we now have a new president, obviously, and hope that most of you on this list rejoice with me.  Here is the music I want to share, along with a series of sunrise images.  It was created and posted on You Tube by Sunshineccc08

            http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=cHBqdlorCeo

            Here are the lyrics written in 1848 by  a Shaker Elder, Joseph Brackett, to sing along with the tune for dancing that he had composed. I thought of them on that day when so many of us rejoiced that a candidate in whom we were placing high hopes had “come down where [he] ought to be” —

‘Tis the gift to be simple,
’tis the gift to be free,
’tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
It will be in the valley of love and delight.

Refrain

When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed.
To turn, turn will be our delight,
 ‘Til by turning, turning we come round right

            The “Lord of the Dance” lyrics of Sydney Carter, an English songwriter, were first published in 1963.  They use the “dance” as a religious metaphor, and are sometimes offered with the tune in hymnals.

            For years the song has been sung by a member of a Morris Dance troup at the annual Christmas Revels  in Sanders Theater at Harvard, around the time of the winter solstice. The song is used just before intermission, and as it reaches the end performers appear among the audience, pulling them dancing into  the refrain into the high-ceilinged hall  where even those normally reserved find themselves dancing joyously  hand in hand,   continue to sing the refrain over and over, and stopping only when all are out of breath.

            Obama is obviously a mere mortal and the newer words below are not obvioiusly relevant to yesterday’s turn in history. I think, though, that yesterday most of us listening to the music, and to the speech that followed it, long to follow our new president into a future where he wishes to lead us — a dance of hope that could lead to us to better times not just in our own land, but throughout a planet now darkened by divisiveness and problems of all sorts.  
 
I danced in the morning when the world was begun
I danced in the Moon & the Stars & the Sun
I came down from Heaven & I danced on Earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth:

  Dance then, wherever you may be
  I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
  And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be
  And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said He!

I danced for the scribe & the pharisee
But they would not dance & they wouldn’t follow me
I danced for fishermen, for James & John
They came with me & the Dance went on:

I danced on the Sabbath & I cured the lame
The holy people said it was a shame!
They whipped & they stripped & they hung me high
And they left me there on a cross to die!

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black
It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back
They buried my body & they thought I’d gone
But I am the Dance & I still go on!

They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the Life that’ll never, never die!
I’ll live in you if you’ll live in Me –
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!

A hug to each friend and family member to whom I send this message —

Alice

            I am a pre-boomer, born in 1942. I was 18, married and about to become a father when John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered his inauguration address on January 20, 1961. I can still recite paragraphs of it. JFK spoke not just to his party, and his country, but to the world.

             “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

            Canadians and, we have since learned, youth behind the Iron Curtain, heard and thrilled to that call to action.

            Besides being eloquent, inclusive and inspirational, JFK’s words read and scanned almost like poetry making the compelling message easy to memorize.

            It is hard to forget “Let the word go forth, from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage – and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

            “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

            It is difficult to stop citing exerpts. You can read, and hear, the entire address at: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/003POF03Inaugural01201961.htm

            Events exacted a painful toll on the idealism of my generation. One after another our international heroes were assassinated. JFK, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., RFK, and Malcolm X, all men who inspired youth to better themselves and the world, were cut down just as they were gaining momentum.

            All of this is preamble to explain my excited anticipation of U.S. President elect Barak Obama’s inauguration address on this coming Tuesday, January 20, 2009.

            Not since  John Fitzgerald Kennedy, in 1961, almost half a century ago, has an incoming president inspired so much almost desperate hope.

            JFK followed a president, Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower, who represented and had led the greatest and victorious generation of the new world but also symbolized an era of depression and war that citizens were eager to leave behind.

            Now an eloquent, perceptive, sensitive and inclusive mixed-race leader is about to become commander in chief of the United States of America at a time when the nation is not fresh from historic victory and is deep into a world economic crisis centred in the U.S.

            Barak Obama already has done a lot to gain the empathetic attention of the world. His having an African father inspires minorities all over the world seeing what is possible in a democratic super power. He has experience and identification with the minorities of the U.S. World citizens, especially the downtrodden, hope this means he may be able to hear and empathize with them.

            Although it is hard to credit now, JFK had much of the same cachet. At the time, his election sent a warming message to the hundreds of millions of Catholics around the world who had spent most of their lives in a world where they knew a Catholic could not lead the U.S.

            The JFK milestone, like the Obama milestone, was frightening and disturbing to many Americans. For most, though, the sight of an attractive young family in the White House was soon charming and exciting.

            Caroline Kennedy, now in the running to succeed Hilary Clinton as the junior senator for the State of New York, for my generation, always will be the impish little girl who shuffled into the view of television cameras in the White House in her father’s shoes. No matter that he was the leader of the free world in serious times. Little girls tease their fathers.

            Such humanizing examples of our leaders are encouraging to the people.

            From 911 to the sub prime mortgage financial collapse, the most powerful nation in the world has been bloodied and battered and has slighted many erstwhile friends and allies over the past eight years.

            The world is, I think, looking forward to President Barak Obama’s first term with hope and bated breath. His inauguration address will be at least as significant to world citizens as to US citizens.

            Here’s hoping his administration is the most successful ever.

                                                            DAC

            The following letter explains why my son Nathan got one Christmas present this year with a card that read “from David and from the lovely Raziel S. Garcia.”

            It also self-explains why I could not post the letter to this site before Christmas.

December 15, 2008

Sean Durfy

President and CEO

WestJet
5055 11th Street N.E.
Calgary, AB

T2E 8N4

Dear Sir:

            Re. Westjet flight # 941, December 10, 2008.

            I hope you get to see this letter. It should brighten your holiday season.

            Raziel  S. Garcia of your staff in Tampa, Florida, went far above and beyond the call of duty to save me from a silly mistake I made that could have been an expensive disappointment.

            I arrived at the airport early and, fortunately for me as it turned out, the flight was delayed an hour. The aircraft had started the day in Quebec City where bad weather and the necessity for de-icing had held it up.

            I checked two bags which is unusual for me. One of the bags was Christmas present luggage filled with other Christmas presents.

            I cannot imagine how I could have been so stunned but I put a bottle of very fine single malt scotch in my carry-on bag. Trying to imagine how I could have been so foolish, I can only think that I think of forbidden liquids as shampoo and hygiene supplies. I think I was thinking of the scotch not as a liquid but as a Christmas present. It is my son Nathan’s favourite and we cannot get it in New Brunswick.

            Naturally, security discovered it and suggested the only solution was to take it to UPS and ship it home. I couldn’t see that working. The cost would be prohibitive and I didn’t think I could ship liquor across the border to New Brunswick.

            I went back to the Westjet counter and approached the same attendant, Ms. Raziel S. Garcia, who had checked me in in the first place. She remembered me because she had given me a plastic bag to help protect the gift luggage.

            Because I had already checked two bags, putting the scotch in my camera bag, and checking that, was going to cost $75 USD. She asked her supervisor if an exception could be made for a very small bag and it could not.

            At this point, Ms. Garcia began working against the interests of her co-workers because I was going to donate the bottle to them for their Christmas party. She didn’t know that, of course. It is perhaps better that they never do.

            Ms. Garcia said she was going to try something and got on the phone. She spent several minutes speaking in Spanish and English explaining to staff in baggage handling what my bag looked like. The baggage staff found it and brought it back up to the counter. I was able to pack the bottle and send it back down.

            It would have been so easy to let me suffer the consequences of my stupidity.

            Instead, Ms. Garcia acted as if it was a pleasure and fun to help me solve my problem. I am sure hundreds of men must fall in love with her every month.

            I have seen the Westjet commercials where Westjet staff members do superhuman things to solve passengers’ problems. I thought the commercials were a bit dangerous because they might give clients expectations no one could meet.

            Maybe so but you couldn’t prove it by me. I have told dozens of people about Ms. Garcia already.

            It would not have been a huge loss if I had lost the bottle or had to add $75 to its cost.  However, the contrast between that and the actual outcome was dramatic. More than the scotch, the example of how some people really mean it when they talk about their customers being important to them was a very nice gift.

            I have enjoyed flying with Westjet before. This experience means that your company will be my first choice for any future trips.

            I hope Ms. Garcia gets a pat on the back for making my day.

            Here’s wishing you and her a very happy holiday season and a happy and prosperous new year.

            Sincerely,

            David Cadogan

            These times are, like the Chinese curse, interesting. A couple of new and historic events have dominated the news.

            One is the proroguation of Parliament granted by the Governor General to Stephen Harper’s Conservative minority.

            I didn’t know a failed minority government in a Parliamentary system could have a do-over.

            I suspect the GG gave Harper an extra life. I very much doubt the coalition that threatened to topple him will maintain its determination. He will undoubtedly salt his new budget with items the opposition parties will find difficult to oppose.

            It may be all for the best. The reborn Prime Minister may govern more politely now that he has been reminded that his is, after all, a minority government.

            Another interesting lesson was how many people totally misunderstand the concept of Parliamentary democracy. Many were outraged when two minorities threatened to seize power from one minority. They seem to believe the guy with the most seats has some divine right to govern. That is not so. The person who has a majority of Members of Parliament prepared to support him has the right to form, or attempt to form, a government. The magic number is half plus one. Harper does not have that but was trying to bully the smaller minorities into submission.

            One of the saddest examples of the total ignorance of the system was perpetrated by the president of the Canada JCI Senate. JCI stands for Jaycees International. It is an organization originally dedicated to training and preparing young men to take leadership roles in their societies.

            It has a beautiful creed.

            “We believe:

            That faith in God gives meaning and purpose to human life;

            That the brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations;

            That economic justice can best be won by free men through free enterprise;

            That government should be of laws rather than of men;

            That earth’s great treasure lies in the human personality and

            That service to humanity is the best work of life.”

            In my opinion, the president violated the line of the creed about government being of laws rather than men.

            It is supposed to mean that laws enacted by democratic legislatures govern us, not the whims of some autocratic ruler.

            The Canada JCI president sent an email to the Governor General, identifying himself as the Canada JCI president and saying he found the actions of the coalition “repugnant.”

            He also had the secretary of the organization send out a message to all the members suggesting they send a similar message of opposition to the Governor General.

            Not only did he violate the non-political policy of the association, he used his position as president to use the membership list and his title for his personal objectives.

            When I, and perhaps some others, brought this to his attention, he refused to have a different, neutral, message sent to the GG. He sent another message asking if the majority of JCI senators wanted him to resign.

            With the support of his board, and, he says, a majority of messages he received supporting his position, there will be no further distribution of information on the subject.

            To be fair, Canada Jaycees itself, like many volunteer men’s groups, is dying and many members, even the senators, have never had the training that would have taught them what a horror show has just occurred.

Sublime

            The sublime element of the Parliamentary crisis is that, right or wrong, the Governor General made a carefully considered decision and all Canadians, satisfied or not, will abide by it.

            People are outraged for and against Harper and for and against the coalition. That will translate into political consequences in the future.

            Parliamentary democracy is a magnificent construct.

Just us

          Having been in the US in November and the first 10 days of December, I was exposed to a barrage of news and opinion about the proposed bailout of the US automobile manufacturers.

            It was disconcerting to see politicians telling the manufacturers that, if they get help, they will be subject to strict rules of accountability and perhaps even an official “czar.”

            The implication was that the czar would pass judgment on whether the manufacturers were making the right kinds of cars for the present and future market. This idea, frankly, make me want to puke.

            Even if politicians or anyone they could appoint as czar could imaginably make any intelligent decisions about what cars the public should be driving and the manufacturers should be making, who can imagine that the public would obediently fork over their purchase dollars? That’s as stunned as when the Government of New Brunswick held a contest and judged the song we would all sing to express our love of our province.

            Sing me a couple of choruses of that, will you? No?

            Johnny “Trapper” Newman told me his dad used to say “There is no justice. There is just us.”

            I believe that is the root of the disaster in US car manufacturing.

            The companies manufactured the cars we would buy in a time when planned obsolescence made sense because technology and tastes changed so rapidly.

            Management employees signed agreements with labour employees, often under pressure or threats from governments to get the assembly lines moving again in the interests of the general economy.

            Citizens like you and me resisted the idea of increasing fuel taxes to encourage the use of smaller, more fuel efficient, cars. The US has not been self-sufficient in oil for decades, generations, and yet gas prices there are much less than in Canada and a fraction of what they are in Europe.

            In that pricing climate, what are manufacturers to do but give the public the size and power it wants?

            And let us not forget the biggest contributor to gasoline consumption. Government (taxpayer) financed superhighways made it feasible in terms of time to drive farther and farther every year to and from work and homes in suburbs.

            If gas prices were higher and roads smaller, gas consumption would be less and cars smaller and mass transit better utilized.

            But hey, surely all of those things were the fault of the Detroit manufacturers and unions, right?

            While we’re at it, we may as well blame Detroit for the sub prime mortgage debacle which devastated every kind of business including auto manufacturing. Surely it was not the politicians and that magical unseen (greedy, lying) hand of the market that tossed the struggling auto sector an anchor. We really need a punctuation mark for sarcasm, don’t we?

            Can you imagine my distaste for watching Congressmen and Senators sitting castigating the auto-manufacturing executive?

            It would be far more honest for all of us who ever complained about gas taxes or demanded better roads instead of railroads to cry mea culpa.

            There is no justice. There is just us.

Sublime/ridiculous weather

            So, Tuesday, December 9, in Florida, I was opening every door and window I could find to create enough cross ventillation to keep the temperature below 78 f so the air conditioning would not kick in. The pool temperature was 89 f.

            Friday, December 12, I drove Michelle to work in the morning so I could have her car. When I got back home, it seemed like a good idea to shovel all the slushy snow out of the walkway and from in front of the garage doors. If the temperature dropped, and it froze, it would be very nasty to try to remove.

            Perhaps an hour later, my feet were wet and cold. I was soaked from the rain and the exertion of shoveling wet, heavy slush. Ferry Road had been hit with a power outage. For those of us with our own wells, that means no shower.

            I took note of the contrast between Tuesday and Friday and was startled to realize I was still happy to be home.

            It is actually quite comical to realize how powerful is the pull family and friends and home have on you, especially at Christmas.

            It is ridiculous. It is sublime.

                                                                                                DAC