SubscribeGreg Maldonado, an awesome contact juggler who’s blog I read, posted [this](http://people.tribe.net/gregmaldonado/blog/9854bb3e-1e1b-425d-9be4-739ea316244c) reference to a BBC story about the changing face of politics.
Frightening stuff.
Archives for Rants category
Lately the world unrest has really had me very concerned. I hadn’t, until [today](http://digg.com/world_news/Newt_Gingrich_Says_It_s_World_War_III) heard anyone else liken all the unrest to “World War III”. But think about it for a minute.
– the conflict around Israel is more violent that I can recall.
– North Korea is lobbing around ICBMs like they’re hackie-sacks
– The US’s attack on the middle east (No I don’t agree with the convenient “war on terror” crap. It’s just an excuse that the fear-bound US populace will bite on.)
The potential for this all to explode beyond reason is floating in the air. I just hope that those who have the power and ability to avoid something this horrific are sharing my fears. For what it’s worth, I doubt Dubya is. 🙁
I don’t get it.
I didn’t understand when GWBush got re-elected south of the Boarder. I don’t understand the Canadian electorate bringing in a Concervative government w. a Liberal official opposition.
We, the people of the country called Canada, just wasted $300M on an election to return things to almost the status quoe. We’d best launch an investigation into this scandal and waste some more money. _sheesh!!!_
I guess the good news is that when Canada becomes the 51st state I’ll be able to work in the US without getting a work visa.
The Patriot Act is essential to fighting the war on terror and preventing our enemies from striking America again,” President Bush said in a statement praising the House vote. “In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment.”
Ok American people, let me rephrase: “You’re afraid, and so we, your gov’t, are going to take advantage of that to further erode your civil liberties”.
Talk about using terror constructively, at least for the administration.
I’m working on wiring in the house today and there’s a knock at the door. It’s a volunteer for the local NDP candidate soliciting votes/interest.
I’m polite and take her materials. She asks if I’m an NDP supporter and I say, no, I usually side with the Liberals. To which she asks “Why?”
I told the young lady, in a nice way, that it was really none of her business and excused myself to return to my wiring.
Now, the question is: am I over sensitive to being asked by a complete stranger why I support a specific party in the upcoming election? Seemed pretty nervy to me.
To the “Police State”. Lets face it here folks. Guns don’t kill people: people kill people. The Martin/Miller idea to make handgun ownership illegal is nothing new. It’s pretty much patently illegal to own a handgun in Ontario already and it’s damn near impossible to get the license to own one. Unless, of course, you belong to a shooting club and you get express permission to take your handgun from your home to the club along a defined route with no stops.
Handgun ownership of almost every kind would be illegal under the proposed “total” ban, which Liberal sources say would go further than any previous attempts to take guns out of people’s hands — whether criminals or simple collectors, whose guns are often the target of thieves.
Only police, security officers and a select few sport shooters would be allowed to own guns.
– Graham Fraser – see the entire article here
So what they’re saying is that they’re making illegal gun ownership *more* illegal? I don’t get it.
If I’m a criminal, or someone who really wants a handgun and I don’t give a damn about the legality of it, I can get one. It isn’t hard. If, on the other hand, I want to legally obtain a handgun the costs, process and investigations into my private life (not that I have anything to hide, but who wants people digging around) are unwieldy.
So, lots of political bluster equating to a preservation of the Status Quo. Guns are easy for criminals and impossible for good law abiding citizens who’d like to have the comfort of some home protection.
Wups… forgot… protecting one’s home in Ontario will land you in jail. Nice!
Looking at an event, a person can either be said to have succeeded or failed in achieving a goal. Looking at a lifetime, how does one judge? Ask yourself “I’m a success? Am I a failure?” I postulate that only YOU can answer that question.
I was thinking the other day about how people think of others and themselves as either (generically) a success or a failure. This is what I came up with.
The label of successful or failure is one that is applied by society or by our buying-in to society’s expectations of what we *should* be doing with our lives. So, for example, a person is typically thought of as being successful if they have a high-paying job, a big house, a nice car, nice stuff, money to go on vacations and spoil those around them. Conversely society will assign a label of failure on a person, if they haven’t “lived up to their potential”. This is, of course, all subjective from the perspective of the observer.
I realized in my pondering that the adjective “Successful” or “Failure” applied to one’s life is not particularily useful. Trying to apply these terms to yourself is always dependent on your frame-of-mind. If you’re in a positive mood, you’ll label yourself a success. If you’re down, you’ll call yourself a failure. These terms are really indiscriptive and both are harmful. Failure implies a negative end-state, success a positive end-state. Both imply and end-state. Not particularily useful if you’re still alive.
I came to the idea that while you’re alive and looking at your life in order to make corrections, the 2 drivers for your life should be the following : *contentment* and *fulfillment*. Unfortunately, these 2 terms are a little difficult to define wholistically in the way I intend.
Contentment… being happy and comfortable in your surroundings. Having food to eat, heat, clothes, etc… Of course, contentment can be lost through external influences and human nature. Things like greed or jealousy work against your contentment by confusing you into thinking that your contentment is dependent on others. Contentment, in many ways, speaks to an internal state.
Fulfillment… living your life in a way that touches others or makes us feel that our life has value beyond our own basic survival and comfort. Fulfillment, in many ways, speaks to accomplishment or actions that our external to ourselves.
A life that strives to be both content and fulfilled and also balanced, is one that I believe to be inwardly “successful”. Society, well, they can make their own call based on whatever expectations they want to place. But someone who is inwardly “successful” won’t care what society thinks.
At times contentment and fulfillment will be at odds with each other. In some cases this is avoidable, but it take a great deal of soul-searching and personal honesty to find these solutions. If you find yourself in a situation where your contentment and fulfillment seem to be at the opposite ends of the same scale, then a radical change is required to align them. Take the factory worker as an example: completely bought into the “game” they have a comfortable living. They probably aren’t mentally or spiritually challenged (at least not by their work) and the majority of the factory-workers I know, I believe, would say that they haven’t had a very fulfilling life. When they challenge themselves and put aside the things that they believe are bringing contentment (cable tv, cell phones, etc.) in favour of finding a path that balances the contentment and fulfillment then they start to have the balance that at the end-of-days makes them feel that they’ve accomplished something with their existence.
When you’re lying on your deathbed, preparing to breathe your last breath, will your 5000 sq. ft. home, BMW, and Armani suits comfort you or will the knowledge of your fulfilling life and your current content state be what you carry into the next realm?
I believe that if we all lived our lives with these 2 barometers to guide us, that the world would be a better place. Seek contentment and fulfillment everyday and in every way. It is your responsibility to yourself to do so.
—
I am still fleshing out this thought, input/discussion is welcome. I’ll probably edit this post or repost a more succinct outline when it has all taken shape in my [InternalMonoblog](http://www.internalmonoblog.com/)
I’m not a great fan of snow, honest! I’d much rather drive to snow than have to live in it for the winter; however, this snow heralds the coming of winter – our 1st winter in the city in our new house.
The last 5 winters we’ve spent in the “Great White North” where once the snow fell it remained until April. I’m looking forward to the more modulated winter climate of the Big Smoke. Sure, the snow will only be white for an hour or so after it falls (if that long), but typically a day or two after it falls, it’s gone, so I’ll take it.
With any luck, this year I’ll actually get out and enjoy some winter activities! Ron’s a ski’er, Matt’s a boarder, I ski and kind-of board, so hopefully between the 3 of us we manage to hit the hills at least a little this winter.
IHT.COM is running a story about a guy who is being charged with unauthorized access to a computer network (a 3rd degree felony) for using someone else’s *unsecured* wifi connection.
Now perhaps I’m oversimplifying this a bit, but… If I’m walking down the street and I come across a tray of cookies on a table at the end of someone’s driveway, I may be inclined to grab one. They’re being offered for free, it would seem.
I would apply the same thought pattern to using someone else’s *unsecured* wifi to access the Internet. There are quantities of documentation on the web telling consumers how to secure their WIFI node if they’re concerned about it being used by others. Failure to lock down your wifi access point, is in essence giving its use away for free. I feel this is especially true if the person using your access point is *only* using it to get access to the Internet and while on the ‘net they’re not doing anything bad (like spamming, etc.). Since most Internet consumers pay flat rate for their connection, the person donating the use of their WIFI access point is loosing nothing.
Nothing stolen = No crime.
Maxim, July 2005: …there are men and women overseas risking their lives so that you can access Web cams, buy Schlitz, and do every other morally-questionable-yet-still-legal thing that makes America fan-friggin’-tastic…
I don’t often read Maxim, but on occasion if I find it lying around I’ll take a flip through it. Why not? Who doesn’t like tripe every now and then, right? Anyhow, today I’m flipping through a copy while upon the throne and come across the abovementioned quote.
I have to ask: Do Americans (the USA variety, not the North American, or South American type) actually believe this? Do you/they actually believe that what people are being injured for and dying for in the Middle East has anything to do with the way of life in the ‘states?
I’ll be the 1st to admit that the attack against the ‘states that was the Twin Towers was unexpected and horrific, but the “Allied Forces” are not even in the country that housed the people at blame for the attack. There are no weapons of mass distruction, no bio-weapons plants, and they’ve brought in everyone and their brother, but still no Osama. It’s clear to the rest of the world that the USA is giving the middle East even more reason to hate them. Why can’t the USA see that? I predict that in 10-15 years there’ll be another attack, similar to the Twin Towers and all the Americans will be wondering “why do they hate us so?”. Well, let me tell you why. 10-15 years ago the USA and their “Coalition of the Willing” rolled tanks through the attackers’ villages, kill their parents, etc. etc. etc… It certainly doesn’t take much thought to see how this is going to play out.
While I’m on my Canadian Anti-USA rant, let me add a sidebar thought about the good ol’ boy President south of the border…
Today, Mr. Bush had the audacity to publically make the following statements (I nearly sprayed coffee through my nose when I read them):
Iran is ruled by men who suppress liberty at home and spread terror across the world,” he said in a statement released by the White House.
Mr. Bush, please, take a look in your own back yard. You have mass troups half-way around the world spreading your own form of fear and destruction. Maybe the West isn’t calling you a terrorist (to your face), but I can pretty much guarantee that the people in the Middle East who’s lands and rights you’re trampling are calling you a Terrorist (with a capital T).
US President George W Bush has criticised the presidential election taking place in Iran on Friday as ignoring the demands of democracy.
Ever heard of a hanging-chad? How about the situation in your 1st election where a huge portion of the Florida populus couldn’t vote? _Ignoring the demands of democracy_, indeed!
Maybe there aren’t any mirrors in the White House… that’d explain it.