2016 – Scripturient

Thank you and Happy New Year

2016-12-31 2017-01-01 Blog & Blogging / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

Twenty seventeen will arrive one second later than expected, thanks to the addition of a leap second added to balance the atomic clocks with the Earth’s actual time. One more second for my readers to browse, I suppose, although 2016 was such an awful year that few folks want it to stay around any longer. One more second of Donald Trump or Brexit is unbearable for most of us, but there it is. For my readership, however, 2016 was good; the number of visitors was up 15% overall from 2015 and continues to climb. Thank you, everyone: I hope my ……… click below for more ↓

On growing old

2016-12-29 2016-12-30 Books & Reviews / Philosophy / Stoicism & classical philosophy / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

No man is so old that he does not think himself able to live another year. (Nemo enim est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse vivere) I was thinking of that line from Cicero this week when I attended a friend’s drop-in post-Christmas party. Most of the many people in attendance were my age or older. Few were under 50. All were active, engaged, alert, conversing and despite the relentless march of time, as alive that evening as they had ever been in their lives. And I suspect most, like me, believe they have many more years, even ……… click below for more ↓

The vulgar crowd

2016-12-27 2016-12-27 Culture / Poetry & Lyrics / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

Profanum vulgus. The vulgar crowd. Not, however, as you might suspect, an apt description of the remaining few supporters of The Block that rules Collingwood Council. While perhaps appropriately described, to me that small handful are better described as naïve, gullible and even intellectually vulnerable, moreso than merely vulgar. But that’s not what this post is about. Odi profanum volgus et arceo. The words open the first ode in Horace’s third book (Carminum Liber Tertius): I shun the profane crowd. Or the uninitiated crowd. The rabble, or mob. As A.S.Kline translates it: I hate the vulgar crowd, and keep them ……… click below for more ↓

TEOTWAWKI, New Year’s Eve

2016-12-26 2016-12-24 Balderdash & Hoaxes / Christianity / Conspiracy Theories / Critical Thinking / Faith / New Age CodswallopLeave a comment

Some religious wingnuts aren’t planning to celebrate the ringing in of the New Year, 2017. Nope: they’re going to await the arrival of their zombie deity who, one can only suppose, will be bringing the champagne to his own party when he returns from the dead. The end of the world party, of course. And another day that, for the rest of us, will pass by with nothing happening, end-of-the-world-deity-arising-wise. According to a story in Christian Today (which judging by the click-bait ad content and non-stop video ads is not all that serious about its religion but sure likes the ……… click below for more ↓

More council Christmas carols

2016-12-24 2016-12-24 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & SatireLeave a comment

A few preliminary verses for your consideration this holiday season… perhaps my readers might like to offer their contributions or extend the verses below. To the tune of The Holly and the Ivy: The folly of our council, So evident to see Fumble, flail and bumble Of this we all agree. O the rising of our taxes And consultants not a few The lawyers that they hired Block vendettas to see through. To the tune of: We Three Kings of Orient Are: We the Block of Council votes are Conflicts of interest we bring from afar Sell our airport, sell ……… click below for more ↓

Council’s 12 Days of Christmas

2016-12-22 2016-12-22 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & SatireLeave a comment

On the first day of Christmas my council gave to me: An interim CAO. On the second day of Christmas, my council gave to me: Two tax hikes, And an interim CAO. On the third day of Christmas, my council gave to me: Three sole-sourced contracts, two tax hikes, And an interim CAO. On the fourth day of Christmas, my council gave to me: Four integrity investigations, three sole-sourced contracts, two tax hikes, And an interim CAO. On the fifth day of Christmas, my council gave to me: Five insults to the CGMH, four integrity investigations, three sole-sourced contracts, two ……… click below for more ↓

Godless – The Truth Beyond Belief

2016-12-20 2016-12-20 Atheism & Spirituality / Christianity / Critical Thinking / Faith / History & Biography / Religious intoleranceOne Comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfwuvMpmQJM “Godless – The Truth Beyond Belief” investigates one of the last frontiers in civil liberties and human rights: Atheism. So reads the opening sentence on the website of a new film about atheism and society. It asks, “can you be good without god?” Well, yes, you can. That’s the whole point of secular humanism, philosophy and the entire Buddhist faith. Morality is a choice we make, not a divine command. It also hides another question within its folds: can you be good and still have free will? If you need a god to be good, that suggests you don’t have ……… click below for more ↓

Council’s report card: Year 2, part 1

2016-12-18 2016-12-18 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & Satire / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

As we reach the end of our Council’s second year in office, halfway through its mandate, it is time again to assess the collective performance and list the accomplishments of our elected officials. To avoid accusations of egregious negativity, I will list council’s accomplishments first. And to avoid further accusations of meandering through overly long diatribes (mea culpa, I do ramble a bit…), I will split this post into two pieces. The good (this post) and the bad (a subsequent post). For a historical comparison, you might wish to refer to my analysis of council’s first year prior to reading ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood’s own Gong Show, part 2

2016-12-17 2016-12-18 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Utilities: electricity and waterOne Comment

As promised, here is the second part of the Gong Show analysis from December 12th’s council meeting. Like I said earlier, it’s perhaps more like a Keystone Cops or Abbott and Costello skit than the TV show. As always, you can follow along on the Rogers Community TV broadcast, starting at 2:16:30. Laugh aloud at the zany, misinformed antics of your elected representatives as they fumble and stumble their way through an agenda of items they clearly have no clue about. You should start with part 1 of my review, if you haven’t already read it. And by the end of ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood’s own Gong Show, part 1

2016-12-15 2016-12-15 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Taxes / User fees and costs / Utilities: electricity and waterOne Comment

Has there ever been a more inept, ineffective group at the council table in Collingwood? Certainly not in the 26 years I’ve been here. Not in the dozen years I covered it for the media, not in the 11 years I served on council have I seen anything so comical. Rogers TV really should put a laugh track on their broadcasts of council meetings. They could call it the Gong Show – had that name not already been taken by a more serious TV show. But until then, you should watch the December 12, 2016 meeting. You’ll roar, you’ll chuckle, ……… click below for more ↓

Eheu fugaces, Postume…

2016-12-14 2016-12-14 Books & Reviews / Classical period / Classics / Culture / History & Biography / Poetry & Lyrics / What I'm Reading Now4 Comments

Alas, Postumus, the swift years slip away. Those words are one translation of the opening line of the 14th Ode in the second book of Horace’s carminas, or songs: Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume/labuntur anni… * For me, it’s his most moving piece, a bittersweet acceptance of mortality; the inevitability of age and death. Something no one in his or her sixties cannot help but think about. And about which Horace wrote several times. Many of Horace’s poems are moving; very down to earth. His most touching odes read not so much as poetry meant for a wide audience, but rather ……… click below for more ↓

Collus share bid received

2016-12-12 2021-05-15 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Utilities: electricity and water3 Comments

My sources tell me PowerStream submitted a bid to purchase the town’s share of the Collus-PowerStream utility, late on Friday, December 9. While the amount was not stated, I am told it is a “very fair” bid. This is so far going as I predicted in my earlier post. PowerStream paid $8 million cash for half the share in 2012 (with another $6.4 million coming through Collus from notes and recapitalization), but since then The Block and town administration gutted the board (twice), joyfully ruined the shared services agreement, and happily took away the water side thus reducing the utility’s revenue ……… click below for more ↓

A Cup of Mao Jian

2016-12-12 2021-02-25 Food & Drink / History & Biography / Tea & coffeeLeave a comment

The tea bag is an example of remarkable serendipity; an unexpected, simple invention that changed the world. But it was entirely unintended. Tea, from the camelia sinenis tree, is the most popular beverage in the world after water, and the most popular hot beverage period. Before the tea bag appeared, barely over a century ago, all tea was sold loose. Today more than 90% is sold in bags (if you include tisanes, or herbal “teas” that figure is about 70%*). For what is arguably the most popular drink in the world, that’s quite a change in a few decades. At ……… click below for more ↓

Stumbling towards the utility’s demise

2016-12-10 2016-12-10 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Utilities: electricity and water2 Comments

This week, Collingwood Council met in a special meeting to discuss an request from its utility partner, PowerStream, to waive some conditions of the shareholder agreement. This meeting appears to have been called by the interim CAO, which seems to me to usurp the mayor’s authority, but we know the administration – in partnership with The Block – has long been pulling the strings in this town to serve its own ends. Plus the meeting was held mid-day at the fire hall; a time and location that appears intended to deter both public and media presence. Well while the public ……… click below for more ↓

Those pesky costs The Block forgot to mention

2016-12-09 2016-12-09 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / User fees and costs / Utilities: electricity and waterOne Comment

Who sends out your water bills? Collus-PowerStream. It’s all part of the shared services agreement. Yes, that simple little agreement that for 15 productive, cooperative years linked our water and electrical utilities with mutual resources. That same agreement The Block dismantled and handed over to the interim CAO two years ago to rewrite and update. A 30-minute job that still hasn’t been completed. And never will be. Who takes the data from the meters, calculates the charges, prints and folds the bills, inserts them into envelopes and puts them through the postage meter? Collus-PowerStream. Who handles the automatic payments, the ……… click below for more ↓