Scripturient

Taking credit for the work of others

A short while ago, I received an unsolicited email from the interim (and soon to be departing) CAO, John Brown, with the subject, “Ideas. Observations. Musings . Opinions . Facts ?” (yes, written just like that…). Although he says he never reads my blog, it inspired me to write this post. He wrote (copied in its original form and punctuation): I was wondering if you might be interested in the towns (sic) recent building permits statistics reflective of highly positive growth in the tax base during the recent past ? As you are aware from your time on council our financial position has ……… click below for more ↓

The Dude, the Tao and the Dharma

2017-08-13 2017-08-17 Atheism & Spirituality / Books & Reviews / Cults / Faith / Film & Reviews / Philosophy / Religion / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

I suppose it all began with Benjamin Hoff. Hoff was one of the first contemporary writers to attempt to distill Taoism in a lighthearted form for Westerners when he wrote The Tao of Pooh in 1981, a very successful book still in print. It was on the New York Times bestseller list for 49 weeks. A decade later, he followed with The Te of Piglet, less successful (its message somewhat diluted by Hoff’s extraneous political and social commentary) but also still in print. Not that Hoff was the first Westerner to attempt to explain Asian philosophy and religion. That goes ……… click below for more ↓

Thrasymachus and The Block

2017-08-09 2017-08-10 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

There’s a character in Plato’s Republic called Thrasymachus who acts as a foil to Socrates by presenting a series of comments and arguments the old philosopher has to debate and counter. He (Thrasymachus) is based on an actual historical figure, a Sophist from the fifth century BCE. It’s unknown if the views Plato has him voice are those of the real person, or simply a literary device to advance Socrates’ (and thus Plato’s) arguments. Of late, I’ve been reading Alan Bloom’s translation of The Republic. At the same time, I’m listening to the Great Courses 36-lecture series on Why Evil ……… click below for more ↓

Marcus Aurelius and The Block

2017-08-07 2017-08-07 Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Council / Ethics & morality / Ethics and behaviour / Philosophy / Stoicism & classical philosophyLeave a comment

Perhaps the most famous work by any Stoic is the Meditations, written as a series of notes-to-myself by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. I’ve been reading a lot of Stoic works of late, and this remains my favourite. Although never meant for publication, just as reminders to himself, it’s full of wonderful, inspiring comments. And some seem eerily prescient in our current municipal calamity. For example, Book Two opens with these words: Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ……… click below for more ↓

The strange life of Bobby Fischer

2017-07-22 2017-07-30 Books & Reviews / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Pop Culture / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

Forty five years ago this month, a momentous event took place in Iceland that shook the world. After 21 games spread over almost two months, the eccentric American chess master, Bobby Fischer, ended 24 years of Soviet dominance in chess after beating Soviet grandmaster, Boris Spassky. It shook the world at the apex of the Cold War. I watched it unfold, a memory I will always carry. Many years later, former Russian grandmaster, Garry Kasparov, commented, …in the Soviet Union, chess was treated by the Soviet authorities as a very important and useful ideological tool to demonstrate the intellectual superiority ……… click below for more ↓

Bullying the hospital again

2017-07-22 2017-07-23 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Hospital2 Comments

Brian Saunderson never seems to tire of creating conflict with our local hospital. When he’s not acting all lawerly and grilling the volunteer members of the board and its representatives like guilty suspects in a trial, he’s coming up with new ways to be confrontational and adversarial. All in a vain attempt to make it look like he, the town administration, and his sycophant Block minions are not the cause of the problem. Sneaky, Brian, but ineffectual. You, dear reader, know the truth. You’ve followed the story here, you’ve watched the hospital representatives being attacked and insulted by Brian and ……… click below for more ↓

Why hasn’t a new CAO been hired?

2017-07-20 2017-07-20 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Staff and administrationLeave a comment

The town was supposed to be hiring a new CAO, to replace John Brown, the unpopular interim CAO currently in the corner office. But although he’s supposed to be gone by September (I can hear you cheering now at that thought), that’s barely six weeks away. And we have heard nothing yet from council about his replacement. By now, a new one should have been in place. Announcements should have been made in the local media. But we’ve heard… nothing. Smells fishy? It’s as if The Block still intends to keep Brown on, to extend his contract for a third ……… click below for more ↓

Utter contempt at council

2017-07-19 2017-07-19 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Taxes / User fees and costsLeave a comment

Utter contempt. That’s what The Block showed for process at council, on Monday night. And for ethics. And for you, the residents. Utter contempt. But when they want to give benefits to their friends or themselves, boy do they rise to the occasion. Which of course they did, Monday. Anything for a buddy, no matter what negative effect it has on residents. No matter how it will exacerbate ill will in the community, or create bad feelings towards town hall. No matter what it will do to your insurance rates. As long as their friend gets his, who cares? As ……… click below for more ↓

The test of integrity

2017-07-12 2017-07-13 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Taxes / User fees and costs4 Comments

I’ve been complaining all this term that Collingwood’s standing committee system is broken. It is redundant, ineffective and expensive. It continues in use only because it was the brainchild of the interim CAO who The Block worship. But it is about to come under a test: one that will determine the integrity and ethics of both the system and The Block. On July 10, the Corporate and Community Services Standing Committee received a report on the services of Fire Marque, an insurance collection agency. The report was requested by Councillor Jeffrey, close friends (as are all of The Block) with ……… click below for more ↓

What will the secret EPCOR negotiations cost us?

2017-07-11 2017-07-11 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Utilities: electricity and waterLeave a comment

I was reading about the failed attempt by EPCOR – an Edmonton-based, for-profit corporation – to purchase half of Innisfil’s Power utility (InnPower) last year. Back in Sept., 2015, there was a story in the Barrie Examiner that noted: INNISFIL — Town council has approved the sale of 50% of InnPower (formerly Innisfil Hydro) to Edmonton-based EPCOR to create a new ‘strategic partnership’. At a public meeting to discuss the sale (remember public meetings and public engagement? Those are processes you got last term… this term it’s all about secrecy), PowerStream’s CEO, Brian Bentz commented on …the “exclusivity clause” in ……… click below for more ↓

Cultural appropriation is the new gluten free

2017-07-09 2017-07-09 Arts / Critical Thinking / Culture / Media / New Age Codswallop / Political fadsLeave a comment

Like food fads, political fads wax and wane as the gnat-like attention span of their followers gets diverted by the Next Big Thing. Political Correctness has of late given birth to Cultural Appropriation just like the gluten-free food fad gave rise to lectin-free food fad. All such fads are fuelled by the earnest desire of some people to avoid thinking and follow the crowd over the intellectual cliff. They’re not about analysis, research, and objectivity: they’re about being on the Latest Thing bandwagon. All fads teeter on a basic misapprehension; sometimes it’s a fabrication, other times a misunderstanding, and other ……… click below for more ↓

Square words

2017-07-02 2017-07-02 Books & Reviews / Fonts & Layout / Language & Grammar / TypographyOne Comment

Writing has been described as the most significant human invention. We tend to think of inventions as mechanical things, like the wheel, or fire, or the printing press, the airplane, the internal combustion engine or cell phone. But without writing, few of them would exist. Writing allowed us to share the others, to improve them, to record them, to pass them along and record them. Writing allows us to share ideas, emotions, visions, beliefs, stories, poetry and music through a series of abstract squiggles. Without writing there would be no literature, no religion, no philosophy, no songs, no politics. We ……… click below for more ↓

Assholes part two: Trump and his local mimics

2017-06-23 2017-06-25 Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

Back in 2014 I reviewed a book by philosophy professor Aaron James called Assholes. A Theory. I discussed how his study related to politics and politicians, particularly those who call themselves “A-type” personalities (including one or two on the local council). Well James wrote another book, really an addendum to this one, titled Assholes. A Theory of Donald Trump. It was smaller than your average paperback, and a mere 130 pages, perhaps 20,000 words long. And since it came out just before the 2016 presidential election, it really doesn’t deal with the startling number of asshole things – the many, ……… click below for more ↓

Brian the comedian

2017-06-22 2017-06-22 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & Satire / Municipal Politics / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

Following the success of Collingwood’s Comedy Duo, whose act has taken them on tour across the nation on the taxpayers’ dollar, our Deputy Mayor has entered the ring as our jester-du-jour. And since the Duo’s main act was sidelined recently by not being allowed to keep a snout into the FCM trough, it looks like Brian’s act may be the foremost comedy skit in the council burlesque. Who would have thought a lawyer could also be a clown? At a recent Council meeting (June 12, 2017) he had the audience in stitches with his new routines. And not just his ……… click below for more ↓

Small comfort from FCM

2017-06-06 2017-06-06 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / TaxesLeave a comment

Collingwoodites can take small comfort from the wisdom of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. I’ve been told that last week at its annual convention in Ottawa, FCM delegates failed to return our own Councillor Jeffery to their board of directors, possibly saving local taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars this term. Taxpayers will no longer have to pay the costs of her personal political ambitions with their hard-earned salaries. One less mouth sucking at the government tit. Or maybe not. Word is that the councillor is still pursuing her ambitions by trying to get appointed to a committee within FCM, ……… click below for more ↓