Social Disorder

ODTV Update

2009-07-11T21:40:00.004-04:00

ODTV has finally got its own IRC server at irc.odtv.me. Right now the only channel you can join is #odtv. The purpose of this is to allow us to discuss ODTV business without disturbing the people on #twitlive at irc.twit.tv.

Right now at ODTV we're working on getting ready for the video which will be provided to us by the TWiT cottage. They're going to be giving ODTV access to high quality video which we will in turn transcode to a high and low quality copy. We're going to be doing this almost entirely off of an Amazon EC2 instance which makes things convenient.

We're also working on a site redesign which will be launched sometime after we get the high quality videos going. Long story short, odtv.me is going to look a hell of a lot better. Its taken a while to get these changes going (since March) due to certain constraints at the TWiT cottage end, but we're finally getting it done.

The New ODTV

2009-03-17T22:17:00.003-04:00

Several people have been wondering what's going to be happening to ODTV with the introduction of bitgravity. Currently the hope is to completely automate the system using Amazon's EC2. This shouldn't be difficult to implement. We already have a working implementation running on a virtual machine (Ubuntu 8.04) and pretty much all it uses is ffmpeg 0.5.

What we're going to do is set up ODTV to automate the conversion to an mp4. This will be done with cooperation from TWiT LLC who plan on making good quality flv's available to us to work with. This process will be considerably faster than the current method and will create a higher quality end product. I also plan on creating a wiki entry on The Official TWiT Wiki describing how this entire process is done which will hopefully allow people to do this from their own homes with ease.

Goodbye Browser, Hello ChoqoK

2009-03-17T20:57:00.005-04:00

I've been doing a little more work on the search implementation in ChoqoK today. The goal is to be able to use ChoqoK as much as possible instead of having to open the browser to complete a task. Daniel Schaal improved this greatly when he submitted his patch to open a search query window when a user clicks on a hash tag, group name or user name.

The last annoyance I was having was with the "in reply to" link in the signature line of statuses. Currently this opens a browser window, so there is currently no way to view the replied to status (besides searching through messages to or from the user). I implemented a fairly simple fix which should help resolve this pet peeve of mine. It enables searching for single statuses in the search query window and allows this to be emitted from the main window when you click on the "in reply to" link.

Some ChoqoK Stuff

2009-03-16T04:00:00.006-04:00

I contributed some code to an open source project called choqoK a couple of weeks ago in order to allow it to search both Twitter and Laconi.ca sites for statuses matching certain criteria. Yesterday during the shuttle launch I wanted to see how up to date the tweets were compared to the actual event. It was surprisingly current. I think this feature will make a nice addition to version 0.5.

I seem to like this project because before I used it there wasn't really a Twitter client for GNU/Linux that I liked. This was the first one I found that I felt actually made micro-blogging more convenient than just going to the websites. If you get a chance I recommend giving it a try.

Higher Education In Canada

2008-12-13T01:02:00.001-05:00

Education should be a top priority of any enlightened society. Unfortunately in Canada, we're allowing the cost of a post-secondary education to grow out of the reach of the poor and working classes. Why is it that states like Sweden are capable of offering free college educations to its citizens while Canada allows tuition costs to grow out of control, increasing student debt and even preventing people from getting a higher education at all? If Diogenes Laërtius is correct and "The foundation of every state is the education of its youth", then Canada's foundation is cracked.

Tuition fees have more than tripled within the last 17 years, far outpacing the rate of inflation in this country. It costs an undergrad student in Canada approximately $4,500 per year for tuition costs alone. Factor in books, residence and other fees it's no surprise that Canadian students are leaving college with colossal amounts of debt to pay off. If this trend continues and the federal and provincial governments continue to turn a blind eye it's going to leave the poor unable to acquire a university education without also acquiring crushing debt which will follow them for the majority of their lives.

Like Sweden, Canada should be providing free post-secondary education to any citizen that desires it. This means building more universities and hiring staff to operate these institutions. It's not the cheapest endeavour this country has ever embarked on, but it's certainly a noble one. A free education means more doctors and nurses for our hospitals, more teachers for our primary and secondary classrooms and more skilled labour across the board. A quality education is the greatest gift we can give to future generations of this country. If we continue down this same path they will not receive one.

Harper's Weakening Of Our Rights

2008-12-10T03:26:00.001-05:00

Over the last several weeks it has become clear that the Prime Ministers goal, rather than fixing our economy or reforming our senate has been to ensure future Conservative election victories and increase the power of the Prime Ministers office. He doesn't attempt to ensure future victories by presenting popular legislation or create a more amicable parliament like he promised to during the election campaign. Instead the first goal of his party is to attack the opposition parties he promised to work with by attempting to eliminate vote subsidies, a system where a political party is given $1.95 for every vote it receives to subsidize campaigning costs. This was the very first initiative undertaken by the new Conservative government, putting its own agenda ahead of the needs of the Canadian people.

The opposition parties reacted to this governments divisive initiative the only way they possibly could. They formed a coalition to defeat Harper's short-sighted and selfish agenda. Besides the transparent swipe at the opposition parties with the elimination of voter subsidies, the opposition is more worried about the attacks on their constituents rights. Under the Harper agenda all federal employees would be prohibited from striking until 2011, essentially forbidding their use of collective bargaining. The Harper agenda also attacks the rights of women, denying them the ability to appeal pay equity disputes with their employer to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The Prime Minister, along with his loyal talking heads proceeded to create vicious lies about how this coalition was an attempt at coup and how it was undemocratic. My own Member of Parliament, Bev Shipley, a backbencher accustomed to spewing nothing but party talking points joined in and repeated those same lies in an open letter to his constituency, as did many other Conservative M.P.'s across the country. The Conservatives spent a great deal of time and money manufacturing outrage over the formation of this coalition, time they neglected to spend on creating a plan to sustain our economy.

After days of the Conservatives feigning shock at a coalition they created with their unpopular legislation and utter disrespect for parliament, the Prime Minister announced he would be addressing the country in a pre-recorded television address. The address clearly had high production values and showed the Prime Minister sitting at his desk speaking in a nice, smooth, reassuring voice. What was lacking from this appearance however was substance. The Prime Minister presented no plan of action, which was what the Canadian people were expecting, but used the televised address as a showcase to present the same tired arguments he had been repeating ad nauseam for days on end.

When the Prime Ministers address ended it was time for the coalition rebuttal, delivered by the Liberal leader Stéphane Dion. Due to a misunderstanding on what video format was to be used and mistakes by technicians at the networks, the coalition rebuttal was delivered twenty minutes late and in poor quality. What this video lacked in quality however, it made up for in substance. Unlike the Prime Minister, the Liberal leader was capable of presenting a logical argument. It didn't really matter what Mr. Dion said in his video address though, because that wasn't going to be the topic of news in the following days. No, the topic was going to be about the videos quality and tardiness, because an argument is just not an argument unless it's presented on a crystal clear 1080p wide screen LCD and a Dolby Digital 6.1 surround sound stereo system. It seems that the news media made a bigger deal about the production values of the videos than points which were being made.

This brings us up to the biggest travesty in this political drama. On December 4th Stephen Harper requested that parliament be prorogued until January 26th and the Governor General granted his request. This allowed Harper's government to avoid a confidence vote which would have taken place on December 9th where the Conservatives would have been defeated. As it stands now the legislation which was to be voted on will die on the order table. This will give the coalition a chance to defeat the Conservative government during the confidence vote on the speech from the throne, assuming of course it doesn't fall apart by then. I can't begin to tell you how dangerous this precedent the Governor General set could be. Using this precedent, any Prime Minister of a minority government can simply have parliament prorogued to avoid a no-confidence motion.

Harper's strategy is simple. He's biding his time in the hope that the coalition will lose support and fall apart. Dion has since agreed to step down as the leader of the Liberal party and Michael Ignatieff should be confirmed for the leadership position sometime later today. The other candidate which was vying for the leadership of the party was Bob Rae, the former Premier of Ontario. Bob Rae dropped out of the race yesterday in order to promote party unity. Harper and the Conservatives hope that this new Liberal leadership will cause a schism in the Liberal caucus, either tearing the coalition apart or making it so volatile that the Governor General wouldn't consider allowing them to form the government.

On January 26th, if the coalition does not hold together and Harper is allowed to continue with his right wing agenda, Canada is going to be in a very bad predicament. We will have a government that's more focused on increasing its own power than helping Canadians get through this recession. Don't think that they will stop at removing collective bargaining rights from federal employees, they will come after you and your rights as soon as they are capable of doing so. This is a party that clearly has no regard for the rights of Canadians based on their "economic update" during this parliament and also their shameful campaign against equal rights for gays during the 38th parliament. We need to support this coalition government and show Harper and his ilk that most of the country didn't vote for his far right agenda, that he has no mandate and that we have no confidence in his ability to lead our country. We need change, so write your M.P., write your local newspapers and talk to your friends and family and demand that change.

The Liberal Leadership

2008-12-09T01:41:00.001-05:00

Stéphane Dion, the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada announced on Monday that he is stepping down from his position as leader of the opposition. Originally he had planned to stay until the Liberals selected a new leader in May, but due to wide spread unpopularity amongst Canadians and dissension in his own party he has agreed to step aside after the party is able to select a successor before parliament begins on January 26th.

There were three candidates vying for the Liberal leadership; Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae and Dominic LeBlanc. LeBlanc dropped out of the leadership race after Dion announced his intention to step down and gave his support to Michael Ignatieff. This leaves Ignatieff as the likely successor if the Liberals go through with their plan to select the new leader based on a vote by the Liberal caucus. Bob Rae is strongly opposed to the new leader being selected solely by the Liberal caucus, however. Rae has called for a leadership vote by all members of the Liberal party in order to select Dion's successor.

Whatever the outcome it is certainly clear that the Liberals are the weak link in this coalition agreement. Dion is unpopular amongst Canadian voters and the Liberal Party needs a more charismatic and popular leader if it's going to have a chance of forming the government, let alone face an election. Come January 26th we should know who the new leader will be and whether or not this coalition will hold together. We can only hope it will.

Ontario's Poverty Reduction Strategy

2008-12-09T01:39:00.001-05:00

Recently The Ontario Liberal Party introduced the "Child Poverty Reduction Strategy" which boasts a twenty-five percent reduction in child poverty over a period of five years. This strategy, as the name infers, applies mostly to children and families, but does nothing to address those in poverty who do not have children. This may be a moot point however as the Ontario government has pointed out that this strategy, limited in scope as it is, will still fail under the current economic conditions. The strategy hinges on the belief that the parents of poverty stricken children will be able to find new jobs, and being in a recession there are fewer and fewer of those to be had.

What we need in Ontario is a real plan to do something about poverty. We don't need a watered down "strategy" with an uplifting name which is doomed to failure. We need a plan which will help eliminate poverty in our generation, not the next. What we need is a plan which will provide us with affordable housing in decent condition and more public shelters. We don't need to just increase the minimum wage, but refine its definition. The minimum wage needs to be dynamic and increase with inflation rates. We need to stop treating the homeless like criminals and repeal laws like the Safe Streets Act which do just that.

A Poverty Reduction Strategy designed to alleviate poverty in decades is a flawed endeavour. We need to focus on eliminating poverty now and we can't wait however many years for this economy to pick up to do it. We're about to be faced with even larger amounts of people living in poverty, even larger amounts of people who will require social assistance. We need to meet the needs of these people and ensure that we all have the essentials we need to survive; shelter, clean water and food. This recession simply stresses the need for social services that this province has been neglecting for years. We need a plan to address all poverty in this province and we need to follow through on it as soon as we possibly can.

The Catholic Church Opposes Decriminalization of Homosexuality

2008-12-08T03:38:00.001-05:00

On December tenth a resolution will be submitted to the United Nations stating that homosexuality should be decriminalized in member states. This resolution is intended primarily for the 85 states where homosexuality is still punishable by imprisonment, torture, or even death. It would be hard to to find a reason to oppose bigotry, torture and murder, but somehow the Catholic Church found a way, through a convoluted statement made by Monsignor Celestino Migliore, Vatican spokesperson for the United Nations. He says, "If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations ... For example, states which do not recognize same-sex unions as 'matrimony' will be pilloried and made an object of pressure."

The Catholic Church's argument against this resolution is in essence that if you decriminalize homosexuality, gays will no longer be punished for being gay. This will lead to them being emboldened and even doing things as heinous as demanding equal rights under the law. On the other hand, if gays are imprisoned and murdered then the Catholic Church doesn't have to worry about them marrying. Apparently the latter is the preferable scenario for the Vatican.

It strikes me as odd of the Catholic Church to take this stance. It seems almost hypocritical of them. The Vatican doesn't seem to have a problem with what they consider to be sexual deviancy being practised by their rank and file. In fact, they go through great lengths and great expense to protect paedophile priests and keep them working around children, while at the same time trying to keep the families of the victims quiet. I say that the Catholic Church give up this fight against the decriminalization of homosexuality in sovereign states, and focus on the criminalization of paedophilia in the clergy.

A Canadian Republic

2008-12-07T17:42:00.001-05:00

Canadians have finally started to take more of an interest in their democratic rights. In fact, I keep hearing people on both sides of the coalition argument stating that they're trying to protect our democracy from the other. My question to both sides of the argument is this: What democracy? We live in a country where our senate is completely appointed and the office of the head of state is filled by the reigning King or Queen of the hereditary monarchy in England. Neither the senate or crown promote our democratic rights. In fact, they both hinder it. Our American brothers and sisters broke from the crown over 230 years ago, forming a republic in which legislative and executive positions were filled by elected citizens of their state. It's time that Canada followed the queue of the United States and formed a republic where we elect the entirety of our legislative bodies and are not beholden to a foreign crown.

Unlike prior to and during the American Revolution, republicanism is no longer considered an extreme, revolutionary belief by any standard. The English monarchy has been degraded to the point where the crown acts almost purely as a figurehead as well as a tourist attraction. As a figurehead there is relatively little danger in what this monarch can do, but the problem lies in what this monarchy represents. This monarchy represents a time where dictatorship and tyranny were considered the status quo, where common people lived under the subjugation of a social class which believed it had a god given right to rule. The monarchy represents the dictatorship our ancestors were forced to live under for centuries. We're at a point where the masses are completely capable of governing without the involvement of a figurehead representing a barbaric and tyrannical tradition. We've been at that point for quite a long time, in fact.

Senate reform has been an issue in Canada since the turn of the previous century. The Senate of Canada is based off of the English House of Lords. All members of the senate are appointed rather than elected by the Canadian people. Once appointed a senator can govern until he or she reaches an age of 75. Every party which currently sits in the House of Commons (if the House of Commons were sitting) have expressed an interest in reforming or abolishing the Canadian Senate. The Conservative Party has proposed a solution which limits senators terms to eight years. They also say they want to introduce "direct elections" to the senate appointment process in which Canadians elect senators and the Prime Minister, on his honour will agree to but not be bound to appoint senators based on these election results. In what sense this can be considered a "direct election" I have no idea. It's still a very undemocratic solution. The New Democratic Party has introduced what I believe is the best solution to this problem; the abolition of the senate, leaving us with one legislative body which is elected by the Canadian people.

I for one support the abolition of both the crown and the senate in favour of a more democratic approach to governance. Neither the Conservative approach to senate reform or what we currently have gives us complete freedom to govern ourselves. We need to eliminate all non-elected governing bodies in our country and reform the ones we do have to better represent the will of the people. We need to send a message to the world that dictatorships, even reduced to nothing more than state tradition are not acceptable to free thinking people. A free state should not be afraid to sever its ties to an oppressive past in order to promote the liberty of its people. Canada should not be afraid of becoming a democratic republic.

Christian Bookmark

2008-12-06T23:30:00.004-05:00

I came across a scan of a bookmark today which appears to have been handed out by the office of Bev Shipley, M.P. For Lambton-Kent-Middlesex. It reads as follows:

Happy Canada Day!

From
Bev Shipley, M.P.
Lambton Kent Middlesex
www.bevshipley.ca
1-800-586-4614

1 Timothy 2:2 – Pray for all who are in authority.
Pray that we will live peaceful and quiet lives.
And pray that we will be godly and holy.

Please Pray for:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Members of Parliament
Opposition Parties and their leaders
Provincial Members of Parliament & their leaders
Municipal Government & their leaders
As your Member of Parliament I covet your prayers that we may lead according to the Spiritual Foundation Upon which our country was founded.

Conservative Party of Canada

A scan of this bookmark can be found here.

For those interested in that biblical verse Mr. Shipley quoted on his bookmark, I would like to point out that that chapter goes on to say “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety”

The oddest thing about this bookmark is in the last little blurb when he says, "As your Member of Parliament I covet your prayers." For those of us who know what the word covet means this statement doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm not sure how one would go about coveting a prayer.

The Short Parliament of King Stephen

2008-12-06T13:38:00.000-05:00

In 1640 King Charles I of England was forced to recall parliament for the first time since it had been dissolved 11 years earlier. He was forced to call this session to fund his war, but The House of Commons was reluctant to provide these funds. It seems that Charles introduced quite a few unpopular reforms during his reign. Charles attempted to address a major grievance by ceasing to collect a tax which was not approved by parliament. This was not enough to impress The House. The grievances were too great and it became clear that The House was not going to bend to this kings whim. King Charles I ended up dissolving parliament after only three weeks. This session came to be known as The Short Parliament of King Charles I.

We then move forward to 2008 to the 40th Parliament of Canada and see a similar situation. Here we have a government which introduced very unpopular, very divisive legislation which they knew full well wouldn't be accepted by the opposition parties. They introduced this legislation after grandstanding on the idea of working with the opposition during “this period of economic uncertainty.” So like King Charles I of England being denied the funding for his war, Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party were denied their unpopular right wing agenda which includes (among other things); suspending the right of federal employees to strike, removing the right for women to appeal pay equity disputes and the elimination of vote subsidies to federal political parties.

Like Charles, Stephen has decided that a parliament that doesn't bow to his whim is not worth having. He requested the Governor General dissolve this body to avoid a confidence vote he knew he would lose. The Governor General went ahead and set a very dangerous precedent by granting his request and prorogued parliament after only three weeks. This precedent will allow the Prime Minister of any minority government to simply lock the doors of The House and refuse to allow a vote whenever they are afraid they will lose their grasp on power. This is the legacy of the Short Parliament of King Stephen; the weakening of our democracy.

Open Letter to Chatham-Kent-Middlesex

2008-12-05T17:55:00.001-05:00

This letter is in response to comments made by Bev Shipley in an open letter to the riding of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex on December 4, 2008. The text of this letter can be viewed at http://www.bevshipley.ca/EN/4866/77681

I would like to take a moment to tell you about the dishonest language being used by the Conservative Party of Canada and of Bev Shipley, MP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex. On December 4, 2008 Bev Shipley posted an open letter to his constituency regarding a proposed coalition government between the Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party. I would like to discuss some of the language Mr. Shipley uses to describe this coalition.

The first piece of language that strikes me as odd is the repeated use of the term "separatist coalition.” The agreement to form a coalition government was made between the Liberal Party and the NDP, not the Liberals, NDP and Bloc. The Bloc has agreed to support the coalition government for a period of 18 months. They are in no way a part of the coalition. Referring to this alliance as a “separatist coalition” is nothing more than a form of scaremongering and is completely out of touch with reality. To use an example; If the Conservative government were being propped up solely by the support of the Bloc, would that make it a separatist government? This is what happened in the 39th Parliament and I didn't hear many complaints from the Conservatives or Bev Shipley then. It's quite simple; If the Bloc supporting the Conservatives isn't a separatist government then neither is the Bloc supporting the coalition.

Several times in his letter Mr. Shipley refers to this coalition as undemocratic. Either he is unfamiliar with our Westminster Parliamentary System, or he's toeing the party line and is simply lying to his constituents. A coalition government is completely legal. It does not “nullify the votes of the Canadian people.” It is not a coup and it is certainly not “undemocratic” as is claimed by Mr. Shipley and the Conservative government. In a Westminster Style Parliament it is possible for two or more parties to agree to form the government in the event that the existing government has lost the confidence of The House. To call such a coalition undemocratic demonstrates a disturbing misunderstanding by Mr. Shipley of how our democracy works.

There's more language in his letter which I consider dishonest, but those two examples are the main talking points of the Conservative government and are complete farces. They chastise the coalition because it will be propped up by the Bloc, while their last government was propped up by that very same party. They speak of an undemocratic coalition while their government effectively locks the doors of parliament when they are afraid they are going to lose a vote of confidence. This is not a government deserving of our support or respect. The Conservative government and our MP have lied to the Canadian people. We need to send a message to them saying that lying to constituents is not acceptable. We need to tell them that as they have lost the confidence of The House, they have lost the confidence of the Canadian public. You owe it to yourselves to elect a representative that understands our democracy and will not let their short-sighted political agenda stand in the way of what is best for Canada. Please, at the next opportunity vote out Mr. Shipley and elect an honest man or woman to represent you. Honesty is a trait we've gone without in our representatives for far too long.