Bad Bad HST

August 26th, 2011 Thomasso

This morning as I was driving into work, I had the radio tuned to CBC Radio One, and I was listing to Premier Christy Clark Talking about the results of the HST Referendum. What was odd, from my point of view, was her focus on the “Plan B.” This was odd because the results were not yet released, and she was talking about her pending defeat four hours before the results were to be released. Suspicious, but she is government, so sure; I’m sure hundreds of people knew well before the release of the results.

So I as listened to her babel on about how the government is going to listen to the people and obey the results, it dawned on me that it does not matter. The tax, whether this one, or a new one, the likelihood of an increase is inevitable because the government only needs to ramp up the old PST to match revenue lost from the HST—so simple—and yet so true. As taxed beaten as we are now, I believe we have not seen anything yet. Sure the voters dealt a shot over the bow of the Liberal’s ship, but they hold us hostage with their majority government in Victoria.

As news officially hit the Twittervers that the HST was overwhelmingly voted out of existence, my colleagues, most from the political right, were somewhat confused. It is funny because, they choose the HST because it was the best out of the two evils for them, yet, fighting in favour of a tax goes against every fibre of their been. It was cute to see because, as our accountant put it, “what does this mean…?”

Like good sports, they all agreed that they were going to put their faith into the government, and they hoped that the next eighteen months would be a smooth one for them. Yes, “faith in government…?”

My take on this—I am glad that the British Columbia Government got a taste of the voter anger from the 1.6 million voters who took the time to mail in their ballots. With 54.73 voting to scrap the HST, not for one second was this referendum about the practicality and good government management of the HST and its affairs. This was about a sloppy, megalomaniac Premier who resigned because he lied to the people of whom he represented. This was a vengeance vote, a vote directed at the confidence of the government by its people. I was stunned when the tax appeared back then, right after I heard our leader say at the time that he would not implement the HST. So now, here we are, as one of the only jurisdictions that have recall legislation, we used this valuable tool at our own government, and it seems to be a bitter pill to swallow, but for most us, this was the medicine that we needed.

Do I regret what we have done?

Not really. I see a silver lining out of all this. As a consumer, my buying habits have change a lot since the 2009 meltdown. Buying gas in the US, shopping for bargains and making due with less, has already created a more adaptable environment based on living with the HST. Reverting back to the old style PST only means that old customs of living will easily become reacquainted ones again. I think businesses who are crying about the loss of HST should really look forward and think about the future—their survival depends on it.

Some cool links about the Vote, and the HST.

B.C. votes 55% to scrap HST

Interactive map shows breakdown of HST vote

Posted in Diatribe, Events, General, Social economics, Social Justice, Twitter | Comments Off

My Driveway, Your Nails

August 25th, 2011 Thomasso

I am sure for anyone who owns a vehicle, dealing with flat tires is no fun at all. Getting them repaired, or replaced is expensive now days, not to mention the time wasted dealing with the flat becuase you really need the vehicle to go somewhere. But imagine when walking down your driveway, onto the road that you share with all of your other neighbours, and you look down and see this: nails, wire and bits and pieces of metal that can cause flat tires. I bet you too would have gotten upset, and at the very least, swept them up?

Now, what if you seen the person doing it–dumping their garbage onto the road, and not bothering to pick up the offending pieces after they were done?

I did. And I confronted the person and asked why he would leave the nails and metal pieces on the road for other’s to drive over. His answer was, “hey, mind your own business and worry about your own home…”

After myself and two other neighbours stood outside looking at this guy, I believe that he felt humiliated and eventually did clean up the garbage he had put on the road. But in hind-sight, I am sure, if I had not confronted him, the garbage would have been left there for us to drive over.  How rude.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Photographs, Social Justice | Comments Off

Debt and Doubt

August 12th, 2011 Thomasso

I have being paying very close attention to the money markets this last week. I jumped up for joy when Gold surged up a $100.00, and was very happy when Oil tumbled $10.00. I was also somewhat happy when our Dollar started climbing up again against the U.S. Dollar, and somewhat dismayed and angered when both Oil prices and Charted Bank Rates stayed stable throughout this time of volatility for the consumer. But the one redeeming quality that I have going for me is I do not owe anyone of the non-governmental parasites anything in terms of borrowed money. My vow not to take on debt since 2002 has more than paid off in losses and untold charges. By my estimates, based on a calculation I did in one of my economics classes back in 2006, my saving since 2002 have being roughly $94,000.00 +/- 8%. But that is not the complete story of why I am so very grateful that I took that vow of money borrowing celibacy, to use a human inaction to coin my statement with.

To put things into perspective for you, a little back story is needed.  I weaned myself off the Banks in 2004, starting in 2002 from taking a Sociology experiment in one of my first year classes at the then Kwantlen University College. The deal was simple, the challenge was like this: we were to find out if it were possible to remove ourselves from having any attachment with the Banks, including all financial institutions, and see if it was possible to continue living a normal life, or continuing on with our current life style in Canadian society. This experiment meant taking on some very powerful myths about our society today. There was a leap, if you could call it that, of removing, as we called it, the unnecessary costs from within our personal financial sphere. The challenges were huge at the beginning, but with the some thorough research, the path was very quickly obtainable, and life went on without any bumps. There was also many books and papers published that we could use as model in our experiment, so the idea was not new.

My two biggest challenges was first, how to get paid, and secondly, how to buy really big ticket items like my university education. Both were accomplished with some personal sacrifices. In university, I could easily pay as I go, paying for each semester before hand. That worked out very well. Plus, I paid cash for everything. Just think of 16 small cash payments equalling up to $21,000.00 and another series of “point to point” purchases for text books equalling up to $8,000.00, over that same period of time-I have no troubles whatsoever working that kind of a system. The benefit, graduating with “ZERO” debt. Now the first point, cashing pay cheques, became a bit of a problem because you are tied to a financial institution with them.  In British Columbia, the Employment Standards Act says that an employer must pay in one of two ways, cash or Bank issued cheque. So, in a hurtful way, the law is not on your side if trying to limit contact with money lenders. And it seems the Banks love this, and they do their best to tie (reel) you in, and keep you there. And, from their point of view this makes sense as you, your service charges, account for over $40% of their revenue(CBCnews, 2006), so why would they want to make it easy for you to leave. But I am fair, and I understand that most employers are living on borrowed money to begin with, and it does cost money for banks to operated, so the compromise was to use the employer’s bank that he issued the cheque from, and cash the cheque and pay, in some cases up to $5.00 per cheque. Also, not all banks charge for this, as Banks like the Scotia Bank charge nothing, while Banks like the HSBC, RBC, CIBC, TD and Credit Unions charge up to $5.00 per cheque.

The outcome of the experiment is the concept of only paying for what you can afford. It is one thing to circumvent the Banks, and any other midpoint services, but another to start borrowing on items, or on property that you do not have at your ready. So saving and spending become key points. Saving is tricky because if you do not wish to use the banking industry, then this would leave a gaping hole, as to where, to put your hard, cold cash somewhere. The answer is as old as money itself, as I will later talk about that later on. Also Spending becomes an issue becuase of crime, and accidents. Who would want to carry huge amounts of money in their persons while walking down the streets going to a store?

The one thing that I did that was very controversial back in the day, 2004, was I started buying gold. Not jewellery, or paper stocks, but actual Gold coins that have been minted by the Canadian mint, called Canadian Maple-leaf Coins. In my opinion, buying jewellery and Gold stocks is the equivalent of throwing your money away becuase the value is handled through so many hands, who all exist by skimming a fee from your transactions of each item. Gold coins have the same problem, but becuase they are minted, and guaranteed of their purity, the dealer’s fees are way better than jewellery or paper. The most important fact about owning Gold is its value through turbulent times like this decade will drive it upwards. When the fear of inflation exists, the need to own Gold occurs. So investors dump their U.S. money in favour of commodities like Gold. My first lot of coins were bought at $250.00 a piece, but now their value is, today, $1740.00 per piece. I am getting at least two to three calls a week from fiends asking if I want to sell, as the Gold fever has gotten so hot. Expectations are that Gold will see a $2000.00 per once level by this fall. That is how much faith is in the markets right now.

I think I will stop here. I have talked about where the best place to store one’s wealth based on my experiences, and how to buy with cash, elsewhere on my blog. Just search around, those posts should be easy to find.

The markets are volatile and this volatility does not seem likely to be over soon. It is terrible that people are benefiting from so many who are suffering because of the market meltdown. But this is our culture, as we all believe in it, and capitalism, and free-enterprise, but we must also take it on the nose too.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Social economics, Social Justice, University classes | 1 Comment »

When Trust is Garbage

August 6th, 2011 Thomasso

About a week ago I started seeing the Tweets streaming from members of the Kwantlen Student’s Association (KSA) with regards to the 2006-7 scandal involving allegations of election fixing, misappropriation of moneys, theft and fraud from that council. I was attending Kwantlen at that time, 2006-7, and I do remember having personal issues with the, then Student’s Council. But since then, with all the news about what was going on with that council, at that time, eventually student life mellowed down, and my time there as an undergrad went smoothly.

There was also apathy on my part becuase as I looked at the student’s council as nothing more than just a group of students having fun. I never took into account that that was my money they were squandering with. In fact, I now wonder why I even had to pay into it. I now believe that students should have a choice as to whether they wish to become a member rather than being held hostage with the tuition. I see a need that the government needs to change the law regarding societies, and that students must have the op-out option. Sorry present day KSA members, but this is how I feel about it right now.

Yes, I am that mad about it. When this trust is broken, it can never be rebuilt, because in Canada, white collar crime seems to be nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Justice is lacking here.

I believe that the student’s council must be reconstructed from the ground up, reflecting these past years of abuse, so that transparency and integrity are forged into law. Having elected officials secretly spending money with no worries, covering their tracks  – is – sickening, disturbing and weak.

Very rarely did I have the option of participating in any events with the KSA during my time as an undergraduate. I was a student who worked during the day and did my classes at night. I commuted to the campus, attended my classes, then commuted home. When I think back now, I fed these guys very well with my forced contributions, and that angers me when I read the Forensic Accounting Report of 2007. It is one thing when our Federal, Provincial and Civic leaders miss use our tax money, but quite another when it is a society whose acting in my best interest. Listening to it all over again on the news just opens old wounds again.

What triggered me to write this post?

When I read this news story from the Surrey leader, titled: “Kwantlen student lawsuit on ice,” August 5th, 2011, it made me want to write this post. However, it was not until I read the Forensic Audit from 2007 today that I started writing this post with heated energy. You can read the document here, PWC Forensic Audit 2007, as someone secretly posted it on line. The PDF file is 8.1MB, at 108 pages, and covers a lot of details and heart wrenching accounts of what was going on during that time at the KSA.

This is the first time in a very long time that I had to stop and really focus on what it was I was writing becuase of how much, and how close, this hits home. In hindsight, I should have paid closer attention to the KSA, perhaps even getting involved with it more, but my situation at the time limited me from doing that.

It all seems to be coming out in the wash anyway. Thanks to some students, both members and non-members of the KSA, for caring and taking on the fight to rid the bad, dirty and disgusting from a place of public privilege and trust. If it were not for them, I would be too ashamed to tell people that I was student associated with the KSA.

As for the future students who will pay their fees to the KSA: beware, be forewarned, and be suspicious by keeping an eye on your representatives. These people, your elected council, are there for you. Vote, participate, and get informed becuase without this attitude, the chances of this repeating again in the KSA is a possibility.

Posted in Art, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Graduation, Law, Photographs, Socail Media, Social Justice, Twitter, University classes | Comments Off

Ad Blocking While Surfing the Net

July 8th, 2011 Thomasso

I am sort of a rebel when it comes to what I allow into my home. When watching TV, I see very few commercials as my home-made PVR simply allows me to fast forward through them. I only listen to ad free radio content, preferably, CBC Radio One from Vancouver, and when I am surfing the net, I try to cut out as many ads as I can.

In my quest to rid ads altogether from my Intranet experience, I am finding this battle more and more challenging to do. For example, on two of the most visited places I go while using my browser, ads are like the plague there, and when I block the ads on those sites, the ad companies seem to try harder to circumvent the code that blocks them from the programs that I am using to block them altogether. Now it has gotten to the point that when I block URLs that contain adds from within my browser I might as well not look at them becuase they are void of any useful information. I know this sounds drastic, but when I am doing research, I brows hundreds of websites in one sitting, and I can have several very clever pieces of code do some very funny things to my browser that try and grab my attention in those sittings.

I have had a site that had some web code that tried to shut down my browser. One site that tried to open several pop-up windows, even with the pop-up blocker on. And even one web site that had a scrip that tried to open my email program and send out an email to that company!

I never bothered to report these website becuase there is no one really worthwhile to report to except for the web hosting company and domain name companies that are suppose to regulate what these people/organisation do online. So, it is really a free for all world out there, with law enforcement agencies overwhelmed, and with very little powers in the first place, why bother. Could they really combat this problem anyway?

So this is what I do to cut out most of the ads. Now, I target the legitimate ads. The illegitimate ads are much tougher to cut becuase, well, they are illegitimate. So, the first thing you need to do is down load the FireFox web browser. I am sorry if your running Window$, OK, I am. These fixes are not going to fully help you out becuase of the nature of your operating system. It is proprietary, and as such, it needs to send advertising to you–because that is what you paid for. That is capitalism, so deal with it. However, if you want a good chunk of these ads stopped, and you value your on-line time, then use LINUX. There, my plug!

Here is a really good website to get you started blocking ads, especially those Google ads. You can use it on Window$ too.

How to Get Rid of Google Ads!

The plug-in for FireFox is here: Adblock Plus — for annoyance-free web surfing. Adblock plus 1.3.9

So, give it a shot. I think you will be happy with the results, and how much faster some of the web sites load up too!

Added, July 10, 2011: Now that I have lived with the ad blocker for a few days now, I can safely say that it is working out great. It does not wreck any the off web pages that have mass amounts of advertising on them, and so far, it seems to be catching all the scrips that sneak ads onto your browser. I’m giving it 8 out of 10.

Posted in Blog and Web Tech, Diatribe, Featured Software, General, Nifty Plug-ins, Socail Media, Social Justice | Comments Off

Shamming

June 24th, 2011 Thomasso

When I was a first year university student doing my major in Criminology, I was introduced to the concept of shamming through a method of alternative sentencing called Restorative Justice. Back then, the term Restorative Justice was thrown around a lot by various stake holders of both academics and the criminal justice system, as each side had a slightly different take on what it meant to them. All sides incorporated a certain amount of shamming in this concept.

Shamming for the Purpose of Healing

I was introduced to a form of restorative justice that focused on Sentencing Circles and restoring the community and its values of maintaining a relationship between all parties. We would work in groups, primarily with those those offenders who have already been found guilty, and processed through the criminal justice system. We would then gather in a circle and follow various exercises that would help the convicted go through a healing and punishment processes by involving the victims, law enforcement and members of the community, who all participate in this circle. Everyone would work to directly have input and then become involved with the healing/sentencing process too.

The goal of the sentencing circle was to have both the victim and perpetrator express their feelings about that event, and hopefully share, and start to build a bond that was damaged from after the criminal event. This goal was to heal, then restore the lives, and the community, back to it former self. The success of the this method was dependant upon the participants who not only had given up a huge amount of their time, but would also have to endure an emotional taxing experience through the process as well. With the man hours and willingness needed to have success, organising such sentencing circles is a full time job in itself, but everyone who agrees to participate does so with a “mindset” before hand of what they expect the healing and restoring ought to be. It could be healing, forgivingness, shaming, or curiosity – the list can vary from group to group, but each member would have their won reasons for wanting to participate.

Shamming is part of this process. I have seen it take some very ugly turns in the some of the circles that I have worked with. When I first started working in circles, I was very apprehensive about this phase of the sentencing processes becuase I felt, and I still do, that the shamming process should not be apart of it that it would reverse the achievement that was being sought. Latter, after doing several sentencing circles, I found that shamming was almost an integral part of the process but it would have to be tightly regulated with well laid out rules that needed to be agreed upon before hand.

A Culture of Shamming

Shamming is a well practised offensive tactic that we do to elicit an emotional response from our victims, and we all do this very well. Our mentors and guardians use shamming to teach us and correct us when we were young. We then carried and learned more advance techniques of shamming when we are among our peers, and then we reach the stage where we learn to do it to those we never knew before, and carry it out into the public realm.

Public shamming is, in our culture, an almost natural reaction to various forms of crimes and behaviour that we would find unacceptable. The best example, and the reason why I am writing this post out, are the Vancouver Riots from last week after the hockey game, form the Stanley Cup Play-offs. All this week people have been posting their images and naming those in them as part of the public shamming process. The hope is that by naming, or shamming, each of those who participated in the riots, would be embarrassed and ultimately, would be deterred from doing any further act of civil disobedience again.

From Shamming to Vigilantism

The problem is, is it right to do this? Is this public vigilantism? Could this be an offence in of itself, those who are shamming through naming those on social networking sites?

When the Vancouver Police Department asked the public to send in their images and video of the riots, they also asked if anyone could identify those, and send them in, via their Face Book page, their names. I do not believe that the police intended the public to post those names publicly, to start their own shamming sites in the form of there own law enforcement initiatives?

Although I have used shamming for healing, shamming in the context of public humiliation can have considerable negative repercussion, and I my opinion, have the same effect as Labelling Theory suggests, when the harm done is greater than the intended good that was sought as punishment. The publicly defame someone is a life long effect that exceeds the damage done during the criminal event before hand.

The Courts and the Justice System

So, what about criminal justice system, and the wheels of justice in a court of law by a Judge who is unbiased, and who will weigh the scales is justice to fit the crime?

We know from experience that the majority of those who participated, and charged, are not going to be held by police, or convicted in a court of law. We also know that for those who are prosecuted and sentenced, the time and reparations will seem light and mild to the public’s liking. The greatest effect for those sentenced will be the labelling that each person convicted will have in the form of a criminal record which will be with them for the rest of their lives.

It is common knowledge that in out justice system we give the benefit of doubt in a court of law when trying the accused under criminal law. We also know that the standards of criminal law also is vastly different from that of civil law where the scales of justice weigh the amount of rightness and wrongness based on entirely different standards. So only then when that accused has been found guilty that we can say he or she has being convicted and now must be sentenced in accordance to the laws of the land. This is a far cry from the court of public opinion, where shamming maybe tipped towards vigilantism.

Conclusion

Although I do not condole what the people of Vancouver did on June 15, 2011 right after the home town hockey team lost the final match and started rioting causing million of dollars in damages, but I caution people who take it upon themselves to voice their opinions through social media networks of publicly identifying those that they know who participated in the riots rather than going directly to the police. Should those in the riots have to go through the court of public opinion, and be subjected to public humiliation before they enter the justice system?

I think we have started down a slippery slope now that social media devices are common place and people can express themselves, with almost total anonymity, of their feelings and opinions with almost total conjecture and responsibility for their actions. Perhaps there could be a second groundswell of law suits very soon of those who were shamed, as they start to fight back in those same courts, armed with Tweets, Blog-posts and Face Book passages of their defamers.

Posted in Criminal Law, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law, Law and Order, Social Justice | Comments Off

Was it a Riot? My City is in Shame.

June 16th, 2011 Thomasso

When I got home from work, I prepared myself for the game, as millions of other Canadians did becuase this was the final big game to prove which team was number one. Hockey is, after all, Canada’s game; our favourite past time as most of us as kids played some form of it at one time or another. In anticipation, I made my dinner early and made sure that I was not going to not be disturbed while watching the game. I did, however, know that the momentum of the Vancouver Canucks was on a downwards roll, so everything was on this final game to decide who was going to take home the cup.

I also knew that Vancouver has a history of rioting after such events, for example,  back in the 1994 Stanley Cup play-offs, when the Canucks lost to the New York Rangers, people turned into hooligans then and went on a rioting rampage through the streets causing millions of dollars in damages. But every city has had its share of riots in one form or another. What makes this so embarrassing is that Vancouver was just on the world stage hosting the Olympics, and that seemed to go fairly smoothly with just little hiccups from a few idiots. So what happened to our peaceful attitude?

Some say, from my Twitter stream, that it was from not enough police on the streets, to the police and the city totally under estimating the potential for such violence to occur. Either way, it did, and we now have a huge P.R. problem becuase of it. But could the police have gone further to at least contain last night’s situation?

I argue that, no, the Vancouver Police could not have gone to point that they could have totally stopped the violence and rioting that we seen last night. Controlling that many people would have required something on the order of what we seen in the G20 protests in Toronto several months back, and that would have being very unacceptable both in terms of Vancouver’s image, and the cost to the taxpayers.

What was intriguing was the use of social media that was given to the police, by the public, so that the police could start identifying and using these images, and videos, as evidence in order to prosecute the accused for their acts of hooliganism. So the age old question of private freedoms versus public rights popped up. The terminology that was used by my Twitter friends was the use social media as a form of surveillance in such cases as last night riots to lay charges by the police.

I am in full complete favour for the use of such media as a tool for laying criminal charges and the prosecution of such individuals by the police. My argument is two fold.

First, police already use such tools out in the public sphere for catching and bringing to justice people who are committing a crime. The courts are already equipped with the tools in the justice system to handle the difference between arbitrary issues and the weight that such evidence is placed against the accused. Photographic evidence is very difficult to use in the courts as it is. The photographer literally must be there as a whiteness if the image is in question, but then now you have a whiteness, which is the strongest form of evidence there it in Canadian Courts, testifying against the accused.

Second, as the use of cameras from smart phones and other devices become the mainstay of everyone around the world, so too does the way these tools are used by all parties in cases of criminal events like rioting. Perhaps the court of public opinion is the most serious for seeing the electronic eyes of these events. The the armchair philosopher who is tying to critically analyse these images, this is secondary to the pure entertainment value that the media gives them while these scenes are played repeatedly every hour of the day until the news losses its splendour. You do not go to a major event without your social media device. Protesters use them, police used them, and the value that we give them changes, from recording history making events, to tools for presenting your side of history, from your point of view. So now the question of surveillance rears its ugly head from the use of social media.

Like yourself witnessing a criminal event, the electronic eye’s gaze is also a party to the criminal event, and at a moral level, and under law in our Criminal Code, you do have an obligation to come forth and  present what you have seen to the police and court of law. But people seem to have a fear of authoritarian governments, and the use of surveillance over the general public they seem to bring with them. (See the movie, or read the book, 1984 as an excellent example). I believe today that the conditions have being met in Canada that justifies the use of such tools for bringing to justice those who cause such damage during acts of great civil unrest. We have balance in our justice system, and a very strong media and public process system that polices the police.

I strongly request that anyone with images of rioters from last night come forward and share your eyes with the police so that justice can be served. For the few people to created such distasteful acts in our city is unacceptable. There is a moral judgement that each person must make, and it is between the public good versus the private rights that each Canadian holds dearly. I hope I have convinced you to make that choice and move forward with it.

Posted in Around Town, Criminal Law, Criminology, Events, General, Law, Law and Order, Socail Media, Social Justice, Twitter | 1 Comment »

So, Friday the 13th Eh?

May 13th, 2011 Thomasso

If you are superstitious, then today should have been a red-letter day. But, it was far from being a day when bad things should have occurred, or when everything should have went wrong, the opposite practically happened. The day went incredibly smooth, and was extremely productive. Yes, I was very tired when I got home, but I felt good about it.

There is something to be said about working, even if it is far from what one needs for a comfortable lifestyle. The mind is at ease when you are working. It is pure physiological. You have a goal, a purpose, and there is interaction with people which no doubt helps the human brain function better. Perhaps there is something to be said for the human need of working in a group, even as most seem to hate it.

So I jumped back into the fray, and from a standing position into a full out run, I went to work. Both Thursday and Friday were very laborious for me. Having to focus hard, remember, then regurgitate that information was stressful and punishing, but it quickly came back to me, like ridding a bike, the old neurons started to fire again. Once I got comfortable with the setup, I was able to start running again. All my previous training and experience quickly moved into action and became a natural reflex.

Maybe here I will say this to all those employers who invited me in for an interview, but never called my back. Sorry people (employers), you lose, and you lost big time. As marketers and businesses gurus might have pinpointed you into believing that the pale, stale, males are obsolete, and the young, strong, hard-bodies are what your company needs, then let me say this to you: Take a look at the cost of loyalty, merit and skills versus the youth curve. If you cannot figure that out, then my only statement to you is, “how did you start running a business in today’s economy”? Survival of the fittest—and you are going to lose my friend.

Diversifying is a very old concept. In Canada we do it all the time. Throughout my life, shifts in income have always been the main stay of economic stability. My latest stint has taken me into new uncharted waters, and because of the niche market that I am playing, I will never mention it on my blog in order to keep the competition low. Although you need licensing and a huge amount of training, I still want to keep it low keyed because there are fraudsters and the fakes—people who are deviants and cause great harm to the public and I do not want to them multiply. But yes I have started changing both in terms of work and lifestyle.

My new lifestyle will effect many around me. Perhaps the greatest effect will be on the four levels of governments that are around me who need its citizens to feed it so that it can operate and function. They need capital, revenue, and the turn over in treasury bills diverted back onto cash via taxation. In this brave new world, very little cash will be generated and given back to the wheels of government. It is not that I will be hiding cash, no, it is simply that there is less cash to be had in the market economy.

For example, if Microsoft can buy Skype for something like seven billion dollars in cash, then this is proof that the trickle down effect in retarded, and is not a reliable means of theorizing what is suppose to happen in the real world (CBC News May 10, 2011).

So for cash strapped consumers, cash will still be used, as it is the standard for currency, but it will be kept liquid for as long as possible. Things like credit and loans will be the things of the past as the Banks tighten up too. Sure, Banks will always be there, but only for people who do not really need them for money, and as repositories to keep your money safe until litigation. As for the poor, Banks do not want their business–it is not profitable for them. I blame no one particular person or group, but I will say that this is a cascading effect, and I have changed with each on coming wave.

So I will be focusing on doing more with less. And I have a feeling that I am far from being alone. If every other person is doing this, then I can see the market place changing quite rapidly. In to what, I can only guess, but I think this new change is exciting and may change the “super structure” of “power” as we see it today.
What a Friday the Thirteen eh?  I am happy, glad that I have reach some sort of normality, but sad that my younger friends are going to have an even hard time of reaching the riches of economic success then I did. I am tired, and will not post this entry until Saturday. I am just too tired.

Posted in Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law and Order, Social economics, Social Justice | Comments Off

Gas – Nobody Rides for Free

May 10th, 2011 Thomasso

I have been hearing a lot of chatter on Twitter and the Web about gas prices lately, especially in the last twenty-four hours.  I, like millions of other motorist, are very familiar with the price of gas as it has been slowly creeping its way up on the price scale. Why now has there been a huge serge in fossil fuel prices that kicked in yesterday, and why now has the media, and everyone else, just started to care about it?

I think part of the answer is in the trend itself. It has been steadily climbing ever since the economic meltdown back on 2008. With this slow, or fast creeping rise, depending on how you look at it, this trend in the cost seems to be now effecting us disproportionately more so. This could be the breaking point?

Last night I heard that the flooding of the Mississippi River had “spooked” everyone who cares about the markets of commodities, and they then speculated that the cost of fuel should rise as a hand full of oil refineries along the river’s bank will be shut down. That, coupled with the unrest in the Middle East, are said to be what has caused this sudden drop, and then rise in prices are our gas pumps. This according to the CBC News.

We have food prices creeping upwards too, although how much of it is directly effected by fuel prices is uncertain to me, but the cost of some food stuffs is mind boggling. Tomatoes are a weird food commodity as I have seen a two hundred and fifty percent rise, while coffee has climbed about fifty percent. Then there are the smaller packaging by food processors too – to trick consumers that cost are normal. These are increases that I have observed at my local grocer here in Langley Township from comparing receipts over the last twelve months.

The really big factor is the recovering market from the 2008 meltdown. Growth is still slow in Canada, and the unemployment rate is still something to be concerned with. Corporations are said to be stock piling their cash reserves, so a good chuck of the “trickle down” effect is very slow in returning back to the mainstream according to CBC News. And of course, debt is the number one cause of consumers, businesses and governments from getting back on track with their austerity measures. This all seems to me to be the recipe of a very slow recovery, and possible the “double-dip” recession that everyone keeps talking about.

Since I love statistics, and like to graph out everything I find so that I can visually see the effects, I have put together a couple of charts, courtesy of GasBuddy.com. You can got to their website and play around with the chart, imputing your data ranges and compare your ranges to your heart’s content. The program is limited, but serves its purpose nicely.

Click on the chart to make it bigger. The above chart is comparing the Canadian average, in litres per CND Currency-60 month range, of gasoline prices, in Orang. The Blue line is Vancouver’s price rate compared to Ottawa’s same performance. Vancouver’s rate is higher due to taxation, so the difference compared the national average and Ottawa’s is almost relative. Also look at the huge drop in the middle of the chart, 2008, and the slow creeping climb from 2008 up to now.

This chart compares the USA average, in Blue, to the Canadian average in Red. Again, taxation and government subsidies are responsible for the relative difference. Note too how close together the lines match up together during the 2008 melt-down, and how much farther apart these two trends seems to be afterwards. Keep in mind that a $1.50 litre is almost equalled to $5.68 a US Gallon.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Social economics, Social Justice, Twitter | Comments Off

The Carrot Stick, and the Pay Cheque

May 4th, 2011 Thomasso

Today an old friend of mine from University popped by to discuss some research I did for her regarding some suspicions that she has about her current employer. It took me about fifteen minutes to hit pay dirt, or find the dark and dirty secrets of this individual. When I presented this information to her with the data, she was not as devastated as I thought she would be. But this exercise brings up many ethical questions about our ideological needs and social concerns when dealing with offenders, and how we react to them.

So here is the first question. Would you continue to work for an employer who has been convicted of a sexual assault in the past, if you just found out about it today, and you are a woman?

I was surprised by my friend’s reaction as I handed her the file to read. Now for me, I deal with this all of the time so I am some what tempered by the many types of people I work and deal with in the prison system. I have interviewed, worked with, and being involved with various programs that are centred around people who have committed very heinous crimes, so I am use to it. In the rule of law circles, the belief is, once a person has fulfilled their time and punishment, then they are free to rejoin society and we as the public should take them back with open arms. As a Criminologist, I know first hand that that is not the case. In most circumstances, the opposite happens. My friend was not as concern as I thought she would have been about this news that I gave her.

So, the next question is, would you quit your job if you found out your boss is a known sex offender who has served his time and has been released?

Sex offenders are held as the lowest of the low in Canadian society. With this mark, you do not have to go far to see the public outrage that is generated whenever an offender is released from prison after serving their time. When my friend decided that she would continue to work for this guy, I was shocked.

This beings up a very interesting aspect about our society. On one hand, we have a woman who just found out that her boss is a convicted sex offender, yet, because it is a job, she will continue to have this relationship with him. So this has got me thinking that there are some huge philosophical dynamics being played out here between someone’s moral and social values on this topic.

If she had know that this man was a convicted sex offender from along time ago, then she probably would have never worked for him. Yet, because she has just found out, and confirmed this, this changes everything. Her tie, as part of her relationship as an employer employee connection with him exists, it appears to be a far stronger tie than I would have expected. The level of merit between her and her boss has changed significantly. This change is so strong that she is even willing to forgo the fear and anger of what this man is in her mind, based upon his past, that she has told me that she will decide over time rather than making her decision based on anger on the spot.

I can see that this has changed the quality of the relationship between her and her work, as I can assume that she will be looking over her shoulders continuously now. But, before this, being employed by this man for roughly a year now, what has really changed?

I hope you, dear reader, can make your own informed assumptions about this post. I have left the names of both people out of this, but felt that it is an important topic to blog about. This is after all one of our biggest social fears today. Your comments are welcomed.

Posted in Criminal Law, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law and Order, Social Justice | 1 Comment »