Comments for Terahertz

Comment on I reject the Iron Ring by Santiago

Santiago — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:24:09 +0000

While I admire your moxy for taking a stand; I feel you’ve blown the whole thing out of proportion. Yes it would be nice if they had a different version of the oath to suit agnostics and atheists, but do you really feel it’s worth denying yourself the honor to participate in one of the few rituals that tie Canadian engineers together just to make a pseudo-political stand that likely noone will notice?

God is a very subjective matter anyway.

Comment on I reject the Iron Ring by AmericanEngineer

AmericanEngineer — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:04:36 +0000

You are doing the right thing Ian. Don’t mind the rest of these sheeple. They have been reciting stuff they claim not to believe in for years and will continue to do so just to fit in. I just won’t to know how some of these people claim to be honest when they can’t even be truthful with themselves. You don’t need a piece of metal on your pinky finger to validate countless hours spent in libraries for over four years. That is what makes an engineer, not jewelry.

Comment on Ontario NDP ignores will of people by Rick

Rick — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:25:35 +0000

Let’s see:

1. Every poll ever done in Ontario tells us that a majority disagrees with the idea of 100% public funding for Catholic schools. Some polls put it at 58%, while others as high as 80%. We don’t know the exact number because the government has never bothered to ask.

2. Amalgamating the two publicly funded systems (i.e., the public system and the Catholic system) into one public system would save Ontario taxpayers over $1 billion PER YEAR. That translates into about $700 more education dollars per child–regardless of her religion. Or, if you prefer, 1,000 new hospital beds every year.

3. It’s morally abhorrent that Ontario favours one religion over the others. A Catholic school has the right to discriminate against Ontarians based on their religion. An elementary school child can be refused admission to a Catholic school if they are not Catholic–even though this Catholic school is 100% supported by public funds. Ditto for a school teacher: If you’re a Catholic teacher, you have almost double the job opportunities. This religious apartheid is clear to the Canadian Supreme Court, it’s clear to the Ontario citizen, and it’s clear to the UN. The only folks who seem confused are Ontario’s politicians–all but those in the Green Party.

To summarize:
Ontario’s school funding system is discriminatory, un-democratic, and it costs us a $1billion/year in duplication. None of the major politicians will touch the issue, even though every poll says people want a single, secular system.

Ontario needs to be more honest with itself, with the country, and with the world: Ontario has an official religion, Roman Catholicism.

Comment on On bad precedents by ADHR

ADHR — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:30:49 +0000

I agree that this shouldn’t affect this verdict. But I’m not sure it shouldn’t affect the state of the law. After all, I think it’s widely-accepted that Jaffer got off very, very easy. There should be some sort of mechanism to ensure that, in such cases, it’s at least clear what extenuating circumstances justified the decision, and the judge should have to explain (not defend, explain) the decision adequately.

I’m okay with giving judges a lot of power, but they need to be accountable — in the sense of offering good justifications — and trained better than they are — to know more than lawyers know. I don’t see either holding particularly well in this case.

Comment on Ontario NDP ignores will of people by ADHR

ADHR — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:09:30 +0000

Ryan’s half-right, half-wrong. It may not be a central issue, particularly given that it’s one that might get a lot of people very angry/upset. And the PCs and Libs aren’t any better, even on the “vision” issue that Liam cites. However, setting the threshold for “will of the people” at 70 or 75% is incredibly arbitrary. 58% isn’t nothing.

What’s worrying is Horwath doesn’t even want to have the discussion. I don’t see a downside to letting Prue and others in the House say what they think, and those who disagree (DiNovo?) say what they think. Hell, that’s exactly her approach to Israeli Apartheid Week, which is arguably far more divisive. It looks like a good general strategy: engage the public on the issue, discuss it sanely and openly, and maybe gain some support that way — or at least some respect. This sort of top-down dictate which cuts off the debate before it happens — out of fear? — is disappointing.

That said, no one in Ontario politics is covering themselves in glory lately. I’m reminded of Michael Moore’s comment about choosing the evil of the lessers. Hudak is crazy (Harris 2.0: The Revenge!), Horwath is trying to rebuild a damaged party (thanks, Bob Rae!), and McGuinty can only claim to be barely competent. So, what else can you do, as someone on the left side of the spectrum?

At least my local ONDP candidate seems okay.

Comment on Ontario NDP ignores will of people by Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:13:23 +0000

58% is hardy the will of the people. If the numbers were 70% or 75% you may have a point. I don’t think this is nearly the most importent issue facing Ontario. And aren’t the Liberals and Tories “ignoring” the will of the people too?

Comment on Ashamed of my peers by Brendan Taylor

Brendan Taylor — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:45:18 +0000

There’s plenty of blame to go around, it’s not like we’re going to run out of it.

Comment on Ashamed of my peers by Ian

Ian — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:55:33 +0000

And I will be fair, Stelmach and Harper share a lot of the blame for cutting funding and screwing PSE.

Comment on Ashamed of my peers by Ian

Ian — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:54:22 +0000

I can and will blame the administration. Their job is to show leadership, instead their first instinct when told they have less money is to circumvent tuition law (which they've been actively lobbying against) and to create a non-tuition tax to charge students. The UofA has the highest paid bureaucracy in Canada, and for what? A record setting deficit because they expanded to fast? There's ways to cut back that won't negatively affect either access or the current students, I outline some of them here.

Comment on Ashamed of my peers by Steven

Steven — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:23:29 +0000

Ian, its unfortunate about the market modifiers and the extra the eng students have to pay. But blaming the administrators is not the right thing to do in this case. Apparently (I am getting this from a source who sat at the meetings where this was actually discussed) that the Alberta government told the U of A that they were getting $60 million less and that the government ’suggested’ the university raise tuition to make up for it. That is a clear indication that the government is not going to budge. If only we had a provincial government that knew how to plan for the future when it wasn’t a boom…..I guess its because it ‘never’ happened before!