When Will I Get Rest?!? / Mike Harris is Scum

Wow - will the madness never end? Being the proverbial dirt under the totem pole has kept me bearing the load these last few weeks of 2005. With many teachers away, I find myself fortunate to sub lots of classes. It's a ton of work, but at the same time, I understand these are the dues one pays go get their foot in the door. Good fun, just takes so much energy out of me - when combined with the ludicrosity of the holidays, and now, New Years.

Didn't have a chance to practice for 2 days (from teaching soooo much), so the chance to practice today was sorely looked forward too. I love being hungry for practice, and I had a good one :)

Other than that, found myself working on posters for Downward Dog. My eyes were getting blurry from staring at a computer screen all day, and I was starting to have flashbacks of my horrendous past engineering life. Shudder. Give me people to help - any day.

The image above is what I used for my studio poster. It was originally claimed to be from an ad in a 1954 Popular Mechanics, stating how this projected "home computer" would be beyond the reach of the typical family in 2004. After some digging around, I was bemused to discover that the pic is a hoax! The main wall unit is actually from a submarine, and the printer / tv / stylish old guy were all cunningingly inserted. Regardless - the image makes me smile.

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Ah yes - there's an uproar in Toronto about the tragic shooting of the teenaged girl shopping on boxing day - in the middle of downtown for pete's sake! Saw a fantastic quote from Sheila Ward, the chair of the Toronto Disctrict school board, and it places much of the blame of this tragedy on the rightful shoulders - the politicians who craft the social polices that shape our society:

""According to Ward, tougher sentences are not alone the answer to the growing problem of violence in Canada's biggest city.

She said Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty should cancel welfare reform legislation passed by the former Conservative government of Mike Harris.

"We have lost a whole generation of young people because of the mindless slashing and cutting of social programs, which was more concerned about a piddling tax cut than it was about the damage done to the whole social fabric of our province.

"If one of Premier McGuinty's sons got a job tomorrow he would keep every penny he earns. But a child of poverty who gets a job to help his or her family, loses 40 per cent of that paycheck if the Mom resides in social housing. It was a brutally stupid idea when it was introduced and it is shameful that this piece of legislation remains on the books two years after a new government has taken office." ""

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Reread that last paragraph if you will... I was shocked that they do this in Ontario! This is the sort of policy you would expect to see in Alberta. I cannot believe the audacity of garnishing 40% of someone's wage, just because they live in social housing. Chances are, if you're in social housing, you're probably making minimum wage: $7.45... so, after the government steps in, you're taking home a whopping $4.47.

$4.47 to flip burgers?!?! No wonder the kids are hanging out in the streets and getting into trouble.

Mike Harris is a scumbag and moron.