ICANN voted 9-5 against the .xxx domain proposal.
Vint Cerf was one of the votes against the proposal. However, ICANN allows .jobs for personal businesses, .travel for the travel industry and is considering .coop for cooperative associations, .museum for museums, and .post for postal services.
Looks like my friend and lawyer, Markus Buchart has returned to politics by launching an off-shoot from the official Green Party, by creating the Winnipeg Green Party.
What makes this party different from of the regular Green party is that it will probably be much more proactive. I say this because the people involved with the Winnipeg Green party are all socially ambitious people. Also, the general nature of the Winnipeg Green party is to focus on Winnipeg; which in essence is what the Green party is about. The Green party to me, isn’t just about saving the environment, but it’s about promoting sustainable living. Also, to me, the Green party supports community-based economics and social justice.
Everything the Green party is to me, is everything Winnipeg needs as a city.
I think it’s great what Markus and the others have done in reading this local political party. I hope it does encourage more to get involved with local issues or at the very least to encourage more to get involved with the community. Getting involved in one’s community, is the very least we can do as individuals.
I wonder how the provincial Green party will take this, as there is some bad blood between Markus in the provincial Green party. This is because Markus used be the leader of the provincial Green party, but he resigned on bad terms because he believed the party was being hijacked by a group of activists and ex-NDP members. You see, Markus not only has some financial connections, he has editorial clout for he worked for the provincial finance department under both the Tories and the NDP during the 1980s. Marcus is also a successful, yet socially minded, lawyer.
It will be interesting to watch the Winnipeg Green party.
Today, I got a brouchure with the title “Report to Taxpayers” with the tagline “Spring 2006″.
First, I have little opinion on our fine Mayor of Winnipeg. I didn’t vote for him and don’t agree with the way he handles priority (ie. simply throwing money around without a plan or a promise). I do not like or dislike him, but I do question the obvious conflict of interests he maintains.. especially here.
Here is a “Report” that is sent out, paid for by public, that blatantly is just marketing for one’s re-election. First, let’s look at the tagline “Spring 2006″. That would imply this is a seasonal “report”. So where’s my “Winter 2005″, “Fall 2005″, “Summer 2005″.. and so on and so on?
Second, why call it the “Report to the Taxpayers”? What about those renting, or living in poverty? They will get the report, no doubt in their mailboxes too.. but it’s not even addressed to them. Why not call this so-called “report” instead, “an open letter to all Winnipeggers”?
Third, the front shows him with Cindy Klassen and a street sign. Talk about exploitation. Yes, we all love her too, but what exactly does an Olympic star have to do with the “Taxpayers”, except that fact that a new street sign was made.
There’s much more to critique here, so I’ll just focus on the crime stats since that’s the one thing the Mayor tries to appear tough on but, in my opinion, isn’t.
Okay, first, I like the image of Katz all tied up with Red Tape. Gives you a warm feeling that he’s just a guy, even a cute cuddly cartoon, trying to cut even himself from the chains of oppression. But look at that stats for their “Operation Clean Sweep” that the city police unveiled after a white kid got shot. I say white kid very deliberately, by the way.
Anyway, the police and the Mayor would have you believe that this “operation” is breaking barriers and making waves in the criminal community, but it’s not. People aren’t raving about the “operation” on the national news.. or even local news for a reason. It’s fluff. I do give them big props for making their stats public though.
Here are the numbers. Keep in mind these are since November 21 (nearly six months now).
658 people arrested
For what a critical person would ask? Most of them are for existing warrants (you’d think they would already be looking to execute those), Traffic Stops (1400) or for “Suspicion of Criminal Activity” (2283).
28 firearms seized
Okay that’s something to brag about I guess. Over 6 months, pretty much a gun off the streets every six days.
40 other weapons seized
Okay, why bother mentioning this at all? If they are not firearms, then what are they? Rocks? Hockey Sticks? Water guns?
Thousands of grams of drugs seized
Thousands.. ooo.. of grams? Grams?! Are we stupid? And drugs really means marijuana. ooooo…
50 persons apprehended under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act
50 drunk people over six months. What is this, cow-poke town, town of 6,000. Seriously these are small town stats. And “apprehended” doesn’t mean “arrested” or “charged”. For all we know, it’s the same six newfies too.
..and police had walked (nearly 4300) hours on the beat by the end of March.
Actually, it’s now 4800 (500 collective-hours more than last month) at the end of April.
Let’s take 4800 and divide by six, and we get 600 collective-hours per month (on average). Divide again by 30 days, and we get 20 hours per day is being spent on this
Now, see this is the thing I don’t get. Since there’s actually a shortage of cops (Winnipeg needs all the recruits it can get – Winnipeg Free Press, Apr 16, 2006) in Winnipeg, then those people hours must be diverted from elsewhere. So, another feature of the under-staffed police service goes wanting. Okay, put that aside, still this is 20 people hours a day (even if we didn’t include the weekends where most criminal activity is bound to occur), that’ still only 30 people hours a day. What is that? The same four cops in the city working the same hours as they ever did, but they are spending roughly six hours doing this bit.
So, this is what we call “spin”. It’s recycled services or services already rendered.
Re-packaged, on ‘our’ tab.
Awww.. even CBC likes Winnipedia. It looks a new show aimed at educators includes this link to the Canadian Forces’ Operation Charging Bison.
Makes sense, I suppose, considering that every other website with the mere mention of the miltary exercise has an angry bias of sorts.
Speaking of the Operation Charging Bison, check out twigg’s video on the subject.
Alex Reid is a Canadian who likes a lot of things. Welcome to my world.