So I guess I should give a quick update of my life, since it's been so long since I've written here. My sweetie and I are planning our wedding. We've changed our wedding plans quite a bit, based on changing ideas about what kind of wedding we want, where we want it, how big we want it, etc. But I think it's worth it to put a lot of effort into it, so that we'll have something worth remembering. Plus, I like seeing her get excited. She'll think I'm full of crap when she reads this, because of how anal I am about little things.

I'm working at Telus as an Operator. I had no idea there was a job that would make you want to shoot yourself, just so you wouldn't have to go to work listen to the idiotic voices in your head. I do some things that I know are helpful to some people. I help deaf people make phone calls, and natives living on reservations have to call 0 if they want me to call 911 for them. Can you believe there are some people in this country that can't call 911?? But most of what I do is type in a number that someone wants to call and then I hit one or two more buttons so they can go through the automated system. Because they can't figure out how to do a collect call, or whatever else they want to do. And they don't realize, or care that going through an operator costs more for pretty much everything. And that pisses me off because I never needed help from an operator. I know there are some people who can't dial because they're disabled. But I'm griping about the lazy morons who don't make any effort to figure things out for themselves. The most common types of calls I get are people wanting to make collect calls, or people who dial 0 when they should dial 411 if they want to look up a number. Or I ignore them if they call to complain about their phone service because they don't want to call customer service and wait on hold for about a minute or two. People piss me off.

Based on what I've seen on gameshows on tv lately, the dumber you are, the more money you can make. I figure you can make $25-30 grand on a good day on Jeopardy. But you can make double or triple that much if you go on "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?" or "1 VS. 100". And you might only have to answer 5-10 questions, then you can back out. My favourite question on Fifth Grader was: "What star is closest to the earth?" The lady who was playing took a wild, desparate stab and guessed the Sun, but you could tell she was really going out on a limb. I admire her willingness to take a risk. I would love to go on one of these shows. Only problem is, I don't think I could manage to waste as much time telling my entire life story every time I have to answer a question. That's one more thing I like about Alex Trebek; he kind of cracks the whip if people spend too much time dicking around. With things going the way they are, eventually we're going to have a show where they ask questions like, "What's one plus one?" or "What colour is blue?" I'm caught between feeling superior to lesser beings around me and weeping for the fate of our world.

Eroding liberties

There are times when I'm so pissed off at the whole world that I can't see straight. I can't even put into words how frustrated I feel, partially because of my own powerlessness to do more, partly because of the collective complacency in which we all wallow. Take a look at this.

I will readily admit that I've had trouble verifying the truth of this article. I haven't found anything about it on any major news sites.. YET. Or maybe it won't ever show up. Maybe it's an overblown conspiracy theory cooked up by left-wing pot-smoking hippy liberals. But I will tell you my honest gut reaction to this story. It seems like the next logical step in the US government's steady methodical process to erode the civil liberties of their citizens. As soon as I saw the headline about the US Government effectively putting anyone wishing to fly in or out of the US on what amounts to a No-Fly list, I thought, "Gee, that sounds exactly like the Soviet Union." If the Dept. of Homeland Security has their way, no one will be able to fly in or out of the US without their permission. You want to talk about Red States and Blue states; it sounds like the government would like the entire country to be a Red state, if you're catching what I'm throwing.

One thing I've believed for a long time, and what I've heard echoed by friends of mine: Whatever happens to the US, will happen to us. For better or worse, sooner or later, we share their fate. Lately, I've been working my way through Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." If you're at all familiar with it, don't be too impressed. I've got the condensed, watered-down Reader's Digest version, so it's not that difficult to get through when I sit down and concentrate on it. If you're not familiar, It's a book, or series of books I guess. I think there's about 6 in all, and it's about 12 million pages in total. My version is one volume, and it's about 300 pages. It was written in the 1700's by a guy named Gibbon. It talks about how things were going so well in the Roman Empire for a long time, and then instantly after peaking, it started a slow, excruciating slide downhill. And it's really eerie how the descriptions of the Roman Empire in it's decline sound exactly like modern Western Civilization. It's supposed to be the greatest history book ever written. If I ever have kids, I think I'll tie them down and force them to read this book. And then write a report about it.

One thing that really pisses me off, is that I'm fully aware that I can't tell for sure what's true and what's baloney, from what I read in the news. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Not everything the US government does is wrong. It'd take an awful lot of effort for them to do that. So how am I supposed to sort out the fact from fiction? How can I tell what's a product of media bias, and what's truth? I really can't despite my best efforts, and that pisses me off even more.

Here's a classic example of government intrusion in our lives. Recently, the US government signed a bill making most forms of online gambling illegal. Looky. That's probably not the best place to read about the whole issue, but it's a start. If you know a lot about me, and what I do for a living, you know that my career (if you want to call it that) is actually quite closely related to online gambling. So this new law could have far-reaching implications for my job, and the jobs of my co-workers. I'm trying not to make any assumptions before I actually see what will happen, though. But one has to ask oneself, why does the government need to pass a law like this? Shouldn't people be allowed to waste their money on whatever useless crap they want? That's sort of the foundation of free enterprise. As long as it's not harmful to anyone else, then it should be fine. Please understand that I'm not personally a fan of online gambling. I think it's a waste of time and money, and I've seen a lot of people get into serious trouble because of it. But I also believe that they would find something else equally useless to waste their money on if it wasn't online poker. Do you think the government should outlaw everything that's a waste of money? There goes most of my cd collection, and a lot of my computer games, and maybe half of everything I own. I think one thing that people have forgotten, both the voters and the politicians, is that they're not supposed to tell us what's right and wrong. God knows they're horribly underqualified to do that. We're supposed to be our own morality police, WE are supposed to tell them what's right and wrong. And they're supposed to listen to us.

In 1775, Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" I wonder what he would think if he saw us today.

Should felons be allowed to vote?

So I've been thinking about this a little bit. A little bit being about 5 minutes. I'd like some input to help me think about it more. The link that I hope shows up is from Time Magazine, and it's about American felons, but I think we can apply the same argument here.

Do you think felons should be allowed to vote? Why or why not?

Part of me thinks they shouldn't. Like the article says, if they exercise enough bad judgement to commit a crime, they shouldn't be putting our leaders in office. Part of me thinks that they definitely should be voting. Voting isn't a privilege you take away like dessert, or watching tv when someone's bad. It's a responsibility that should be taken seriously by all. And despite what some some dictators say, freedom and democracy can't ever be taken away. You're free no matter what anyone says. The only true prison is the one you build yourself. Wow, that's beautiful. I even amaze myself once in awhile.

The whole responsibility thing relates to a lot of my personal philosophy about criminals. When they go to prison, they have all sense of responsibility taken away. The State does everything for them, provides everything for them, schedules their whole day. How is that supposed to fix someone who decided he'd rather profit from someone else's hard work, rather than work for himself? It almost seems deliberately counter-productive.

Anyways, that's all I've got for now. Leave comments, argue with me, whatever. Just be nice, and try and put at least as much thought into what you say as I did.

Jeff's Brain Farts (til I think of a better title)

This article appeared in the Calgary Sun, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006

I think everyone should read this, and consider for themselves how the political climate in the Land of the Free is progressing.

By ERIC MARGOLIS

In the late 1980s, I was the first western journalist allowed into the world’s most dreaded prison, Moscow’s sinister Lubyanka. Muscovites dared not even utter the name of KGB’s headquarters, calling it instead after a nearby toy store, “Detsky Mir.”

I still shudder recalling Lubyanka’s underground cells, grim interrogation rooms, and execution cellars where tens of thousands were tortured and shot. I sat at the desk from which the monsters who ran Cheka (Soviet secret police) — Dzerzhinsky, Yagoda, Yezhov, Beria — ordered 30 million victims to their deaths.

Prisoners taken in the dead of night to Lubyanka were systematically beaten for days with rubber hoses and clubs. There were special cold rooms where prisoners could be frozen to near death. Sleep deprivation was a favourite and most effective Cheka technique. So was near-drowning in water fouled with urine and feces.

I recall these past horrors because of what this column has long called the gradual “Sovietization” of the United States. This shameful week, it became clear Canada is also afflicted.

We have seen America’s president and vice president, sworn to uphold the Constitution, advocating some of the same interrogation techniques the KGB used at the Lubyanka. They apparently believe beating, freezing, sleep deprivation and near-drowning are necessary to prevent terrorist attacks. So did Stalin.

The White House insisted that anyone — including Americans — could be kidnapped and tried in camera using “evidence” obtained by torturing other suspects. Bush & Co. deny the U.S. uses torture but reject the basic law of habeaus corpus and U.S. laws against the evil practice. The UN says Bush’s plans violate international law and the Geneva Conventions.

This week’s tentative agreement between Bush and Congress may somewhat limit torture, but exempts U.S. officials from having to observe the Geneva Convention.

Canadians had a shocking view of similar creeping totalitarianism as the full horror of Maher Arar’s persecution was revealed. Thanks to false information from the RCMP, the U.S. arrested a Canadian citizen and sent him to Syria. Arab states and Pakistan were being used by the Bush administration for outsourced torture. Syria denies the charges.

Suspects were kidnapped by the U.S., often on the basis of faulty information or lies, then sent to Arab states to be tortured until they confessed. The apparent objective of this “rendition” program? To find a few kernels of useful information. The Cheka and East Germany’s Stasi used the same practice.

I never thought I’d see the United States — champion of human rights and rule of law — legislating torture and Soviet-style kangaroo tribunals. I never thought I’d see Congress and a majority of Americans supporting such police state measures. Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln must be turning in their graves.

To me, Canada has always been a haven of moderation, decency, and rule of law — until the Maher Arar affair shockingly showed this country could also quickly fall into police state behaviour.

Arar’s despicable treatment by Canada and the U.S. was the result of a U.S. witch hunt, plus anti-Muslim racism, stupidity, bureaucratic cowardice and incompetence.

We saw Ottawa aiding the outrageous persecution of its citizens, and the U.S. shamefully refusing to aid the Arar inquiry.

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who authorized Arar’s arrest, should face justice for this and many other malfeasances. The current U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, who denied the Bush administration was responsible for Arar’s abduction and torture, should be ashamed.

Canada must demand a thorough U.S. investigation, apology, and guarantee Canadians will never again become victims of such state-run criminal activity. It’s time for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to advise his new best friends in Washington that Canada is not a banana republic.

Officials directly involved in the most sordid, disgraceful case in Canada’s modern history, must face justice. They are as much guilty as the torturers who beat Maher Arar mercilessly for 10 months.

Religious Extremism, Overzealousness

I've been reading a lot in the news about rioting happening, mostly in countries known for harboring Muslim extremists, as a result of insulting cartoons originally published in the Danish newspaper Jylland-Posten.

I can understand how offensive it is to see Western media mock one's religion. I've witnessed mockery of my own religious beliefs by media, the entertainment industry and North American culture for years. What appalls me the most is the incredibly disproportionate response to these offensive cartoons. I should remind everyone that the protests for the most part have been orchestrated by a relatively small group of ringleaders who gather friends who have never seen the cartoons and get them worked up til the mob is ready to do just about anything, like burning down foreign embassies.

I'm also appalled at the response by the Authorities in some countries, such as Canada. I'm referring specifically to the case where a Professor Peter March of the University of PEI was told to remove copies of the cartoons from his office door.

Let me point out specific inconsistencies. How would any of you react if I burned down the gallery where they exhibited the portait of Jesus Christ onto which the painter, Andres Serrano had poured a bucket of his own urine? You would say, and rightly so, that I was overreacting. Everyone who cherishes freedom and peace and tolerance must condemn these riots vehemently, or by their inaction support them. I usually support moderation, but extreme situations demand extreme reaction.

The other part of this fiasco that disturbs me, which I mentioned already, is the move by the authorities to quell those who oppose the extremists. The police and government are in positions of authority to protect our freedom of expression, but they're doing the exact opposite, as is the case with the administration at the University of PEI, and Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General who said, "Let me say that, honestly, I do not understand why any newspaper will publish the cartoons today," Annan told reporters in New York City on Thursday. It is insensitive. It is offensive. It is provocative, and they should see what has happened around the world." Annan also said he is not against freedom of speech or freedom of the press.

Normally, I would agree with Kofi Annan's statement. The media should be reporting the news, not creating it. But I see the media's reprinting of the cartoons as a reaction to the outrageous extremism perpetuated by a relatively small group of muslim extremists. I agree that the cartoons are offensive, but they're nothing compared to burning down a building.

By the way, here are all twelve of the infamous cartoons, just so everyone can see exactly what the fuss is about.

Also, you can read more about the issue on Wikipedia

5 weird habits

The game is called Five weird habits about yourself. The rules are: Start with the topic "Five Weird Habits of Yourself," and then tag 5 people, who then have to write an entry about their five quirky little habits, as well as state the rules of this game clearly, and then list the next 5 people they want to tag.

Five weird habits of mine are: I prefer to eat cereals that don't float, so I don't have to worry about putting too much cereal in the bowl; I like going for several-hour long walks by myself; I enjoy having imaginary conversations with real people; I like wrecking things; and I like practising voices and imitations of people in front of the mirror when no one else is around.

I won't choose anyone in particular, but if anyone wants to hear about anything interesting going on in my life, they must accept my challenge of posting five weird habits of theirs. I require a minimum of three such comments from different people before I will write another post. And I've got a really cute picture of my nephew to show off here, so some of you might think it's worth it.

OK, I know it's been awhile. Hang on, lemme try to think up a good excuse for why I haven't written anything in awhile. I'd have to say... I've been phenomenally lazy. Well, that and my computer was having major problems for a long time. And I've been taking off to go see my favourite woman every chance I get. But by and large, I've just been going through a serious bout of apathy. I'll try to update everyone starting with the earliest stuff.

I think I told just about everyone that my brother and his wife had their first baby August 18th. For those of you who are yet uninformed, it was a boy, Steven Gregory, weighing in at a hefty 9lbs, 2oz. He had a nice big mop of dark brown hair in the first picture I saw of him, which was taken soon after he was born. He was about ten days late, which only made his big entrance even more dramatic. I'm going to try putting a picture up here; let's see how well it works:



I sure hope that looks the way it's supposed to. We'll see, won't we. Other than that, I'm completely enamored with my favourite woman in the whole world. I don't feel like giving you any sordid details on here, at least not yet. If you really want to know more, you have to ask, and if I deem you worthy, I may tell you some stuff. I think she's awesome, that's all I can really say.

I'm still looking for another job. For several months now, I haven't been seriously looking, but just recently, I decided that if I don't find something really really soon, I may go completely nuts. Don't worry, I'm not going to go postal; I'm just getting a serious case of cabin fever. Being stuck in an office for most of my shift, which is almost the entire time I'm awake that day, plus the fact that I don't actually do anything useful in my job - check that, I don't really do anything period is starting to get to me more and more everyday. That's about all I can tell you for now. So was it really worth it for all of you, me posting something here? Lemme know if I should put more pictures up of my little nephew, I've got a bunch.