Front Page

This morning, it appears that the Ottawa Citizen is making a special effort to point out everything wrong with society, right on the front page.

First to catch my attention is a reference to a school indexing a play specifically about racism. The play is an adaptation of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, a classic among classics and for which Harper Lee was awarded a Pulitzer in 1961! Apparently it would put too many black students ill at ease. It’s like banning the mini-series Roots or the film The Killing Fields. I’m quite sure that grade-schoolers should not be exposed to such things, but we are talking High-School Grade 11, yes that’s eleven. If this is too sensitive for 15 or 16 year-olds under teacher guidance no less, then we have a much bigger problem with straight-up censorship.

( Check out San Diego’s version of teacher guidance – this is how you do it right! )

Then we have the President of all of the United States acting as a Christian conduit for a Christian God against Islam. So much for separation of church and state… enough said.

By the time I got to the bottom of the page, I was smiling again. I hate gas prices going up as much as the next guy, maybe more, since I do own two SUVs, and do not own any Smart cars. A survey was held and found that denizens of our twin cities - Ottawa, On and Gatineau, Qc, for those from out of town – were driving less and cutting spending. It is maddening that gas prices are going up but it is also forcing our hand to cut down. By hook or crook we are moving towards the Kyoto Accord. I do hope no one supporting the accord thought this would be painless. What chagrins me is the wasted effort in applying pressure to reduce gas-taxes, boycotts on the oil companies, et al. You wanted the accord, now deal with this!

The sidebar references a problem with RCMP hiring policy. I honestly wonder if the editors were keeping that one on the back burner, and for how long. This has been a very well known fact, at least to anyone in the job market, that government jobs are posted based on someone’s resume. And the Watchdog just found this out… now? It highlights the ludicrous hiring policies in force for government jobs. This whole song and dance in order to hire just the candidate you want is simply tiresome. To give the illusion that anyone has a fair chance at a government job is not only fallacy is downright insulting. The policies themselves are utter nonsense and to even attempt enforcing something so inane is like trying to pour water uphill. Furthermore, the watchdog should have a look into Health Canada and Public Works, where I have it on very good authority that the same shit happens there too.

Finally my goat was officially got with the “Elderphone”. Elder? WTF? I’ve kept my own cell phone for a lot longer than I really should have because the market can’t produce a simple unit at a decent price. And I’m not alone. I like bells and whistles and cams and whatnot as much as the next guy, remember, I used to be in high-tech and so am somewhat addicted to technology. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to fork over 300$ of my wife’s hard earned money for a multi-gadget-phone with which I only make calls. The so-called Elderphone is what I’ve been waiting for. There’s nothing elder about it.

On the other hand, if you can con one of your acquaintances to sign their life away to a cellular provider, you can get the 300$ whiz-bang phone for free. This should tell you that they make enough money off the 1-year subscription to pay for your new 300$ phone. Mind you, it still won’t sync to your PC or palm-pilot address book, but you can download a mess of different annoying music ringers that sound like my niece banging away on a set of pots and pans.

There were two redeeming things on the front page though. First, the blue diamond fabricated from the earthly remains of a loved-one’s cremation gives a new meaning to “dust to dust”.

And the firefighter in the top right-hand picture was cute enough.