Turn it down... or else

Here are the reasons for which the police in Sarasota, Florida can impound your vehicle:

According to the City Code, the Sarasota Police Department has the authority to impound a motor vehicle in the following circumstances: a) the vehicle is being used to facilitate prostitution; b) the vehicle is being used to facilitate drug related crimes; c) the driver left the scene of an accident; d) a person is driving with knowledge his/her license is suspended or revoked; e) motor vehicle noise -- including loud stereos.

NO SCREAMING ALLOWED

I love this.

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I thought they believed in less government interference

Canada's Conservative government wants to kill any film and television productions that a committee deems to be offensive or not in the public interest.

In opposition, the Reform Party -- predecessors to the current government -- railed for years against films they saw as a waste of public funds. It was one of their recurring motifs.

Take this comment made in Parliament by luminary Myron Thompson:

The National Film Board receives over $80 million from taxpayers. I would like to outline for the House where some of those dollars are going. A film board promotion for a video says: ``Compelling, often hilarious and always rebellious, the 10 women discuss lesbian sexuality and survival in Canada during the fifties and the sixties. This video brings lesbian history out of the closet and contributes to the viable history of sexuality in Canada''. It also states: ``Due to the explicit nature of certain scenes, viewer discretion is advised''.

The film Thompson is referring to is Forbidden Love. Presumably, the kind of thing the new censorship committee would have disapproved of.

Would the world be a better place without Forbidden Love? Its many awards include a Genie -- Canada's highest film honour -- for best feature-length documentary. Fifteen years after its release, groups are still screening it. You can't say that about a lot of documentaries.

I say, give me honest libertarians any day. If you want to shrink the role of government, then just do it. Don't tell us you're against government interference, then insist on telling us what's good for us.

Not entirely idiotic

Just when I was all set to post something about how the Nova Scotia government seems to have been taken over entirely by idiots, they go and do something truly praiseworthy and forward-looking.

But first, the idiocy.

1) It starts with the premier. Rodney MacDonald waits, and waits, and waits before calling the legislature back into session. Last year it sat for the fewest days in its history. This year it will sit for even fewer. Finally, the announcement comes that former cabinet minister Ernie Fage -- who was already embroiled in scandal before allegedly being involved in a hit-and-run from which he fled -- will be going to trial November 16 and 17. (Read my previous posting on the Fage saga here.) Now that we've got a trial date, MacDonald announces the legislature will reopen on November 22. How convenient -- no embarrassing questions to answer during the trial. MacDonald, of course, says there is no connection between the two dates.

2) It continues with the premier. On a tour to sell his government's proposed anti-strike legislation for health-care workers, he tells an audience that the workers have told him they want the government to take away their right to strike. Uh-huh.

3) And how about that minister of health promotion, Barry Barnet? As he's launching a strategy to get people to drink less, his colleague, environment and labour minister Mark Parent, is introducing rules loosening up alcohol advertising. Hey kids! Dollar shots at the Dome! Barnet seems taken by surprise by the announcement of the new rules in early fall. But apparently he doesn't do much else -- until he is surprised once again when the first ads actually launch.

4) And how about that education minister, Karen Casey? First, she fires the entire board of the Halifax Regional School Board. Then she threatens to bring the members of the Strait Regional School Board in line for their bickering. But she also reaffirms her commitment to democracy. It's just that the boards should stop squabbling. So.... democracy is good -- as long as you don't argue.

So what have this gang done right lately? Protection of the Blue Mountain - Birch Cove Lakes area, which would otherwise tumble to sprawl.

From a CPAWS news release:

The Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area will become one of Canada’s largest urban wilderness parks. It is located just west of Halifax near the Bayers Lake Industrial Park, adjacent to some of the fastest growing areas of the city, including Rockingham, Clayton Park West, and Timberlea, as well as the future Bedford West development.

...Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes is ecologically-significant, containing over a dozen undeveloped lakes, numerous wetlands, old forest, rare plants, the highest point of land on the Chebucto Peninsula, and habitat for a small population of endangered mainland moose. It also boasts numerous recreational opportunities, including wilderness hiking and the only canoe loop near the city where nine lakes can be paddled without backtracking.

US Postal Service Star Wars stamp

The United States Postal Service will be issuing a Star Wars stamp this year, in honour of the 30th anniversary of the first Star Wars film (aka Episode IV).

You can vote online for your favourite design.

I think the stormtroopers should win. Isn't there something kind of appropriate right now about a stamp featuring these guys?

Loyal to the Emperor, stormtroopers maintain order and instill fear throughout the Empire. From scalding desert to snow-swept plains, they are trained to serve in many different environments.

2014: Not here

When I posted about Halifax's Commonwealth Games bid being more or less dead last week, I was thinking that I would look pretty foolish if we wound up with the games.

I certainly never expected that come March 8 the bid would be really and truly dead, with both the provincial and municipal governments retracting their support.

I am relieved. Maybe it's partly because I grew up in Montreal during the Olympics era, and remember gathering around the TV as my parents and relatives waited for the Olympic Lotto results to come in. All that money was going to pay for the Games. Instead, the stadium was never even completed to its specs.

The local bid committee is sure to be passing around the blame, but really they need to take a long and hard look at their own ineptitude. Last week committee head Scott Logan was saying people would support the bid if they had more information. So give them more information Scott!

Yesterday, the politicians got more information -- a total cost of $1.7 billion. It was too much.

I was interested in this paragraph from the bid committee's statement, posted on its website.

CGC and the Bid Committee have been working diligently to respond to initial feedback on preliminary Games budget information from their government partners since February, providing options that reduced the budget (inflation in) from $1.6b, to $1.3b, and yesterday indicating a strong confidence in continuing this process to present a bid based on the available $1b of funding from its partners.

This is interesting. For months, we've been told that the games would cost $750 million -- no, $785 million. The $1.7 billion was a complete shocker. But, according to this, they were ready to come down to $1.3 billion. Great. Only that ignores the fact that this is still half a billion dollars more than what we were recently told the games would cost.

To me, that pretty much says it all in terms of this organization's approach to being straight with the citizens.

Good riddance Commonwealth Games

Halifax's bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games is in trouble. For months, people (some a little obsessively) have been raising concerns about cost overruns, and about some of the ridiculous claims the bid committee is making. The games are going to attract a million people to Halifax? More than the population of the whole province? I don't think so.

But the one issue that seems most likely to sink the bid is the inept behaviour of the bid committee, which has kept as many of the details of its proposals as possible secret -- even from the members of city council. Now, many on council are completely fed up. And the bid committee has shot itself yet again, thanks to its announcement that they are pushing back by two weeks the date at which they will finally reveal the details of the bid to council (behind closed doors, mind you).

I fervently hope that the 2014 games go to Glasgow or Abuja. Of course, neither of these cities has quite as brilliant a slogan as Halifax has come up with. Here is the gem that is going to put Halifax over the top, and convince residents of the city that they should pony up hundreds of millions in tax dollars for the games. Literally: "Here."

That's right. Here. That's the slogan. Take a look at it yourself, at the Halifax 2014 website.

For a while, it was all over the municipal buses and billboards. "Here." Yes, thank you. I am here. I hope the games will not be here.

Other than the missteps on secrecy, the bid committee came up with another brilliant PR ploy: asking shoppers at liquor stores to add a dollar to their bill, to fund the (completely secret) bid effort. Sign me up!

The sooner this thing sinks, the better. Then we can get on to better things -- though instead of doing that we're more likely to continue to squabble perenially over crucial issues such as whether or not parking should be allowed on the streets overnight in winter.

Protect the cheese press!

The town of Cheshire, Massachusetts, home of a cheese press sculpture, requested a grant to buy a new fire truck for the volunteer fire department. (Why a cheese press sculpture? Why to commemorate the 1,450 pounds of cheese town elders once gave Thomas Jefferson, of course.)

Instead of what they asked for, they got a huge Homeland Security grant. But it can't be used to purchase a fire truck.

Story here.

Out with the new

I've been meaning to post something more or less exactly like this on the Harper government's near-obsessive insistence on referring to itself as "Canada's New Government." You know, they have a name. They are the Government of Canada. Point final.

Think obsessed is too strong a word? Read this.

Excerpt:

FROM: VANESSA NELSON
As per the Minister's Office, effective immediately, the words “Canada's New Government” are to be used instead of “the Government of Canada” in all departmental correspondence. Please note that the initial letters of all three words are capitalized. Thank you for your cooperation.

FROM: ANDREW OKULITCH
Why do newly elected officials think everything begins with them taking office? They are merely stewards for as long as the public allows. They are the Government of Canada. Nothing more. I shall use “Geological Survey of Canada” on my departmental correspondence to avoid any connection with “New Government.” The GSC, steward to Canada's earth resources for 164 years, is an institution worthy of my loyalty, as opposed to idiotic buzzwords coined by political hacks.

FROM: IRWIN ITZKOVITCH
Given your strong though misdirected views of the role and authority of the Government as elected by the people, and your duty to reflect their decisions, I accept that you are immediately removing yourself from the Emeritus Program. I wish you every success in your future.