Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Quick Hits

1. Gerard Kennedy has released some more platform material, aimed at improving the economic situation of female Canadians. Included in this is a goal to dramatically increase Canadian spending on childcare and early learning so that it reaches 0.7% of Canada's GDP by the year 2012.

2. More importantly, the man can draw.

3. Ahh...the Republican Party. This is a priceless video.

posted by calgarygrit at 9:37 a.m.

8 Comments:

  • That's a good drawing.

    By Blogger Michael Fox, at 10:57 a.m.  

  • Tramm Hudson????

    Where do US politicos come up with these amazing names? If I told you Tramm Hudson, Wolf Blitzer, Tucker Carlson, and Strom Thurmond all walk into a bar - would you think "US politics and media", or "the Next Generation version of Doc Savage"?

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 11:04 a.m.  

  • The title of the video is great - "Tramm Hudson just lost". That's priceless. Sad, but priceless. You should check back in November to see how he does at the polls.

    By Blogger Cam, at 8:20 p.m.  

  • Leave time is federal. Provinces won't refuse money for a program that is good for the country, good for economic efficiency, and good for women. Plus they can claim some of the success too.

    By Blogger Manley Man, at 12:04 a.m.  

  • Did Tramm screw up? Yes! Was there somethign in there that is right? Yes!

    Demographically, swimming classes trend very white. Like old school WASP country club member white.

    Of course, it's not a race thign, it's a class thing, as the swimming education (i.e. knowing how to swim, rather than being physically able to swim) of poor whites tends to be very low (if you pay attention to drowning deaths, you'll frequently see fishermen and other people whose lives are fairly closely tied to the water not knowing how to swim, which is shocking to us middle/upper middle class folks).

    If one is a bit of an idiot and has some "problems" with race, one's likely to go from black people frequently don't know how to swim as well as rich white folks to black folk are incapable of swimming well. Rather it's black folk don't have as much money and free time as rich whitey, and had to do something productive, rather than spending their summers hanging out in the water off their multi million dollar summer house.

    You'll also notice this difference with immigrants, especially those whose parents didn't integrate into the upper-middle class white community. My friends from university who grew up in very low %ge minority communities and whose parents associated with white upper middle class parents have the same habits and skills as the typical umc white kid. Those who grew up in higher %ge minority communities and whose parents integrated less or not at all with umc white parent groups have less of them. Of course those kids have different cultural skills and baggage, no worse and no better (some exception for kids who spent too much time at a madrassah...).

    Unfortunately, dumb people and liberal arts grads are piss poor at logic and statistical extrapolation. Everyone should be forced to take engineering as a first undergrad, to be able to vote etc, as it is the only way to get a sufficient understanding of math, statistics, and physics.

    By Blogger Hey, at 9:25 a.m.  

  • btw check out http://www.hezboliberal.com and http://www.libsforhezbollah.com

    I especially like the flag at the first one. Very appropriate, especially for joe green and bigcityliberal!

    By Blogger Hey, at 9:26 a.m.  

  • Hey,

    You realize that people swim in other things besdes pools at the country club don't you. Perhaps you've hear of things like rivers, lakes, oceans. some even have these things called "beaches" that are free to access.

    My god you are an idiot.

    By Blogger Mike, at 12:54 p.m.  

  • Matt:

    I'm rather familiar with rivers, lakes, and oceans. If you look at the demographics of people who take swimming lesssons there is a direct correlation between swimming ability and income/class. I'm the crazy right winger here and I'm coming up with the reasons why it's an assumption of privilege that "everyone" knows how to swim. Almost everyone I went to school with know how to swim. Swimming lessons, diving lessons, competitive swimming, lifeguarding classes, varsity waterpolo, etc. Time at the beach, cottage, at camp... But if you look at the demographics of swimming ability, especially in the states, but also out East, you'll see correlations between income and % of population that know how to swim. It seems crazy to me that anyone in this country wouldn't know how to swim and wouldn't make sure their kids were safe around water but it is not a universal experience.

    This is one of the big reasons why the Toronto Board of Ed pushes so hard to keep its swimming pools, and why there is a big outreach program by the YMCA, the Red Cross, and the Lifesaving Society to encourage people to teach their kids how to swim. The progressives are supposed to be all about goign to the lived experience and not just making assumptions based on conventional upper middle class assumptions/experience... So let's think about that. There are FREE SWIMMING CLASSES EASILY AVAILABLE and yet there is still a correlation between swimming ability and income. It's a class/culture thing that won't make sense to our experience. Similar to, but of course much more serious and dangerous, than the expectation that EVERYONE in Canada knows how to skate. Pretty much everyone does, but it's not as universal as one gets growing up in the essentially all white environments of mc/umc suburbs and rural regions (and the very non white reserve population).

    By Blogger Hey, at 5:48 p.m.  

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