Minutiae a Minute

Article on Dion Victory

2006-12-18T17:57:00.000-05:00

Here is a short piece that I wrote for the NAFTA Investment Review. It is by no means thrilling, but I figure if someone saw fit to publish it, it might appeal to others.

Selection of Canada’s New Liberal Party Leader Likely to Focus Pressure on the Ruling Conservatives

Alyssa Tomkins

On December 2, Canada’s federal Liberal Party selected Stéphane Dion as its new leader. The choice is significant, given that every federal Liberal Party leader has become a Prime Minister of Canada, and the Liberals have formed the government of Canada for large majority period since the Great Depression. The Liberals lost power to the rival Conservative Party in early 2006.

The Conservatives currently rule with only a minority government, and it has been widely speculated that another election is likely to be called in 2007. Reports suggest that Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper favours calling an election in the spring, after introducing a budget that will serve as a campaign platform. While Mr. Dion and others pressed certain issues during the course of the long leadership campaign, the fact that the opposition Liberals can now focus again externally on all issues likely to be relevant in the next federal election will likely lead to increased attention to the policies of the ruling Conservatives.

A former Quebec academic and a cabinet minister in previous Liberal governments, Mr. Dion headed into the Liberal leadership convention as a fourth-ranked underdog candidate, but emerged with a majority of delegate votes by a small margin in the fourth and final round of voting.

Mr. Dion’s leadership platform adopted a so-called “Three Pillar” approach, which added environmental sustainability to the Liberal Party's traditional policies of economic growth and social justice. He has stated that the world is at the beginning of the next industrial revolution – a move to a sustainable economy, forced by galloping energy prices. Mr. Dion maintains that to be successful in the sustainable economy states must find ways to align the environmental and the economy.

The early impact on the business sector of Mr. Dion as leader of the opposition Liberals is not yet clear. However, it is thought that the Conservative government may be forced to respond with further regulatory measures in light of the Liberals’ new environmental focus. Given Canada’s resource-base, environmental policy can have significant effects on business decisions, especially Canada’s resource sectors. Indeed, perhaps as a timely pre-emptive response to the anticipated Liberal agenda under Mr. Dion, Prime Minister Harper recently announced one of world's most sweeping efforts to regulate harmful chemicals.

The extent to which Mr. Dion’s advocacy for the environment, including adherence to the Kyoto protocol, forces the Conservatives to respond will likely be determined by the polls. But, it is worth noting that in some opinion polls, the environment now tops health care as the top public concern in Canada. The Conservatives announced early in their tenure that they would reverse Canada’s position taken under a previous Liberal government as a signatory to the Kyoto protocol, and have proposed alternative clean-air legislation — legislation that has been criticised by many stakeholders as too weak.

On other fronts, it is reported that under Mr. Dion the Liberals may attempt to create a campaign issue out of the Conservative government’s announced plans to change the taxation of income trusts by proposing to extend the grace period beyond four years (see NAFTIR Issue l). In addition, Mr. Dion recently promised that a Liberal government would revive Canada’s Wheat Board if it is dismantled by the Conservative government. The Conservatives have promised to end the board's long-standing monopoly on Canada’s wheat and barley sales, preferring instead to make participation in the board voluntary.

Update

2006-12-07T15:18:00.000-05:00

Clearly we have both been delinquent in updating this blog. As such, rather than regaling you with pithy comments about the world of late, I will simply provide a brief update of what is going on with us.

I am no longer a law student at Ottawa U, but am now a student-at-law (yes, the hyphens are apparently required) at the Ottawa office of Stikeman Elliott LLP. The Anonymous Lawyer book has sufficiently convinced me that this blog is not an appropriate forum in which to discuss my experiences at the firm (whether they be positive or negative). Nevertheless, I am open to discussing privately at any time so feel free to email.

James and I visited our friend Ming in Valencia, Spain for 10 days in September. In due course, we will post some pictures. Highlights of the trip included the beach, Ming's cooking, Spanish coffee and cafes, partying with the locals in Bacelona and (of course) shopping. Lowlights include missing our flight, fighting with KLM, Charles De Gaulle airport, taking the local bus from Madrid to Valencia and the Madrid subway in general. I will address missing our flight in more detail in a coming post.

Since then, we have pretty much stayed in Ottawa, save for the annual tag-ripping bonanza that is North Conway.

I do hope to begin updating this more frequently. I hope everyone else is well!

"I CAN WIN ANY ARGUMENT (Canadian Edition)"

2006-09-25T14:54:00.000-04:00

Ever get in an argument with another Canadian? Here's how you can win every time.

Step 1: Get into an argument on any non-health care related issue.

Step 2: Ensure that the argument ventures into the financial costs of the project/program.

Step 3: BRING IN THE HEAVY ARTILLERY!

Example #1

Foe: "I think support for the Canadian film industry is important. The arts require government support to ensure that independent filmmakers are not necessarily bound by the major studios and are free to pursue potentially controversial subjects.

You: "Really? Well, it costs money to fund these independent filmmakers. Don't you think funding health care is important?"

Foe: "Well, yes, of course, but..."

You: "Do you think an independent film is worth the cost of SOMEONE'S LIFE? Say, your grandmother for example? Would you KILL your grandmother for an independent film?"

Foe: "That's not really the point..."

You: "So, basically, you're saying that you would MURDER your own grandmother in the name of independent filmmaking. Congratulations Albert Schweitzer."

Example #2

Foe: "I think it's important that our brave men and women in uniform are equipped properly so that they can carry out our nation's mandate overseas with respect to our foreign policy."

You: "Naturally, the military is important. But so is health-care."

Foe: "Right, but a government isn't only responsible for one area of activity. There are a variety of services that require government..."

You: "Really? So, you're saying that you would KILL your own CHILDREN to ensure that Corporal Canuck gets a new helmet? Is that what you're saying? Because health-care funding doesn't come from the sky. It's a zero-sum game pal."

Foe: "So, what, the government can't spend a cent on anything besides health care?"

You: "You're learning fast, my friend. CBC? Gone. Flags? Gone. New stamps? Gone. Health care, health care, health care. Because if you start giving out flags on Canada Day, you're prematurely ending the lives of numerous Canadian citizens."

New York, New York!

2006-07-20T13:35:00.000-04:00

James and I spent 2 fantastic days in New York City last week celebrating both our second anniversary and me finishing the bar exams. This was my third trip to NY and James’s first. Hopefully he will provide his impressions as well (HINT!).

Food

I have never had a bad meal in New York and this trip was no exception. Surprisingly enough, we had a fabulous meal at an Italian restaurant just off Times Square that I was positive was a complete tourist trap. Not only was the food excellent, but the meal was entirely affordable.

Times Square

Our hotel was about a block and a half from Times Square in the Theatre district. Probably the neatest thing about Times Square is how bright it is at 1 in the morning. There are so many lights that there is this eery bright hue at all times. I have also never been there when there hasn’t been shoulder to shoulder people everywhere. The crowd is primarily tourists and I don’t envy New Yorkers who actually need to pass through the area en route to somewhere important.

Garbage

The entire Theatre district has piles of bags of garbage everywhere. Needless to say, this leads to pockets of very pungent smelling air. Fortunately we got out of town just as a heat wave was imminent. I can only imagine the stench as the decomposition process increases.

Nevertheless, I don't see the garbage problem as a deterrent to going to NY. Despite Central Park, one does not go to NY to breathe deeply and get in touch with nature. The hoards of people who make the city so exciting unfortunately produce waste.

Wall Street

Wall Street itself is actually relatively dull, being a very narrow street with little to see. This in itself is interesting in that I initially imagined it to be very wide and grand. The NYSE is a nice enough building, but the rest of them are pretty standard office buildings.

Wall Street Workers

Wall Street workers are universally identifiable by dress and attitude. With respect to dress, the men all wear shirts and ties and the women usually some type of skirt and top. We saw many more men than women though, consistent with what I had heard is a very favourable male to female ratio for women in NY. No doubt the more important types wear expensive suits, but apparently these are not the people you see walking on the street or riding the subway. They are more likely in the dark vehicles with tinted windows you see driving along the street.

The attitude is one of self-importance and impatience. One thing that struck me is how young they seem. I suppose that, much like the law, the burnout rate is high and the jobs are continually replenished by eager young people ready to take on the world / be pawns of the partners who are actually making the real money.

Noticing the Little Things...

2006-06-02T12:01:00.000-04:00

I was in the lineup at the Pharmamart drug store in the basement of the Bay, at the Rideau Centre, when I caught myself chuckling at the sight of a lady paying for her purchases.

She paid with a fifty-dollar bill.

Good 'old 50: crisp, red, and emblazoned with that dominant figure in Canadian political history, the Right Honorable William Lyon Mackenzie King, whose intelligence, aptitude and penchant for political longevity was offset by his regular consultations with the spirits of his mother and dog, Pat, among others. In Canada, we like our politicians flawed, the more tragically human the better.

I realized in that instant that I actually hadn't seen a fifty-dollar bill in years. Once they were relatively commonplace, for those who had particularly generous relatives around birthday time.

But, with the prevalence of the electronic age and ATM banking, you just don't see that particular bill anymore.

One can infer the following:

The lady must be old. (and she was) Older people are distrustful of machines. They'd prefer to deal with a person. I know this, because when I actually have to conduct some banking via teller, which is rare enough, I see these people in line in front of me conducting the most basic of banking transactions.

Since you can't actually get $ 50 dollar bills from ATMs anymore, (20s only, with 10s if you're lucky), she'd undoubtedly walked to the bank as a part of her routine, withdrawing her money for shopping in the time-honored fashion.

One wonders how long it's viable to keep producing bills that have declined so significantly in circulation.

Step Away From the Ledge...

2006-05-15T10:15:00.000-04:00

As is typical for Ottawa during playoff time, the Senators are out a few rounds too early and the public and media are salivating for a suitable virgin to sacrifice into the nearest volcano.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and rash acts will be avoided. When evaluating the result of this series, consider:

1. Buffalo is a good team.

The "David and Goliath" characterizations that typically accompany any Ottawa playoff series do not apply here. Buffalo managed to accumulate the same number of wins in the regular season, and were only 3 points shy of taking the division and conference titles away from the Sens. Considering that they had their #1 goalie in net, and that he was largely on form, it's not particularly surprising that two teams with relatively similar results, a similar style of play and similar amount of depth had a close series featuring 5 one-goal games and 3 OT wins.

2. There's plenty of blame to go around.

Ottawa's professional and amateur pundits spend hour after hour on the radio call-in shows debating who the culprit/scapegoat for this debacle is. The general impression around here is that there is some kind of key piece to the puzzle that one can withdraw in Jenga-like fashion in order to suddenly transform Ottawa into a Stanley Cup champion. That is simplistic, irrational and unrealistic.

Consider:

Emery let in 7 goals in the opening game of this series. Has any Ottawa goalie EVER allowed that many goals in a game? Put another way, how many goalies manage to lose a game where his team manages to score 6? I guess he has to go.
Alfredsson and Heatley combined for 93 goals in the regular season and scored 2 goals total in the series, both on the powerplay? Off with their heads!
Havlat scored 6 goals in the first 5 games of the playoffs and scored 1 in the next 5? Here's your plane ticket, good riddance.
Fisher, Schaefer, Vermette, Eaves, Neil and Smolinski all scored around 20 goals in the season but were virtual no-shows offensively throughout this series? I guess they've got to go.
Chara and Redden may have singlehandedly lowered their own salaries through relatively inconsistent play which is a far cry from the Norris calibre performances we expect from them. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Meszaros and Volchenkov virtually lost Game 1 on their own, with some timely help of the aforementioned Emery. Welcome to the NHL. Now get the hell outta my town!
Coach Murray's line combinations changed on a seemingly daily basis, that is, except for putting the best line in the NHL back together. That idea is ludicrous! Well, Murray, out you go.
GM John Muckler decides that a 41-year old goalie with a history of injury problems will "probably be ok" and that picking up an overweight, underachieving centre like Tyler Arnason at the trade deadline makes good sense because he'll look good sitting in the press box watching the games. You are the weakest link: GOODBYE!

As is rapidly becoming obvious, no Ottawa player or executive is legitimately exempt from the blame for the performance in this series. And yet, just as easily, if Ottawa had managed to put 3 shots in OT past Buffalo's goaltender, we'd be discussing Ottawa's "dominant" 5-game victory over Buffalo. The series result does not accurately reflect how close this one really was.

3. This isn't the same Senators team.

The parakeets who repeat the adage that "This Ottawa team can't succeed in the playoffs" haven't been paying attention to what happened to the roster over the lockout since the 2003-2004 season.

Ottawa had an entire slew of NHL rookies in the lineup which were to be relied upon this post-season: Emery, Eaves, Kelly, Schubert, Meszaros have never played in the NHL regularly before this season. Heatley has never played in the playoffs, and guys like Spezza, Volchenkov and Vermette have had extremely limited exposure.

Sometimes playoff lessons have to be learned all over again when you go out there with an entirely new team. Ottawa was the 2nd youngest team in the playoffs this year and at times during this series, that inexperience clearly showed.

Could Be Worse

When all is said and done, it could have been a lot worse. This Ottawa team faced more adversity this season than any other roster in a long time. Injuries were rampant throughout much of the year. People who expect the team to magically gel again after having a massively rotated line-up (including having our top 4 defencemen out at the same time) are kidding themselves. Meanwhile, in this "Stanley Cup or bust" town, our future Hall-of-Famer goaltender left the reins of the team to a kid.

We still managed to win the Conference, win a round of the playoffs and avoid a sweep.

Maybe if we didn't have such massive expectations, our players could go out and try to actually win a few games instead of hoping desperately not to lose.

Sens in 7?

2006-05-11T11:13:00.000-04:00

OK, obviously it is well known that James and I are both pretty die hard Sens fans. And I certainly don't want to be one of those fans who disappears into the ether when times are tough. So I still support the team, undoubtedly mistakes have been made:

1. Not reuniting the CASH line sooner. The Sens struggled five on five v. Tampa, but got away with it based on Havalt's stellar play, a decent power play and incredibly shoddy TB goaltending. Alfredsson, Spezza and Heatley should have been reunited during that round, for more than a shift or two, and kept together during the Buffalo series. You live and die by your best players and when you have one of the best lines in the league, you PLAY THEM TOGETHER!

2. Playing Emery 23 games in a row of whatever it was post-Olympic break. I will be frank. I blama the team's lack of confidence in Emery for their poor performance in this series. WHile part of that is Emery's fault, I put a larger share of the blame on Murray. I have never heard of a team playing a goaltender 23 straight games during the most compact schedule in NHL history. Emery tweaked his hip towards the end and was eventually sat in favour of Morris. Since he returned he has not been the same as he was in March. His play in March was never as good as the stats indicated but he did occasionalyl come up with what John Tortorella would call "one goddamn save". And by that, I mean one save that was unexpected. One quality 2 on 1 save, a breakaway save, something.

3. Burning out Mez. I understand that the Sens injury situation was quite dire. But the problem with European rookies is well-known: they burn out. Even though Mez played WHL last year, he still did not play at anything close to the intensity of the NHL. He is burnt out and I cannot blame for him his admittedly shoddy play.

That's all I have time for now, but maybe James can add some more. Hope Hasek plays tonight and we shall see. I have not given up!

Tampa Bay "Bolts" in 5

2006-05-02T09:38:00.000-04:00

Well, the Senators came up big and put the Tampa Bay Lightning away rather quickly in 5 games. While they did lose a single game, it was one in which they had a 3-2 lead and gave up a pair of goals in about a minute of play in the late stages of Game 2. That kind of mental lapse is to be expected and they managed to learn that particular lesson when closing out Game 5 by a narrow 3-2 margin.

Do I feel like Nostradamus given that the players I asked you, my good fans, to watch, ended up as the stories of the series? Not particularly. They were the obvious selections and this series was one in which the stars were the main attractions.

Where was I right?

Chara DID play rather a lot against Lecavalier, and managed to keep him under wraps fairly well.

Havlat DID come back with a bang, was probably Ottawa's MVP and dominated the Lightning defence in a playoff performance no Senators fan has seen before. He picked up 6 goals and 10 points himself, dragging Schaefer and Fisher along for the ride.

Phillips DID step up in a big way, playing relatively error free hockey and chipping in one of the most timely goals of the series, the 2-2 tying goal in Game 4 which was a springboard for the win.

Richards and St. Louis were HUGE for the Lightning, largely responsible for any dangerous plays the Lightning were able to muster.

The fearsome foursome of Fisher, Schaefer, Vermette and Eaves, who I'd expected to provide some timely secondary scoring, ALL managed to score goals, potting 6 between the four of them.

And Emery outdueled his rather pedestrian goaltending colleagues of Grahame and Burke quite emphatically.

What did I miss?

Daniel Alfredsson did not have the kind of impact I expected of him, though it may not be apparent from my blog post. He was relatively solid defensively, picked up 4 points, and killed penalties well, but was not the Hart trophy candidate player that he was for much of the season.

Despite my misgivings, Spezza DID show up in the series, amassing an amazing 10 points (along with Heatley) and showing a lot of effort and drive to the net. My comment about scoring on the PP being crucial certainly ended up looking prophetic, with 8 of 23 goals scored by the Senators with the man advantage.

Wade Redden stepped up in a huge way, given his mother's passing from cancer DURING the series, and was crowned the team's MVP by coach Bryan Murray. Solid, both offensively and defensively, it was hard not to get a little emotional when he was named 1st star in the 5th game with his family in attendence. Him pointing his stick towards his teary-eyed brother and father is an image I won't forget anytime soon. It's probably no coincidence that the only game Ottawa lost in the series did not have Redden playing in it.

Dan Boyle was probably the most underrated guy on the Lightning, but it shouldn't be too much of a surprise given that he's an Ottawa native and players often want to step up when playing in their home town. I didn't make note of this before the series but the guy definitely earned some respect.

Chris Neil managed to do more for the team on two occasions than a lot of players manage to do in an entire series. Him goading Dingman into the fight may have turned the tide in the series, effectively dampening any hope of a Lightning comeback in Game 3 and then he put the heartbreaking 5th goal past Sean Burke in Game 4 to seal that game as well.

On to Round 2!

2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Round One

2006-04-19T13:29:00.000-04:00

Well, it's that time of year where my physical and mental health is negatively impacted by a bunch of guys wearing skates and helmets playing a game for a living. Yes, the Stanley Cup playoffs. Here are some thoughts on the 1st round match-up.

Ottawa Senators

Tampa Bay Lightning

Synopsis:

Ottawa has only lost 2 of their last 20 games against Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay are the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Strengths:

Ottawa's large, mobile and physical defence should have a better time of it than most Eastern Conference teams in holding off Tampa Bay's roster of skilled, offensive forwards. Meanwhile, Ottawa's high-powered offense and special teams is facing off against an extremely inconsistent team defence and goaltending tandem.

On paper, Ottawa has a clear advantage.

Weaknesses:

Hockey games aren't played on paper.

The guy they picked up to take the Senators to the promised land, Dominik Hasek, is not going to be between the pipes for the puck drop. Rookie Ray Emery will have to shoulder the expectations of a city and a team that has come so close before. The team overall is a younger edition than the one that made it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals back in 2002-2003, and has many guys on the roster who have never played in the playoffs, period.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay, despite some key changes, is virtually the same team and most of its roster has the kind of playoff experience that only Stanley Cup champions earn.

It's the intangibles in this series that will play a huge role, and whether Ottawa will be able to handle the pressure of playing the defending Cup champs as favorites. If Tampa Bay can dig deep and recapture the magic of last season, the Senators could buckle like a house of cards.

Players to Watch:

Zdeno Chara vs. Vincent Lecavalier: The huge defenceman will have his work cut out for him and will likely be asked to try and shutdown Vincent Lecavalier, one of the shiftiest forwards in the game who has speed and talent to go along with his own fairly large frame. Lecavalier is also one of the few who has actually fought Big Z, so you know he's not going to be intimidated. This match-up is one to watch.

Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson: With the return of Havlat, will Murray be tempted to put the big line back together again? In terms of potential playoff opponents, the Lightning with their inconsistent defence and goaltending may represent the best victim for this trio's amazingly skilled and dominant offensive play. However, Ottawa has had issues scoring in the post-season before, and the pressure will build quickly if these guys can't get it done. Scoring on the PP for these guys is a must. Spezza in particular is one to watch as some question his ability to play in the tighter-checking playoff environment.

Martin Havlat: Capable of disappearing for stretches of games, including last season's playoff series with the Leafs, Havlat missed most of the season with an injury but was showing dramatic signs of improvement in terms of his maturity and multi-dimensional talent when he did play. On the penalty kill, he was a constant thorn in the opposition and generated a breakaway or two EACH game. The last time he missed a series of games, he came back and scored 4 against Buffalo. He tends to play hungrier when being out for awhile, so hopefully this bodes well for the playoffs. He could have had a hat-trick in the game last night against the Rangers but his shot was still showing signs of rust.

Chris Phillips: Generally regarded as the most consistent Senator in terms of stepping up his play in the playoffs, he's unfortunately been sidelined for awhile with a fairly significant injury. When and how he returns could make a big difference in taking some of the pressure off of Chara and Redden as well as youngsters Meszaros and Volchenkov.

Martin St. Louis: Considering that he was the NHL's MVP last season and was awarded a massive contract for his performance, he has certainly disappointed this season. Flying under the radar after his slump was widely recognized, few noticed that his play has picked up dramatically in the weeks leading up to the playoffs. A dangerous forechecking with TONS of speed, he could make the lives of Ottawa's defence absolutely miserable. He's also a short-handed threat and plays with a lot of fire. If he and Lecavailer both peak at the same time, the Senators could be in trouble.

Brad Richards: PEI native and last year's Conn Smythe winner for playoff MVP, Brad is Tampa Bay's most consistent two-way forward and is expected to play as he always seems to do, smoothly and with a lot of intelligence. He's the third of Tampa's 3 Musketeers. Unlike perhaps Martin and Vincent, one can basically count on his play to be outstanding.

Mike Fisher, Antoine Vermette, Patrick Eaves, Peter Schaefer: A lot has been made of Ottawa's "one-line offense" but few have actually noticed the kind of production that the Senators can rely upon from their 2nd, 3rd and even 4th lines. All four of these players play a solid two-way game, can kill penalties and also have 20 goals apiece in the regular season. These are the difference-makers who can score that big momentum shifting goal. When the talent is burdened with the defensive focus of the other team, it's these guys who can shine when it counts.

Ray Emery vs. Shawn Burke and John Grahame: Not exactly a who's who of goaltenders, all three have shown signs of inconsistency throughout the season and none would be considered in the top 10 at the position in the Conference, let alone the league. Emery had a solid March and was both rookie of the month and defensive player of the month, but had difficulty in April when the team fell apart somewhat in front of him. Hasek could apparently win games Ottawa had no business being in, Emery has yet to show that ability. The plus side is the fact that Burke and Grahame, despite having more experience, have largely played worse over the season than Razor.

Conclusions:

Ottawa has to come out early in this series and set the tone. If they end up behind, the pressure on them would be enormous given the expectations. A first round exit is not acceptable for this team, particularly with the nemesis Leafs out of the picture, so any setback could lead to full-out panic. Tampa Bay, despite being Stanley Cup champs, are actually underdogs in this series, a position that will probably suit them quite well indeed after the magnifying glass of expectations in the regular season seemed to wilt their success. Not many Cup champs are underdogs the following year, and Ottawa must take care not to take them too lightly.

The Liberal Party Version of Musical Chairs

2006-04-12T13:42:00.000-04:00

Nothing amuses me more right now than following the Liberal Leadership campaign. You can follow every single riveting minute from this very official source.

Irrespective of my own political beliefs, it's always fun to indulge in a little Schadenfreude and watch the mighty fall, only to scrabble around in the proverbial undergrowth and look thoroughly pathetic in the process.

First off, I would assume that the very word "campaign" implies a voluntary and/or deliberate act which generally requires copious drollops of determination and will. Campaigns ilicit images of Hannibal crossing the Alps to wage war on the arrogant Romans with unruly elephants in tow. (I would expect that they're not that keen on extreme sports like mountain climbing, so I can't imagine them being particularly sociable)

Or of John Fitzgerald Kennedy proudly proclaiming that he does indeed have "High Hopes" and promising to be just as adorable in the Oval Office as he was on television. How high were these hopes? Why, as high as apple pies in the sky. If anyone had stopped to consider how often they actually observed baked goods in the upper stratosphere, they might have taken him with a grain of salt. But I digress.

By contrast, one does not campaign by accident. It is not integrated as part of your morning multi-tasking routine of making coffee, reading the newspaper, and listening to the radio while taking part in some hardcore campaigning. You don't typically see two stoned out guys on the couch, filled to the gunnels with delivered pizza, look at each other, shrug their shoulders and say, "You know what? Forget the X-Box 360, what I REALLY want to do is engage in some KRAAZY campaigning."

So there's obviously some importance, gravity and effort associated with campaigning in general. With that established, what is going on with the Liberal leadership campaign?

As a child, I found musical chairs to be the most manic, challenging and rewarding activity to indulge in at birthday parties. The music starts, everyone runs around like decapitated chickens (except for that sly kid who instead walked veeerrrry slowly and never strayed more than a handful of inches from any chair) until the music stops and you have to grab a seat. The poor kid who couldn't grasp the nuances of the game was eliminated, a chair was removed, and the game continued.

The current Liberal version is quite similar. The music starts, as they lost the election, and they're prodded into action by the desperate media whose commentary on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's vest-ware is becoming stale. Sounds remarkably similar right? Sure. But there ARE some noteworthy differences.

Unlike the birthday party version, there is only one chair; and
The objective of the game appears to be to quit the game as quickly as possible, thereby eventually leaving only one person who must then occupy that chair.

To sum up then, it's basically like birthday party musical chairs, only instead of inviting excited toddlers to take part, you try to get your apathetic teenaged child and their friends involved.

Thus far, Stronach, Godfrey, McKenna, Emerson (switching parties is akin to the strategy of that sly kid I was talking about), Rock, Manley, Tobin and God knows who else have managed to avoid sitting in the chair. They're honorary angst-ridden teenagers who don't want to be seen at the mall with their parents.

If you haven't been following the "campaign" thus far, you've still got plenty of time to watch candidate after candidate come up with innovative ways to quit.

Anyway, to demonstrate that I'm an equal-opportunity critic, here are some pictures of our glorious leader in various stages of vestness.

Stephen "We Shall Never Surrender" Harper

Stephen "Gay Marriage Bad, S&M Good!" Harper

All Good Things...

2006-04-07T14:20:00.000-04:00

Well, as of this week, the Cumberland Flames Pee Wee hockey season is no more. The kids put on a valiant effort but were beaten by a team with much much more talent (they had only lost 1 game all year) and who also played with some effort themselves. The last time we had played them, the score was 2-8, so a 0-4 loss isn't quite as bad, particularly given that this was a semi-final game with oodles of drama and importance. The kids were somewhat down but I think they are still quite proud of what they accomplished this season, and nearly all of them want to play hockey again next year, which is a victory in itself. (I can't fault the one kid who wants to ski instead, a man after my own heart!)

Well, the world isn't a kind and fair place, and nothing is more indicative of that fact than the news that while my bunch of scrappy skate-wearing youngsters have lost their jobs for the season, Lynn Saxberg, entertainment writer for the Ottawa Citizen, appears to have kept hers.

No one seemingly irritates me more than critics whose attempts to maintain a facade of originality consist of blithely dismissing anything known or liked by more than a handful of people in favor of little known "genius" which they and only other critics truly appreciate. What's ironic is that waxing masturbatory over bands like "Arcade Fire" over and over again in a seemingly endless stream of columns renders them no more original than any other Gen-X,Y,Z ubersnob given copy space by a monolithic media agency desperate to retain some form of street credibility.

Here's a simple BASIC computer program you can write in case you don't have an Ottawa Citizen subscription.

10 PRINT "Lynn Saxberg on Music"
20 PRINT "I hate this band that has sold seventeen gazillion albums."
30 PRINT "I love this band that recorded their album in a bathroom stall and which consists mainly of grunting animal noises, screeching and a guitar with one string."
40 GOTO 10
RUN

What I want to see is the music critic who likes Kevin Federline's new rap album. Now THERE's a rebel!

Law School as a Bumper Sticker: Minimum Effort = Maximum Results

2006-04-06T14:37:00.000-04:00

I will be the first to admit that until now, the jamesandalyssa blog has been entirely the james blog with one token bikini shot of me to justify my inclusion in the URL.

The end of law school classes seems to be an appropriate point at which to add my initial post to the blog. Now, I must of course clarify that the end of classes is somewhat anti-climactic in that we still have exams for these courses and then the bar admission cours/exams. So really, if nothing else, it presents an opportunity to reflect on the value of the many hours spent in law school classes over the past 3 years (and delay the beginning of exam studying).

I have recently contemplated writing a Law School for Dummies Book on how to get through law school with minimal effort and maximum results (prior to which I would of course seek permission from the trade-mark holder of the "For Dummies" books, so as not to confuse the average consumer as to the source of the book --> see, I am indeed learning trade-marks).

I was once asked during an articling interview whether or not I found law school easy. The answer was, of course, the very legalistic "it depends".

My view on legal education can be summed up as follows: marks and effort are inversely proportional. The reason for this is that the more you read on your own and spend time contemplating the intricacies of black letter law, the more you risk deviating from the marking scheme created by the professor. The best way in which to ensure that your answers are most consistent with those of the professor is to limit studying to class notes. That way, you only learn from a case what the professor intended you to. Furthermore, given the extreme time constraints imposed by law exams (which are inevitably too long), you don't risk delving into a particularly interesting topic in too much depth (thus reducing your later time for regurgitation of the professor's views).

Obviously, there is some baseline effort required, namely, attending class. So to any math types out there lingering from my engineering background reading this, I do recognize the relationship is more complex that strictly inversely proportional. But assuming that most people who attend law school are going to put in some minimal effort, it has been my experience that the more I read (assigned cases and otherwise), the lower my marks were.

Now, this is by no means a situation that I find intellectually satisfying. It frustrates me in that I know I am capable of more and it frustrates me that people who are not are nevertheless able to succeed well on paper (and is there really any other way with law school?).

My personal response to this has been to immerse myself in competitive moots, take on a research assistanship position and make the conscious decision to take courses that challenged me to think for myself like jurisprudence. All of these activities have required more from me than simply attending class, taking diligent notes, gaining a very superficial understanding and successfully spewing it out on exams. So, to answer the question that I was posed during the articling interview, law school can be easy, but if you demand more of yourself, no, it is not.

The more interesting question is what sort of systemic response is required to change this? It is not realistic to expect all students to be as nerdy and keen as myself and take these types of activities on. As such, I do believe that both course content and evaluation methods ought to be changed to demand more from students and allow marks to better reflect who the top students are.

Unfortunately -haha - I do not have the answers myself to these questions. It is something I have begun to contemplate as part of a first year curriculum review committee, but to be honest, the topic could likely be developed into a doctoral thesis involving the nature of law, indeterminacy of language, etc., so an easy answer this afternoon will not be forthcoming.

The common answer tends to be more paper based classes. However, while papers are generally enjoyable and definitely useful, they require a style of writing that may or may not be useful in the practice of law. Furthermore, I do value exams in terms of forcing students to identify legal issues quickly. I think law is a profession that does require one to be quick on his or her feet, whether or not they are in litigation, corporate, criminal, family or even policy work. Exams test this ability and as such I stand by them as a useful tool of evaluation. Should they be the only tool? Likely not.

That being said, I also do not advocate for completely bogging down law students in work by demanding exams, papers and assignments for each class. This is something I experienced in engineering and found to be counter-productive. As with everything, a balance must be sought: quality over quantity (though with respect to billable hours, I may have a different feeling on this after articling next year --> we shall see).

I am intrigued as well by the American-standard Socratic method. It is certainly more demanding of students in terms of time, but I question whether it results in them being better lawyers. Once students have learned how to read a case, I cannot help but question the merit of forcing them to read more and more, under penalty of being marked absent if an incorrect answer is provided in class. My instinct is that this approach leans heavily towards the counter-productive level of assignments and lab reports I was forced to produce in engineering.

My analysis thus far is entirely preliminary, but will hopefully be developed more in turn, as part of my ongoing question for answers to the deeper questions about the law. After all, how the law should be taught necessarily depends on one's interpretation of the nature of the law.

On somewhat of a tangent (law-related but not legal education related), I was recently sent a link to an absolutely hilarious blog:
http://anonymouslawyer.blogspot.com/. All I will say is that this blog makes me very nervous about next year...

Call me Nostradamus

2006-04-04T09:03:00.000-04:00

What? It's snowing? It's bitterly cold and windy?

I don't know for sure, but I think we've got ourselves a nice false start
to spring! (#1 of more to come)

Heart > Talent

2006-04-03T10:10:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it's funny to see a real life example of what you see on TV.

Case in point, the Cumberland Pee Wee House "C" hockey team I help coach has made it into the semi-finals of the playoffs after losing a close one to another Cumberland team on Saturday, but winning against a powerful Russell team on Sunday.

The playoffs are a little unique in that the league is broken down into divisions and each team plays 3 games to determine who goes on to the semi-finals. Our team finished with a respectable 2-1 record, defeating the 4th and 2nd place teams in the process.

To better illustrate this, the four teams in the semi-finals placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd and last (tied for 9th) in the regular season. Guess which team was last?

Sometimes, when you're watching the pros in the NHL, you simply can't understand how your abundantly talented team is losing to a bunch of scrubs. "Of COURSE they care!", you think. "It's the Stanley Cup playoffs!"

But, if you were to watch the Pee Wee game on Sunday, you would have seen that effort and heart matters at all levels of hockey, no matter how much talent is out there and how elite the league is. Russell was clearly frustrated with their inability to score, and individual players (some of whom could put slapshots over the net from the blueline) started trying to take the game into their own hands.

Needless to say, our kids never gave up, never stopped trying, never stopped backchecking, despite the fact that in most cases, they were slower, less skilled and obviously tiring by the 3rd period.

Sports are fascinating to watch because they perfectly illustrate the human condition and how it can rise up to a challenge. These days, we are so accustomed to employing the logical, the rational and the statistical to explain how the world works and our interactions with it. But no statistical analysis can perfectly capture the discrepancy in effort, determination and pride that was evident on that ice on that day.

And that's what makes life so interesting. Despite all of our efforts to reduce our world into equations, laws and cause-and-effect, a pesky little anomaly associated with human emotion can always foul up the works. Perhaps it's for the best. I don't fancy living like a Vulcan and Pro-Line sports betting would go bankrupt.

Storm Shadow Eat Your Heart Out!

2006-03-29T10:04:00.000-05:00

My friend Cam brought yet another example of internet
creativity to my notice.

If you're interesting in laughing your head off (keep in
mind I have a peculiar sense of humor), take some time to
visit:
http://www.askaninja.com

You won't regret it.

Happy Birthday Alyssa!

2006-03-28T13:06:00.000-05:00

Today we celebrate the birth of my favorite person, who is turning *CENSORED*.

As I was about to type the age, I am suddenly remembering my Robert Frost:

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age. (Robert Frost)

Well, I'd hardly be my father's son if I wasn't diplomatic, so let's just say, Alyssa has surpassed the age of 27.

Wait, that's a bit too negative in my mind. Focusing too much on the getting older part.

So, instead, let's go with, Alyssa is still younger than the age of 29. That's much better, and I still ensure that my reputation for measured diplomacy remains intact.

Speaking of birthday celebrations, do you think Bishop Joseph Hall was a real hoot at other people's annual shindigs?

Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave. Our birth is nothing but our death begun. (Bishop Hall)

Er, Your Excellency, I'm absolutely positive I sent you that invitation to that birthday party, are you sure that your staff didn't misplace it? No, this has nothing to do with what you said at my niece's birthday last year.

Anyway, I guess the true magic of birthdays is the realization that, unlike all of your toys, gizmos, books, hobbies and such, you never tire or get bored with the people you love, and your appreciation, respect and admiration for them only seems to grow exponentially with every plodding, lonely rotation of the Earth around the Sun.

Happy birthday Alyssa!

Hockey and Revolution

2006-03-26T15:46:00.000-05:00

Saturday night, my brother's Pee Wee House League "C" hockey team played their first playoff game. I was there, (behind the bench, as trainer), and it was a remarkable opportunity to appreciate the power of willpower and determination over talent. This team has not been a particularly successful one throughout the season, sits second-last in the standings, and has a number of players who simply cannot skate or are playing their first season of hockey, period. The opposing team was talented, much higher in the standings, and we coaches simply wanted to see a good effort and hopefully keep the game close.

The kids outright obliterated our expectations with a hard-fought, 60 minute 4-1 winning effort that saw every single player on the team working so hard out there that they could barely skate back to the bench to change lines. It was a revelation of sorts, and reminds us of what is possible when one puts one's mind to it. They were obviously proud of their effort, but what's interesting is that they were equally obviously not surprised. "Of course we won, we worked hard." was the general impression I got from the kids. Regardless of how the season finishes, seeing the team play at its peak was real thrill I won't forget.

On an unrelated note, I saw the film "V for Vendetta" today, and I must say, was very impressed by the bold statement made by its creators. To summarize, a rebel fights his own war against a totalitarian regime of the near future, one which has overriding authority over the media and total control over a placid population which has sacrificed freedom for security. The obvious parallels to the current situation in the so-called "free world" is particularly noteworthy due to the sheer audacity and gall to promote a "terrorist" as a hero. Fortune favor the bold.

In between the carefully crafted action sequences and occasional bits of humour that assuages the action requirements of a Hollywood film is lodged a reminder of the price to be paid for "total security" and the intimate relationship between fear and subjugation. Though the setting is Britain, the obvious statements made will undoubtedly be felt across the ocean, by those who perhaps need to pay attention to its moral the most.

Did I say unrelated? Hockey and revolution? Well, both involve the singlemindedness of will and purpose of a collective, and demonstrate that what is possible is limited only by belief. So I guess you could say that I lied.

Cabin Fever

2006-03-23T09:45:00.000-05:00

I'm fortunate enough to be one of those people who gets totally, helplessly depressed as winter continues to chug along. Downhill skiing and NHL hockey (Go Sens!) help stave it off for awhile, but by the time March rolls around and you're still walking around outside with shoulders hunched, with your head down, it gets to be pretty annoying.

What never ceases to amuse me is the number of "false starts" we get before spring finally arrives. It's like a courtship with a particularly skilled tease. First you get that afternoon with the temperature above zero, blue sky, sunlight sparkling off the melting snow, and you breathe great selfish gulps of fresh air, air that doesn't burn the lungs for the first time in months. If it were August, you'd be freezing, but it's March, so you've got that coat unzipped and it's wonderful.

Then it snows 5 feet the next morning, with a temperature of 30 below zero with windchill. And it's even more of a slap to the face because you were getting used to the more moderate weather of the day before. And you tell yourself, with that pathetic, grudging anger of an adolescent, "I'm not going to fall for THIS again." But you do. You fall for it everytime. And it happens about 6-10 times each and every year, easy. It's like when the Ottawa Senators play the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs, and manage to lose, every time. "THIS time is different...", is the hopeful mantra (see, bringing it back to the first paragraph, nifty eh?).

So if you see me outside, and I have a particularly gloomy look on my face, you know why. Not going to get sucked in again. Nope. Not going to happen. Well, maybe it will.

The Medium is the Message

2006-03-21T18:07:00.000-05:00

I thought it perhaps fitting to dedicate my first blogpost to the medium itself, perhaps in homage to Marshall McLuhan and his growing relevance as a pop-culture prophet of our current age.

The Internet kind of snuck up on us.

A transformation so quiet and transcendent that it makes the “Quiet Revolution” seem like a Ministry concert by comparison. There was Commodore and Apple, PacMan and Univac and Atari, but these were Radio Shack gadgets compared to what was birthed from their pedigree.

The Internet currently represents a fundamental catalyst for individual self-expression, collectivist thinking and the free exchange of thoughts and ideas the magnitude of which was probably never envisioned by the philosopher kings of old. Its significance has increased a thousand-fold in less than a decade. And yet hardly anyone REALLY noticed its emergence. Not REALLY.

E-mail, LOL, ftp, IP, download, upload, instant message, forum, virus, spyware, :), http, www, ebay, google, yahoo, MP3...you can be a web neophyte and still recognize the majority of these terms and concepts. 10 years ago, some or all of these terms would have been Greek to most of us (except those of us who are Greek, or speak Greek, in which case it would be some other unfamiliar language).

Naturally, it is those who grow up with it who are the quickest to ride along with the twisting, rapid evolutionary currents of this medium, but in that lovely twist of forced irony, also those who are the most dismissive of its beauty because they cannot imagine life without it.

Case in point, I was discussing the Internet with my parents, and how I like having a laptop connected to a wireless router so as to have access to it pretty much from anywhere I like. “Why would you need this?” was the question asked. I was taken aback for a moment. Why not? “I use the Internet for just about everything.”, I remember responding. “Like what?”, I was persistently asked. I was stunned for a moment. Where to start?

Well, for example, I wanted to bake a potato. Was it 350? 425? How long? Do I reach up for the cookbook and start flipping? Or do I type a few words into my PC. You’re sitting around in the living room with your buddies. What’s the fastest a human can throw a fastball? 12 hours of pointless argument is now ended by 25 seconds of searching (it’s probably Mark Wohlers in 1995 spring training, 103 mph). You’re planning a trip to Toronto and you’ve never been. A quick visit to Mapquest and your own personal trip has been calculated down to every left and right turn and to the closest meter of distance. Curious to see what your house looks like from space? One click away.

That’s the easy stuff. That’s the encyclopedia function of the Internet. Knowledge at your fingertips, and not just the prosaic, dusty, fact-based information of the Encyclopedia Britannica, as regurgitated by your teachers in school, but anything and everything about any interest, hobby, pursuit, sport, occupation, activity, principle, philosophy or ideology known to man. I’m talking about the most glowing pursuits and the most depraved acts. The teachings of Aristotle alongside a repository of Bazooka Joe comics. It’s all there.

Naturally, the information is being added to the hoard at a blindingly fast speed, particularly as inevitably more and more of the world’s population joins in. The barriers to participation, namely the price of the technology and the associated infrastructure and bandwidth, are hardly insurmountable, and are being hewn away as we speak. As this stockpile builds and builds, it’s become clear that the information itself is useless without the means to filter it, process it, search through it, organize it, and evaluate it.

Hence, the search engines, our friendly yet imposing guardians of this new, seemingly infinite store of info. It’s perhaps in keeping with the nebulous, shifting, chaotic, Wild-West pioneering spirit of the early Internet that these titans charged with organizing our information have themselves passed in and out of fashion. Google and Yahoo! are the current champs, but it wasn’t long ago that Alta Vista, Excite! and Webcrawler ruled the roost. Not surprisingly, it is with these figurative knights in shining armor, saving us from the deluge of endless data, where the Internet is at its most fragile. I should probably elaborate on this, but it’s my blog, so I’ll deal with that later.

Back to my folks. They know the search engines, as they’ve become household names, and through them they make their first forays into the tumultuous swells of that unforgiving ocean of data, Dad investigating innovative ways to fold napkins, Mom checking reviews of resorts Alyssa and I are planning to stay at (so protective Mom!). Like gingerly dipping their toe into the water, they, like many others of their generation, are testing the unfathomable depths of Internet with a cautious deliberateness.

BUT! (and this “but” deserves capitalization), to them, the internet is an interface. It’s a tool, you type in what you want, and it spits out the information you requested. Like the encyclopedia, it’s a simple matter of learning how to be specific about what you are asking for. A black box, with input through the keyboard, and output through the monitor. Rationality rules here. Raw, unprocessed information. Could be true, could be false, could be rumor and innuendo, could be inalienable fact, but it’s there, for you to judge.

On the contrary, the aspect of the Internet that people of prior generations generally fail to recognize, is the Internet as a communal or social catalyst, as a soapbox for the innovative, the spiritual, the inspiring, the trite, the pathetic, or the comically inane. Discuss anything with anyone from anywhere, at any time. Emotion rules here.

There are kids growing up who have more “virtual” friends than RL friends. It’s the kind of thing that sets off alarm bells in the mind of a parent; visions of child predators, cults or extremist groups flashing through their consciousness. And certainly, there is an inherent danger to the anonymity. But that’s dwelling on the negative, and not responding to the positive, which is the absolute freedom. The freedom for someone to find someone else who shares the same common interests and be unfettered by the inescapable prejudices of physical appearance, age and gender. Perhaps we finally have an outlet for those who can’t seem to fit in with their high school community, or their small town social circles, or even their fellow citizens of the same nationality.

And what’s so “virtual” about these folks? Can’t they be interacted with? Don’t they have feelings, emotions and opinions? Aren’t they capable of expressing care and concern for you?

To flip things around, what’s so “real” about your RL friends? You can physically touch them? You can draw greater insight from them through calculated assessment of various speech intonations, facial cues or body language? To me, that’s simply another coded language which is developed intuitively from birth, and is comfortably honest through sheer practice. It’s a safety net of sorts, a back-up system to insure that the underlying message behind someone’s thoughts is not being confused by their spoken language. So we’ve developed our own body language for the net, crude as it is: acronyms like LOL and IMHO, smileys to convey happiness, sadness, confusion, anger and sarcasm (for those whose radar isn’t acute enough), avatar representations which can change their mood to reflect the user behind the keyboard.

Society tends to look down on couples who met on the Internet, when the irony is that they have a much more solid foundation on which to base a relationship. I've met a few online folks over the years, and what is remarkable is that their personalities are generally exactly what you'd expect from them. They are in essence, already your friend, even if they look unlike anything you could have imagined. By contrast, how often is someone's personality exactly as you expected when you meet a stranger? The hypocrisy is that we are repeatedly instructed that it's not the surface of an individual that counts, but what lies beneath, and yet those who create relationships based strictly on personalities are considered the lesser ones. We look down on a means to completely do away with the prejudices associated with looks, race, gender, fashion sense and body type.

One can think of the Internet as a sort of two-headed Janus, with two faces in opposite directions: backward, towards existing knowledge, data which is rationally organized and presented but necessarily dated the instant it is posted, and forwards, towards the emergence of new ideas, emotionally driven through the collisions of viewpoints of individuals from all walks of life, creeds, races, religions, nationalities, ideologies, ages, genders, sexual orientations and possessed of all the strengths and flaws of our species as a whole.

It is the beauty of such a multi-faceted construct which inspires awe and love. It’s as if those who had been pulling the strings throughout the ages (let’s call them the Illuminati-Freemasons-Republicans-Church-Scientologists-Liberals-Rand Corporation-flying monkeys-etc., or THEM for short) fell asleep at the switch but for a moment, and allowed the gestation of a means by which anyone, anywhere, can “stick it to the man”, if they so choose. The information is there, the means to discuss it is there.

Is it surprising that the powers-that-be are now laughably lagging behind the ever-shifting sand dunes of the Internet? The US Government is forced to outlaw the relatively standard 128 bit encryption because of the difficulties in decoding it? The so-called “viral” pop culture phenomena that, through sheer word-of-mouse, make unlikely superstars out of the Star Wars Kid or StrongBad, their images popping up on thousands of PCs around the world long before any reputable media outlet airs a “buzz-worthy” story about it? (Ironically, the attention of the mainstream medium usually signals the end of the viral aspect of the phenomena, too late folks!) Music and movies of all styles and languages being exchanged around the globe, at unimaginable speeds, forcing the slow-to-react record and movie industries to fundamentally transform the way they do business nearly a decade later?

So, why did I leave my argument about search engines, meandering away from it only to end up back at it right here? Because it is within the cataloguing, organization and presentation of the information where the true power of the Internet lies, and it is here where we will see the first wave of attempts to control its liberty by the powers-that-be. If a webpage is posted alone in a proverbial forest, and it isn’t catalogued or linked in some way to a major search engine, will there be anyone to see it?

While some would call the “unlinked desert island web page” concept a liberating one, allowing safety in relative obscurity, I would argue that forced utter isolation is not freedom, but rather a form of ignorant bliss. The spirit of the Internet as it has evolved is not one of secrecy and cabalism, but one of transparency and accessibility.

Those short-sighted rebels who create spyware, pop-ups and viruses also serve THEIR purposes, as they interfere enough with the average user’s enjoyment of the medium so as to provoke an acceptance of a measure of control and security over their usage of it.

We are privileged to have lived in a time where the Internet was in its embryonic stage. We were there for its early successes and failures, the winners and losers, watching as individuals innovated new ways to express themselves and interact with others. We were there when you could Google your own name, and find something useful to look at.

How the Internet evolves from this point will be what we choose it to become. Make no mistake. The Internet as a truly free and accessible medium, is threatened by a series of millions of dominoes arranged in long rows, awaiting the first to fall. What are some of these dominoes?

1. As the amount of information increases exponentially, the ability to be specific enough to obtain the desired information via search engine is impeded. Who controls what pages show up first in the list? With Google, it’s those corporations who pay them a tidy fee. How long until they eliminate the “garbage” pages entirely (along with anything not paying them a fee), turning the Internet into a virtual shopping mall?

2. Security and safety are always of a great concern to parents. There is a good chance that porn sites will be catalogued with the extension .xxx, which by anyone’s estimation, is a smart idea, making it easy to filter out material unsuitable for youngsters. But why stop there? Why not filter out anything that’s unpatriotic, or argumentative, or hateful? Why not create an extension for “official” sites, carefully vetted and approved by the FCC, allowing future browsers by default to evade personal web pages containing potentially harmful information?

3. Intellectual property concerns, faced with the forked road of open-source or international legal crackdowns, could go either way. But, with all of the successes of Commie software like Linux, there are the charred remains of Napster and potentially soon, BitTorrent along the road as well. I find it unlikely that the giants of IP will give in. Who decides what is allowed to go up on the web? How is it enforced across international jurisdictions? These obviously difficult questions will have answers at some point in the near future or inevitably intellectual property will become extinct.

All that to say, keep an eye out in the upcoming months and years. It’s going to be your proverbial David vs. Goliath. David’s sling may have caught Goliath napping, but it’s only woken him up, and made him angry. It could be the battle of the millennium, and it’ll probably be available for your viewing pleasure somewhere on the web.

And every so often, stop what you’re doing and be conscious of what the Internet has become in such a short time. Something this wholly original and utterly, absolutely human deserves a little appreciation now and then.

We're Here!

2006-03-21T17:10:00.000-05:00

Given the obvious failure in our ability to keep our previous website up to date (did you know that Alyssa and James were married?), we've decided to go with a blog.

I hope you take interest in the pointless and irrelevant things that occur to us from time to time.

Then again, if you know us, you probably already do, or you'd be screening our calls.