Canadian Theocracy Chapter 1 · Wednesday March 5, 2008 by colin newell
The Stephen Harper minority Conservative government has drafted guidelines that would allow it to pull financial aid for any film or television show that it deems offensive or not in the public’s best interest.
The proposed changes to the Income Tax Act would allow the Heritage Minister to deny tax credits to projects deemed offensive, effectively killing the productions.
Morality experts from Heritage Canada and the Department of Justice will determine which shows or films pass the test.
Woo!
Game shows, news, sports, and reality television are already excluded from access to the tax credits. So, the proposed prohibition would cover a range of material, such as anything explicitly sexual nature, excessively violent or without educational value.
Ouch!
So whose idea was this anyway?
Apparently a well-known evangelical crusader is taking credit for the federal government’s desire to cut tax credits to TV and film productions that contain sex and violence or lack moral fiber.
One Charles McVety, president of the Canada Family Action Coalition, said his lobbying efforts included discussions with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, and “numerous” meetings with officials in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Oh joy!
“We’re thankful that someone’s finally listening,” he said yesterday. “It’s fitting with conservative values, and I think that’s why Canadians voted for a Conservative government.”
Christian Conservative values?
Now, the last time I checked, Christian Conservative Values (C.C.V’s) seemed to exist in small pockets in Alberta and British Columbia – home to book burnings and other scary behaviors…
And to be precise, we have a Conservative minority government…
Which means… more or less… than the Christian Conservatives, in Canada at least, exist at generally safe levels for the rest of us – meaning few…
Thank you God.
Sun to set on common sense in 2009 · Sunday February 24, 2008 by colin newell
A December 2005 headline read… Congress is poised to make Feb. 17, 2009, the hard-and-fast date for the national conversion to digital TV — ending the more than 60-year era of analog broadcasts and potentially making millions of analog TV sets obsolete…
Hard and fast date? Hardly. The date of the analog expiry date has been bounced around more than the average basket-ball at a Nicks game.
Why? Why the space race to land-fill 75 million analog TV sets in the U.S.A. ?
Well – The government and the FCC (once considered the same thing, now hardly!) hope to collect more than $10 billion by auctioning off the spectrum now used for analog TV, allocating some of it to emergency services. Brilliant economics?
According to the FCC, people who want to keep their analog sets will be able to apply for subsidies. Each household can get up to two vouchers, worth $40 apiece, that will help pay for boxes that convert digital signals to analog. The bill sets $1.5 billion aside for that purpose.
Now hang on one moment. I live in Canada and I view converted digital signals from my cable company down-converted from the slightly superior digital to the analog signals that my HD Ready Sony is more than capable of slurping up.
So. Instead of forcing 75 million household to ditch their classic TV’s or add yet another set top box to their already straining consoles… why not get the cable companies to do it for you with the option of buying a box for the extra features?
No. That would make sense wouldn’t it!?
In summary, this whole affair is considered one great big gift for the tech companies and cable monoliths – thanks in full to the highly cooperative FCC which is little more than an imaginary government agency in corporate clothing.
Canadian dementia report #1 · Thursday February 21, 2008 by colin newell
The Songwriters Association of Canada will reveal a proposal Thursday that would see every Canadian’s monthly Internet bill increase by $5 in exchange for the ability to download as many “illegal” music files as they choose.
Uhm. Excuse me? Excuse me. Excuse me!
I have never downloaded a music file. Illegally or not. Never. Ever.
Yes. There are some people that do. I am not one of those people.
Yes, I have friends that steal music. I do not advocate it. It is not in my best interest to steal music… being a part time musician after all.
A friend of mine – who has a family… 3 daughters and a wife… is an advocate of stealing music at whatever cost.
Quoting my friend: “My girls need to have their music downloads”
Ok, I acknowledged, one day while trying to fix his computer after he had installed a bad copy of Kazaa or Lime-wire.
Bad meaning that his computer was kidnapped and every time one of his teenage girls tried to use their internet browser, they were taken to a porn site.
I said to friend: “Dude, your girls need” their free downloads, but their computer is being over-run with porn.”
Oh, he said. They are OK with porn.
They need their free downloads after all.
As 1/2 of a child-less couple: Color me speechless!
Yes. He is part of the problem for the music industry of Canada. Not me.
I mean. Why not get every Police force in Canada to mail traffic tickets to every Canadian… because after all, they might actually speed one day.
It is demented. It is retarded. It is part of being Canadian.
Blog of the Month - illegalsigns.ca · Saturday February 16, 2008 by colin newell
Ok. New category. I was going to call it the “It’s about damn time awards…”
But I thought better.
I got an e-mail today from my good buddy Rami Tabello at IllegalSigns.ca in Toronto.
IllegalSigns.ca – the Toronto area website that sticks it to the big players in the outdoor sign industry that are cluttering your sight lines and the visual environment for corporate profit. Oh yes, and installing outdoor signs without the right permits or paperwork. There is nothing that angers me more than rich corporate fat cats that feel that the rules that apply to you and me – do not apply to them.
And in this blog, once again, I pick on Pattison Outdoor (a wing of the Pattison group) that does business in Toronto.
Jimmy Pattison, by the way, just bought the Guiness World Book of Records and in some ways the irony of this purchase is not entirely lost on me… but read on please.
IllegalSigns.ca is an absolute inspiration for me. I tend to think of myself as a pretty gutsy, devil may care individual… but I am not. The good people at IllegalSigns.ca have more healthy pairs than the Dallas Cowboys (and their cheerleaders!)
I mean, who in their right mind would take on Pattison Outdoor in the press, like the good people at IllegalSigns.ca, without hard facts to back up their accusations.
Example: IllegalSigns.ca was tipped off recently by a Pattison Outdoor employee that the Pattison Outdoor Group was about to butcher a healthy elm tree (illegally) because the tree was obscuring the billboard.
This billboard was illegally installed on public property. Check out the series of photos and feel some of the anger that I feel every time I think about Pattison Outdoor. We salute those Pattison Outdoor employees brave enough to stand up against their employers!
Rami Tabello’s website even gets insiders at Pattison Outdoor offering excuses about visual clutter in Toronto in the comment fields of the web-site.
My question is this: Why would I be immediately fined or jailed if I did this and yet a big company headed by a billionaire can get away with cutting down trees without permits and erecting signs in some of our most beautiful cities without the proper paperwork or permits?
Ok, so Pattison Outdoor is not the only player in this lucrative sign market in Toronto. Astral Media and CBS-Outdoor (yes, CBS Television) is a big player in Toronto, Canada – and they appear to bend as many rules as Pattison Outdoor.
But don’t take my word for it. head over to IllegalSigns.ca and get angry with me.
Really, I want you to see some of this stuff. And then take a look around at your visual environment.
Update February 18, 2008 – Read here for more example of illegal Pattison Outdoor in Toronto.
Update February 19, 2008 – Read here for a brilliant Toronto Star article that covers the activities of Illegalsigns.ca
