Runaway Future

I’ve been meaning to make mention of the d250 campaign, which celebrates the 250th anniversary of democracy in Nova Scotia/Canada. It’s been a campaign that in my mind has missed its mark a bit (promoting concerts, etc while there’s a federal and municipal election going on).

But that commentary might have to wait for another day.

The reason I mention it, is that in celebration of this historical achievement, we have Premier Rodney MacDonald stepping into the affairs of the HRM and over-turning a decision made by the HRM council. Now I don’t have much of an opinion on the actual topic at hand, and I sympathize with the Premier’s reasoning that such decisions could stifle the growth here in Halifax. But to see him overturn a the decision of a democratically elected city council elected by the citizens of Halifax…it makes me wonder if he’s taken the time to read any of the d250 brochures they have sitting around the office.

With the election talk taking up most of the airways on both sides of the border, I found this article particularly interesting. The commentary is true, of course, the current Conservative government has been pretty successful in completing what it set out to do, while the fact that they continue to operate as a minority has tempered them from heading towards any of those “scary” sides of Conservative policy that most centrist or left-leaning folk use to demonize Stephen Harper.

So with a productive government, this is the “perfect time” to close it down and for Harper to call an election in search of that majority. Naturally, in order to do this, his reasoning to the public becomes backwards, saying he can’t get work done as a minority, though he’s been doing a pretty decent job so far.

The Liberals are in shambles without a clear strong leader who could assume the role of PM, the NDP is irrelevant as they seem to have lost focus, the Green Party is fighting to be as irrelevant as the NDP but have a nutball leader. So the opportunity is perfect for a Conservative majority.

But let’s keep hoping for a minority. Keeping on the same course seems to be the best.

The Guardian Angels that is.

Mayor Kelly and Police Chief Beazley have both stated that they cannot support the upcoming Halifax Chapter of the Guardian Angels. But that’s not stopping the roll out for the boys in shiny red jackets and berets. According to Angels founder, Curtis Sliwa, plans are still proceeding to start having people on the streets in the spring. Just what exactly they’ll be doing and how they’ll be doing it remains unclear.

Sadly, in Sliwa’s reply to this news, he just goes to show how out of touch and uninformed he is with the situation here in Halifax. Bringing up the near infamous 30-man Royal Rumble brawl outside the Dome on Christmas Eve, somehow Sliwa thinks his knuckleheads in their shiny jackets would have prevented people from drinking too much, or would have prevented the Dome’s bouncers from being unable to handle the situation or would have prevented the need for the police to step in.

Throwing additional fuel on the fire, no matter what colour jacket they wear isn’t a solution. This is a situation that will only get more interesting as it continues to develop.

A post by Matt Good yesterday caught my eye. In it, he describes private security guards in yellow jackets patrolling his neighbourhood to prevent crime. Hired on by the local business association. He’s quick to note that:

They have absolutely no legal authority, cannot lawfully touch another person, ask them questions, ask them for identification, or ask them to ‘move along’ when on public property.

Other people commenting mentioned that the city of Vancouver is trying to clean itself up in preparation for the 2010 Olympic Games.

The reason it caught my eye is because here on the East Coast, we have our own chuckleheads coming in with shiny jackets and funny hats. It’s worth noting that they’re coming without the endorsement of the Mayor or the Chief of Police. And although people like Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and Halifax Counselor Linda Mosher keep saying that the residents of Halifax want the Angels in town, I’ve heard nothing but apprehension from anyone I’ve talked to about it, a list that ranges from cab drivers, to old people in my elevator, to friends to co-workers. This apprehension on how it will all work out and how the Angels will in fact operate is an opinion shared by the Mayor and the Police, but instead of addressing these concerns, it’s full steam ahead for the Angels, come hell or high water.

It’s also worth noting that other then being “around” and reporting suspicious or dangerous activity, there’s little the group can legally do. Just like the yellow jackets in Vancouver, these red berets walk a fine line, something that might be more trouble then it is worth. Police Chief Beazley is concerned that there will be physical confrontations and other problems involving the Angels, problems that will add to an already taxing workload for existing police officers.

Of course, if the police were doing the job adequately in the first place, we wouldn’t be at this juncture in the road to begin with.

Almost a month ago, I posted about my own fear and dangers of Facebook (wow has it been a month, this summer is going too fast and yet, I look forward to the stability and familiarity that the autumn always brings, and then suddenly, it will be spring again and we’ll repeat it all anew, or maybe this time everything will be different.).

As is always the case, something has come along to solidify those concerns further. As everyone knows, the next US presidential election race is heating up and so we have tired imagery of 9/11, freedom and terrorism being trotted out once again to scare the voters into voting one way or another (just recently, the boys and I played a drinking game, watching CNN and drinking each time terrorisim, 9/11 or freedom were mentioned. Then a bridge collapsed and suddenly we were out of booze).

Anyway, sadly as part of the political rhetoric and blatant tragedy hijacking that goes on as part of any presidential campaign, we have this curious story. It even made it’s way all the way to the BBC. For those to lazy to read, Rudy Giuliani (former NYC mayor during…guess what…9/11) is a top candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. His daughter joined a Barack Obama Facebook group(aka the other side of the US political coin, some might even call the Democrats the ‘heads’ side of the political coin, I just wonder if they give you a coin to flip before you go into the voting booth). Alright, ignore the fact that his daughter is only 17 and can’t actually vote and ignore the fact that she’s fundamentally estranged from her (there’s a reason she uses her mother’s last name and it’s not just for privacy). Wait, back up a second…privacy. Yeah, one of Slate’s reporters apparently goes to Harvard and because Guiliani’s daughter is going to Harvard soon, the intrepid reporter snooped her on Facebook and wrote a story about it.

Naturally, as soon as the daughter got the email from the reporter (no she was that cheesy that she tried to get a comment from the daughter using the Facebook messages), the daughter got out of the group and apparently her account is gone altogether now. Absolute crazy invasion of privacy, political posturing and making a story where there isn’t one.

Thankfully, the general public agrees and the Fray (Slate’s comment box) thread on this article is particular expressive. It even has a little comment from the Fray Editor:

Whoo, boy… you’re not happy about this article. A representative sample of feedback from the Fray follows.—G.A.

Alright, so there’s the story. Invasion of online privacy, making a story where there isn’t one, exploiting a teenager who has a strained relationship with her father to make some sort of stupid point. But there’s more.

Ready for it?

Here’s the rub: Facebook allows you to search for people. Any people. Any people on Facebook pretty much. So the author’s name is Lucy Morrow Caldwell and she apparently goes to Harvard. Type that name into Facebook and no one who goes to Harvard shows up. Same with Lucy Caldwell or Lucy Morrow. Get the punchline?

Someone either removed her Facebook profile or made it invisible for people to find on Facebook. Or maybe writes by a penname. Why? Well privacy, we have to assume. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the state of journalism today.