Daycare

It's such a blessing to be living in a country where the most important issue of the day - the one that has been manufactured to have SO MUCH critical importance to our lives - is state-sponsored daycare.

Not nuclear proliferation...

Not Israel-Palestine...

Not trade wars with the US...

But DAYCARE!

Mad Cows? Oil? Bah! Trivial stuff. The real fight is over who gets to care for your one or two-year old. (Don't fool yourself - Many have no problems with the preschoolers -3-5yrs- going to a good quality daycare/preschool. Most of the talk bandied about by "experts" refer to the "socialization" of one and two year olds, or the economic prison imposed upon women "forced" to stay home and care for the offspring they hatched. Last time I checked, parenthood was something people engaged in voluntarily. You don't want the responsibility - don't have children...The proposed programs of national daycare seems to be about indoctrinating our young and "saving" them from the clutches of all parents whom the previous government deemed incompetent to raise their own children.)

Full disclosure time: My wife has just returned to work and my daughters, aged almost three and four and a half entered a private-company daycare two weeks ago...So for us this is a top-of-mind issue, as the double-income wouldn't flow until we found spots for the little ones. Time on the waiting list: one month. So there were spaces available. Cost to have them in full time: $530/month/child or $1060/month.

I also have to disclose that my parents ran a private "Family Day Care" out of our own home from the time I was twelve to the time my mother fell ill and died from cancer almost ten years later. "Family Day Care" was a form of business that I believe is still allowed in which a private person can care for a preset number of children in their own home as a business subject to regulation (in the case of my parents' business it was the local Family Day Care Society, whose minions would drop by for a chat/inspection every month or two) so I've seen it from both sides. It is a form that seems to have fallen out of favour because of the regulations involved in keeping a normal house safe for lots of kids with varying degrees of discipline and stupidity (yes, my biased observation - you weren't there... some kids are just DUMB!) It's a job trying to childproof a home for your own kid - try seven or eight of the snot-nosed little hell-spawn (yeah, they got into my room and found stuff they shouldn't have and that I had to explain to Mom and Dad...)

But I digress.

This issue has been kicking around for 36 years (see CBC News INDEPTH: Day care in Canada). Every government promises it in an election - every government has broken its promise after they've gotten elected and people have moved on. I didn't see Conservatives fighting the 2004 election on daycare. I didn't see any Liberals wagging their fingers at their candidates shouting "You didn't deliver on daycare! You betrayed us!" when election after election came and went.

It's after the election. Why are politicians still talking about this? With the thought of going to the polls at any time now (potentially) the issue hasn't been allowed to die its normal post-election death with phoenix-like resurrection 5 years later - just prior to the NEXT election, when the same group of engaged parents from the previous election are no longer concerned: their kids are in school now so why should they give a damn about somebody else's children? - But with this minority government situation part 2, maybe a sitting government might actually have to do something, as opposed to the nothing of every previous government.

As a ruthlessly self-interested parent - sometimes you have to be - as a good first step I'd like to have something right now rather than this nebulous "perfect system" that's been talked about for 36 years and never delivered upon. The journey of a thousand steps starts with just one.

I'll take my $1,200 x 2 kids please. That's a 19% reduction in my costs versus a whole lotta nothing up to this point. Like I said: it's a start.

And I promise not to spend it on beer and popcorn.

Red Ensign Standard #40

Chris Taylor's got it this time and does a bang-up job.

Red Ensign 40

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Yes I'm still alive. I must write more to get more than the "Honourable Mention" entries that I've received in the last two Standards...

Back to Work Flintstone!

How do I know that my soon to be employed dear wife has been in my office?

Little subtle motiviational hints like the image below, facing me on my whiteboard...

Red Ensign #39

Dust My Broom is hosting the latest Red Ensign Standard

When the Sheep do something unexpected...

Chevy's 'Make Your Own Tahoe Commercial' idea not exactly going as planned



Click the links. Hilarity ensues

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6


What is this? 1995, and oil is still in the teens per barrel price range?

Did the braintrust at GM actually think that everyone still shares the belief that SUV's are the greatest ever thing in the world?

Did they think that the barking seals they consider the general public to be would fall all over themselves to fawn over the latest representation of suburban soccer-mom arrogance and disdain for others on the road? (Full Disclosure: Yes I am biased against these behemoths and their purchasers desires to be "safe" even to the point of endangering the rest of the general public by driving vehicles waaaayyy too heavy to do anything other than kill the poor bastards they happen to smash into. But they don't really care about other people on the road do they? As long as they and their whiny brats are "safe.")

And considering the braintrust of candidates on The Apprentice Season 5: So Very Tired... is it any wonder that no one is monitoring the slagging that the general public is heaping upon this un-needed and un-wanted piece of crap.

Why is every Apprentice challenge some kind of 2nd year Business school marketing exercise? Next corporate victim irrepairably damaged by this crew of disfunctional MENSA-morons is Arby's. Can roast beef survive? Find out Monday.

Andale andale!

I had a '97 VW GTI VR6.

It was Ginster Yellow, had black leather seats...and was stolen during a business trip to Laval. Tabarnac!

When it was stolen, VW had already transitioned to the MK4 platform (you 'dubbers out there will understand) and I didn't really like it. Plus the newer GTI's didn't look all that different from the old people-high mileage model TDI...

So I wasn't really into VW's for awhile (except to have some fun in Rue's 2001 Golf 1.8 Turbo!) but I gotta tell ya - the upcoming '06 is making me drool!

Rue has already mentioned the unpimp your ride campaign, and the Spanish campaigns even trotted out one of my most hated rodents: Speedy Gonzales. One of the commercials treats him as he should be treated - I'll leave you to guess which one I mean.

Enjoy!








You guessed it. It was that one.

Google deletes own blog

Google deletes own blog

As if I didn't come close once or twice myself...

Red Ensign Standard #38

is over at Minority of One

Fussball Malaise

I remember my family celebrating Germany's World Cup win in '74. I remember little else that year.

Glory Days Over, Germany Hoping for Soccer Miracle



And as the first Canadian generation of European parents, German soccer was one of the only connections I had with the "old country..." During the 70's Dad and I used to get up early Sunday morning to watch "Soccer Made in Germany", a show that used to run on PBS (?) before we moved to B.C. It was a one hour highlight of the best of the games that week. That was the show that made me a fan of the game.



Sounds kind of like Canada and hockey, doesn't it?



Many of my relatives have fallen to arguing with each other over the state of Germany since reunification. Some are even regretting the Berlin Wall coming down because, in the words of an aunt who lives in what used to be West Germany, the Eastern relatives are lazy, stupid and "eat and crap all the tax dollars I've paid since the war." An attitude that goes little beyond ruthless self-interest, but an attitude that is common from what I've heard.



And that's why I'm going to watch: because the Germans now have something at stake and are underdogs. Every goal will mean something, every win will be a triumph - they now have something more than a game at stake. And it's usually those kind of tournaments that are the most entertaining to watch.

Same ol' Dirty Tricks!

This is too funny.

I wonder how many people took it seriously.

I haven't seen either movie (Crash is sitting on the PVR awaiting two hours of attention span that can be strung together sans children...) so I can't render a verdict either way, but the "for" and "against" hyperbole and conspiracy theories are quite entertaining. I mean the election bloggers haven't had anything to do since 2004...

After all it is only a movie.

As for the commentary that "red-states" prevented Brokeback from winning, are the judges who select the winners beholden to anyone in the red states?



Hardly a bastion of right-wing zealotry.

OK. I pose the question.

Which movie was better? Brokeback Mountain or Crash?

No conspiracy crap, homophobia, politics et al.

A straight up (no pun intended) decision as to which movie was better and why. I intend to see them both, so I have no vested interest either way.

Have at 'er!