So, What Can the Conservatives Do To Win Me Back?

There has been a lot of angst here and on other blogs about the current perception that the CPC seems determined to fight Bill C-38 to their deaths. It has pushed a few of us back and wonder about supporting other parties. So to be fair, here is a simple list of things the CPC can do to win back my support over the next few months.

1. You've said you will re-visit the Same Sex Marriage legislation when you get elected? Fine, its been noted. Now carry on with other matters.

2. Show the public plans for getting Canada's military back on track.

3. Talk about plans to address the waiting lines in the Health Care sector. What do you mean when you say Public Private Partnerships?

4. Talk about fiscal responsibility and smaller government while still ensuring a reasonable social saftey net.

5. Get rid of MP Grewal.

6. State whether or not we will co-operate more closely with the US in their War on Terror. State whether or not we would assist them with teh Ballistic Missile Defense. State it clearly.

7. Stop muttering about Liberal corruption and lay out a plan to deal with it. Simple, clear, concise.

It would be a welcome change.

Cravings

I have one major addiction: caffine. I get my caffine fix through Coca-cola and Pepsi. Specifically, C2 and Diet Pepsi.

My usual hit is two cans, sometimes one can and one bottle a day, other times just one bottle. But roughly the same amount on a consistent basis. The past weekend I went to a family BBQ and it was a long hot day in the sun and I overdid it: one bottle of C2, two cans of C2, and two cans of Diet Pepsi. I'm surprised I was able to sleep at all that night.

On Monday, I suffered through what is not my first and won't be my last caffine withdrawal headache. It wasn't pleasant but I've had worse. Yesterday I was feeling only a little out of it and today I'm back to normal. In fact, I've only had one can so far today and I'm waiting on the second because I just put it into the fridge a little while ago and I want it to cool down.

But man, do I have a craving for it.

In meta-blogging news, I'm now a Flappy Bird in the TTLB Ecosystem and my average number of daily unique visitors has climbed from 14 to 15. Another interesting fact, over 30% of my website referrers come from Bound By Gravity with the next highest at 5.4% coming from Crawl Across the Ocean. So if you wonder why I let Andrew win half the time in our weekly tennis matches its because if he stops linking me my blog will drop like a rock in the TTLB Ecosystem.

Rant Averted

 I was going to rant about the CPC vowing to repeal the Same Sex Marriage bill that was passed last night but I see Andrew did it first and did a much better job as usual:

C-38 passed. You tried your best. Now let the issue die. This great nation has been tied up in knots debating this divisive issue for far too long. The pro-SSM crowd won the day. Yeah, some of their tactics to get this far were dirty and underhanded, but trying to overturn the decision now is political suicide. Stuff like this will ensure that the CPC never forms government.

Ah what the hell. Here's my post anyway.

Mr Harper. Stephen. Steve, can I call you that? Steve.

So this is the hill you have chosen to make your mark on Canadian Politcs. Come hell or high water you are basing your next election on SSM, specifically on repealing the new legislation and replacing it with Civil Unions.

I'll give you one thing: its certainly a bold move.

I mean, the safe moves would have been to hammer the Liberals on Health Care, Military Preparedness, Fiscal Responsibility but I guess you tried that last election and ended up outside looking in.

So its going to be SSM or bust. Ok, fair enough.

Just one question. A quick one, and you can be on your way.

Please answer truthfully Steve.

Do you really think this issue is the one to make inroads in Ontario and Quebec that your party wants and really needs?

Scary Christians Part 2

From Unscrewing the Inscutable: Michael J. Gaynor wants to bring back blasphemy laws

Michael J. Gaynor is a columnist for MichNews.com.

Conservatives Have Lost It

Ever since Belinda pranced across the floor into the arms of Paul Martin, the Conservative Party has been spinning out of control. They've lost it. They've more than lost it in fact, they've lost it and are kicking it around while trying to pick it up as if they were in a black and white silent film.

The Grewal Tapes. The Stephen Harper BBQ Tour. Being almost dead silent over the Health Care ruling in the Supreme Court. The anger over being outmaneuvered by the Liberals the other night. And now flailing against the Liberals for working with the Bloc. Its pathetic. This party has lost it. I don't know what it is, but its gone. Buh-bye.

I want the Liberals out of power but I'm at a point where I cannot conceive of voting this Conservative Party into power. They seem so desperate for approval that they don't stand for anything anymore except their stance against the Same Sex Marriage legistation which they often appear willing to sell their own souls to stop.

This is not the party I wanted when the Right United.

Arseholes.

Um, What?

In order to feed my wife and I and the three kids we are looking after last night, it would have cost about $15 for enough chicken breasts (skinless, bone-in). Instead we paid a little over $8 for some steak that fed all 5 of us and had enough for my lunch today.

Does anyone else find that odd?

Meta-Blogging

I removed the hitmap from the sidebar and replaced it with a Weather Watcher image from The Weather Network. The hitmap wasn't working so well so I replaced it. Now you too can know the current temperature in Carleton Place.

By hte way...

The spelling mistake in the title was on purpose to demostrate a point: I downloaded the latest version of Sauce Reader only to find the spell checked has been removed. GAH!

Anyway, please forgive me my present and future errors.

"What's so scary about Christians?"

In an op-ed column  Rev. Harry Lehotsky of the Winnipeg Sun asks "What's so scary about Christians? "

Quite simply, they wish to apply their beliefs to the country regardless of the beliefs of others without compromise. For example:

- outlaw abortion

- deny homosexual marriage

- remove evolution from science class

- make Christianity the religion of government (more in the States than Canada)

- ignore conservation efforts since the world was meant to be used by man as dictated by God

In each of these cases, their adgenda strikes from within their community to the communities of others. Its forceful and offensive to those that disagree with their views. And what's ultimately "scary" is that most evangelical Christians can't see this.

A Well Typed Rant

 Paul Wells takes it to Stephen Harper in a rant worthy of immortality:

So Stephen Harper's tired of trying to be cuddly, after putting all of six days into that particular strategy, and still ? still! ? still!!!! can't be arsed to explain to those poor dumb Canadians how a Conservative government would, uh, govern....

 

Starship Troopers

I first heard of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers when the movie came out in 1997. I heard friends talking about the book it was based on and determined I needed to read this "sci-fi classic" for myself. Well, I swear there was a conspiracy to keep my away from this book despite my best efforts to locate it in book stores and books clubs. (OK, "best efforts" is perhaps not all accurate, but I did keep my eye out for it). Finally on Friday afternoon last week I found it in Chapters on Pinecrest and Iris and read it over the weekend and early part of this week. It was thoroughly enjoyable and definitely gave me things to think about, some of which I wanted to discuss here.

Note: spoilers ahead.

At its heart, Starship Troopers is a utopian novel describing a united human race with one government and multiple extraterrestrial enemies. We are told about this human society from the point of view of the narrator but it seems as if the author wishes us to believe that his view of the world is accurate and not overly biased.

The society is based on the concept that only citizens can vote and to become a citizen you must serve successfully in the military for one term minimum. Failure to do so means you remain a civilian. Civilian's have all rights and privleges except the right to vote in government. The novel states that this form of government is so successful because in order to complete your military service you must prove that you can put the group interest ahead of your own interests, and that this self-sacrificing attitude in the military leads to better choices when voting for governments.

It is an attractive possibility. An electorate that does not immediately vote with their own best interests at heart but the best interest of the country/humanity? Can you imagine how that would change politics? Can you imagine how that would change political leaders?

Of course, like most good utopian fantasies there are flaws that exist in humanity in the real world that make his society unlikely if not impossible.

First issue is the problem that most Canadians are becoming painfully familiar with and that is the stench of corruption. In Heinlein's novel the military is perfectly disciplined, well-led, and consistently produces the self-sacrificing citizens its society needs to continue functioning. Too perfect. In all history every institution that exists for a period of time develops some corruption in its membership. With the proper checks in place this corruption can be controlled or minimized but never eliminated. In the novel there should develop a portion of the voting citizenship that finds ways for their offsrping to become citizens without enduring the difficulties of military service, or true military service at any rate. This would create a class of voters without the self-sacrificing attitudes of Heinlien's perfect citizens. These individual's would probably attempt to gain more power as the selfish are wont to do and in the process corrupt the system to protect them and their compatriots.

Second issue: as these corrupted citizens gain power, they would seek to remain in power. In a voting government one way to do increase your votes is to be the one that grants the franchise to those that do not have it. In gratitude they often cast their votes for the party that gave them the ability to vote. This is how the franchise was extended from property owners to all adult males (amoung others over time). With the distinction between civilian and citizen no longer relevant, the government in Heinlien's book would start to look a lot like ours of the 20th century.

The third issue I have is Heinlien's proposition that all that is wrong with today's youth is that they need corporal punishment to keep them straight. A couple floggings and strappings here and there and everyone would smarten up! The reason kids today are often delinquents is because they have no moral sense instilled in them from the back of the hand of authority. While I do think today's parent's can be overly permissive and that there are some glaring holes in society's approach to rearing childern, I don't think the magic answer is flogging unlike what has been suggested in Starship Troopers. Its a simplistic yearning for simpler days when one argues that all kids need is a spanking and everthing would be better again.

All in all I enjoyed reading the book. It is a hopeful view of what humanity can be even if I disagree with the mechanics of the government and society.

Firefoxs Sage versus Sauce Reader

Firefox with Sage Extension:

- Integrated into Firefox
- Nice stylesheet for feeds
- No ability to post to blogs
- No ability to weblog other posts
- Doesn't check for updates automatically OR I can't set the checking time

Sauce Reader:

- Separate application
- Plain stylesheets for reading basic feeds
- Can set up multiple blogs that use popular blog hosting sites such as Blogger and post to them using a nice editor
- Can weblog other feed's posts to your own blogs
- Can control how often you check feeds for new items

Despite being a separate application, Sauce Reader is definitely what I'm looking for. Sage extension is too lightweight and might be ok for just keeping tabs on blogs, but its not the blogging tool I want.

Test Of Firefox Sage Extension

Seeing how it handles updates. I'm happy with Sauce Reader but if I can consolidate into Firefox I wouldn't mind.

Update: I'm going to run a side by side comparision of Firefox's Sage Extension with Suace Reader and post my results tomorrow.

This Time I Will Not Be Denied

Gaming consoles have always been somewhat of an enigma to me. My first electronic love will always be PCs and their multi-functional personalities and consoles like Nintendo or Playstations are things "kids" would play.

Kim and I have had consoles, but we tended to get them on the backside of the curve. We got a Sega Saturn in mid 1997 and they stopped making games later that year. We bought a Nintendo 64 used from a friend a couple years later just before the PS2 and Game Cube and Xbox hit the scene. Finally two years ago we got a Game Cube and they are still making games for that little guy, but Kim's headaches and neckaches have made it difficult to enjoy it together.

Next time, I want to be ahead of the curve. So in 2006 I plan to get a Playstation 3. We'll see if I actually manage to convince Kim of this endeavour but I figure its a good idea to start the planning now.

Father's Day

My birth father died in a car accident when I was 5 years old. I don't remember him at all and I'm sad because of that, but people who do always tell me he was a friendly person who always had a helping hand and smile.

My mother remarried and I gained a step-father. He had a hard time showing his feelings (look up stoic in the dictionary and there he is) and we had very different interests (his were hockey and baseball, mine were computers and board games), but he always took care of his family and encouraged me to do well in school and go into computer programming where a less understanding parent might have wondered what the use of it all was.

I remember fondly the few times we played chess (he won all but one game), the fall games of touch football with his friends, and downhill skiing in the winter when I was an older teenager.

We were never close but once I left home and started to make my own way in the world our relationship changed from parent and child to father and son. The past decade has seen our relationship grow better and closer than the first 15 years and I'm very happy for that.

Yesterday as I helped him set up a new gate at my grandparent's house I was very proud to be his son. Happy Father's Day, dad.

I ROCK!

Can you tell that Weight Watchers is geared towards the female half of the population?

 YOU ROCK! CONGRATULATIONS! You've just reached your 50-pound milestone!

How does life feel 50 pounds lighter? What things are you able to do now that you couldn't do before? Have you tried on some of your old clothes? Perhaps there are outfits that you can now slip into that you haven't worn in years. Try them on! Treat yourself to some fun.

Here's a tip: Now that your weight loss is so visible, people are likely to be paying you compliments by the bucket load. Instead of shying away when someone says you're looking fantastic, try these two simple words: "Thank you!"

Good luck this week! We hope you have a ball celebrating your success.

PS. Look for your special 50-pound star on your My Plan page.

I haven't worn an "oufit" my entire life. I'm a man. I wear clothes.

But hey, I'm really pumped about that 50-pound star I'm getting... unless I have to carry it around. *rimshot*

Rain Rain Go Away

A week ago I got up to beautiful sunshine and thought "Damn". The dry spell had not broken and the ground continued to get parched as the moisture evaporated out of it. We spent the weekend in Kingston where they were in worse shape then Carleton Place, with yellow grass everywhere.

This morning I woke up to the sound of rain and I'm thinking "Enough already!" The past week has seen copious amounts of rain sprayed on Ontario and its getting to the point where we need some sunshine to help the plants process the moisture and nutrients and grow.

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Fortunately yesterday was dry enough to allow Andrew and I to get our weekly tennis game in. (Note to Shannon: if he doesn't exist, I'm having a hell of a time beating a fictional character.) I'm proud to say I came out on top in the main set this week but lost in the second mini-set which was the opposite result of last week. We are pretty evenly matched right now: he's a slightly better player but he's often trying to make more difficult returns with the end result being as long as I get it back to him, its 50-50 whether or not he'll smoke it past me or hit it wild. I'm getting a slightly better first serve hit rate but he is more capable of returning them back to me so that balances out too.

Fortunately, we seem to be improving at the same rate. My control of returns has greatly improved that past two weeks and I started working on getting more power into them last night. I fondly remember one or two shots where I hit it hard enough to force the error on Andrew rather than waiting for him to make it.

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Its Kim's birthday tomorrow and she'll be 31 (shhhhh!). We are having her immediate family and her best friend and kids out for a small party in the afternoon. Hopefully the rain holds off and lets us have our BBQ. Tonight Kim and her mother are have a girl's movie night (ick!) so I might rent some stupid horror/sci fi/action flick to watch in the basement. Any recommendations?

Relief

Batman Begins is getting some decent reviews and that makes me happy. Batman is my all time favourite comic book hero and the last set of Batman "movies" practically made me cry with the bad action, corny scenes, and goofy clichés. Rubber nipples, sigh. RUBBER-FREAKING-NIPPLES! AAAARRRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!

Right then, back at the ranch...

So its nice to see that they took a lesson from the excellent Spiderman movies and acceptable X-Men movies and went serious. I mean, if anyone should be serious and not camp its Batman. The Batman mythos is more powerful in my opinion because he goes seeking his destiny, not having it come to him because he got bit by a radioactive spider or was born with mutant super-powers. He makes himself a hero, not made into one by outside forces.

 

Very Interesting

Via Stupid Evil Bastard: Proposed repealing of 22nd Amendment

Progressive Blogs Uniting

Mahigan at True North, Timmy the G at Voice in the Wilderness, and Jonathan from No More Shall I Roam are joining forces with Pogge at Pogge.ca to form a group blog. Good luck guys, I'm sure your effort will succeed judging by the quality of the posts from your individual blogs.

Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Via Bound By Gravity

Your IQ Is 115

Your Logical Intelligence is Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

I demand a recount!! ;-)

Political Strategy

Came home last week to a piece of mail that was very interesting. MP Scott Reid (Conservative) has sent out a package encouraging and enabling his constituents to vote for whether or not they wanted him to support or oppose the third reading of the Same Sex Marriage bill.

Brilliant strategy in my opinion because no matter how it goes he wins with his constituents. If a majority ask him to vote for the bill he can do so and say to his core supporters "Look, I followed what my voters asked for" and his party followers will have to applaud him for it. On the other hand, if a majority ask him to vote against it he can and in the next election his opposition to the bill cannot be used by his opponents because again, he can say "Look, I followed what my voters asked for".

Judging by my estimate of the demographic makeup of Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox&Addington, he'll get the majority support to oppose the bill like his party wants to anyway. Win-Win-Win situation.

So how can he be part of a party that so screwed up the Grewal Tapes affair?

"Search your peelings, Cuke."

Join the Organic Rebellion! See Store Wars!

LOL

"Atheism is Not the Opposite of Religion"

Excellent post for those confused by what exactly Atheism is: Atheism Is Not The Opposite Of Religion

Recent reading and soul searching has made me finally admit out loud that I believe there is no supreme being of the universe, i.e. atheism. Surprisingly taking this stand makes me feel very threatened by a world that so embraces belief and tends to consider those who do not as moral-less heathens who act like sociopaths.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Health Care Gulag

Supreme Court strikes down Que. medicare law

Oh no! Quebecers are being "subjected"* to two tier health care! Will Paul Martin look them in the eye and say "NO!"???

* - word used by the Stalinists at the Bear 106.9 FM this morning.

(Hat Tip Freeway to Serfdom)

Reasoning with Them Is Hopeless

Cultural War Indeed. No wonder I'm an atheist.

(Hat TIp True North)

USA Continues the Spin Down the Toilet

From When Marine recruiters go way beyond the call by Susan Paynter:

Axel repeated the family mantra, but he was feeling frazzled and worn down by then. The sergeant was friendly but, at the same time, aggressively insistent. This time, when Axel said, "Not interested," the sarge turned surly, snapping, "You're making a big (bleeping) mistake!"

Next thing Axel knew, the same sergeant and another recruiter showed up at the LaConner Brewing Co., the restaurant where Axel works. And before Axel, an older cousin and other co-workers knew or understood what was happening, Axel was whisked away in a car.

...

Just a few tests. And so many free opportunities, the recruiters told him.

He could pursue his love of chemistry. He could serve anywhere he chose and leave any time he wanted on an "apathy discharge" if he didn't like it. And he wouldn't have to go to Iraq if he didn't want to.

At about 3:30 in the morning, Alex was awakened in the motel and fed a little something. Twelve hours later, without further sleep or food, he had taken a battery of tests and signed a lot of papers he hadn't gotten a chance to read. "Just formalities," he was told. "Sign here. And here. Nothing to worry about."

If true, this story serves as a clarion call that the US is going down the dark path faster than I thought. How far behind can the draft be? How soon until all power is concentrated in the Executive branch under the pretense of fighting the "war on terror"? How soon til the meanings of the words "republic" and "freedom" are lost the glare of the spotlights and five second sound bites?

Not long if this is allowed to continue.

Jesus Loves Pants

Here is what I find scary about Christian fundamentalism.

Excerpts from Bob Jones University Dress Code:

Hair must be cut in a traditional, conservative style–not shaved, spiked, tangled, or shelved. It may not be colored or highlighted.

Hey, what's Jesus got against a little colour? And shaved heads are bad too? That seems like crazy talk.

Recreation and Work Dress

...

Dress Code for Women

Classroom/general dress consists of a dress or top and skirt; however, pants may be worn for some recreational activities. Shorts may never be worn outside the residence halls and fitness center.

Shorts are bad! They show the legs which are the devil's tools! Jesus loves pants.

Combat boots, hiking boots, or shoes that give this appearance are not permitted.

Hiking leads you away from campus where we can't control you. Better to not be tempted by wearing shoes that look like hiking boots too.

Hairstyles should be neat, orderly, and feminine. Avoid cutting-edge fads and cuts so short that they take on a masculine look.

I like girls with short haircuts. I met my wife when she had hair shorter than I did (and I was never a long haired hippy kind of guy). Having short hair does not give one a masculine look, but telling people not to have short hair does make one look rather loony.

I swear, its only a short matter of a couple years before the Christian Fundamentalists are as severe as Muslims in their dress and behaviour laws.

(Hat Tip Pesky Apostrophe)

Homeowner

I finally feel like a grown up home owner.

Last weekend I had had enough with the dandelions slowly taking over my front yard so early Sunday I got up and spread Scott's Turf Builder and Weed Control over it. Despite the mosquitoes and tiredness and heat.

Last night I mowed the lawn and took great pleasure in the slowly dying dandelions, starved of something or other. Lawn looks slightly better already.

Egads, next thing you know I will actually start caring about my gardens! Right now keeping the weeds out (or at least to a minimum) is the best goal Kim and I can hope for. Personally I'd just plant some bushes and shrubs and let the grass have the rest but Kim still clings to the idea of planting flowers although the actual yard work is not something I can see her ever going for.

We'll see. In the meantime, I'll slowly plant more bushes....

I've Been Sniped!

It is the 8th deadly scourge of the modern world: Ebay Auction Sniping.

Picture this: you are sitting there, happily bidding on an item. You think you are getting a good price but to make sure you don't get outbid you watch the final minutes click down and all is quiet. For the past four days your bid has stood unchallenged.

Then, with three seconds left, you are no longer the high bidder. You, my friend, have been sniped.

When outbid with only three seconds left you are unlikely to have a chance to counter-bid. The effect is to lock you out just over your last offer, whether or not you were willing to offer more. Even if you had bid low and would have gone higher you are out of luck and you are left with the feeling of lost opportunity.

To avoid being sniped, here are some suggestions:

1) If you really want it, make sure you bid your maximum early on. Snipers typically only want deals and won't overbid an item.

2) Look for multiple auctions of the same thing and see what price the earlier ones go for to see what you can expect to pay.

I was sniped last night but I'm not too upset about it. I followed suggestion number one above and I was unlikely to bid more even if I had the time to do so. It still pisses me off though. With five seconds left I had gotten my hopes up that I had won the auction and was planning how to enjoy my purchase. Foolish me.

Morons

Latest news is that the Grewal tapes have been significantly altered including full-on editing.

This suggests to me one of two things:

1) They did not think that the Canadian public was smart enough to understand the unaltered tape and the intentions of the Liberals on it, or

2) They did not think the unaltered tape was convicting enough.

Either way, it was a stupid move politically and a horrible move morally in my opinion. Heads should roll.

Book Time

Book Tag from Andrew:

Number of Books That I Own:
Somewhere between 100-200. Every 5 years or so I clean out and send all the ones I have no chance of reading again back to the used book store.

Last Book Bought:
Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson. An interesting Sci-fi novel that was well written and had a good pace. Enjoyable but not memorable.

Last Book Read:
Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson. Unlike certain unmentionable people who post at Bound By Gravity, I don't overload my "To Read" pile with 20 books at a time.

Five Books that mean a lot to me:
- Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. I read it when I was a young teenager and it was the moment that permanently made me a geek.

- It by Stephen King. Put it into a fantasy setting and it is a work of art that people over the world would praise. Since its set in a modern setting it is mostly ignored despite its writing and storyline.

- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. I read it as a teenager in high school for English and it was a real eye opener to the horrors of war and the real people in the trenches on the other side.

- Lair by James Herbert. OK, yes, its a trashy horror novel (a sequel even!) about giant rats. But I read it when I was about 12 years old, got in trouble for bringing it to school  (it had vivid sexual scenes in it as well as the gruesome death scenes), and scared me so much about giant rats (even though I knew they weren't real) that I had trouble sleeping. And it hooked me on horror suspense novels for the next decade. It was a defining moment in my young life.

- To Kill a  Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. First serious book I read growing up when I was a teenager in high school. I read it twice that semester because it was so riveting and so sobering to the realities of prejudice and racial discrimination.

Tag 5 More:
I try not and harass people (plus I don't know of five people that would see this blog post anyways that haven't already done it).

One More Thing

To all the liberal defendants of the Grewal tapes who say he wouldn't take no for an answer.... that's like blaming a cop who buys drugs from a drug dealer and then busts him for it.

You only get caught with your pants down if you are about to screw around.

This and That

Look, I don't need to hear or look at the transcripts of the "tapes" (you know which ones) to know that the corruption in the Liberal party is as deep as it is wide. The bigger surprise is how surprised people are by the revelations.

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Lost my wedding ring in the sand yesterday while playing volleyball at lunch. I've lost almost 50 pounds and it is very loose so the sweat made it fly right off after a volley. Spent five minutes looking for it with everyone and couldn't find it. Re-started play and I saw it glinting in the sun a few minutes later.

Close call, Kim would have killed me.

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I suspect that voters in Ontario believe all politicians are mostly power hungry and prone to corruption to begin with while in power, so having the Conservatives sell themselves as "Liberals with Less Corruption!" is not a compelling reason to vote for them.

A few Blogging Tories have started to try and push the policies of the CPC and this is only a good thing. I hope the Conservative Leadership follows suit this summer.

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Weighed in at 205 lbs this morning. Looks like the May plateau is starting to crumble. I was stuck at 207.5 for all of May due to a combination of extra eating and exercise. Now the dividends of that exercise and new fitness level (or actually any fitness at all in my case) are paying off.