The Burrard Bridge and Cringeworthy Comments

Disclaimer: This isn't about the issue. It's an issue the issue raises that has to do with discussion, communication, and community.

The Burrard bridge bicycle lane trial has begun.

I'm not from Vancouver, I don't bike across the bridge, and I'm not really entitled to much of an opinion as I haven't examined the plans, read the council minutes, or really paid much attention at all - until today.

You see, every local-news outlet has a story on the bike-lane'd bridge. And in today's everybody-has-a-voice web2.0 social media mad world, that means every story has a comment thread a mile long.

In theory, enabling comments and discussion fosters debate and communication.

In practice, comment-sections quickly degenerate into useless strings of spin and vitriol only occasionally related to the originating article.

Insults are flung with wild abandon, key-messages drown out discussion, and somehow (I really don't understand it yet) the least intelligent among us manage to find their way onto the internet and whip out angry diatribes that only occasionally make sense.

It's depressing to think that those posting are actually the listening/watching/reading public. So, rather than be depressed I imagine this:

Massive banks of computers in a smoke-filled room, cigarette buts dangling from ashtrays on the corners of redbull-strewn desks. Each computer is staffed by a moron with a script, shit-posting to beat hell, while a balding man with dark circles under his eyes paces circles in front of a giant set of monitors looking for news to hijack.

It's like a telethon to save PBS, but instead of red-dwarf reruns we get the daily news. And instead of saving PBS the point is this is an intricate plot to degrade public dialogue to the point where it doesn't make sense to have a public dialogue at all.

I like to think this intricate plan is funded by the military-industrial-complex (do we even call it that now that it's really the everything-complex?) to weaken the public's role in any sort of policy development or implementation.

I then like to use that vision to get really pissed off, curse the lack of public spaces where debate and discussion occur in Canada, and then I do my best to either:

A. Write a coherent post engaging with the few people actually participating in some sort of discussion, then vote-up our posts with a host of fake accounts.

B. Respond to comments in earnest, with sourced arguments, but in the wrong comment thread.

Option B is way more fun, but usually just gets ignored.

The moral of the story is this, "The internet is too easy."

Or it isn't.

Search Engine with Minister Peter Van Loan

This is one of those extremely important things you should hear.

Minister Peter Van Loan telling us we have no reason to expect any online privacy.

mp3

The most important thing you'll read today

Be cool. Enjoy some insight instead of suffering through old-media's premature postmortem.

Cyrus Farivar's recommended reading - Iranian Election Aftermath.

Sold Out or Smart Move?

I'm trying really hard not to think this is just a move to buy the Liberal party time to measure support before launching into another election.

ugh.

Legacy Generator

Have a laugh with 23/6's Legacy-O-Tron.
The Defending Bush's Legacy-O-Tron - 236.com - News

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Prorogate This

So our government failed to overthrow itself. At least we got a new word to throw about.

A prorogation is the period between two sessions of a legislative body. When a legislature or parliament is prorogued, it is still constituted (that is, all members remain as members and a general election is not necessary), but all orders of the body (bills, motions, etc.) are expunged. (In the British parliament, this has now changed somewhat in that Public Bills can be carried over from one session to another.)

Parliamentary session - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

To me it seems like we've got two groups looking to look good in front of the Canadian people by campaigning on each others shortcomings while already elected. That shit sucks during election time, but it's out of hand when it happens after an election and BEFORE a throne speech.

Bah.

One would think that with a minority government ALL parties ought to work to form a coalition. I suppose that's what governing with the consent is all about but that's just not happening. What's happening is a farce.

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Giving Candy to Babies

They Like it.




A good, if a little awkward, piece on the ballillion balaialout.

What's the Best Thing to do With $490 Billion

The Conservative government has quietly released the details of its extensive plan to beef up the military, including spending $490 billion over the next 20 years

Federal government quietly releases $490B military plan

This.
Totally, this.

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Copyright Time! Weeee!

Copyright law could result in police state: critics

It's been tabled.

I hope this gets crushed.

I also hope the power behind this (Prentice et al.) choke on a big bag of dicks.

Start calling your MP's offices. Be cool though, don't threaten their children's lives, maybe their chiuauas, but not their children.

**Don't actually threaten anyone's chiuauas

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So Long Sullivan

Sam's out, which is probably the worst thing to happen to Vision in the past couple of weeks. I'm now looking forward to a good competition even though I don't live in Vancouver.

6 days to go until we know who will be flying the Vision flag.

Out east, there's just no real excitement. My mayor, papa Corrigan, aint goin' nowhere.

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Lobbying, Influence, and Honesty

24 Hours made good use of an access to information request with Washington state and is reporting some doublespeak with regards to influence peddling and what may or may not be unregistered lobbyists.

Good Connections Open Doors

Definitely not as cool as the Hotel Lobbyists.

Oh Tories, You so Crazy!

Elections Canada alleges the Conservative party violated federal election law by funnelling money in and out of local candidates' campaigns so the national party could spend $1.1 million above its legal limit on media advertising in the last election.

TheStar.com | Canada | Angry Tories unveil raid documents

Also:

Saying they wanted to avoid a "media circus," three party officials also took the unusual step of briefing a "limited number" of invited reporters. But the attempt to frame the party message went awry when other journalists learned of the briefing. To avoid uninvited journalists, the Conservative officials switched hotels, cancelled a briefing, and left via a fire stairwell to avoid pursuit by television cameras.

TheStar.com | Canada | Angry Tories unveil raid documents

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China, Tibet, and the Olympics

China Cracking Down On Tibet

Via The Onion

Weren't there sanctions when peaceful protesters in Burma were cracked-down upon?

I guess we just don't like Tibetans as much as we do the Burmese. More than likely it all comes down to the shady deal we have with this oppressive regieme, the one I like to call "you give us cheap shit we ignore your crimes agains humanity."

I'm glad the guardian exists and prints real articles. If only we had a strong voice in Canada to help pressure our leadership into growing a pair. That might be the wrong way to put it though, it's pretty balsy to ignore your partners' abuses of human rights.

Blogging for progressive political change

I'm at Northern Voice 2008 out at UBC attending Kate Milberry & Marc Lee's presentation on using blogs for progressive political change and agitation.

I won't be liveblogging the event or anything, there are better people and places for that kind of thing, but over the next two days I'll be quickposting cool sites/people/ideas on here and bookmarking the bookmarkables on del.icio.us.


Peace.

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