A Family is defined as consisting of a householder where one or more other persons living in the same household are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption.

I have a lot of friends with very different family arrangements. Some have parents, single parents, deceased, separated, re-married, and re-united. Some people have good rapport and others do not.

I have many friends who are successful at hiding behind family. Which, I am not saying is all that bad, while growing up we all make mistakes that we wish would stay “in-house” but what about if you are lacking that family surrounding of protection? All those times you got into trouble, I bet it was nice that your family bail you out.

I have friends that complain about their family setup. Complaints like “my family is too poor, they didn’t pay for school, they didn’t buy me a car, their too rich, they don’t talk enough, they talk too much, they care too much and they don’t care enough.

We all have family, their not perfect. I get that.

I have a friend who hasn’t had a “family” for most of his adolescent life. I couldn’t imagine the kind of person I would have developed into if I didn’t have the guidance of my parents. Could you imagine yourself without family?

This friend I have is a good friend to me. Over the years allot of things have happened, some good and some bad. The bad things have caused some to turn their back on him, which, is their call and I respect that. What I don’t respect is when I am asked to do the same. When people who have been privileged with cars, homes, allowance, food and rent free living turn to me and say “don’t help.”

Why is looking out for those who aren’t as privileged as us family folk such a bad thing? Is it so insane to allow people into our lives that may/could/are a burden?
What is the point of “getting ahead” if you are the only person there?
Why are we so afraid to get our hands dirty and help others? Why are we so afraid to be burdened with our funds, our homes and our kitchen?

What makes me so much better than the poor smuck with nothing – my job?

What a bunch of shit.

We live in a world of the haves and have nots and it’s a shame. It’s a shame because while we are out trying to make something of ourselves we actually miss out on the things that make us a somebody. The world went and got itself in a big hurry and it doesn’t have time for those who are not as fortunate.

Last Thursday I went to see Dave Matthews Band. Wow. I mean, what else can you say really, it’s Dave Matthews Band. They are my all time favorite band ever and I had the privilege of seeing them live.

On the drive home however, I was pulled over by the police. Rightfully so; I was speeding but the cop was adamant I was drinking and driving.
I had never been treated like such a kid in my life – Up on one foot, reciting my ABC’s, walking the line and counting down from 100. All of these stupid pranks and I kept saying “is this really necessary, just give me a breathalyzer.” Since I knew I hadn’t been drinking I was pretty relaxed with the guy. When he asked “do you have any weapons?” I replied respectfully and said “Sir, I’m Canada.”

This weekend, my sister, Granddad and I are off to Europe for 20 days. Make sure you keep checking back for updates!!
Cheers.

Here is my rant on the Media and self thinking. A rant that places blame on all of us; me included. I am sure Dave is just hopping to talk about this once read. Enjoy.

The media, television primarily, has become our new idol. We can get everything from this thing. TV does it all; a cheap date, downtown, motivation, de-motivation and entertainment. About any feeling you can muster can be spurred out of this box. If anything, I see the TV as an accurate picture for how far lost we as a community have plummeted.

TV’s biggest accomplishment is information, aka – News-Media. It’s the media that links us as a country to celebrate together, cry together, laugh together, mourn together and remember together. But let’s not also forget what the media does for us – it thinks for us.

In the media age, everybody is a historian, or a preacher, or a scientist, or wise for that matter. And if everyone is an expert, then nobody is. The worst thing you can be in a society where everybody is an expert is, well, an actual expert. Being shown in the media as an expert allows you to be scrutinized by those who aren’t – those people who have agendas: Mostly money and power driven. Today, it’s not about truth, it’s about who can get their message out quickest and loudest.

We have re-placed those with expertise and have replaced them with the Gut, and the Gut is a moron, as anyone who has ever punched a friend, punched a wall or kicked a non-compliant lawn mower knows. Occasionally, we dress up the Gut by calling it “common sense, worst of all, the Gut sits well with the people who are too lazy to think for themselves.

Today; politicians, decision makers, media, preachers and leaders alike use this “gut” (common-sense) to determine its science, its politics, and even the way it sends people to war.

How does the gut operate and when do you see him? Well, the gut is operating at its finest when 1 or these 3 things occur:

1) The gut is valid as theory if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units.
2) The gut can be anybody who says something is true on television.
3) The gut is when fact becomes true when enough people believe it. Truth is determined by how passionately they believe it.

When the Gut operates like this and we are held to its standard, any scientific theory is rendered mere opinion. Scientific fact is no more unchallengeable than a polling sample. This is how there’s a “debate” over the very existence of global warming, even though there is no argument of global warming in the scientific community.

There is a huge debate in the media community of its existence. And lets be honest, this isn’t a debate over the safety and future of the world, this is a debate about making people feel better about driving SUVs. The debate is less about proper science and more about how much global warming is going to cost us to live sensibly. Right now, global warming costs us too much to consider. Right…….

I guess to a certain extent it is the scientific communities fault. They don’t do a good enough job communicating with people who are nonscientists (ie – 99% of the world) but that’s what the media if for right; to voice the evidence presented by scientists?

Back in the day, being an engineer, physician, nurse, doctor, scientist or researcher was greatly respected if you said you were going into one of those fields. Nowadays, it’s as though there is no value placed by society on a lot of the observations that are made by people in these fields. People want to get their facts from athletes, celebrates, politicians and the media. No body wants to pick up a book and learn for themselves, they want to be told – and TV knows this.

It’s a lack of self-motivated thinking: clear, creative thinking. It’s like you’re happy for other people to think for you. If you should be worried about, say, global warming, well, somebody in the media will tell me whether or not I should be worried about global warming. So, essentially it’s like me handing over my intellectual responsibility. “Cant we just pay someone to take care of that problem, my favorite TV show is coming soon.”

Thanks to Elizabeth and her sappy like ways; she showed me this video and…. it was moving.

This video, which was linked to me from the grand narrative teller himself joe Manafo. Joe, is an awesome hat tipper, and I just wanted to hat tip him as well. Joe Manafo. What can you say… Joe Manafo.

This video is probably the funniest thing to come out of “Mad TV” in quite sometime. SO FUNNY though.

This article will be published in the Sarnia Observer in the next following Days.

I am writing in response to your article “Focus on drunk driving, Sarnia Police must change priorities.”

Being a once charged statistic in the DUI community and a victim of losing good friends to drinking and driving; I am always interested in the efforts that our boys in blue execute in regards to drinking and driving.

Unfortunately for our law enforcement; they are fighting an up-hill battle. Even with 10 more cruisers on patrol people will still drive home inebriated. I believe this problem has many layers and dynamics. Geographically Lambton is a spread out region; public transit is limited with coverage and schedule (and might I add, no one has any inclination to ever take the transit like they do in bigger cities). The other night I found myself above the legal limit and after waiting sometime for a taxi, I walked home.

Drinking and driving is a taught stupidity. And who better to educate our reckless youth than our ever-indulgent elders. Why is it I find myself getting into more arguments with people in their 50s (and higher) than any other generation about this issue? Is it because drinking and driving was a comical slap-on-the-wrist-offence when they were growing up? Are they still so delusional?

And let’s not kid ourselves here, do we need more boys in blue roaming the streets for our community to get the hint that drinking and driving is wrong? Are we that childish that we really need to be babysat further?

Spending more tax dollars for cops to facilitate a job our friends should be doing as instinct is a real shame.

A possible solution could be to encourage and make available better and cheaper transportation. Unfortunately for Sarnia, our taxi companies can only do so much. This needs to change. It’s not that the taxi services are inadequate, they are a business and they can only hire so many people. The next issue with things is that our safe transportation is for sale. In order to get to our destinations it costs money. $15 there and $15 home is a snag to the wallet when you start your evening with $60 (I fall into the poor 20-something-year-old bracket of Sarnia – I am sure most can relate).

I would be interested to see what the costs of a DUI accident clean-up costs our community; I would then be interested to see what the costs would be to supply bars and establishments with drivers or subsidy for our local taxi companies with funds to offer cheaper rates. Just think about Brights Grove alone, it’s like $25 to get into town (that is, if you can get a taxi).

I don’t think the solution is more law enforcement, I think the solution is better infrastructure to get people from A to B (and sometimes C).