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May 08

Subtle Observations About the 2011 Federal Election

by Chris Billows in Political Ponderings 0 comments
So in following up on the obvious and newsworthy events arising out of the 2011 Federal Election, I am following up with a list of more subtle, interesting, or amusing events. First, despite all of the pro-democracy people talking about how the people have spoken I will think of it as a bit of a sham. It is not rule by the people. It is rule by a minority of the people. We can see this thanks to the Historical Voter Turnout report by Andrew Heard. It appears that Canadians turned out in greater numbers this election reversing a downward trend. This demonstrates a desire for change and an appeal to a positive image by NDP Leader Jack Layton, but I will be surprised if this reversal is permanent and we see rising voter turnout. Elections Canada has bent over backwards to make voting more accessible to people, but tweaking the mechanics of voting will not fix the fundamentals of what we are voting for. Unless political parties change their purpose, Canadians will continue to stay away from voting in greater numbers. Canadians do not vote because of the steady predominance of parties and policies over leaders and inspired action. […]

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May 03

New Endings in 2011: A Historical Federal Election

by Chris Billows in Political Ponderings 1 comments
The 2011 Election was worthy of note because it created so many new endings. Lots changed on May 2. Yet, some things didn’t. Despite the best polling and computer simulations, nobody predicted that Stephen Harper would end up with a Majority Government. Early on in the CTV Election Coverage, their computer statistics expert claimed that there was only a 10% chance the Conservatives would win a majority government. They were wrong and its because they make a fundamental mistake in understanding our electoral system. Each electoral district is its own election. We vote at the same time, but we don’t vote together. So that’s why it does not really matter whether there are national trends because those trends don’t carry over to each riding perfectly. In each riding there is a unique dynamic of vote splitting, strategic voting, and democratic culture that cannot be easily predicted. This is what allowed the Conservatives to win a majority despite winning less than 40% of the popular vote. Its how our system works. It appears to be unfair, yet I think those who complain about it are not going to find any satisfaction soon. This election marked the end of fair vote movement […]

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Apr 25

The Ongoing Dilemma of The Human Condition

by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments
Life is full of choices at times. Sometimes we feel as if we have no choice because we are forced to do something. But generally, most societies do allow some degree of choice. In the West, choice is directly tied to the concept of human rights. Now the quality of our choices is pretty diverse. There are Easy Choices, Hard to See Choices, and Hard to Choose Choices. The Easy Choices are those that have clear consequences. A good choice would be something that creates a positive outcome while a bad choice would create a negative outcome. Few people would intentionally make choices that have negative consequences for themselves. The Hard to See Choices are those that have long term consequences that we are unaware of. The nuclear disaster in Japan is a great example of this. Because human beings are so predisposed to thinking short term, they are guilty of making short term choices and ignore the long term consequences. If the company officials did a long term evaluation of building nuclear plants near oceans and fault lines, perhaps they would not have proceeded as they did. Maybe they still would have, believing the long term risk is not […]

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Apr 16

Who Are Y-O-U?

by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments
I have come across a series of books influenced by Carl Jung and it has me looking differently at personality and who we are. Carl Jung adopted the notion that there are layers to our personality. Perhaps if you asked him the question ‘Who Are You?’ he would have responded that we are complicated and have layers, like an onion. The first layer is the public persona that represents all of the material things associated with us such as our titles, our possessions, our associations, and our accomplishments. This stuff is always being accumulated or lost or moved around. Its the crassest level of who ‘you’ are. The layer below that is the private persona that is the collection of physical, sociological, psychological, and metaphysical elements that create your time/space perspective. This layer guides your way of interacting with the world, but is also dynamically changing. Its the personality level of who ‘you’ are. But there is also the level below known as the psyche level which is even more fluid and subtle. At this layer of who ‘you’ are we would find feelings, emotions, intuitions, reactions that you experience but generally cannot articulate. It is all very gut-level feeling. […]

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Apr 06

Five Ways We Get Sick And Disabled

by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments
I have worked in health care for the past fifteen years. I have seen at least over a thousand clients and as a professional case manager, my job is to help facilitate a portion of their care. It recently occurred to me that despite the vast array and variety of diseases, accidents, and disabilities these individuals may have what appears to be five general / macro methods that sickness and disability is visited upon us. 1) We are born with it through our genetics such as Muscular Dystrophy, Cystic Fibrosis, etc. 2) We suffer an unfortunate physical event such an Accident, Assault, or Attack. It could be a car accident, an injury suffered at birth like Cerebral Palsy, or we could be attacked and injured by a mugger. 3) We suffer a random or complex microbe event that attacks us such as Bacteria, Virus, or Spore. 4) We suffer from a confused immunity system such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Cancer, or Lupus. 5) We self inflict our own unhappiness and injury such as through a failed suicide attempt, alcoholism, smoking, etc. So what is the point of sharing something so depressing? I am not sure, but it just seemed interesting to […]

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Mar 15

A Lesson In Betrayal and Humility

by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 1 comments
What can one say about the earthquake and tsunami that has hit Japan? Very little. It is all very humbling and scary to witness the raw death-dealing power of the planetary body that is supposed to house and sustain us. What will happen next? We will see more earthquakes because that is the way of the Earth. We can also be assured that various marketers and religious leaders will find a cynical way to exploit our fear and questions to their own benefit. There are already a slew of books talking about 2012 being some kind of a apocalyptic date. (I had to chuckle as I was browsing these kinds of books at a local store and along side the various 2012 books was one that talked about the end of the world being in 2009). :-p For the record, here is a list of all recorded fatal earthquakes. It proves that while the Earth gives us life, it is also a ruthless betrayer. We are just guests in its home and the host is erratic and prone to fits. Earthlings beware.
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