A COUPLE OF THINGS YOU DON'T NEED, BUT ARE IMPRESSIVE

SomeThings You DO NOT NEED

1) The Steampunk motorcycle comes with firing machine guns (blanks only).

      Great to impress your "anarchist friends".

2) The all-new Toroidion  is the world's most powerful all-electric supercar with a full megawatt (1,341 hp) of power.
     To compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race of some 3,000 miles (4,830 km),  Toroidion relies on a rapid-swap high-capacity battery that is "as easily replaced in the pit-lane as it is in the home garage."  Distances like that are over 10 times the range of other electric cars like the Tesla Model S and Audi R8 e-tron.

Some Useful Things You MIGHT USE

1) Add Wi-Fi  connection to your old computer using a USB dongle available from Amazon.com (under $20).  It is just a tiny little dongle that you plug into a USB port. It has a Wi-Fi radio in it, which your computer can use it to connect to Wi-Fi.

2) Want easy Bluetooth for your old computer with USB dongle?  The HTG Guide to Adding Bluetooth to Your Computer

What You SHOULD KNOW

1)  USA CALLS FOR AN END TO PSYCHIATRIC THERAPIES TO CHANGE SEXUAL ORIENTATION (ALSO CALLED "CONVERSION THERAPY).

     President Barack Obama has called for an end to psychiatric therapy treatments seeking to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of gay, lesbian and transgender youth. It comes in response to a petition.

2) Tuesday, April 21, 2015, The Canadian government has indicated it will present a BALANCED  BUDGET (NO YEARLY DEFICIT). Somehow, no one seems concerned that, although this means we will have stopped rushing further into DEBT, we still have a RECORD HIGH DEBT.  As in,   C$ 981,464,208,804  at the time I write this blog and increasing by about $1000 per second. Click to see the DEBT clock. 
      It is like just borrowing more money from the bank to "balance" your household budget SO YOU CAN KEEP ON SPENDING.  I guess this is why the Government NEVER says the word "debt".
      Think about this when you are told how well Canada is doing economically.

   

Pot Festival

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Canada's Debt VS Deficit

      Canada’s Finance Minister (Flaherty) recently said that our Federal yearly budget (deficit) will not be "balanced" until 2016-17. That just means we will not be increasing the debt after that date.  

      The Prime Minister contradicted him three days later and reaffirmed the government's plan ". . . . to  balance the budget prior to the next federal election (2015)." They disagree by only a year or two of increases to the debt.

     The following updating "clock" shows the TOTAL debt that Canada has accumulated to date. Our children can pay it off some day. Reducing the yearly DEFICIT by adding to the DEBT may make good sound bites but it doesn't change reality. The following updating "clock"  can be downloaded from Taxpayer.com.

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 GOOD THINGS HAPPENING IN CANADA

1) University of Waterloo student team earned the title of this year’s Facebook hackathons Champions over teams from U.S, Canada , Brazil, and Ukraine. It isn't really "hacking". It is more of an APP for finding  groups of your :friends.

2) Maybe it is not a big deal, but the Parti Quebecois (Quebec provincial party) has approved having the Canadian Maple leaf flag fly beside the Quebec Fleur de Lis in their National Assembly. For the party devoted to the separation of Quebec this is a major concession. The fact that a recent poll showed 57% of Quebecois had strong positive feelings for the Maple Leaf flag.

3) Somewhat related to the above, an online survey of 2,287 Canadians found that just 55 per cent are very or somewhat satisfied with the way democracy works in this country. That’s sharply down from the 75 per cent who expressed satisfaction in response to an identical question in 2004.

"Atypical" Canadian Happenings

1) National Chief Shawn Atleo of the Assembly of First Nations opened a three-day strategy session for First Nations leaders from across Canada with a call for unity in a "shared struggle" for change.

Some of the chiefs went to Parliament Hill, where MP's were to begin voting on the government's second omnibus budget implementation bill. A brief scuffle ensued after security guards stepped in to prevent some of the chiefs and First Nations members from trying to enter the House of Commons.

2) And speaking of scuffles, near the end of the session Wednesday, Peter Van Loan, the government's House Leader, crossed the floor of the Commons to confront his NPD counterpart, Nathan Cullen. Microphones were shut off but tape recorders showed "in-the-face" shaking of fingers complete with use of "f***" words. It was on the way to becoming more typical of a hockey game than the Canadian Parliament when the combatants were physically separated. Not typical of the staid old Canada I used to know.

Why We Need The USA

1) The XL Foods plant was at the centre of an E. coli outbreak in September that led to the largest meat recall in Canadian history. The contamination was discovered by US border inspectors who notified the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Sept 3rd.
    Until Sept 16th the Canadian government continued to say publicly that the meet was safe. On Sept 16th CFIA sent out its first alert warning with recalls continuing to increase past Nov.16th.  Check the timeline.

2) The RCMP opened an investigation into the spy activities of Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle, a Halifax navy intelligence officer, several months after it received a letter from the FBI notifying them of the possible security breach. The RCMP investigation began only after Delisle voluntary turned himself in as a spy for Russia.