If this is true I wonder what the defense will be - PTSD

With the news that a military person has been charged story here with two counts of murder, I wonder if the defense will try to have him diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? That may be hard to prove considering that he has only one active service medal and a good conduct medal (I guess he loses that one) And further if it's true that the charges will stick congratulations to the Police for such a quick arrest, that is unless this guy just left such a great trail of clues behind that they couldn't fail to catch him.

New technology and customer service

Ever tried to access customer service departments lately? I have been struggling with Bell Canada and this morning with the Toronto Star.
This morning the TO star was not in its usual place when opening the door at 7am. Nor was it there at 1015 am. So I went online and obtained the phone number for the circulation department. Accessing phone hell the final stop was a notification that informed me that I had been credited with a newspaper to replace the missing one. Not satisfied I tried again attempting to guess which of the options would give me access to a real person. Finally the voice informed me., "Press #3 if you have other questions" I did and was promptly cut off. Trying again, after all I had a seven minute investment in this quest already, I connected with a person called Shonna and she informed me that i would be credited with a paper. I said, "but I want a paper" She said, "You should have called before 10am, we have nobody to deliver after 10am." But I said, "Look just find the guy in Grafton and send him out." She said, "I don't know the delivery person in that area, I have credited your account" So I said, "I really only want a paper." She said, "Sorry sir I can't help you." I said, "Please make a note and tell your supervisor I am not satisfied." She said, "Yes sir, is there anything else I can help you with?" and proceeded to explain that the Starweek will not be delivering any more and proceeded with an upsell. I disconnected.

The Bell Canada saga is much more involved and complicated but it does have its comedic spots. Having decided that I might save money by exchanging my pay-as-you-go phone with a smart phone and a cheap plan, research was made into all the options. Settling on a Palm-Pre the local Bell store was visited. Oh back up, as I went into the local mall the Source was visited and the following question posed, "You folks sell Bell phones what makes you different from the folks next door (the Bell Store)?" "Our service" was the reply, "We cannot cut the plan rates." "See that phone mount on the rack?" I pointed out, "Can you give a deal on that if I buy a plan?" "Sorry sir the boss doesn't allow us to cut prices." So I went next door.
"Can I help you sir?" asked one of the perky young females. "Yes, I would like to buy a Palm Pre with a two plan." She looked at her schedules and said, "It would be cheaper on a three year plan." "I know that but I want a two year plan, for $99.00 (the going rate advertised on the website) with a Combo fab five plan." She then went into the back room obtained the phone and then proceeded into the upsell. "These phones are prone to freezing, do you want the extended warranty for $7.00 a month?" Is the freezing covered by the normal warranty" I asked. "Yes sir but these phones are on a backorder when you try to exchange them." A for effort but still no sale. Havig invested twenty minutes of waiting and buying time she then informed me, after discovering her computer would not take the order, that the phone I wanted on a two plan will now cost me not the advertised price of $99.00 but $150.00. When I asked why does the website say $99.99 another older but officious (read snotty) person then pointed to the fine print on an internal schedule and read the disclaimer. "I then said, "I am not satisfied with that, this whole deal has been very misleading and I'm sorry that I wasted your time and mine." And left much to the amazement of another customer being served not eighteen inches away from me at the counter.
Not wanting to give up with the holy grail of a PalmPre on a two year plan for $99 I decided to go on line and order it. Finding the right page on the website and proceeding to fill out the right pages and assemble what i wanted in the "cart" I was invited to chat inside a popup box with a customer service rep. Doing this I was informed that I could have what i wanted and could I give them a phone number where they could confirm all of this in person. Ten minutes later a man named Amin went through my order and then informed me, after many holds and pauses that the phone would be another $150.00 plus the $99.00 because I wanted a two year plan. He then reduced the price for me to $150.00 all-in and I informed him that that was not good enough and terminated the call.
Aha I thought why don't I just order the bloody thing on line and see if the shopping cart gives me what I wanted. Yep I could get the order, clicked buy, supplied my credit card and two days later the phone turned up.
But it turned out that had ordered the "Uber" Combo not the "Smartphone" combo and needed to change it. Instructed, by email to register the phone and create an account where I could make changes to my plans I attempted to do this. The vagaries of the transaction were such that the registration code was not being accepted by the website and I failed to create an account. Finding a phone number and another maze of "phone hell" a contact person was found. After a while it was determined by the CSR that he couldn't help me and told me to initiate a "Chat" on the internet. "What if I didn't have a computer?" I asked. "Well I can't help you." was the only answer this man could say.
So I guess tomorrow I will be contacting the business office of Bell with two simple requests: can I register my mobile phone and can I switch plans? After all I wouldn't want to waste the nearly two hours of enquiries that I have invested so far, now would I?

If you found this tale tedious, blame me for not writing in a Leacockian way - blame Dave Chomitz for suggesting that I write about it.

PS I guess my episode is not just Canadian or uncommon amongst telecommunication companies read about this British couple's attempt to obtain broadband here

Down in the farm team

Monday evening the Council, Cobourg that is, will appoint members of the public to committees. Two people being appointed may bear watching. One is Melissa Marshall and the other is Don Ubell who are being appointed to the Environmental Committee. Interesting is the fact that Melissa was a candidate in the last election. At 34 the youngest in the race and one of the few women. Obviously she wants to stay involved. Don is a man with a purpose - he collects committees. Currently the Chair of the Community Centre Building committee he also works on the Accessibility committee, he may even be Chair of that one too. He needs to fill his time and with three committees, that is one more than a sitting member of Council he will be busy. But will these positions on committees lead to a jump to the "show"? Ther are a couple of other active committee members who might make the jump too - losing candidate Larry Sherwin, is tucked down there as are other active people. Could be a busy period for aspiring candidates in the next few months, will they have had enough of the committee work or will the committee work prove to be a teaser for more?

An insidious file

Yesterday's Toronto Star placed its latest expose on the front page in blaring colour and headlines. "Blacks are three times more likely to be stopped than whites!" and went on to discuss the practice of carding and the recording of more blacks than white. However the Star has it wrong by not going deeper. In its file, that contains many stories on the same theme, not one is talking about the practice of "carding"
Carding is the method that police services use to gather and keep information about people they have stopped, on file. This story details the methods used and the database that abound where non-criminal information is kept.
Field Information Reports
Replaced MANIX as the repository for contact card data, and houses the same contact card details as MANIX. It also gives descriptions for the nature of police contact, such as general investigation, loitering and traffic stop. This data set captures details from 315,000 contact cards filled out on 242,000 individuals from late 2007 to end of 2008.
This information is gathered by officers on duty who come into contact with the public, make notes for whatever reason and the that info is moved to a database, FIR see above.
Flashback to the overthrow of the East german government years ago. What did the population do? They went to the HQ of the Stasi and ransacked the files. Every person in the Country was in a file that listed associates, traits and other information. Does anybody else see the comparison here?
The practice of anybody, and this case its the police, gathering and keeping information, without that information being able to be checked for veracity and context is odious, but even more odious is the practice itself. How can a free and civilised society condemn the Stasi and then condone the FIR being run by the Police in Toronto and even perhaps our local police?

When will the Star condemn the practice?

James Doolittle for mayor

The ego of the man, Jamie Doolittle, quoted in a letter to the paper today, "Councillor Bob Spooner, after all of my previous writings, has listened to me, other readers and various editorials and coverage of this issue in this newspaper. Well done." If he has led the charge to fix the park to HIS satisfaction just imagine what he could do for the Town. Go for it Jamie don't live up to your surname!

Well fancy that

Will all the bashers who came out of the woodwork last year when the BurdReport questioned the need for a "Doctor's Retention Committee" please be still. Last night our esteemed MPP lou told hamilton Township that there is no shortage of doctors and he will not be lobbying his Preem for the area to be included in the "underserviced". Read about it here. A quote from NorthumberlandToday says it all "There are doctors right here in Cobourg looking for patients" and the Port Hope Community Health Centre is returning $300,000 in provincial money because it doesn't have enough patients to hire the third doctor it was funded for, he said.
On the other hand it does swing the issue politically from Ms Kim Rudd, the Chair of the Committee to Attract Doctors" and the nominated candidate for the Libs, to the Cons. Wonder what Kim will say now? But at least the Cobourg Council should be able to take the funding request from the pre-budget discussions and save the taxpayers money.

A couple of points

In this story, NNews, here the subject of naming rights for the new Community Centre is reported. The first point that should be noticed is the attitude displayed by Councillor Bob - "don't interrupt me when I'm preaching" - Spooner with his reply to Councillor Mutton when she made some points about the report. “I really resent the idea of someone picking apart this report,” he said. What a statement! obviously Bob's experience and longevity has given him a Cromwellian complex, well let's paraphrase Cromwell, Bob - "Your useless body has to go"
The second point is that by adopting the naming report, whereby names of the complex and its constituent parts have had a value placed on them, have we eliminated the possibility of naming the place, and its rooms, after local notables. For example if we wanted to call the press bench the "Layton Dodge Room" who would pay for it and could we even do it for nothing? I guess Oscar Wilde was right - we know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

Give me one good reason

With a typical Steve Jobs hyper-launch the world was introduced to the Ipad. A ten inch display, an enlarged Iphone but without a phone, what can it do? That will be the question for those people willing to lay out $400US for the cheapest version or $829Us for the full kit. As a non smart phone user I cannot appreciate the value of the "apps" that abound but even if all of the thousands available for transfer to the Ipad were moved over I still fail to see a use for this pad. After all can it translate scribblings with a stylus into intelligable text, can it take a picture, and in Canada can it use the 3G network? Not yet!
I remain to be convinced of its usefullness - I am a sceptic - convince me otherwise.

Postscript, thanks to Wally and his browsing of Youtube - a non political use of the Hitler clip; he, Hitler, doesn't like the Ipad either. Watch it here

What a bunch of hot air!

Lou Rinaldi delivered a dubious retort to a very intelligent question on Monday night. Cllr Stan Frost asked why the province was being inconsistent by banning municipalities from offering bribes to business but allowing bribes to doctors. Rinaldi replied:
"Our government has looked at every possible way but, at the end of the day, we don't want to tell municipalities how best to spend their money. Under the present law, there's nothing the province can do."
Well Lou change the law you have done it before: bicycle helmets, no stunt driving, no cell phones or smoking in cars and the list goes on. So long is the list of measures that curtail individual liberty that the Premier is known by some as "Premier Dad".
To handcuff municipalities with a doctor shortage and then tell them that in order to attract doctors it is OK to bribe them is reckless fiscal policy that wastes local ratepayers money. We don't want to spend this money but some Councils are convinced that it is the only way to get them here. There's an election this year Lou, some may remember this remark as political nonsense and vote accordingly.

Guest Post

Deb 'Connor

Stockwell Day at Treasury: OH NO!

Recent news that Harper has shuffled Stockwell Day into the Treasury Board, where he will wield the knife on program cuts, has me worried. With Flaherty whispering in one ear sharing tactics learned from his former boss, Mike the Knife in Ontario, and Harper in the other reminding him of their Reform roots, this will be bad news for all the widows and orphans out there, not to mention the immigrant population, the unemployed, the homeless and anyone else too dumb to be rich in this country.

With corporate taxes and taxation of the wealthy at a historically low level in Canada, this callous government is vowing no new taxes, despite the ever growing deficit they created with their dubious stimulus programs. Announcing that beating the deficit means cutting programs exclusively, they have just eliminated a worthwhile source of revenue without a thought of the consequences.

So what sort of programs are they likely to target? Looking at where these guys come from, it's a safe bet that programs and services that protect women's health, like access to abortion, and immigrant settlement will be vulnerable; so will education, research, First Nations, poverty reduction (such as it is at the federal level), and the regulatory framework we rely on like meat inspection. That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure readers can add their own lists of potential victims of the upcoming federal cuts.

Secretly, I suspect old Stock and the boys are relishing the thought of the havoc they will wreak on Canadians when he starts waving his axe around. They probably figure having a huge deficit is worth it for the fun they will have decimating all the services and programs they hate anyway with the deficit as their ready made excuse.

And just what did they do with all that stimulus program money? Will we ever get to find out if we got what we are about to start paying for, for years to come?