Who Are These People? Cambridge And Kitchener Council And School Board Candidates

We posted Regional Council a couple weeks ago, and now here are council and school board candidate roundups for Kitchener and Cambridge.

My ward is guaranteed to have a new Councillor for the first time in a couple of decades. This is nice since I haven’t always been the biggest fan of the current one and have never voted for him, but that just means that choosing is going to be even harder than usual.

Stop Pinching My Johnson


I enjoyed this video. I hope it played at Boris Johnson’s goodbye party, if he had one. He probably did. He seems fond of parties.

Aside: I know enough about British politics to understand that part of the reason for Johnson’s resignation was that he lied about his awareness of allegations against an MP that he later appointed to an important position, but somehow I missed the part where the allegations involved a fellow named Pincher groping some dudes. I apologize unreservedly to the names tag for my oversight.

On Wednesday 29 June, the MP Chris Pincher – at the time, the Conservative deputy chief whip – went to a private members’ club in London. In his words, he “drank far too much” and “embarrassed himself”.
He was accused of groping two men, which led to a flurry of allegations, some dating back years. It set off a chain of events that ended with the prime minister’s downfall.
First, Downing Street said Mr Johnson was not aware of “specific allegations” about Mr Pincher before appointing him as deputy chief whip in February. Ministers later reiterated this line – even though it turned out to be inaccurate.
On 4 July, the BBC reported Mr Johnson had been aware of a formal complaint. The next day, a former civil servant – Lord McDonald – said the prime minister had been told of the complaint in person.

Mr Johnson then admitted he had been told in 2019, and apologised for appointing Mr Pincher as deputy chief whip.

The Letter

Gill has decided to write a note to a favourite teacher whom she’s mentioned a couple times here in the past. Having also had that teacher, I can absolutely understand why she’s a favourite. She was one who was very good about encouraging people to be who they are and trying to accentuate their positives. If she sensed you were good at something (in my case making people laugh or having a bit of an ear for music), she had no problem letting you go a little wild with it even if now and then it might disrupt the planned order of things. She would still put the hammer down or acknowledge weaknesses when she had to, but tried never to do it in a way that would hurt your confidence long-term. You learned from her in all of the ways that you’re supposed to learn from a teacher, but you also took away quite a bit more, often without realizing it right away.

I had the best 4th grade teacher ever. So much has changed for me in nearly 35 years. Here’s what I would say to her now.

Dear Mrs. White

First of all, thank you. You really boosted my confidence.  You encouraged not only myself but all of us that year.  I also now am forever curious about things thanks to your encouragement.

Second of all, your encouragement branched my passions to things I’d never even thought of. I love cooking, and have been told I’m good at it.  If you’re ever in Hamilton you should come by and have a sample.  I am mainly vegetarian, so I hope you don’t mind that.

I am now a devout Christian, and thank God for sending you to me.  I believe we are all called to do something, and your calling was teaching.

I often tell my mom that whether teaching 2nd grade, 5th grade, kindergarten or 1st grade that I hope she was someone’s you and that they can claim an undiscovered talent or passion thanks to her.

Finally, thank you for just being you!  God bless you Mrs. White.
Gillie

Everybody Who Feels So Inclined, Sing Along!

Listen up, universe. Open up your ears and get an earful of this, because you need it.

After the week I’ve had, this song seems very very appropriate. And it feels good to sing it! If I don’t, I might just be reduced to a sobbing heap. One person going through a cancer surgery and another one nearly dying of a mystery illness come immediately to mind as reasons why the universe can honk on Bobo. And those are just the big ones.

It’s a new week. Let’s not generate reasons for an encore. At least I found those cute kid videos to brighten my mood.

Mmm! Corn!

I know this is old news, but I have to mention this corn kid.

First, because he reminds me of Sukie, the way he gets all passionate about things and wants to tell you everything he knows about them. Sukie likes to talk about the universe and what’s going to happen in the future.

And second, because they made a song out of those videos.

I can’t get it out of my head. I wake up with it in my head. Who knew someone could get so excited about corn?

You Want To Be a What For Halloween?

I can’t stop watching this video. It fills me with so much joy. I only hope that some day, I can make just one of my nephews this happy.

https://www.tiktok.com/@sierramiller086/video/7142523676066565422

If you’re wondering what the heck that kid is saying, it’s Quetzalcoatlus, a giant prehistoric flying thing I’ve never heard of, but this kid wanted to dress up as one for Halloween. Apparently these Quetzalcoatlus things were discovered recently.

Watching this video makes me think of the time Seppa was talking about shapes, and he kept saying something like “Rapadia”. We never figured out what shape he was going for. If only we had.

Seppa likes dinosaurs. I wonder if he knows what this is. Maybe I should ask him…

Here Is Your Delivery. I Must Now Speak To My Friend Alibi 5000

I’ll admit it. Watching this little autonomous arsehole just toddle on through this crime scene giving no fucks about anything other than delivering food is kind of funny to a point. But when I watched it, the first thing I did wasn’t laugh. The first thing I did was think shit, I’m glad this isn’t a crime I was suspected of being involved in.

They cordon off crime scenes so that precisely this sort of thing doesn’t happen. My god, the potential for contamination and destroyed evidence. As these things become more common, how many acquittals, overturned or unjust convictions and civil suits are we going to be in for? The justice system is bogged down and screwy enough as it is. Technology complicating cases because it can’t do its job properly is the last thing it needs.

The robot, named Connie, was determined to get the meal to her customers.
To the amusement of some nearby camera operators, Connie managed to slip past the yellow crime-scene tape. The robot continued on its way, passing a group of confused-looking police officers.

He’s Had A Few Shots Of Something, By The Looks Of It

His heart is in the right place, but clearly being weird and embarrassing at government meetings isn’t just for anti-vaxxers.

Did he say “vaccinate me in my dong”? I know he says “thong” at least once, but I swear he’s asking for one in the tenders the first time.

He’s also getting pretty winded by the end. Long Covid?

Remind Me Again Why Old People Vote Conservative

Seriously, why? They hate you. They hate sick people, too. They’re not so hot on any of your friends and relations, either. If you’d like to tell me I’m wrong about any of that, then go ahead and offer up a good explanation for Doug Ford’s government ramming through an awful piece of legislation designed to separate elderly and severely ill people from their loved ones without any public consultation.

Don’t worry about it, they say. Nobody will be physically placed anywhere without their consent. They’ll only be extorted to the tune of $400 a day until they come around and see things our way.

This is all being done under the guise of freeing up much needed hospital beds, which is rich coming from the same people who spent a whole lot of air in the last couple years talking up how many beds they’ve been adding to the system.

Worse yet, it’s probably not even going to fix anything. The hospitals have their problems, yes. But I can’t recall any hospital that has the kinds of problems that our long term care homes do.

What the government is doing here is nothing more than cruelty and incompetence all around. To make it look like they’re fixing one overworked, under-staffed segment of the healthcare system, they’re kicking the problem over to a different overworked, under-staffed segment of the healthcare system. And in the process, they’re bullying vulnerable families into separations that may well break them financially and emotionally.

Well done as usual, Doug. If this is what government for the people looks like, I’m not sure I want to be a person anymore.

The province said ALC patients would be assigned a placement coordinator who would assess the patient’s eligibility to enter a long-term care home based on the facility’s ability to care for the patient’s needs.
The government said the home could be as far away as 150 km from the patient’s home community in northern Ontario and 70 km in southern Ontario — the equivalent of driving from Queen’s Park to Hamilton.
“The distances are based on input we received from the sector and provide hospitals with the options needed for this policy to be effective,” the government said in a news release.
The government said once a suitable home was found the placement coordinator would “authorize the patient’s admission” while the presiding doctor would simultaneously discharge the patient from hospital.
In effect, the patient would be given two options: move into a long-term care home or face a daily hospital charge of $400 beginning on Nov. 20.

“This fee would be charged to any discharged patient who refuses to leave hospital,” the Ford government said, but added that patients cannot be physically transferred to a long-term care home without consent.