Musings of the Technical Bard

New TFW rules are politics, not good policy

Taliesyn — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:51:29 +0000

Today, Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced that the Government of Canada was tightening the rules for companies wishing to use Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) in their businesses. I found out about this when Joan Crockett, another Calgary MP, tweeted: Now, this isn’t the only change to the regulations. Kenney also announced: …

On the Extremism that breeds Terrorists

Taliesyn — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 04:54:44 +0000

In recent days, North America has again faced the terror of mass violence (Boston), and the threat of mass violence (Southern Ontario). The response of law enforcement in the United States following the Boston Marathon bombing was commendable and effective. Unfortunately, the need to lockdown the city of Boston for nearly 24 hours is a horrible …

Crash Course

Taliesyn — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 04:29:26 +0000

While I normally write about politics, I sometimes write on education. Today I would like to point out a great series of Youtube videos that are very funny and educational (even if I’m generally knowledgeable in the subjects). Crash Course is hosted by the vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green, and puts subjects like World and …

Balancing Alberta’s Books

Taliesyn — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 07:13:08 +0000

The Province of Alberta has put out a website so Albertans can take a crack at balancing the books. I decided to take a crack. Now let me give you a little history. Twenty years ago, when I was at the University of Calgary, I lived through the Ralph Klein / Jim Dinning era …

Alberta Health Services has too much management

Taliesyn — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 06:51:09 +0000

Today, I discovered the organization chart for Alberta Health Services. It can be found here: http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/org/ahs-org-orgchart.pdf Egads!!! Look at all the people with the title Vice President, Senior Vice President, Executive Director, and similar titles! Now I recognize that AHS has over 90,000 employees and operates many facilities across Alberta. But the ration of such …

What are they teaching our kids?

Taliesyn — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:35:58 +0000

I have children, and one of them is now old enough to be learning serious subjects in what was once called “Social Studies”, or “History and Geography”, depending on your age. Today it is all lumped together with Language Arts (what I remember as English) into a morass called “Humanities”. I think you get …

On Guns, Society and Mental Illness

Taliesyn — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:05:48 +0000

This past weekend caused us all to recoil in horror from the events in Newtown, Connecticut. And it didn’t take long after the mass shooting was over and the death toll was tallied that the various political commentators began to attempt to justify their vision for America (or Canada, or wherever they live). First, others …

Conflicts of Interest

Taliesyn — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 18:05:36 +0000

Recently, Toronto mayor Rob Ford has been ordered out of office by the courts due to his actions regarding the use of public funds City letterhead to raise money for a football team, and more importantly taking part in the council vote on whether or not he did anything wrong. At the trial, it was pretty …

The problem of evil

Taliesyn — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 19:27:10 +0000

I didn’t intend on writing about the events in Aurora, Colorado – I also wasn’t sure I could add anything to the discussion. Then I found that S.E. Cupp pretty much wrote was I was thinking: Evil is difficult to deconstruct. It’s unpredictable and manifests in unimaginable ways, often more horrifying than anything fiction could …

On Alberta, BC and the Northern Gateway Pipeline

Taliesyn — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 18:44:38 +0000

British Columbia Premier Clark this week made waves by saying that her government’s support for the Gateway pipeline would depend on BC obtaining it’s “fair share” of the benefits of the pipeline – and she made it clear this was not a demand on Enbridge, but on the government of Alberta. Many have of course …