Homeless people cost

Did you hear about the cost of keeping homeless people? Some academics have figured out it is $55,000. per person per year. The cost to the city is something like 644 MILLION dollars. I think it shows that lots of agencies are feeding off the 'homeless' fat cow because none of those wandering people I see look rich or well fed. But academics don't think that way, do they? They don't chew their food, they make 'dental implants' on it while figuring out stuff.
Why not just GIVE them homeless people the 55 thousand dollars and maybe they wouldn't be homeless again next year?

Stanley Park cleanup

Last year I complained about the lack of cleanup in visible areas of Stanley Park, in particular around Second Beach. If you want to read the post and the spin letter full of big words from Yuna Flewen I received after I sent the Parks Board a copy, go to our archives at 07/01/2007.
What aroused me was the debris in that little channel leading to Lost Lagoon, just lying there rotting and the bridge that was blocked because a railing was off, at the height of tourist season.

I went by today, and this is what I saw.

Mz Flewen said a consultant had been hired and the area would be cleaned up ... shortly ... that was in July 2007. I guess the consultant is on an hourly wage. I guess no one is managing anything at the Parks Board. I guess they just don't get it. Maybe we need a vigilante cleanup crew?
Maybe some of those Olympic volunteers could turn their expertise to a less glamourous but perhaps more important task?

Are they serious yet?

Nope, not really.
It starts in local areas where the politicians want the people to believe they are actually doing something about the world's problems. In Vancouver, it is things like Air Care. They expect all us car owners to monitor our emissions to save the world while exempting truck fleets. Why? Because truck fleets are "business" and business takes precedence over clean air. Across North America they have coal fired energy plants endlessly pumping hydrocarbons into the sky while politicos scold us for not doing enough.
They're not serious yet.
Judges constantly protect the worst criminals in Canada from being punished while the public and the victims of crime cry out in frustration. No one has the guts to put the dangerous perps out of harms way for the protection of the law abiding citizens. They don't understand that 'cruel and unusual' punishment is killing an innocent.
They're not serious yet.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Prime Minister Harper criticize China over Tibet while trade missions head to Beijing to sign more deals. Don't worry about that tainted food because the Chinese don't care about OUR health regulations. Or the toxic childrens' toys. Do the peaceful people of Tibet matter in comparison to 'business'?
They're not serious yet.
Your politicians are just scamming us folks. It's all meaningless rhetoric. Until they do something that hurts so-called business they're just not serious yet.

is Google God?

Laptop Magazine recently did an article questioning Google's power in the internet market. They are about as big as Microsoft now. And the POV of the writing was that Google may be untrustworthy with all that power.
However, in 2004, Homeland Security demanded that all these large corporations, who have the ability through their servers to see almost everything you do on line, turn over this personal information to them, ahem, in the interests of 'national security' of course. Microsoft complied, Yahoo complied, and America Online complied. SILENTLY supplying data to Department of Justice.
Google did NOT and demanded in return, that the US government abide by the law and issue search warrants for personal information of citizens. The challenge by Google was in the interests of privacy and respect for the law.
This means that Microsoft, AIM, Yahoo, these are like your Facebook info folks, the day to day jabber that YOU may think is harmless, went to the US government to pour over, looking under YOUR bed for 'terrorists'! Looking in YOUR closet for fleshy skeletons. Every time you searched out something it was recorded and forwarded to Big Brother. If you searched out Barak Obama, and mis-typed the word to Osama, YOU are now on a terrorist watch list somewhere.
Don't laugh. The worst is that they did it without a squeak of protest and didn't TELL you ... EXCEPT for Google, they had the guts to stand up to the challenge on your behalf and the government backed down on their warrantless searches in that case.
If Google is to become God, at least they're fighting that devil we know as the US government.
Let's hope Michael the Warrior angel is on their side too.
Clear out your closet and dust under your bed, they're there.