Can't afford it? Sell it

Winnipeg Free Press
Monday, March 26, 2007

Re: Bad deal for cottage owners, March 21.

Every year I hear cottage owners bemoan the fact that they have to pay an education tax for their vacation properties. Their argument is that they are not full-time residents, only use their cottage for weeks or months and have no children in the local school system.

My argument is always the same. If I inherited or chose to buy a home or condo in Winnipeg or Vancouver to use as a vacation home, do you think I would be exempt from paying education taxes on this property? Of course not.

As for taxing based on income, would it be fair to tax an individual who makes $300,000 per year and owns a $60,000 property more than a person who makes $40,000 and has inherited a $300,000 property? Again, of course not.

Bottom line -- owning a cottage or secondary residence is a great privilege.

If you can't afford it, sell it.

BRIAN NORRIS
Fort Frances, Ont.

Mr. Norris' argument misses the point. It's like saying "is it fair to rob from someone who has a lot of stuff more than a person who has a little stuff?". Either way, robbing is wrong. And either way, funding education through property tax, or any tax for that matter, is wrong. You might as well fund it from library fines, or movie rental fees. Property values are completely unrelated to the cost of education. You can have a family with three special need children living in a moderate neighbourhood paying $2,000 for education on their property tax bill. You can have a single senior with no children living right next door, and paying the same amount.

There's a movement to remove the property tax levy for education and fund education through "general revenues". This is like removing a diseased lung and replacing it with a kidney. Replacing one bad program for an even worse one. What the "Let's Pay Fair" crowd don't realize is that the reason they're able to drum up such support for their movement is precisely because education taxes are on people's property tax bill. People see it every year. Joe Senior living with no kids living on CPP sees every year the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars the state takes from him for "education". Does anyone ever complain about how high payroll taxes are? What about health care taxes? Or alcohol taxes? Or gasoline taxes? Nobody complains about those. Why? Because they don't see them. They're hidden. Think about income tax, PST, and GST. Everyone complains about those, because they're visible. So the "Let's Pay Fair" crowd want to take the visible education tax and hide it in general revenue. So people can't see it. That's an even worse idea than funding it based on property values.

The best way to fund something is directly. When you go to Wal-Mart and buy a pair of jeans, you pay Wal-Mart directly and then take the jeans home. You don't just take the jeans, wait until the end of the year, then pay your mother, who pays your father, who pays your neighbour, who pays another neighbour down the street, who then pays Wal-Mart. Yet this is how we fund education. It's just a big shell game.

Budget ignores natives

Winnipeg Free Press
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

I thought I was living in Canada where everyone received equal treatment, but by the outcome of the federal budget, I guess I was dead wrong. Again, Canada's First Nations are left out in the cold and to fend for themselves. Stephen Harper has shown his true Reform/Canadian Alliance colours and left the aboriginal people out of the budget. I guess to him we are just a thorn in his government's side that needs to be left with nothing to improve our lives through education, housing and employment. He would rather keep us in poverty and under his control like caged animals. I have watched Animal Kingdom, and the caged animals I saw there were awesome when they were mistreated.

O Canada, our home and native land, has become Harper's playground.

Thanks for nothing, Mr. Harper.

Ivan Moose
Gillam

Mr. Moose says he wants equal treatment for natives, then chastizes the government for not giving them special treatment. I didn't see Ukranians, Chinese, Arabs, or any other ethnic group getting special treatment in the budget. Sounds equal to me.

Sober

Finally a tax law that makes sense!

The Santa Incentive care of Andrew Coyne. ;-)

NOTE: The fact that a significant portion of Mr. Coyne's readers actually believed the story is a sad, sad sign. Have we really become that numb to ridiculous tax laws?

Life in Prison for Smoking Marijuana

"The Dallas Morning News contrasted Dean's ridiculously harsh treatment of Brown, a poor black teenager, with the lenience he showed a wealthy white guy, John Alexander Wood, who received a 10-year suspended sentence for killing a prostitute."

Source: a post on the Reason Hit & Run blog.

Unreasonable Searches and Seizures

Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit.

:D

255 hp, 246 lb.ft torque, leather interior, 17" alloy rims, climate and traction control, heated memory seats, trip computer, 200 watt Bose 6 CD stereo, Xenon headlights, heated steering wheel...

Accord who? ;-P

Bono: Tax Evader Extraordinaire

Bono, the pop star who wants you and I and other middle to lower class citizens to pay more tax so our governments can give the money to third world dictators, has moved U2's business out of Ireland. Why? So he can avoid paying taxes of course. You see, Bono wants more money to be given to the third world, just as long as it's not his money. That's what I love about Bono though, after he comes down from his high horse it's easy to show him for what he is: a rich singer who gets off on having his picture taken with politicians. ;-)

My Current Desktop

Email Address Change

My jaydee.org e-mail address is not working properly. Please use my Shaw address until further notice. Kthnx.

To Be A Kid Again

Last week I helped run a soccer clinic for the kids in the league that I refereed in over the summer. What an experience! It was amazing to watch them soak up the information from instruction and build confidence through practice. I have always wanted to coach kids and give something back to the game I love, and the opportunity to positively shape young lives is an added bonus. It's definitely something I can see myself pursuing once I hang up my boots and can devote the required time to it.

(I knew my coaching certification would come in handy! :P)

Mr. Reggae Was Right

Well, I refereed my first soccer match on Tuesday night and had a great time! It was a game in a youth league that a friend of mine set up for an outreach program. Though it was a one-sided game on the scoreboard the kids had an awesome time, and that's the important part. I had a lot of fun too. A former teammate of mine (and current referee) suggested I become a referee a long time ago as he thought I'd be good at it and enjoy it. Looks like he was right! :)

What a Difference a Year Makes

I've been at my new job for a year now and I'm totally amazed at what's occurred and what I've accomplished. Of course I couldn't have done any of it alone. Management and my co-workers were/are a major factor. They have encouraged me and supported me and allowed me to grow (and they continue to do so).

Here's a brief summary:

• My employer has purchased and deployed JIRA and Confluence (partly due to my recommendation and experience) of which I've become co-administrator.
• I've also become co-administrator for the Enterprise Service Bus that forms the base of our new SOA patterned integration layer.
• I set up and continue to administrate the development, build, and continuous integration environments which leverage Subversion, JUnit, Cobertura, and CruiseControl.
• The boss that hired me moved to another position within the company and now I'm working for the same fantastic boss that I had at my first IT job.
• I obtained my ITIL Foundation certification
• I've leared a great deal more about Hibernate, Spring, Service-oriented Architecture, and XML/XSL both on my own and under the guidance of the lead developer and architect.
• I've settled into a leadership role helping to define development, deployment, and management frameworks as well as assisting in the design of SOA components and validation of architecture decisions.

With results (and support) like that I think this company is one that I could stay with for a very long time. I'm really looking forward to the next year and beyond!

Who's Really Targeting Civilians?

Here's a subtle, but key point that most news outlets are missing in the latest developments in the Israel - Hezbollah war. The CBC reported today that

"On Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told Israeli Arabs to leave Haifa, and threatened more rocket attacks against Israel's third-largest city." [Emphasis added]

Notice that Nasrallah did not instruct Israeli civilians to leave Haifa, but only Israeli Arabs. Killing non-Arab Israelis is apparently not a concern for Hezbollah. This is in contrast to Israel, which has gone out of it's way to inform all Lebanese civilians of pending attacks.

Tumors vs. Joints

According to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America having cancer is better than getting high.

Fixed Income?

You know what really annoys me? When people use "fixed income" as an excuse for economic meddling by the government. Usually when people say "fixed income" they mean senior citizens and those on welfare, but aren't most people on a fixed income? I'm on a fixed income. I get paid the same amount every pay period, it doesn't change. I think that's the same for most people, aside from commission salesmen and maybe hourly workers. So I don't know why the elderly think they're so special, almost everyone's on a fixed income!

Stand with Israel

A Clash of Opposites

After watching the documentary Control Room recently this exchange on Al Jazeera doesn't surprise me as much, but it's still fantastic to watch.

Someone else "gets it" too

There was an interesting article in the New York Times on Sunday about Reverend Gregory A. Boyd from Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. In a number of sermons, and a new book, Mr. Boyd has expressed the uncommon view that Christianity is not about obtaining political power in order to force the scriptures on non-believers.

This is one of the major reasons I like Riverwood. While they did do a political series during the last federal election, it was done objectively and focused not on enforcing Christianity through government, but on becoming educated citizens and making intelligent choices. Their main thrust is not political power, but "reaching far from God people... growing people to be fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ."