Is my life better than 4 years ago?

Recently, the Romney campaign has taken to telling voters that Obama “can’t tell you that you’re better off” now than four years ago. (10 Headlines from Sep 2008)

I keep hearing of this Are you better off than 4 years ago? Mitt thing. I'm not American, but we elected a Conservative majority 4 years ago so maybe I should play along.... Let me consult my blogs. Some amoosing factoids thrown in along the way.

Sep 1

* Hurricane Gustav rolling into Haiti. --> Presumably Haitians better now.

* A pseudo-friend had done something to piss me off. Friend Gilby gave useful analogy I share with you :

Gilby has an amusing but useful new analogy for friendships. He sees his friends as positions in a company, and sometimes you demote someone, or promote someone, or fire someone etc. If you demote a friend they have less responsibility, so you know, yay for them--but it means less benefits and pay too. Amusing, but pretty true. I'm on Gilby's Board of Directors, so I guess I'm alright.

           --> 4 years later that friend's been demoted from the mail room to Entertaining Street Performer who perplexes me with weird routine, and yet strangely fascinates so I still walk down that street sometimes. Count that as better.

Sep 4

* Still thought I'd be getting a college teaching job one day soon. --> Nope. = worse

Sep 25

* Had graduated from my MA in the spring.  --> Didn't get me a job = worse

* Nombly and Sherry cats still alive. --> But we have Haley & Minion so = same

Sep 27

* Re Canadian women: "in the past 20 years, young women with university educations consistently had lower rates of voter turnout than their male counterparts.

    ---> Don't know if that's any better.

I still had a job in Sep 2008, and now I don't. Could but that under worse, but I was overdue to leave that job so... let's say better. --> Better

3 = better
2 = worse
1 = even
1 = don't know

Officially my life is better now than 4 years ago. Does that mean Harper's a good PM? Come on son! Of course not. Thank-you useless-Mitt.
   

Riot control, from Toronto to Vancouver

Last summer in Toronto a lot of completely peaceful protesters, by-standers and passers-by were rounded up by police and treated with complete disrespect by those who organized the security for the event, while organized hoodlums were freely allowed to riot. (Here's a simple poster that will give you a glimpse.) It was a frightening peek into the heart of the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who then ran a minority government, and who this year was given a majority. shiver me timbers.

A few weeks ago, on the other side of Canada, a different kind of riot broke out, of disorganized drunken idiots after the loss of the Stanley Cup by the Vancouver Canucks. This wasn't an international conference, and security was handled at a city level. It wasn't handled perfectly, but it was handled humanely, and riot tactics were used in the correct manner against the correct people.

Here's a letter * written by a suburban Vancouver officer called in to help with the riots:


Dear 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup Rioters,

Please stop saying you’re sorry. Stop posting YouTube videos begging for forgiveness. Stop writing letters asking that society cut you some slack and leave you alone.

You started “harmless” fires. You torched other men and women’s cars whom you’d never met and never did you wrong. You assaulted firemen as they arrived to try and deal with your “mistakes”. You took limited, valuable emergency resources away from good people who needed them. You endangered more lives by tying up emergency services than you ever considered.


You showed up to hospital emergency rooms crying because you’d been exposed to tear gas. You got obnoxious and demanded to be treated like you were somehow dying. You knew it was a riot, you chose not to leave, you chose to stick around and breathe the tear gas in. You took nurses and doctors away from people who needed their care to live.

What brought a tear to my eye, after the gas had cleared, was standing in the middle of an intersection at about 3am the only people I’d seen for the last 30 minutes were other police officers, until a shop keeper brought us a case of water. Then I saw a random person with a broom clearing the sidewalk. I had a duty to respond, the citizens of Vancouver immediately afterward could have just left it up to those paid to deal with it. They didn’t just stand by, they came out in force and cleaned up after your indiscretions. Everyone I saw that early morning thanked me, I was only doing my job. I have the utmost respect for all of the people from Vancouver and the surrounding areas that came downtown and volunteered to clean up after you.

You owe Vancouver and the surrounding population more than mere words. Don’t you dare ask for our forgiveness without taking responsibility. You can’t fix life altering injuries with an “I’m Sorry”. You can’t repay someone’s car loan with a YouTube video. You ask that people leave you and your family alone but you offer no way to replace priceless losses.

You’ll sleep soundly in your bed tonight because men and women like me will always be there to deal with your poor choices. You have no idea how fortunate you are, even after we arrest and charge you. Even though you disgust me, if you call for me in the middle of the night I’ll respond. I’ll protect your life and property because it’s right and it’s what I do.

The evening of June 15, 2011 fellow emergency services personnel, my brothers and sisters, left our families at home and while grossly out numbered stood to fight. The morning of June 16, 2011 the true heroes emerged to volunteer their time and restored my faith in humanity.

Spontaneous graffiti on the boarded up windows of a 

department store that was vandalized.

 ________
* I condensed it a bit. You can click the link to see the original site.