How to make people hate you

There are many lessons that can be learned from Lord Durham and his report. Sometimes he explains how proper administrative structures matter, sometimes he demonstrates that colonists will be the main victims of their own mistakes in a democratic context, and, most importantly, he demonstrates how to get the better part of a country's linguistic group to hate him for the rest of time.

I think the following quote does a good job of demonstrating this last point:

A plan by which it is proposed to ensure the tranquil government of Lower Canada, must include in itself the means of putting an end to the agitation of national disputes in the legislature, by settling, at once and for ever the national character of the Province. I entertain no doubts as to the national character which must be given to Lower Canada; it must be that of the British Empire; that of the majority of the population of British North America; that of the great race which must, in the lapse of no long period of time, be predominant over the whole North American continent.

Of course, he doesn't stop there. He goes on and on impending dominance of the English and their way of life, really cementing his place in history.

A Few Quick Notes 490

-It is currently raining, as it has been for much of my trip. Though we did see some sun this afternoon, today, like every other day since I have been home, has seen at least some rain. This has been one of the worst stretches of weather I have seen in quite some time.

-We went bowling tonight. While my father and I pulled respectable scores together in the last frame or two of play of the first game, we all managed to solidly break 100 in our second game. The only unfortunate part of this, at least as far as I was concerned, is that I managed to score fewer points in the second game than in the first.

While we were bowling the gentlemen in the lane next to us, who arrived just as we were arriving, (who was a good bowler) was seemingly there just to practice. He quickly played two 250+ games and then took off. In total he was probably there for less than 30 minutes. While he was there he seemed to even do things like set up splits and then finish them off. The whole thing was rather odd.

-Jeannette and I will soon be heading back to Halifax. It seems that they have been having similar weather there, so I don't imagine we have missed much.

-For the past day or two I have been engaged in re-listening to the recent Radiolab episode entitled Wild Talk.



[Embedded audio]

This episodes explores communication, or language, that has been found in certain animal species, or across species. Most importantly, it seems to give some credence to my skepticism of the claim that was made by my professor in my intro linguistics class that language is only to be found among humans.

Is that what they really meant?

This morning I was checking my RSS feeds when I noticed that the Metro had a story about Darrell Dexter playing in an upcoming charity basketball game. The important sentence in the story is:

The Nova Scotia premier/longtime baller is playing in the Legends of Basketball game Saturday as part of the Premier Basketball League all-star weekend at the Halifax Metro Centre.

What is of note is their use of the word 'baller,' which also means something quite different than what they likely meant.

The Urban Dictionary definition, which is the first Google result for 'baller,' suggests that baller means

A thug that has "made it" to the big time. Originally refered ball players that made it out of the streets to make millions as a pro ball player, but now is used to describe any thug that is living large.

It seems to me that the Metro staff should consider being a little more careful the next time they think about dropping some slang in their articles (unless, of course, this was they effect they were going for).

What it meant to be conservative in pre-Confederation Canada

This evening I have been reading several documents relating to the origins of Confederation in Canada. One item I was reading was a speech by Antoine-Aimé Dorion, a Quebec politician who was opposed to the terms of confederation as they were eventually implemented. The following is a great passage from his 1865 speech outlining his position on Confederation

It is but natural that gentlemen with the views of the honourable gentlemen opposite want to keep as much power as possible in the hands of the Government - that is the doctrine of the Conservative party everywhere - that is the line which distinguishes the tories from the whigs - the tories always side with the Crown, and the Liberals always want to give more power and influence to the people.

If you are interested in reading the entire speech, which isn't too long, you can find it here.

What I think is so great about this passage is that it effectively demonstrates how meaningless 'conservative' is as a word without the context in which it was used. Generally, it is one of those words that I think is over-used and tends to lead to more confusion than clarification when introduced to a conversation.

Because it has been a bit of a theme recently, Montifax is coming out against the word 'conservative' (when used in reference to a political position or ideology). We encourage people to use more descriptive words that really get a what they are trying to say.

Elective Dictatorship vs. Elected Dictatorship

Recently I have noticed what seems to be a difference of usage in the United Kingdom and Canada. In writings from the UK one frequently finds the term 'elective dictatorship' used while in Canada it seems that the synonym 'elected dictatorship' is preferred.

The other thing that is rather noticeable about the difference is that in the United Kingdom the phrase is associated with a particular individual, Lord Halisham. I feel that this phrase, and the name of the person to whom it is attributed, came up in almost every class I took during my year at Keele. One seemingly couldn't say 'elective dicatorship' without referencing good old Lord Halisham.

In Canada we don't ever refer to the origin of the phrase 'elected dictatorship,' we just use it. Presumably, though I don't have any evidence to support my claim, this phrase is a bastardization of Lord Halisham's original. The crossing of the Atlantic caused it to become corroded and slightly reduced in elegance.

I think that I prefer 'elective dictatorship,' though I don't have a particularly good reason. Maybe it is because 'elective dictatorship' seems to indicated that the process doesn't happen just one time, we continue to use the system. 'Elected dictatorship,' on the other hand, could mean an instance in which a dictator was elected and then remained for as long as they saw fit. There was no assumption that as dictator they would ever face another election.

On a related note, I finally found the source and text of a quote that I read some number of years ago and have been since misquoting.

"I have heard many arguments which influenced my opinion, but never one which influenced my vote." attributed to Sir James Ferguson, 1832-1907. The quote was included as an epigraph in the article Constitutional Reform: A Modest Proposal By Leonard Tivey.

A Few Quick Notes 78

-These past few days have been pretty winter-like. On Friday night we had a pretty reasonable batch of blowing snow, something that held over until yesterday. While today was it bit warmer, it was still definitely winter, with plenty of slush as evidence.

-Celery dropped in price from $2.99 to $1.29 at Lobos. This is great news for me as I eat celery more than just about any other vegetable, maybe even potatoes. I was beginning to wonder if I would have to cut back because of the high prices. Because of this great news I doubled my purchase, I am now the proud owner of two bunches of celery (well, one and a half).

-How about a Vokuhila to go with my Oliba?

Or in more standard English, how about a mullet to go with mustache?

My friend Thomas passed these two terms on to me from Germany. Both of them are derived from the longer and fuller form of the terms. This is key information, if you ever go into a barber shop remember to say ‘nein’ if you hear ‘vokuhila.’

-The Thomson House St. Paddy’s Day Party was a success in my eyes. As far as I can tell the main negative part of the evening was the Francophone/Anglophone fuelled bar fight. Fortunately this wasn’t a big fight and was interrupted quickly.

-Over the past few days I have started to listen to “When We Was Boys” by a Crowd of Bold Sharemen. This seems to be a song in support of Newfoundland nationalism, lamenting Newfoundland’s perceived loss of independence and reliance on Government.

-For the past few months I have had battery problems with my digital camera. In late summer, I purchased some very expensive disposable batteries for my camera. These batteries lasted until January of this year. Since then I have been using a mish-mash of disposable and rechargeable batteries, none of which have been very satisfactory.

It seems that the disposable batteries that I purchased yesterday came pre-depleted, while the rechargeable batteries that I have don’t last much longer.

This is annoying because it limits the functionality of my digital camera. For instance, it was of no use in documenting my celebration of St. Paddy’s day yesterday. I guess there are two solutions, either buy expensive disposable batteries or buy expensive rechargeable batteries. It is unfortunate that both of these solutions mean spending money.

A Few Quick Notes 67

-Another not so cold winter’s day in Montreal. Once again as soon as I walked out of my building I realized that I had forgotten my sunglasses yet again. This was particularly problematic as I was walking across the reservoir on my way to Thomson House.

It is Nithum’s belief that we are on our way out of winter in Montreal. I am hoping the same just so that I can ride my bike and unicycle again.

-I am now pretty convinced that my beard needs to go. I am having a hard time recognizing myself in pictures or the mirror. The problem is that it is much easier to keep my beard than to remove it. Additionally, once it is gone that will mean a return to at least semi-regular shaving, something that I have never been very good at.

-The Oscar party went well last night, though I had to duck out before any of the big awards. I am pretty sure that I surprised a few of my classmates with my baking. For some reason they didn’t seem to expect that I could. I was also able to demonstrate that it is possible to whip cream by hand; something that not many people in attendance seemed to have ever done.

-I have a mid-term tomorrow. Hopefully it will go well.

-We have really come up short on blog posts this month. Maybe we will be able to do a bit better next month. Certainly in the summer when all I have to do is work I should be able to crank out this junk everyday, maybe even a few times a day.

-As I was studying for my mid-term I came across the term ‘capitalist.’ Once again this was used in what I perceive to be an inaccurate fashion. As is frequently the case, this term was used to refer to what I would call an industrialist or, in more Marxist terms, the owner of the means of production.

It seems that as capitalism is an ideology and not a status, this usage is somewhat problematic. In this framework it seems that it would be impossible for a non-industrialist to be a capitalist, and an industrialist not to be a capitalist. If we look at the analogous situation for socialism does this mean that only those who avail of social programs are socialists? Does this make it impossible to be a socialist with a social safety net?

I don’t think too many people would agree with this use of the term ‘socialist,’ so why do we allow such sloppy usage for the term ‘capitalist.’ It doesn’t help either side of the debate to have such possibly confusing terminology.

-For some reason that I don’t understand, the number of people that have viewed my YouTube clip of a train entering Mont Royal Metro station is now 180. In the past few days I have had surprisingly large amounts of interest in this clip, probably about 20 views today. This is particularly surprising as the clip is pretty boring, as are all of my other YouTube videos. Why has this one ‘taken off’?