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Significant Birthdays
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 2219
It's the owner's significant birthday, and there will be a party held at his estate in the country. On our day off, which is a bit cruel, but when else would it be held?
The owner's girlfriend, the latest, most legitimate heir to the remaining estate, she's invited us all. G*** declines, he's got a prior engagement with his girlfriends father. The soon to be father-in-law. So it's up to the new Italian waiter and I to shoulder the politic responsibility, it's a bit awkward, we're more the feudal serfs, the employees, but it would be political suicide to miss it, and so we grudgingly agree. An hour, two tops...
Sunday comes and we're both pretty hung over, the night before was Halloween. But I pick him up in the bone-jarring screeching wreck of an automobile, it's very last legs and this jaunt into the countryside isn't the least bit wise, not at all, but it's gotta be done...
We arrive late, as planned. Arrive late, leave early. There are perhaps 30, 40 other guests, all regular customers at the restaurant, adding them all up, net worth, anywhere from half a billion to a billion dollars...
There's J***, 100 million easy, G****, maybe 2 or 3 million, they don't get along, there's a variety of land barons and other characters, quickly do the math...
And there are a few, like the girlfriend and her children, who add up to debt, and there's the new Italian waiter and myself, he's worth a couple of grand easy, me, I'm another debit on the account...
I see J***, demand a glass of wine, it's nice, this hospitality role reversal, he gets it, laughs, obliges, gives me the name and grape. And for an hour or so we chat and socialize, some are cool, recognize me (but I don't them, we have a lot of customers, laugh, play along), some resent the bridging the gap, clearly we, the staff, are overstepping the boundaries by attending this party...the Owner, he's hospitable and charming, we admire his place, his palace, a castle of sorts in the wilds of Calgary, he's a trophy room filled with the kills he's made all over Alberta, the territories, a hundred different animals all stuffed and mounted, it's impressive, where's Alberta's wildlife? Why, it's all dead in *****'s kill room...
We pass the obligatory time, socialize according to our inclination, it's a bit like work, but less service and freer with the drinks and food. And when we're done we escape, politic goals achieved, it's a different world, and we're both glad to be returning...
Legal V Justice
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 2584
In capitalist economies one finds a Legal System, as opposed to a Justice system. A Justice system concerns itself with balancing the needs of the individual versus society, and creates laws that favor both. The Laws and Judgments are acknowledged by society to be fair, or are changed. At it's highest level it attempts to restore our faith in a fair and just universe.
A legal system, on the other hand, is unrelated to justice. A legal system is it's own economy, by which both laws and justice can be purchased for those bidders willing to spend enough time and money to rewrite the laws to their own end, or prevail their point of view over their opponents.
A Justice system does not favor wealth, rather it favors fairness. The Legal system, transparently favors those who are willing and possessed of the means to invest in it.
For a justice system to work it must be unbiased, and have laws that are readily understandable and available to the citizenry it represents. Lawyers are not a part of any real justice system, as they by their very presence represent both money and power and an adversarial approach to the issues being decided upon. Those points of view without the resources to bring a paid voice to court will simply not be heard, and laws will be made without consideration for their rights or interests.
Corporations represent some of the biggest threats to justice, wherein the fiction of personhood extends to them all the rights and privileges, yet profits are actively used to lobby and absolve them of any responsibilities. Examples of laws created by corporations, not people, include the copyright and piracy laws (many of which actively engages in suing real people for both real and imagined piracy and copyright violations), and the corporate taxation laws, many of which would be the envy of any individual.
For more ideas and reading on these themes, follow the links below:
Link: The more unequal your society, the more your laws will favor the rich
Link: Georgia claims it's laws are under copyright & Georgia sues citizen for publishing law
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-powers-and-abuses-of-americas-mega-corporations/5371901
Jar Jar Binks
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 2665
And from this reddit user (redditor?) comes perhaps the most coherent and well thought out argument ever as to the direction the Star Wars franchise is heading...
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/3qvj6w/theory_jar_jar_binks_was_a_trained_force_user/
Absolutely brilliant, and cleverly explains a lot of otherwise puzzling incongruities in the series. That said, who, really, has that kind of time to think about it?
Greg VS Mouse
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2762
With fall rapidly approaching we've acquired a mouse. Everyone in the kitchen has seen it, we've seen it in the dining room, bar, now the question is to catch it.
We've had these infestations before, always managed to catch them all, the tell-tale droppings on the table cloth, in the bread, this, a single mouse, maybe two, we'll round them up....
But it's Greg VS Mouse, and I have a pretty strong feeling that it will be Greg that is outwitted.
Picture an animated Ren and Stimpy type cartoon, only Greg as the older, alcoholic bartender, short, burly Italian, red nose, standing behind the bar in the swarm of fruitflies he's been trying to exterminate now for a year...he looks like nothing so much as a miniature french bulldog, those anxious, sad, worried eyes...
And mouse, confidently running about the dining room, bar, kitchen...
In any battle of the wits, Mouse is sure to win...
Every week, Greg lays traps, baits them with the finest cheeses. Every week, mouse eludes him. Every week, Greg orders more ACME products, all of which somehow backfire ridiculously, the mouse does the same on his days off, but the mouses plans are better laid, they work out better. Think Tom and Jerry, Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner...
It's the live re-enactment of a cartoon, and all I have to do is watch. The Mouse will be fine...
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