See You Later, Hil
Finally, Obama admits the Democratic presidential nomination is almost probably (but not quite) in the bag. Why not? He’s only 44 delegates short as of today, and he’ll pick those up even if he loses the three final primaries.

No Fun on the Hill, or at Insite Either
“It’s where Harper MPs are told they need permission from the PMO to speak to reporters, and are expected to carry wallet cards reminding them how to avoid the media. It’s a capital in which promised free votes don’t take place, where a government elected on openness fights to restrict access to information and public servants fear for their careers if they dare speak in the public interest. Where regulators are fired for seeking to regulate and federal scientists muzzled for talking about science. Where MPs like myself and Bill Casey are expelled for speaking, and former cabinet minister Michael Chang demoted for having convictions.” Garth Turner recounts his life in Ottawa as a Harper Conservative.

“Conservatives govern this country by virtue of fewer than 25 per cent of eligible voters. Yet this putative minority government status is treated with complete contempt by Stephen Harper, in stark contrast with literally every other minority government in Canadian history. The source of this contempt, also aimed at the media, the civil service, political opponents and the law itself, may not be simply the man’s well-documented arrogance. Evangelical Christianity has its own special disdain for democratic governance.” Murray Dobbin mines Mr. Harper’s seeming fetish for divine retribution.

Tony Clement leads the governmental charge, launching an appeal of Justice Ian Pitfield’s finding that federal drug laws do not apply to health facilities. Tony’s right, of course. Addicts need treatment. So why is he spending public funds on this appeal instead of developing desperately needed treatment facilities?????

Your Pain, Whose Gain?
Financial bubbles used to be more or less isolated events that occurred when more and more people went a bit mad chasing impossible financial dreams. The Dutch tulip mania came to a grinding halt in 1637. The South Sea Bubble burst in 1720. The Great Crash of 1929 ushered in the Great Depression. When a market bubble bursts, the theory goes, recession, and sometimes depression follow swiftly along.

The British Bubble Act was passed in 1720 to prevent speculators from creating future bubbles and their resulting economic misery. Nowadays, things are different. Bubbles have been manufactured, and have popped, with increasing frequency since late in the last century.

Not long after the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, the dot-com bubble burst in 2001 wiping out $5 trillion in market capitalization. That should have hurt more than the mild recession that ensued, but there was a quick cure in housing, at least until that bubble, built on pooled, low-quality debt instruments, brought us to massive writedowns and faltering financial institutions, not to mention widespread home repos.

Is the economy becoming more reliant on engineered bubbles that create fake wealth to avoid the pain that normally follows a crash? Eric Janszen thinks so, and he believes the next bubble is following hot on the heels of the housing meltdown. His prediction? Alternate energy, including “clean coal” and small nuclear power plants, developed not to deliver energy security but to push up share prices until the next inevitable crash. I wonder if it will hurt?

Plywood and Stainless Steel Bathroom
We have plans, some day, some way, to renovate our 35-year-old spec house bathrooms, so I look at a lot of loo’s, including this one, which features a stainless steel tub surround. I like it a lot, though I expect at our house we’ll keep the stainless in the kitchen. Mr. V. is so conservative.

Heather Mallick opines, as brilliantly as usual, on Sex and the City celluloid.

Mr. V. is home this week, mainly so we can work on garden and house stuff. I’m probably not going near the computer much. Continuing to work through both “The Not So Big Life” and “A New Earth“, which are almost like companion volumes, at least for me today.

Here’s a quote from Susanka’s book that really struck me yesterday:

“Every single event in our lives is a type of food that allows us to understand ourselves more completely. If we reject food when it’s offered, w’re like children who don’t want to eat their vegetables. Yes, it’s true that children can survive without their vegetables, but they will grow more readily and with fewer health complications when they eat nutritious food. What our experiences offer us has just the same effect. They’re there to help us grow. Most of us are quite convinced that if we’re living properly, every life event should be yummy and positive. So when things don’t proceed as expected, we perceive that something is wrong, and we assume we must fix it. If we were personally in charge of determining what is best for us, we’d be eating the experiential equivalent of ice cream and chocolate cake all day long.”

Susanka begins this particular chapter with a quote from Ron Mangravite:

“The trick is to realize that the shit that falls on you is fertilizer.”

Living the glamorous condo life? Garth Turner’s Greater Fool blog features a New York Times article on luxury condo foreclosures.

Fat people are blamed for global warming.

Oliver Stone’s new movie, W, may be a greater source of embarrassment for Tony Blair, W’s most ardent admirer, than for W himself.

Suzuki backs Dion’s carbon tax, says mean things about the Tories and the NDP.

Hillary for VEEP? What a mess that would be, despite her smarts and intestinal fortitude. Nevertheless, lots of people seem to think an Obama-Clinton ticket in November would heal the Dems’ wounds. I think Barry’s going to go with Bill Richardson, though he’s not mentioned as a possibility in this article.

Two guys in Colorado got in a “bonehead” dustup over a parked van and tasered each other, and neither of them was a cop. At least they didn’t use bullets?

Muhammad Yunus has a six-point plan to address the growing global food crisis. His six point proposes that “each oil-exporting country create a “poverty and agriculture fund”, contributing a fixed amount - perhaps 10% - of the price of every barrel of oil exported. This would be a small fraction of the windfall they have been gaining from higher prices.”

Meanwhile, Hugo Chavez is already on board, offering $365 million of Venezuela’s oil income to produce, buy, and distribute food and medicines to the poor.

And the Americans have passed their $290 billion farm bill, which has been roundly criticized for cutting international food aid while extending generous subsidies to domestic sugar, dairy, timber, and salmon producers.

Wheatboard, made from wheat chaff, is becoming a significant eco-friendly building material.

Frank Schavio, San Jose-based sustainability activist, has remodeled his modest tract house. By focusing on conservation instead of features and fads, he’s developed a comfortable, green home.

Too good to pass up

1. Linear time is not the only time.
A couple of decades ago I read Alan Lakein’s “How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life.” I’m not going to knock his advice, which is practical and helpful for those who need to be more efficient. It’s just not the whole story, and in taking his advice to heart I became something of a pain in the ass: frantic, frustrated, and extremely judgemental about folks who didn’t see things, or spend time, the way I did. Plus it meant my handbags got bigger and bigger–filled not only with books to read in case I was unexpectedly delayed, but also with every bit of flotsam and jetsam I could imagine I might need for any eventuality. These days I get by with a Roots bag that can manage a water bottle and a small camera, but no books. Doing “nothing” when Providence provides the opportunity, like virtue, is its own reward.

2. There is no need to justify our existence.
Back in high school an artsy creature who went by the name of Goat signed my yearbook with a quote I believe can be attributed to Bertrand Russell: “In order to justify your existence, you must create rather than rationalize.” I took this one to heart, bypassing the creating part, going straight to the justifying part, forgetting to remember that I (like each one of us) have a right to be here. It is still hard for me to remember this one, but I am learning that our spark of divinity can be reflected through our creativity.

3. My ego is not who I am.
Currently I’m on my second read through Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth,” which, along with his “The Power of Now” I’ve found extremely helpful. Tolle seems to be the real deal, a modern, non-denominational spiritual teacher. Not everything he writes agrees with my personal religious convictions, but as they say in Twelve Step Programs, I can take what I like and leave the rest. One thing I’ve taken from Tolle that I don’t like, but is true, is how I’ve allowed my ego to run roughshod and become a bolus of compulsive thinking that crowds out everyday joy. Recognizing this bolus for what it is has enabled me to begin to get reacquainted with peace and presence and untie the knots of compulsive thinking. And hopefully become less of a pain in the ass. Amen to that.

One of the nicest gifts I received this past Christmas was Sarah Susanka’s “Home by Design.” Susanka is known for her architectural practice and philosophy, first explored in “The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live.” Susanka’s “not so big” philosophy guides design of homes that are sanctuaries that simplify lives, rather than starter mansions that tax energies.

“Home by Design” has been helpful in two ways. First, it has enabled me to begin to imagining how to transform our recently bought, modest house into a home that works for us. Second, it led me to Susanka’s website, where I discovered her more recent book “The Not So Big Life: Making Room for What Really Matters.” It is a blueprint for making changes in life, often small and subtle ones, that enable all the space and time needed to do the things that really matter.

Here’s a quote that struck me yesterday:

“One of the most difficult skills to develop is the ability to say no when you know that’s what the situation requires. Because we place such a high value on a can-do attitude, we lose sight of what’s actually possible. We give one another accolades for doing more than is humanly possible in less time than is feasible and assume that the results are good. But they’re not. They’re not good for the people performing the superhuman feats. They’re not good for the people receiving the services performed by the overtaxed workers. And they’re not good for future generations, who will inherit the results of work performed by individuals functioning at the precarious edge of their capabilities”

A week ago Sunday a virus hit. A rubbish, nasty bug which has sidelined me pretty much ever since.

This after a whirlwind weekend trip to Victoria followed on Sunday with countless hours hacking at the English Ivy that owns a good deal of our side garden.

We have no time to be sick, especially Mr. V., who actually has a job, and managed to crawl to work everyday, only crawling home early one afternoon after his boss made him. He seems to have been in better shape through the ordeal than I. I’m still hacking and horking, finally able to understand what it is like to feel as weak as a kitten, and as sick as a puppy. Meh.