Archive for the 'freedom' Category

Conservatives are (in my personal opinion) the bane of democracy

Published on May 5, 2010 by Jonathan Růžek

I’m not very much into politics, but there are a few things that get me fired up: assaults on education and health care, the environment and copyright reform; all things that Conservatives are slowly, but surely destroying. This is without any consultation or regard to Canadians thoughts and opinions, but rather to benefit large corporations and industry.

I’d like to focus on copyright today, something many of us are not familiar with. After reading the Boing Boing article, “Canadian Prime Minister promises to enact a Canadian DMCA in six weeks,” It became clear that our Conservative minority government didn’t learn any lessons from the mass outcry against bill C-61 two years ago.

The Tories have shown — yet again — their utter contempt for public opinion and Canadian culture and small business…

I find it upsetting that the Conservatives are pushing this bill so quickly to undermine Canadian citizens, yet again. And you wonder why there’s a Pirate Party.

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Published in Public Service Announcements, deathbridge and freedom. View Comments Tags: conservatives, copyright.

City squares want your circles

Published on May 12, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Plan Your City, where the city began gathering public input to figure the hell out which direction it should take for the next 40 years. Part of that includes city circles, where citizens are encouraged to take part.

Cory Armfelt, city consultant, writes:

Hey everybody the City Cirlces are up and running!

Get a group of friend’s together, record what you like about Lethbridge and/or what you don’t like (please include a way to solve the problem…) and submit it to the City. We are hoping for a variety of mediums- Personally I’m hoping that someone comes up with an interpretive dance about what Lethbridge means to them and is willing to present it at the ideas fair in October…

City Circles

Published in counter-culture, deathbridge, freedom and lethbridge. View Comments Tags: city circles. plan your city.

Plan your city: Bring life back to Deathbridge

Published on April 24, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

Today, Joanne and I had the opportunity to meet with city consultants Cory and Brian, who are involved with the process of bringing Lethbridge into the ~~20th~~ 21st century. They’re part of the “Plan Your City” initiative, where Lethbridge might actually listen to its citizens, so as to shape our future up to the year 2050 (before beastmen enslave humanity).

Listen, Lethbridge matters to me, or else I wouldn’t have started this blog. If you’re a young person like me (I’m 28) who has ever referred to this city as “Deathbridge,” this should matter to you.

Continue reading ‘Plan your city: Bring life back to Deathbridge’

Published in counter-culture, deathbridge, freedom and lethbridge. View Comments Tags: city circles, deathbridge, design, edit, lethbridge, plan your city, rants.

Alien apocalypse

Published on April 23, 2009 by Carli Kogler

Better you than me, Jonny
Let’s face it. A zombie attack hitting Lethbridge is a bit more feasible than a bushel of Pirates ransacking our city in the dead of night from the OldMan River. As somebody who is overly paranoid and sure that man-kind’s demise hangs overhead like a rusted out guillotine, I have made many extravagant plans in order to get out of the city quickly and effectively. Many of my plans follow the same guidelines. In fact, my Marshal Law scenario is exactly the same as my Alien Contact scenario. I write this post satirically of course, but the fact of the matter is, that you should always have some sort of plan to follow in case of ANY Emergency. Here is a good site to refer to for the very basics of protecting yourself and your loved ones: http://www.getprepared.gc.ca

So here’s the scenario, a horrible pandemic has hit every corner of the Earth in only a few short weeks thanks to modern travel and the diseases incubation period. With symptoms rivaling that of Ebola, death comes like a thief screaming in the night. Unless properly burned, the once dead bodies possess the uncanny ability to reanimate in a matter of hours. With so many people dropping dead, fires can’t be started fast enough. Soon Mayor Magrath Drive is full of the walking undead, and they smell your beautiful brain.

Let’s plan this together. What do you do? What tips can you share for the Lethbian masses? I want to see some deep, insightful comments people!

Published in deathbridge, education and freedom. View Comments Tags: aliens, apocalypse, carli kogler, disasters, guest blogger, pirates, zombies.

Conservatives help you pay LESS tax?!

Published on April 15, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

Conservative tax propaganda So I’m not a very political person, partly because Canada doesn’t have an equivalent to Sarah Paylin. But if there’s one thing I’m against, it’s the Conservative government. In Alberta, everyone here votes for them like sheep, and it disappoints me greatly. Don’t get me wrong – I love Lethbridge, but hate the Conservatives.

You want a reason why? Kyle from Andrew Hilton writes:

In less exciting news, I wanted to let everyone know how the new Alberta Liquor Tax that went into effect this past Tuesday (April 7) is going to affect prices in the store. There is no point in sugarcoating it, this is an absolutely huge increase in taxes (about 25% more tax per bottle) that makes a very obvious difference on the shelf. The taxes will add the following amounts to the price of every bottle:

- To a 750mL (standard bottle) of wine, the increase will add $0.75 – $1.00 per bottle. This can be upped to $1.50 – $2.00 for a 1.5L bottle, and over $4.00 for a 4L bag-in-box cask wine.

- To a 750mL bottle of spirits, including liqueurs, the increase will be approximately $3.00. 1140mL bottles will be increased by approximately $4.50 and 1750mL bottles by about $6.75.

- Beer will be a little more complicated, as the tax varies based on the size of the brewery. Larger breweries, such as Molsons and Labatts, will see about $1.50 per dozen increase, while very small breweries like Wild Rose will only see about a $0.40/doz. increase. Medium-sized breweries, like Big Rock and Sam Adams will fall somewhere in between.

Sin tax, my ass. Isn’t eating babies also sinful? If there’s one thing I’d like to see change in Lethbridge and Alberta, is that more young people started voting (period) for change and voted for a more progressive party like the NDP. Isn’t it about time we had a prime minister with a mustache?

Well it looks like I won’t be showering for a while…now I have to resort to making bathtub gin.

Alberta raises taxes on cigarettes, liquor

Published in counter-culture, deathbridge and freedom. View Comments Tags: booze, bullshit, conservatives, politics, sin.

National Day of Remembrance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge

Published on April 9, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

Today is the National Day of Remembrance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. One of the defining moments for Canada, Lethbridge played an important part. Soldiers from the 20th and 39th batteries of the Royal Canadian Artillery fought in this battle. A monument to those soldiers stands at the 18th Air Defence Regiment Armoury, which since has been renamed the Vimy Ridge Armoury.

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Published in freedom and history. View Comments Tags: remembrance, vimy ridge, world war I.

Plenty of hoes at the Home & Garden Trade Show

Published on March 26, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

See what I did there? I used my mad rapper skills and came up with a fresh rhyme. Speaking of fresh, there’s nothing quite like biting into fresh-grown horseradish. It’s hot, like these beats.

If you’re into gardening and interior design, like me, check out the Home & Garden Trade show:

Guests to the show can find a variety of exhibitors, ranging from flooring and cabinets to hot tubs and fireplaces to landscapers and greenhouses, and much more. It’s the largest Home and Garden show in Southern Alberta, and the variety of products is almost endless!

The show runs March 25 – 28 at Lethbridge Exhibition Park. Tickets are $5.

Home & Garden Trade Show

Published in events, food, freedom and shows. View Comments Tags: exhibition park, gardening, trades.

If you could only have one more chance to speak?

Published on March 25, 2009 by Jenn Prosser

Wednesday March 25th the ULSU presents the second annual Last Lecture. As it was founded last year by the 2007/ 2008 Vice President Academic for the ULSU I thought it would be only suiting to sit down with him, mono a mono, and have a grand ‘ole chat about what he envisioned and how he thinks it has played out. Now, I was just too consumed with this week’s BoingBoing guest blogger to sit down and actually talk to Jason so I just asked Jason to interview himself. The following is a direct transcript of that interview.

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Published in University of Lethbridge, education, events, lethbridge, people and speech. View Comments Tags: Chris Kukucha, Craig Milner, Jason Pan, Jenn Prosser, last lecture, Robin Bright, ULSU, UofL.

Changing Faces Coffee House tonight

Published on March 21, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. In recognition of this day, “Changing Faces Coffee House” will be presented in the City Hall Atrium:

A complimentary evening of music, art, story telling and other cultural experiences

If you missed the Anti-Racism March earlier today, stop by tonight between 7:30 – 9:30PM.

Published in celebrations, culture and freedom. View Comments Tags: city hall, culture.

The great outdoors

Published on March 20, 2009 by Jonathan Růžek

As a kid, there was always dirt under my fingernails and I had a perpetual tan from always being outdoors. That’s because I was lost in the woods and raised by wolves during my formative years.

Growing up, I had the luxury of running around with my friends, exploring my surroundings and gaining valuable like skills, like fighting for meat. It’s a game we’d play.

The point I’m getting to is that I had the freedom as a child to go unsupervised on my own adventures, climb trees, catch frogs, scrape my knees, take risks and learn the consequent lessons from them. I was what some nowadays call a “free-range kid.”

“We’ve done it for cattle and for chickens – it’s time we unleashed this generation of kids.” – Carl Honoré

Continue reading ‘The great outdoors’

Published in culture, freedom and lethbridge. View Comments Tags: childhood, henderson lake, parenting, river valley.

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