Sometimes Others Say It Best

As were many Canadians, I was truly saddened by the loss of Jack Layton. On the NL BlogRoll circuit, the evidence is clear:

John Gushue posted this video from The National
WiseWebWoman offered this cartoon
ViewPoint2010 shared Jack's last words to Canadians
and Charlie wrote of his thoughts on Mr. Layton

As someone who is rarely interested in the political scene as much as I (perhaps) should be, there's not a whole lot I can talk about right now in that regard. What I can honestly say is that not many politicians make a really strong impression on me. Jack Layton is one of a select few who did. He inspired my respect, admiration, and thanks. He was a great man and will most definitely be missed.

The Revolutionary Wave

As I was sitting on my couch this afternoon watching Just For Laughs and reading about current developments in Libya (a somewhat ludicrous contrast, I know), it hit me anew how lucky I am to live in a country where relative safety, democracy and liberation are inherent to society. I know it was not always that way, but I'm pretty sure the situation also never exactly paralleled the one facing many Northern Africans and Middle Easterners recently. I have been blessed enough to be born in a time and place where these things were fought for and established before I came along. I am so thankful for that. At the same time, it is so mind blowing to live in a world where people are still fighting for those things. To hear about and watch their battle really puts a lot of things in perspective for me. I really hope they all succeed in rendering the changes they desire without too much bloodshed...

The Continuing Plight of the Cod

While perusing the web today, I happened to find myself at Our Place in Canada - The Newfoundland Experiment. As I scrolled down the page, this post caught my attention. Now, I am the first to admit that I do not follow the news regularly and have not been diligently keeping tabs on the cod stocks or their management by any stretch of the imagination. So, my first reaction to "The Cod are Back! (But it's not ours anymore)" was "What? You must be joking!"...then I followed the link at the end of the post, which lead me to this. Again, my reaction was along the lines of "You're kidding...You have to be." I am just dumbfounded that our government could be so....for lack of a better word...DUMB (wait, scratch that...I suppose I shouldn't be surprised considering some of the other harebrained schemes they have hatched and followed through on)! Anyway, this information (while probably not news to most Newfoundlanders, Labradorians and ex-pats, is new to me and) has me truly choked (and also motivated to re-educate myself about the whole issue). So, rather than say too much about that which I know relatively little at the moment, I urge all of you to check it out for yourselves and make your voices heard if it is not already too late.