that was some substantive hail that just ran through here.

i was worried about the windows, probably for the first time in my life.

if you're not from around here, you might not realize that brampton has a very high percentage of residents with a south indian background. we've got the same problem in windsor, which has recently become a destination for international students (because it used to have a surplus of cheap housing, and still has very low entry requirements).

i learned this a few years ago looking for apartments.

in windsor, it's a total cultural turnover. cheap properties get bought up by indo-canadians, who then rent them out to international students, who just import their regular living conditions. they'll cram ten people into a two bedroom apartment, because that's what they know, from where they grew up in india.

i went to one place that was advertised over kijiji as a two-bedroom. it was actually a studio apartment; they decided the living room was one bedroom, and the hallway near the kitchen was a second bedroom. and, there were six people living there, including two who slept in the kitchen.

i doubt that many canadians are really cognizant of this change that is taking place. but, in the end, we might find out that we needed a virus to get the health inspectors on it.

the problem, though, is that i don't want to split them up, or at least not without a massive increase in rental housing availability, because that'll just drive up the cost of rent. at some point we kind of have to clue in - we have an anarchy in housing production that isn't taking into account what we need, and isn't working in coordination with immigration policy. we let far too many poor people into the country, and then get confused when they fight over scarce housing; meanwhile, we have empty houses in the suburbs that nobody even wants to live in, let alone can afford to buy.

we had this under control at one point, but we forgot about it in the 80s, and we've let it get out of hand ever since. it is going to require a major, co-ordinated push by all levels of government to get a handle on it.

if a more co-ordinated housing strategy based on social need rather than profit and property rights is a side product of this catastrophe, that's at least an upside. maybe a little bit of disaster socialism is in order.

for now? i can imagine it. i've seen it. two-three kids per room, at $500/head. it's a racket, perhaps literally. it needs to change.

https://www.bramptonguardian.com/news-story/10018783-coronavirus-spreading-in-brampton-s-overcrowded-housing-a-growing-concern/

there is an exactly 0% possibility that i'm ever going to obey any sort of mask-wearing guidelines put in place by anybody, ever.

i don't care; it's a matter of principle.

and, i'll be as disobedient as you force me to be.

well, we'll see how long that lasts before a court strikes it down.

it's one thing to argue that a business has a right to make it's own policy. as a consumer, i think that would open them up to substantive amounts of litigation, but they can post whatever signs on their property that they want, even if i choose to ignore them and make a big deal out of it.

it's another thing for a government to pass a law like this that forces businesses to enforce these rules, and it is not a debatable point - they cannot.

so, what happens if a business decides they don't want to enforce this? will they be fined? shut down? and, what if a consumer just ignores it?

i look forward to the inevitable legal battles. you know what side i'm on.

if i lived in the region, i would try to get arrested over this to make a point and then sue the cops for it.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7048646/coronavirus-mandatory-face-coverings-guelph/

march is finished.

march was a little slow because i had to make some decisions about what i'm crossposting and what i'm not crossposting. it should pick up a bit for the remaining....9+ 12*4 + 3 = 60 months.

if i can get  10 done a day?

ok, it's going to take a few days. fine.

here's 03/2014:

https://deathtokoalas.blogspot.com/2014/03/

https://jessicamurraytravelblog.blogspot.com/

i need to eat.

it seems like today is the first truly gorgeous day of the year.

i wish there was something to go out and do.

ok, but rather than be shocked and surprised by young people (who are not at risk of this disease of at all) being young people, the correct logical response, given the actual facts of the matter, is to realize that this was inevitable and that what the government did was utterly foolish, given this inevitability.

the focus from the start should have been to stop it from getting into the geriatric homes. it should have been allowed to spread in the younger population, because it was going to happen anyways.

your shock should be directed at the stupidity of your government's policies, not the perfectly rational behaviour of young people in a crisis that only affects them economically.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-covid-19-cases-are-on-the-rise-among-young-adults-but-health-experts/

february is done:
https://deathtokoalas.blogspot.com/2014/02/
https://jessicamurraytravelblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/

remember - this is very loose, it's just meant to build a skeleton, as it could be years before i fill in these thousands of pages of dialogues scattered through the master document.

did we elect an all grown up alex keaton?

is that what happened?

well, it was predictable that their trickle down economics scam wasn't going to work. it sounds like they're throwing a hissy-fit about it...

do you know what the first thing that needs to be done here actually is?

he needs to throw bill morneau out of cabinet, to start. the guy's a complete dumbass. i suspect he's the root cause of much of this stupidity...

then he need to just extend the cerb.

and, then he needs to raise taxes to pay for it.

even if ontario were to completely reopen tomorrow, we'd still need another several months of benefits. blaming welfare queens and pushing trickle-down economics isn't going to fool anybody. even the dumbest conservatives left that behind eons ago.

unfortunately, it seems like trudeau and his buddy morneau are using a 40 year-old instruction manual - while jason kenney and stephen harper embrace the necessity of keynesianism.

i'm starting to wonder who the lesser evil actually is.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7039015/canadians-max-out-cerb-what-happens/

they'll probably spend more money investigating these "crimes" then they will recoup, in the end. on a purely accounting level, it is probably flat out stupid. they probably know that....

rather, it appears to be red meat to throw at some kind of conservative voting base. but, who exactly does trudeau think is voting for him?

yeah, i'm with the ndp on this one. going after these people is barbaric.

if there's an overpayment, i guess they should have to pay it back, but they shouldn't be punished for it.

i don't really care much about budgets, with the caveat that i don't want the imf on our ass. i highly doubt that the dollar amounts here are going to be substantive. i mean they might find a couple dozen people...

rather, it's more the kind of thing you'd expect from a conservative government. he sounds like a demagogic racist like reagan, going after his illusory welfare cheat.

i don't get worked up about this shit either way, but tell trudeau that if he wants to go after tax cheats, he should target bankers and corporations and investors instead.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7047067/trudeau-singh-ndp-cerb-reform/