The leaves fall, though more slowly for some trees than others, as though they are not yet ready to yield to the coming winter. A reluctance shared by many. This autumn has been very wet, with a heady scent of damp earth and fallen leaves that waft morning and night. And with the autumn comes Hallow’s Eve and a pumpkin carving.
Hard to imagine I neglected to mention this before now, but two weeks ago I published and released my first book, «postmaster@YOUR_DOMAIN_HERE», at the M3AAWG Montreal Night Out. The book is essentially a primer and digest of topics of interest to new email administrators; a collection of topics they should be aware of when managing their email systems.
The contents are freely available online to new and experienced postmasters to consult and contribute. Visit The Postmaster Administration Wiki.
Update: The book is available from Amazon.
The leaves have almost completed their tumble to oblivion, Winter’s chill can be felt creeping closer, and Hallows’ Eve has come once more! Happy Birthday! to Mum, “la Sorcière”.
The PQ (Parti Québécois) should really be called «Les Paysans Québécois», because they refuse to accept change and diversity, which is part of what living in a free democratic society built from a variety of cultures is about. They are still living in the past and seek to recreate the French Revolution, since they didn’t get to play in the last one.
The PQ’s proposed “Charter of Quebec Values” is a vile document and slap in the face of civil freedoms, eroding personal liberties and identity in the name of a secular state. I am no fan of religion, but that is my choice in belief or non-belief systems, and not something that was imposed on me by family, community, or State. I choose who, what, and how to be. I choose. Not the State. Letting the state tell the people how to dress, how to act, how to think is another aspect of what George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” warned us about.
A secular state is about actual governance outside of religion, not the appearance of governance or religion. The PQ do not know how to govern and address the real needs of people: homes, food, jobs, economic growth, health, education, sanitation, roads, and all that entails. The PQ attempt to distract the populace from their failures to really govern, by creating problems where none exist and shift blame from themselves.
All the PQ know is how to argue, pick fights, create imaginary problems, and prey on emotions, like school yard bullies. And as with all bullies and wanna be tyrants, they need a severe beat down, because if they have their way, then other freedoms will be eroded over time in the name of some impossible Quebec ideal.
Maybe the PQ’s next decree will be that you cannot marry outside of race, faith, or language. Or maybe that to be a Quebec-er we must dress like Voyageurs in jackboots, goosestepping to “Gens du Pays“.
Big Brother, be it socialists, facists, communists, or the #PQ try to control us, force conformity with oppressive laws and a police state.
— Anthony C Howe (@SirWumpus) September 14, 2013
I’m disgusted with the PQ (Parti Québécois) minority government of Quebec, Canada. For all intensive purposes the PQ are behaving as facists, with Pauline Marois looking like a Hitler wannabe, and the OQLF are the gestapo imposing their «lingua fascista» agenda and drooling at the possibility of Bill 14 passing into law.
The PQ appear to be intentionally trying alienate English speakers and their potential supporters in order to avoid another situation with money and the ethnic vote interfering with the PQ’s separatist agenda.
Consider:
The minority PQ government prefers to push their separatist agenda instead of stimulating economic growth, jobs, or fixing corruption in provincial and local government.
The PQ harp on the idea of preserving french language in Quebec, where what passes for french only vaguely resembles what is spoken in France today (I should know after 16 years in Cannes). The PQ fail to understand that evolution will eventually relegate french to history to keep Latin company.
It is really bizarre why the PQ harp on the influence of English in Quebec so much. Outside of Montreal and the US and Ontario border regions, English influence dwindles the further from Montreal and deeper into Quebec you go, yet the PQ struggle to curb it, if not stamp it out. They fail to learn from examples like Switzerland, which has four official languages and manages normally. Or the Dutch, Germanic, and Scandinavian nations who all appear to learn English to near perfection, yet still remain distinctly Dutch, Germanic, and Scandinavian without fear of becoming British colonies.
Maybe the simplest solution would be for Montreal to separate from Quebec and join Ontario.