Oh dear, politics. Canadian politics no less.

I think most Canadians avoid politics as a matter of distaste, which is both understandable and unfortunate. But something interesting is going on.

There's a summary on Wikipedia: 2008 Canadian political dispute

For any Americans that may be reading: This demonstrates how our multiple party system (as compared to two-parties in the U.S.) operates. With several oppositional parties, it's entirely possible for a Prime Minister to get elected with much less than 50% of the votes / seats, but still have the highest split between the various parties: We call that a minority government.

(overly-simplified definition, technically a minority gov't is anything less that 155 seats, but let's not argue the details).

So a "no confidence" vote to remove a Prime Minister is quite possible, as long as most of the other parties get together and agree. Which almost never happens. But here we are: The vote is expected on Monday.

Except our Prime Minister has a loophole plan to avoid the vote by temporarily suspending Parliament (via "prorogue"). That's a pretty rare use of the system too. Technically it can only be done by the Governor General, but that's an appointed (non-elected) position that's mostly ceremonial and expected to capitulate to the PM's requests.

Why is Parliament trying to remove our Prime Minister so soon after an election? There are a host of reasons, but the general thoughts are that he's been sitting on his hands while a worldwide economic crisis goes on.

So for the record, as a Canadian citizen, I support the "no confidence" vote and the coalition that is planning it. It's a constitutionally sound mechanic designed for exactly these circumstances. This is our representational democracy at work.

And I'm against Stephen Harper's attempt to block his fate by dismissing Parliament for months on end. Not only is it a dirty political trick (and not his first), but it seems irresponsible during a time when we need action from all portions of our government. His speech attempt to misdirect and stir it up as a French vs English issue doesn't help either, that pretty much illustrates the way he rolls.

Any minority government Prime Minister has to accept that they may be called into a "no confidence" vote of Parliament and further accept the results. You have to be pretty bad for all of these elected parties to agree on ousting you.

To put it bluntly, can we get this clown out of office now, please?

If the U.S. is concerned about the hundreds of thousands of jobs that will be lost if the Detroit Big Three go down with a whimper, then here's what they should do:

Divide up the 25billion+ bailout money to all the employees of these miserable companies, so they have a windfall they can rely on while seeking better employment.

I bet the money actually lasts longer that way. These people don't need jobs with those deadend companies. What would be more valuable would be to give them some time and opportunity to seek careers with more responsible and viable employers. Meanwhile it would inject some cash directly where it's more needed and ultimately more sustainable.

The current economic downturn was just the nail in the coffin on this one, these three companies have been mismanaged since the 80's, acting as if american cars were some sort of automatic tax on western culture. I just cannot believe that they'd change their corporate culture by tossing them another pile of money.

Let them sink. These aren't like the banks at all, it's inevitable. Let newer companies do the innovating.

I'm not a Libertarian. This isn't an argument in defence of pre-defined principles. It's just about my sense of smell and this one stinks.

Just reached level 40.

Doesn't feel all that different from level 30 to be honest, although the content has changed, or at least the areas / zones. I think the engine has been overhauled along the way, some things seem more advanced.

Some of my stats have improved, I think int and wis are up, but not in a game-changing way. Others are not as good: Encumbrance seems a bit higher, but that's probably due to my overusage of consumables. Tho I've mostly abstained from using potions, especially the spirit ones, that may change as I think I'm getting the hang of them now.

My gear isn't bad, not a lot of epics, but I'm not as gear-centric as I used to be.

It's been a bit of a grind at times, but overall the fun factor has improved, especially these last few levels. Grouping has been hella fun, the tools for finding groups have vastly improved but I'm still mostly hanging with close friends. Co-op content is the best by far, especially in small groups or as a duo.

Still kinda nervous about the Endgame, you never really know what they have there for you until you get there, but that's still a long ways off.

Can we please stop treating the Vancouver housing market like a property casino?

At this rate we're going to have a half empty city where only millionaires can afford to actually own a home. We're damn close to that, the average price in Vancouver right now is $825,000 for a townhouse. A TOWNHOUSE, not a full sized house / lot. And new developments are flipped multiple times before they're even finished building them. I see so many empty houses and townhouses, sold and resold over and over.

These are supposed to be homes. You know, the concept of shelter, a roof over your head. Places where we live, where we're supposed to get comfort sleeping in our beds at night.

It's insane how prices have quadrupled in less years than I can count on one hand, but even more insane is the bullshit our local financial 'experts' keep feeding us, as if it will continue forever even during a falling economy. They're complicit, after all. Who in Vancouver doesn't have their fingers into the property market? None of them want to ever cast a shadow on it.

It's inflationary gambling, the assumption that property pays for itself because it doubles every few years. It's bullshit. It's crooked. It's greed. It's not sustainable. It's not real supply and demand, it's artificial: Our population has barely budged in comparison to these prices and at this rate the middle class is pushed deep into the suburbs further and further away from their jobs. The daily commutes are getting absurd as everyone drives by a bunch of empty properties (which aren't even rented out while waiting for resale) on their way to work.

And development isn't slowing down, astonishingly it's increasing as the developers try to milk as much as they can out of the market. It's plain they're worried about a crash, but they talk as if they can avoid it by saying it will never happen. I don't know what's worse, the big burst of the bubble when it comes, or the ridiculous inflation before then.

I was born in Vancouver and grew up here too. It's depressing to see what a bunch of greedy investors have done to my hometown.

I'd hope for some heavy duty property resale regulation ASAP, but I doubt it'll happen, because even our crown corporations are in on it. There's too much me-first, get-rich-first attitude in this province. It'd take an economic disaster to wake everyone up.

The situation is already so far out of control. We need to stop gambling with the basics of living.

We just finished a national election here in Canada and did anyone notice? Worst voter turnout ever.

There's not much local political awareness. You can be derisive about American media, but they have a deluge of information on their candidates. Meanwhile our news has done little more than cover our candidates' basic talking points.

Political satire is the most infectious and oddly-informing outlet. It's booming in the U.S. right now and what do we have in Canada?

CBC airs decade-old episodes of This Hour has 22 Minutes. Reruns are worse than nothing at all, it's just confusing. Some people actually think Kim Campbell is still our Prime Minister. CBC needs to take this old junk off the air.

We've got Rick Mercer, leftover from 22 Minutes, he's got the Rick Mercer Report but despite the similarity in the title it's not tongue-in-cheek like the Colbert Report. His blog was blank for the week leading up to the election, and on his show he covered honey bees and motorcross? Even he's bored of our political landscape.

Every episode of the Daily Show starts out with the day's date, so even if an episode is at most a week old, you know where it's at. And the Daily Show covers what's expected, the day's political news.

Now is the time when the collective MMO blogosphere takes a step back. After a rash of criticism towards game mechanics in recent games and upcoming expansions, we feel like we've been a bit harsh. After all, we love these games don't we? We have to prove we're not just critics.

In true passive-aggressive nerdcore fashion, we look inward.

It's time to wax philosophical about us gamers ourselves. What motivates us? How many problems in these games are caused by us, the gamers? How well do we treat each other? And what makes us so important anyway?

There are other, far more important things happening in the world, right? The world markets are hurting (don't say collapse). It's election day in Canada. Led Zeppelin isn't really getting back together.

We're just little squigs specs in this great big ol' Universe.

But dammit, joy and creative urges are the best things to live for. Gaming is part of that for me. If anyone asks me to look at a greater perspective, that's my take. So excuse me if (after voting) I queue for some Scenarios.

Now I just need to remember to kill the dude with the thing.

Richard Garriott is in orbit!

By my definition, this makes him the most sane man on the planet, literally by escaping it for a short time.

For years, I've been baffled by the rat race millionaires and billionaires who seem to do nothing with their copious amounts of cash than collect more of it. I've said it, over and over "Go into space or something!"

It isn't sane IMHO unless you do something big and spectacular with that amount of excess. At most, some of them retire and give a portion to charity (not bad per se, but even then watch them coldly calculate how they dole it out, or call it a charity but really it's an investment group).

If you're that rich, take a big chunk of your wealth and do something that makes the rest of the human population marvel at what it is to be human. Go over the top with it. Go into space. Create your own amusement park on your private island. Or completely end malaria or something. Do the stuff that dreams are made of.

Richard Garriott isn't super rich on a gigantic scale compared to some, but he's always done stuff that others may define as eccentric. Seriously tho, he's more sane than the rest of that upper margin.

Kudos to him.