However I do admit that I’m disappointed.  Why?  Not so much because I’d rather have sunshine at 10:00 p.m. when I might still be sitting on my back deck than at 4:00 a.m. when I’m trying to sleep.  After all it is a fact that Saskatchewan ought to be in the Mountain Standard Time zone, so being in the Central Standard Time zone essentially puts us on DST year-round.

My concern relates more to how Saskatchewan relates to the rest of North America and Europe.  While changing my clocks twice a year would be a minor annoyance, trying to remember how many hours we are ahead or behind other places that I communicate with is a major annoyance.  This is especially important to businesses with clients outside of the province.

And travel.  Like the trip to Ontario several years ago when I missed a connecting flight in Winnipeg because I overlooked the fact that Manitoba had sprung an hour ahead of Saskatchewan a few days earlier.  I understand that I shouldn’t have assumed that my watch showed the correct local time even though we are both in the same time zone, and I should have looked at one of the clocks in the airport, and I should have listened to the announcements on the PA system, but if Saskatchewan had sprung ahead in unison with Manitoba, I’d have been on that plane. Luckily Air Canada put me on the next flight and my meeting wasn’t until the next morning so it didn’t ruin my trip, but it did make the DST issue personal for me. And no, I can’t let it go.

It’s strange how the media never seems to accompany stories about the roasting chicken sold in the supermarket with pictures of fluffy yellow chicks.

How do you deal with the shame of losing face?

If you are Comedy Central, there is an easy answer.

Find a pacifict to push around.

There are many relief agencies, some with better track records at actually getting most donor contributions to those in need (I chose to give to World Vision).  If you are reading this and haven’t yet contributed please consider it.

And of course, if you believe in a God who listens to his people, then pray.  But I do understand why many people have honest difficulty believing in a merciful God in times like these.

UPDATE 2009-01-16: Linea points out in the comments below that the Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada (ECCC) has a missionary working in Haiti.  Janelle Peterson helps at Ebenezer Clinic, located in the north part of the country, more than two hundred kilometres from Port au Prince, an area unaffected by the quake.  The clinic has been helping with the relief effort.  For information on donating through the ECCC or World Relief Canad, and a link to Janelle’s blog click here.

Since the events that forced the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon, it is understandable that the word Watergate has become synonymous with political scandal in the United States.

But 35 years later, why in the world do the pundits think that it is clever to append the suffix “gate” to every scandal, real or perceived, happening anywhere in the U.S.A. or worldwide?

A recent example was the tempest in a teapot over whether Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Protestant, consumed or pocketed the communion host at a Roman Catholic funeral.  The scandal quickly was dubbed Wafergate.

More recently, hackers have released some email messages they stole from climate change researchers at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.  Yup, predictably this is Climategate.

I would like to go on record as being one person who thinks that the novelty wore off several decades ago, that this practice isn’t original and in fact is downright annoying.  I appeal to reporters, headline writers, columnists and bloggers worldwide to please give us a break.

However I wonder if some of the H1N1 panic might be a bit out of proportion.

Sources:

Deaths in Canada from the 1918 Spanish Influenza (Public Health Agency of Canada)

Annual Deaths in Canada from Seasonal Flu (Public Health Agency of Canada)

H1N1 Surveillance (Public Health Agency of Canada)

Lots of fodder for the “all religion is the root of all evil” folks here.

Unfortunately the rowing attempt was aborted a couple of days ago, when Hurricane Bill blew into the area.  Bummer.  

News story here.

Peter Bray’s website here.

For a break from the tabloid sensationalism, Covenant pastor Eugene Cho’s blog post, “if i were jon and kate’s pastor” is worth reading.

Dramatization of a conversation I’m likely to hear on my way to work in the morning: “I vaguely remember something in the news, something about a lady in a Persian rug store who got shot. I don’t know. But Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died on the same day? I better catch Larry King interviewing their friends and family members. Let’s see, if I don’t see it tonight, I can probably catch the show tomorrow, or Saturday morning, or later that weekend, or any day next week…”

…

(National Post: Jonathon Narvey: Forget Iran, something important finally happened)

I have been amazed these last couple of days at the amount of media coverage there has been of pop star Michael Jackson’s death.  I thought the above opinion piece in the National Post stated it well …

… The mullahs in Iran must be loving it. Our evening broadcasts were clear proof that the decadent Westerners have the attention span of children. We decry political tyrants, but we knowingly accept and immerse ourselves in silly cults of personality so long as the icons are celebrities….

I would blame the celebrity-obsessed media, but they are only feeding us what we demand.

Lord have mercy.