It's not just about policy

I've finally started looking at the party platforms for Canada's big political parties.  I wouldn't really consider myself conservative or liberal; I'm kind of middle of the road, and maybe totally out there on a few issues.  (For example, I think I'd like to shrink the economy.  Without sacrificing jobs or significantly reducing economic freedom, of course.  But that's a topic for another day.)  I don't know about you, but I find it hard to know which policies are good ideas.  For example, both the Conservatives and Liberals are proposing improved benefits for people caring for sick family members.  The Liberal plan seems to provide more, but then that could make it harder to eliminate the deficit.  So which approach is better?

Some policy ideas could be good if they're implemented right, bad if they're implemented badly.  And the party platforms go into very little detail.

So when I'm judging parties' policies, I think I should base my opinion more on the few issues that I'm more familiar with than the ones I'm not so familiar with.  But beyond that, there are some pretty important other factors.  So here are some things I'm thinking about, including some criteria I'm using to judge policies:

• Leadership skill - Can the leader get the team working together effectively?  Do they make smart decisions when faced with unforeseen issues like recessions, wars, disasters, or smaller day-to-day issues?
• Integrity - How much corruption goes on under their leadership?  Do they keep their promises?  (I think I'm actually more concerned with corruption than with keeping campaign promises.  For one thing, unforeseen circumstances can make keeping a promise a harmful course of action.)
• How much of a history of fear-mongering do they have? It's hard to know if the stuff they're afraid of now is legitimate or not, but we can look back at their past records.  For example, when those boats from Sri Lanka arrived in Canada full of refugees a while back, did they find evidence that any of them were terrorists as the government suspected?
• Are their policy priorities in line with my values?  It's hard to evaluate how they plan to act on their values, but its nice to know if their principles are similar to mine.
• Are the policies that I understand best based on evidence of what works, rather than just ideology or impressing voters?

I'd like to give a couple of examples on that last one.  The Liberals want to cancel the planned corporate tax reduction.  They think the tax reduction would reduce revenue by $5-6 billion per year.  The Conservatives claim that some experts say canceling the tax reduction would cost many jobs.  (I'm not sure if there are experts speaking out in favour of the Liberals' plan.)  Overall, I'm not sure where I stand on the tax reduction, but I do believe the loss of revenue would be less than the Liberals predict.

On the other side, many critics think the Conservatives' "get tough on crime" plan will actually make Canada more dangerous.  Here's an article from February critical of the idea, and here's an article that cites some statistics from the US suggesting that this is a bad idea.  Even if some of the Conservatives' other plans actually do something to address the root issues behind crime, their plan to build more jails and toughen sentences could undo some or all of those improvements.  Maybe a few of their "tough on crime" measures are good ideas, but by and large, I'm not optimistic.  And sometimes the opposition has supported these measures.

So do I vote for the devil I know or one of the devils I don't know?  Or do I vote for a party with no realistic chance of forming a government in the hope that voices outside the political establishment will gain a stronger voice?

I'm pretty sure I won't be voting for the devil I know.  But which alternative will I pick?

How I sometimes feel about politics

Corrupt, you're corrupt,
and Bring corruption to all that you touch.

Hold, you’ll behold,
And beholden for all that you’ve done.

And Spell, cast a spell,
Cast a spell on the country you run.

And risk, you will risk,
You will risk all their lives and their souls.

And burn, you will burn,
You will burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell.
You’ll burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell for your sins.

And our freedom's consuming itself,
What we've become is contrary to what we want
Take a bow.

Death, you bring death and destruction to all that you touch.

Pay, you must pay
You must pay for your crimes against the earth.

Hex, feed the hex
Feed the hex on the country you love

And Beg, you will beg
You will beg for their lives and their souls.

Yeah,
Burn, you will burn,
You will burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell,
You’ll burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell,
Burn in hell, yeah you'll burn in hell for your sins.

 --Muse, Take a Bow

I'm not aiming this song at one particular person, but here's just one example of why I sometimes feel this way.  Canada's government (which could get defeated in the upcoming election, but probably won't be) has proposed detaining many desperate refugees without evidence of crimes.  (There's a good critique of it here.)  I wonder what our evangelical Christian prime minister thinks about the Bible verse that says "Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner" (Exodus 22:21) and other similar verses.  Maybe he picks and chooses which parts of the Bible to apply.  But wait, evangelicals don't simply pick and choose.  They have legitimate reasons for saying certain parts of the Bible don't apply now.  I wonder why that verse doesn't apply.

I'm being tough on the Conservatives right now, but I've got issues with the other parties too.  Hopefully I'll write about a bit of that before the election.

Sort of an explanation

Some of you might be wondering why I posted something in late February entitled "Making me a better person?"  I know one friend of mine was wondering.  Maybe I can shed a bit of light on the question.

I'm not sure if I can actually give a coherent answer to why I posted that.  Do I agree with the quote?  At least partially, but I hesitate to give it a full endorsement.  A simple explanation for posting it would be that it just resonated with me.  But if you want a more complicated answer, I'll give it a try.

The start of the quote I posted may have resonated with me because it's speaking against those who tend to reduce Christianity to a self-help, self-improvement system.  "Follow these principles and your life will be great."  It doesn't work.  But that's not really what the quote was about.

I think the rest of the quote resonated with me because it is an interesting way of articulating the mystery that the God who demands our complete devotion also loves us unimaginably much and offers to stop keeping score.  I don't know if the quote makes this mystery any less mysterious though.  The person who wrote that quote doesn't explain how people can "die" to themselves and give God control of their lives without caring about doing good things.  I don't know if that's a glaring omission or if he wants to leave that for everyone to wrestle with.  That question can take a lifetime of wrestling.  My friend said Christians "walk a fine line" between legalism and worldliness.  It probably looks that way, and sometimes we live like it is that way.  Really, it shouldn't be a fine line.  We should be excellent at both grace and good deeds.  We can go far away from both legalism and worldliness.  But this is part of that question that can take a lifetime of wrestling.  I sure haven't figured it out.  But I've seen glimpses of how good it can be to live unselfishly, to do what is good, to be free from guilt from the times we mess up, yet not use that freedom as an excuse to do bad things.  Maybe in this sense, Christianity can actually have many of the same advantages that my friend gave for atheism.  (She does make it sound good, doesn't she?)  The unseen deity has actually offered to stop "watching and judging our every thought, action, desire, and decision in order to determine our fate after death."  We can be compassionate because we believe in equal rights for the people around us, not just because we were told to.

Some of my friend's criticisms of Christianity are fair criticisms in my opinion.  When people say, "It happened for a reason," when terrible things happen, that bothers me.  When people use Christianity as an excuse to show hatred (while of course refusing to call it hatred), that makes me angry.  As for a few of the rules my friend mentioned, I'm not entirely sure if some of them are actually from God, but I do believe that if they are, God must have a reason for them.  It bothers me when people manufacture reasons for these rules though.

So I hope this makes some semblance of sense.  I started writing it a while back, then got writer's block, was busy with other stuff, and then finally came back and finished it.

The work fart

Hypothetical situation:

You share an office at work with one other person.  Your office mate is out of the room, but you don't know how long he'll be gone.  Maybe he went down the hall to ask someone a question and he'll be back any minute.  Maybe he's in a long meeting or even went to another building.  But you've got some gas building up and you'd like to let it out.  Your last fart was fairly stinky so you'd prefer not to let it out if your office mate is about to return.

What do you do?  How hard do you try to hold it in?  How long be for you give in and let it loose?

China and the Republic of China

We recently returned from a trip to Taiwan and China.  Or as the governments of those countries might prefer us to say: we recently returned from a trip to China.  (The Chinese government claims Taiwan is part of China.  Officially, the Taiwan government--also known as the Republic of China--seems to claim this too, but claims that the Taiwan government is the legitimate government of all of China.  But the Republic of China doesn't seem to pursue this claim anymore.)

We had a wide variety of experiences.  We helped out on an organic farm in southern Taiwan.  We visited the beaches of Hainan, an island in southern China.  We visited my wife's relatives in a few different cities.  We biked in Chinese traffic (a bit scary).  We saw the mini terra cotta army in Xuzhou (not to be confused with the full-size terra cotta army in Xi'an, which we didn't see).  And near the end, we saw a few of the Beijing area's big attractions like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.

I'll try to write more about a couple of specific parts of the trip another time, but this is all for now.