So basically one can assume that Jonathan is honour bound to do the following to be a PLP supporter:

1. Deny himself public freedom of speech
2. Change his mentality that the party is above any labour movement
3. Agree, without question, all party stances.
4. Never EVER criticize the party leader

This sounds more like a totalitarian dictatorship than a democratic party who are supposed to support the labour movement.

I say this not due to the fact that I support the opposition, but rather from the view point that I believe that political parties are tools. Tools that are to be used to make the country a better place. These tools are not to take place of an individuals thought process, opinion or dare I say morality. No, quite the opposite, the party is to reflect the masses opinions, thoughts, dreams and yes morality.

And speaking of tools, can someone explain to me why Dr. Brown, the so called leader of the current labour government did not meet these union members face to face? I’m sorry but if I had 5,000 angry people, the very same people who voted me into office, the very same people who are paying my wages, the very same people who I have vowed to publicly serve to the best of my abilities, I would have gotten my sorry ass outside and listened to their demands. This from a man who was crying in the papers days ago trying to convince us that he and his cohorts are not a bunch of elitists. It is VERY elitist to ignore the very grass roots of your party and nothing, NOTHING that you were doing in the House of Assembly; the people’s house, should have been more important. Dr. Brown is answerable to those 5,000 people, just as he is answerable to each and every one of us. Let us never loose sight of that fact.

Before I finish this post, I want you to take the time to read this comment on Jonathan’s blog. It is completely relevant and strikes right to the heart of the matter.

In the mean time, it may be a hot summer in more than one way, with the threat of a general strike in the air, Dr. Brown’s pop and sizzle is going to turn into a roast and toast. Me, I’ll be sitting on the wall with the marshmallows.

Fast forward a year. Samantha’s favorite movie is Finding Nemo; if you haven’t watched it, go get it, it’s hilarious! Like the younger fish in the movie she is in the habit of calling a boat, a butt. Everywhere we go she point and says “A butt, a butt!” She’s seen her daddy working on the butt and has even sat in the captain’s chair and turned the wheel, but last weekend she was quite distressed to find the butt missing from it’s usual spot; while Samantha was napping, I had arranged to have it put overboard. I took Samantha by the hand and walked down to the end of the dock. There she saw her favorite butt floating in the water waiting for us to go on. She looked up at me and said “Wha happen?” so I told her that butts are supposed to go into the water and everything was ok. The next day, woke up nice and early (Thanks to Samantha), packed our bags and made way for the butt. Samantha was a little disturbed when the engine kicked over, but her face lit up when the butt pulled away from the dock. As we cleared the 5 knot zone, I made sure that Robin had a good hold on Samantha, Tianna was in the seat next to me holding on, and then throttled the engine into a good cruising speed. Samantha literally squealed with delight as she had no idea that a butt could move so fast.

We found a good spot of beach on one of the Islands in Castle Harbour and set the anchor. We spent the day playing on the beach and in the water. Both kids were in complete contrast to each other. Tianna, who is 6, wore her bikini, while Samantha had on her UV swimsuit which has styrofoam in the back, neck and chest areas to help her float. The result was that Samantha looked like she just won the baby body building contest and was about to bench press a car.

3pm crept up pretty fast. Robin tried in vein to get Samantha to take a nap in the cabin. Samantha had other ideas; she’s difficult to get to nap under normal circumstances (I’m actually fighting with her over nap time as I write this!). 4pm found us heading back home in the car, and as luck would have it, Samantha falls into a deep sleep. So deep in fact that she didn’t stir once when I took her out of the car, carried her indoors and plopped her into bed. As a matter of fact she slept for 2 hours and didn’t move once, resembling a victim from a snipper rifle the whole time. Eventually we had to wake her for dinner, her favorite past time.

Now of course she expects to go out in the butt every time she sees it and is quite disappointed when she hears the word no. Mind you at the very least I have another one on my side when we are deciding on what to do for the day. Now if I can just get her to play World of WarCraft or Halo 3 with her old man!

“Why are we finding out in the 13th hour about the condition the buildings and the fact that money is needed for restoration and repairs?”.

Buildings generally don’t deteriorate over night, so is the board of trustee’s negligent in their duties over the last few years? With Government’s offer of $4million, why was the decision made to close in spite of these new funds? Grant Gibbons is completely correct and that we must do everything that is possible to allow this school, or any school for that matter, to remain open. This sounds like a battle of personalities and conflicts of interest. I’ll ask again, at what point do we put our kids futures in the forefront of our actions and decisions, cause it hasn’t been happening lately.

Lets get this straight, for the amount of $345,250 we got a total of 238 visitors. That’s about $1,450 spent on each one of those visitors. Doesn’t make for a good use of tax payers dollars if you ask me.

So, lets ask the pertinent questions. What qualified Andre Curtis to be put in charge and organise these events? I guess this is where the term Faith Based can be applied, cause it would appear that this scheme only had a prayers chance to succeed. Where is the unaccounted $130,000 of tax payers money? Why are there people on both sides of the Atlantic claiming that they have been ripped off by these events? What sort of statistics did you get on the 200 people that did show up; have they been here before, do they intend on coming back?

May be next time it would be better to get someone more qualified to pull this off, instead of someone who only works on a pipe dream.

So it’s the same old story, I had a taste, then another and another. Now I have it on my blackberry, as well as signed up for cutsie applications (Have you met Satan yet?).

So here I am, once a pillar of strength and will power reduced to another addict constantly checking their wall to see who’s written on it. How the mighty have fallen.

Sam has never been a “pitter-patter” type of baby, even her tip-toe’s are about as bad as an elephants war-stomp. So suddenly Sam has learned the ways of the Ninja. Not only opening her door soundlessly, but crossing the floor and climbing into bed without making a peep, or waking either Robin or I up. I’m considering setting up the video camera and taping her room for the night to see if I can catch her in the act.

I can’t say that I mind though, she’s awfully snuggly and warm and it’s nice to be woken up by a little hand patting the side of your face. Mind you it’s not nice to be woken by a little finger being shoved up your nose, which has happened once or twice. Apparently Sam thinks this is hilarious; one morning I will have to try that on my wife just to see how funny it is.

What was wrong with the old GP1 to warrant it being replaced?

Last time I checked the old GP1 was flown in bypassing current regulations on car size restrictions by the then current minister of transport. So I guess after 4 or 5 years it’s time for an upgrade. I’m glad to see that before money is spent on something frivolous like this, that every has been housed in affordable housing and that the economic woes of the Island’s population have been dealt with. What a waste!

Where is the old GP1? Has it been discarded to the same ranks that “Clifton” has been?

That being said, the justice system has gotten waaaaaay to light on punishments and I think it is time to go back to some of the old school methods. I’ve said it before, make the prisoners recontribute back to society while getting rehabilitated. There are plenty of chores to do Island wide and they can sweat it out on a chain gang making Bermuda a better place while contemplating their social misconduct. There should be mandatory lengths of time for people who harm another human being, the worse the harm, the longer in prison and absolutely no option for parole in these cases. Simply make prison such an awful experience that it is once again a feared institution making it in of itself a deterrent to crime. While I am against the death penalty, I side with old school punishments and I personally think we have missed the plot with making prison and punishments lighter and easier to digest. As the old saying goes, spare the rod, spoil the child; it’s time to bring that rod back out again for some of our criminals.

If it gets a hotel built there fine, but what thought or concession has been given to the staff that works there, considering that Port Royal is currently defunct as well?

I don’t recall seeing this made public knowledge either. Essentially this is Bermudian land that is being given away to a private resort, a little notification would be nice. Then again should I really be surprised?