Doug Van Pelt

Doug Giesbrecht is a Canadian

But, as Elvis would sing, "That's alright with mama..."

Last weekend I used a crowbar and dismantled the shower enclosure in our house. It was one of those fiberglass all-in-one shower units, and after tearing out a few parts, the rest was fairly easy to destory and haul to the curb. I felt like one of those guys in the Home Improvement show, making calculated but committed changes to our house. We found out that the crack in our shower, which could have been fixed and re-fixed and re-fixed and re-fixed again and again with a fiberglass or some such repair, that it was cheaper to re-do the shower in tile than to buy another one of those all-in-one units. So now we're in the in-between phase of empty spot and the finished job.

A website asked Doug G and I to turn in a list of "most spun" albums of 2006. Here is that site. I read some interesting info about a hate crimes bill this morning. I'm not sure if it all checks out, but you can read about it here. I'm not too thrilled with using fear to win an argument, even though both sides of most any argument that goes public will do so. For this hate crimes bill, one side will use the very real and very scary story of a homosexual teenage boy getting beaten to death by some savage bullies. The thought is: 'If we have a hate crimes law, we can punish people for this kind of stuff as severly as it should be.' The implication is that the present laws against murder aren't enough. I think that's probably a panic, knee-jerk reaction that seeks to solve a problem without a lot of hard work. The "solution," though, presents a lot of new problems. Enter side B, with the scare tactics of granny going to jail. 'Let's scare this audience into supporting our side of the argument.' Scare tactics should never be outlawed or anything, but I just don't respect them a whole lot and view them suspiciously. I think, 'Why frighten me? Just reason with me.'

I think of the civil rights movement and the hard-fought victories against prejudice. I don't think a hate crimes set of laws would have turned the tide. That was a rough time in our history. I wonder if other parts of the world (as well as us) can learn many lessons from it. I dunno.