Bad Island! (by the way, that image says Tap Fever, it'll become relevant later)

I'm sure everybody keeps up on international news, who doesn't? So you would have heard by now that the Turks and Caicos Islands lost their independence. The U.K. government came in and removed the elected premier, cabinet and assembly. Nobody seemed to care.
I was confused as to how England could possibly do this so I went to do some research and now I'm both less confused and more. Didn't know that was possible. Turns out the Turks and Caicos were still considered a British overseas territory. That is a pretty broad term since it takes in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands (which I've always thought to be independent) and the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar and the British Antarctic Territory (which I've always thought weren't independent). That means Canada is safe from Queen Elizabeth for now, but no getting uppity in the colonies!

I knew I had heard of the Turks and Caicos before in reference to Canada. I'd heard that at one time they wanted to become a protectorate of Canada (probably because we wouldn't suspend the elected officials). Turns out we have quite the history with those islands (all quotes lifted from Wikipedia):

In 1917, Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden suggested that the Turks and Caicos join Canada, but this suggestion was rejected by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

In 1974, Canadian New Democratic Party MP Max Saltsman tried to use his Private Member's Bill to create legislation to annex the islands to Canada, but it didn't pass in the Canadian House of Commons.

In 1979, independence was agreed upon in principle for 1982, but a change in government caused a policy reversal and they instead approached the Canadian government to discuss a possible union, but at the time the Canadian Government was embroiled in a debate over free trade with the U.S., and little attention was paid to the suggestion. In 2004 the Canadian province of Nova Scotia gave an invitation to join but Canada's government said they would look at the matter later

Props to Nova Scotia. I'm pretty sure if that had worked out the entire population of Nova Scotia would have moved to Turks and Caicos for the winter months.

In true Internet fashion discussions on this have descended in to hyperbole and farce. People are bringing up neo-colonialism and the slave trade. I'm guilty of taking an extreme stance during an argument to prove a point, but it is hard to take somebody seriously when they try to make tossing out an allegedly corrupt government and connect it with the slave trade. Welcome to the Internet, the shrillest will win.

Speaking of bizarre things to happen I found yet another example of why California will eventually end up imploding as an economy. It's the bureaucracy. When Kat and I first tried to buy a house here we were stunned by the amount of red tape that was in the way. If I squinted I could see how it originally started off as an attempt to protect the average person, but it soon was co-opted by business to make as much money as possible off everybody. I won't start on my normal rant about the red tape involved in buying a house in California. Suffice it to say that Kathleen and I sold a house in Ottawa for $700 in lawyers fees, we *bought* a house here for $4,000 in fees. I make an effort to make bought stand out because normally they hit up the person making the money to pay the largest fees. Here we paid 6X the cost to be the buyer in Ottawa. We haven't sold a house, but I'm scared.

Let me take moment to get rid of those evil memories. In with the good air, out with the bad. Breathe, breathe.

Right, here is the latest. As some of you may know, Kathleen and I had a surfeit of two wheeled motorized vehicles in the garage. Two motorcycles and a scooter. As a good person I had them all insured, even though I rarely drove the scooter and never drove the Yamaha (I learned it was more expensive to sell it if it wasn't insured. One guess as to who has been lobbying the government). So I finally sold the Yamaha to a friend of a friend for a dirt cheap price. I just wanted it out of my garage. I call up the insurance company later to remove the Yamaha from the insurance (I need to make this clear, from three motorcycles to two, remember that) and the guy on the phone tells me that my insurance will be going up by $1 a year.

Yeah. That's what I thought as well. WTF?

So it turns out there is some bizarre California law about the more motorcycles you own the cheaper it is. I've tried to rationalize that but I'm having a hard time coming up with a good reason to legislate it. Perhaps the insurance guy was lying to me, that fits in far better with my world view.

I was going to post a picture of the bunnies outside my workplace. I've been impressed with them ever since I started up my not-so quiet motorcycle 14 feet away from from them and they didn't even flinch. I'm sure if they could isolate their middle fury digit, they'd be pointing it my direction. Sadly the photograph I took of them was another 'find the animal' type of photo, as I posted with the deer. Every time I use the camera in my phone I'm overcome with awe regarding eyeball design. Everything looks good while I'm looking at it, pull out the camera and I'm looking for the zoom button to define things. Good design on that eyeball.

Last weekend Kevin Six sent out an invitation (on Facebook, the bastard, I'm still not on facebook) for a meeting at La Jolla Shores for surfing then beach party starting at 5PM. I was all for that, since Kevin brings all the surfboards. Then I realized that our good friend Kristina had a tap recital at the same time. Surfing and s'mores or a bunch of unknown kids messing up tap dancing?

I should clarify that Kristina teaches tap on the weekends in addition to her normal job. I'm not just showing up to some bizarre amateur tap. She can dance, so can her fellow teachers, it's the people they teach that worry me.

So what did we do? We went to watch Kristina's kids tap dance. It was at a Pacific Beach public school built in the 60s with bad audio, broken air conditioning, and wooden seats. I don't think any money has been put in to the infrastructure since they bought the red-velvet back screen in the 70s. Welcome to the California public school system. If I manage to link in the bad cell phone picture it's because I want you to suffer like we did.

The kids in the photo were dancing to Bjork, which I have to admire. They spent most of their time looking off in to the distance, waving at the audience members or responding to their inner monologue (which I hear is much stronger in children). Only when the chorus kicked in did they slam dance their way around the stage with tap dance shoes on. I almost wanted children during that moment. Oh wait, I'm over it.

I figure our Karma points went up because we spent two hours watching bad tap-dance for a friend. Of course by telling you that it sucked I'm pretty sure I lost all the Karma points I gained. Stupid Karma. At least Kat came out on top.

Random addition.

When I sold my cruiser the guy asked me how I felt about the bike, I told him I liked the old bike, but I love my new bike. It's so true. I left work today, put on the leathers, fired up the moto bike, felt the heat soak in, kicked in the tunes and thought; oh yeah, commute time, bring it on. I feel that way going to and from work, how kick ass is that? Tunes for the ride today were started off with Aisha by Death In Vegas, odd video, good tune.