Life

I was on the Mississauga bus the other day. I was plugged into my droid  Two young men got on at a stop and sat near me. They began to talk to each other, not in English. This really irritated me. 

Why and what did that say about me?

I had no interest in their existence. None. No ill will or anything like that. Pure indifference. So I certainly had no interest in what they were talking about, only that they were louder than my music and broke my concentration with facebook.

When people who speak a language other than English in the GTA, there are so many English words thrown in you can almost understand them.  So you can't help but listen to them!

(I know about 25 years ago one winter my hat was being made fun of in Italian).

So anyway, I turned up my music to drown out the other passengers because what's worse than interacting with people on a social network than having people interrupt it.

Seinfeld on Facebook

What's the deal with Facebook?

Imagine if Facebook was around so "Seinfeld" could have discussed it.

I think it would go something like this:

1. The over-poster. A person who posts 50, 60 things in an hour.

2. The over-sharer - someone who thinks every thought, activity should be posted.

3, The religion guy - thinks everyone wants him to post 15 religious quotes a day.

4. The guy who links his blog to Facebook.........ummmmmm lol

5. The blitzkrieg hermit - is active on facebook all day for 5 days in a row, then is not seen for six months.

6, Photmaniac - posts 50, 60 pictures at as time

7. Blackberry bird photogrpaher - thinks all the birds he takes pics of should be posted on...oh wait...

8. Over quizzer - invites you to take far too many quizzes  - "The top albums from 1972-78 where half the band has receding hairlines. I got 23 out of 55!".

9. The over gamer - posts every score of the facebook games, 50 0r 60 times a day. Even posts at the first quarter.

10. Overhaters - people who post pretty sick comments they'd never have the guts to say to a person's face.

History of the future

This is how The Jetsons have fared, 50 years later.

GOT WRONG (some can still come true)

Computers are huge and still use punch cards

Flying cars - we all expected those years ago

Apartments buildings hundreds of feet in the air

Women generally don't work

Rocking rogs rike Rastro

Jane doesn't seem to need shoes, but does mention buying them

No smartphones or other hand held devices


WHAT IS RIGHT

Talking computers

Flat sceen tv, even built right into the wall

Video phone calls

Most Pop music still sucks

People still toil for low wages while 1% get richer

Majority

If you have a majority you can ignore what the majority of people in your country want.

Thanks to the apathy of voters and the hopelessly old guard liberal party elite that gave a heartless, mean, emotionless person who has little regard for others, is too stupid to understand even basic science, a majority, there are now a ton of laws on the books that should never have even been considered.

As a species our fossil fuel  habits are killing the environment we live in. Harper's response? WEAKEN environmental laws. We live in a place where David Suzuki has no say in environmental law and is ridiculed by the government. Harper is so entrenched in his ideology, and incapable of learning anything new,  that anyone who dares to think ahead about how things we do today can severely limit our future is labeled a terrorist and a traitor. Harper lectures Europe about how short-term economic thinking is folly???? Sup with that???????????


The law of cause and effect can apparently be applied arbitrarily if you have a majority.   


We have military planes on order that cost...sorry you are a traitor if you ask the cost...

It really sucks badly that we can simply hope that the idiotic laws prove unenforceable, that that is the best case scenario.

To go back to money the old adage that left-wing governments spend more money than right-wing ones, is utterly false. Conservatives nickel and dime out things that are actually worth having. The money spent on military  items we don't need as well as the prisons, costs several times more than the most ambitious left wing social program.

Even if I admit that the gun registry was inefficient, why not reform it rather than kill it, especially when all of your law and order police chiefs want it to remain?


Reform...that word sounds familiar...

Blackberry singing in the dead of night

Smartphones as they are called are pretty nifty. I prefer to call them pocket computers as making phone calls is only one of the things they can do.  A comic had a joke that ten years ago he had a joke about a cellphone, and MP3 player and a digital camera, but now he has to cover all that in one joke. My prediction is that for many users, the docking station will mean that a smartphone can be hooked up to a large monitor and a full keyboard and pretty much be their computer and tv as well.

For me, this is what my device has replaced, or could replace:

Friends (ok a wee bit of a joke, lol. But on the truthier side, you can check wikipedia to see who was in "from here to eternity, rather than having to phone someone).

A watch
An alarm clock.
A calculator
A stand-alone phone
A radio, if you want to pay extra.
Some TV shows, again you pay extra, but it does have a satellite receiver 
An MP3 player. Hook up some speakers and it is a home stereo as well.
A camera - turns out it even has zoom!
A GPS
A contact list

 ..but I wrote this on a netbook as I do not have a tablet.....lol...

TWF

New Big

Back in France a few centuries ago, the powers of society were called "estates". Since the early part of the last century, we labelled such things as "big" - big business, big government and so on.

Three new bigs have taken over in this century: big greed, big bully and the glue the binds it all, big stupid.

New politics is about bullying - anything Harper does, or Rob Ford does or what Tim Hudak would do if he had the chance. You are for this bill, or you rape children in hell.  Don't agree with the mayor over transit? You're fired. Big bully is easy to understand.

Big greed is also easy to understand. When you have four billion dollars you need to protect every last penny and make sure some homeless family doesn't get any of it. Big greed is the idea that the rich need to be as rich as possible. I


But it's big stupid that drives everything. I am  not saying the people who run things are stupid: they are not. They simply count on stupidity to move everything. And this is what we are supposed to believe:

Left-wingers are all book-readin' don't live in the real-worlders. The true champion of the lower and middle classes are the right-wingers. Left wingers would do stupid things like institute daycare or make it so if you work and pay into unemployment insurance, that you will get it when you are not working. For some reason people who purchase billions in fighter planes we don't need are going to help you.

Movies should be judged by how much money they make.

Musicians should be judged by how much money they make

You should be judged by how much money you make, especially if you are male.

Drugs are bad if you decide to take them, but not if a person in a coat says to take them.

A "balanced" opinion is this, say about climate change: On one side you have a person who works in the field, went to school to study it, and knows what they are talking about. On the other side: someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.

Women's reproductive rights should be debated by men, many of which wear funny hates and have never had sex.

Bigotry is ok, but only if it's in fashion: it's ok to bash gays because of the "choice" they made.You have to be stupid enough to see this as a "choice" in order for that to work.

You think this is how science works: One, yes one, one study shows a link between autism and vaccinations. With this you launch a campaign. You don't know this is how science works: there were hundreds of studies done to show ASA in low doses helps you in many cases.

More to maybe follow

TF

Is the oceanliner really making a turn?

(though many of my examples and points are American, it is not very different here).  

Hemingway: I am getting to know the rich. 

Mary Colum: I think you’ll find the only difference between the rich and other people is that the rich have more money. 

After the market crash of 1929, there were regulations put in place to remedy a situation where the gap between rich and poor had become too great. Also, to avoid another huge market correction, or the "boom bust" cycle that was the roller-coaster ride that had been western capitalism since the mid 19th century, the rules were implemented to make sure people "played fair". As the 1980s began, each and every one of these regulations was repealed so that by the mid "oughts" of the 21st century, the playing field returned to it's 1929 rules. And the same thing happened again. CRASH KE-BANG

In the dirty 30s, the new deal introduced the above-mentioned rules. The Rich were blamed for the mess and were asked to pony-up money to get things moving. But in 2009 and after, it seemed the last bastion of  the middle class was to blame. My anaology has always been this: The company shows a profit of 12 cookies. The CEO takes 11 1/2 of them. With cookie crumbs falling out of his mouth he points to the plant manager and warns him that greedy union rep wants too much of that half cookie. I call the modern CEO part of the uber-greedy.

Obama came in to change this. He didn't.

That the Mitts and Newts of the world don't need a fraction of what they have is a given. That they grab all they can and tell the poor they have to make do with less is predictable. The rich may think they are different, but they really do just have more money. What boils my potato is the mass agreement that has been there:  that somehow it is the fellow with 3 cookie crumbs  who has to give 2 of them back, to make things right. In this once great country, we elected Harper who is a cookie monster. Almost one one in three Canadians voted for him as they swallowed his story that the role of government is to get rid of as many rules as possible - because, as you see, THAT is what is making the game unfair. We all know a good hockey game would have no refs at all and if teeth and bones are smashed, that's just the way it should be!!!

I watched the 1951 "A Christmas Carol" recently, well actually right around Christmas of course, and Scrooge would be to the left of half of the right-wingers, and that is BEFORE the ghosts!


 I think now it is becoming too obvious to ignore the fact that the system is broken. I am not so much of a hippie that I think "all rules are bad, man!". I have always objected to rules that were there for no reason, rules that do not work, or rules that are unfair. But well-thought rules are not simply desirable, they are essential.

The occupy movements are too broad and unfocused. But at least they are a welcome start. But how can we translate that into votes?

Thomas.

The future ain't what it used to be

In the Star Trek universe, the early 21st century is one of anarchy and things have taken a step backwards. In this fictional timeline, the middle class has been hollowed out and the masses of poor grow in numbers while an elite few hold all of the wealth... There is a third world war and large parts of the planet can no longer be inhabited by humans. In our our 21st century we haven't had a world war, but... TF

Monty Harper

There is a python sketch where a barber is rather nervous. Turns out that he was always afraid of getting his hair cut, so to overcome his fear he becomes a barber.

So that must be what Harper is doing. He is so afraid of government, so to overcome his fear he went into politics.

Tf

G20 and the new Canda

Well, Harper may have no concern for people whatsoever, but I must say his diabolical plot over the G20 was brilliantly executed.

Since the Neo-Cons are one-dimensional idealogues, they do not let facts get in the way of dogma. If the facts are getting into the way of dogma, manufacture some new facts.

One dogma is that Canada is rife with criminals and we need a law and order campaign to fix things up. Well, sadly, the actual crime rape (I am leavng that typo in) has been dropping. So, this is what he did:

Huge summits like the G20 are going to attract people who will use it as an excuse to misbehave. Now, hollow out a city, and the jerks have the run of the place. This is what happened and on the saturday the arses acted like arses, and destroyed property. The media jumped all over this and called the vandals "protesters". They were NOT protestors. The protesters were too busy protesting to be destroying things.

So there you have it -since the media showed the same scenes over and over again, you have that image. Fact manufactured.

So, since there became no distinction between vandal and protester, they could all be lumped into one huge mass.

So, since ANOTHER group of people were arses, the actual protesters were now able to be seen as a dangerous threat and were arrested in the hundreds. Then they were put in cages overnight, and were treated like animals. But the manufactured fact that people who smash windows were the same as those who protest, anyone who voiced an opinion was now the same as a vandal.

THE ENTIRE THING was manufactured (The G20 in downtown Toronto) - it was not placed there to keep people safe, it was a blatant attempt to draw out all kinds of people, including the worst ones, and it succeeded. So you see? We have a law and order problem in Canada - because look what those "protesters" did to Toronto. There was no need for a summit in Toronto, and if it had to be, it should have been at exhibition place. If you disagree with your leaders you are now a "thug". One person said to me that most "law-abiding" Canadian citizens approve of the police tactics. Most of the arrested were not breaking any laws. So those law-abiding citizens sure as hell wouldn't agree with that point of view.

Harper hit a home run. Imagine if instead of hitting in a park of paranoid hatred, he could use his wits to hit even a double in the park of trying to do a good job.

TWF

PItchforks

When a lousy event like a child being murdered happens, well the villagers get out their torches and pitch forks. I was asked to join a facebook group called: Mandatory Life Sentences for Pedophiles & Child Molesters, Death for Child Killers. I declined. First, "Mandatory", "Zero Tolerance" these are dangerous concepts. Lest face it, if someone is so far off that he kills children, is he going to stop and say "you know, if i would get 10 years that would be ok...but Life, well then I am going to stop killing children". Nope. The second half, well I am opposed to the death penalty. And the angered, well are they going to stop and make sure the right person is even accused/tried/convicted, etc....we live in a "trial by media" world - I have even heard people say "well, the police would not have arrested him if he wasn't guilty". Ask Guy Paul Morin or Susan Nelles. A friend of mine once put it best: "I hope I never resemble the local rapist".

One friend made a great point during the Bernado trials. His co-worker suggested Bernado be publicy ripped to death in Maple Leaf Gardens. So my friend asked: "So you would enjoy his suffering". "yes". "Well, isn't that what Bernado did? enjoy the suffering of others?".

"There's no Logic, Captain"

I got this from The Doonesbury website:

"I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence."
-- Rep. Michelle Bachmann. In fact, Gerald Ford was president during the last outbreak of the virus.


First, what she says isn't true. Second, even if it was WHAT THE HELL WOULD THAT MEAN????

Again....

The Harper regime will not bailout the CBC in fact theyd kill it outright if they could, what with all nonsense that "real" canadians don't want or need (you know "arts" "science"...)

But they will contemplate bailing out private networks such as CBC or Canwest.....

From Today's Toronto Star:

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/620477

RIght Thing for the Wrong Reason

Seems killing people just isn't cheap. Not in Iraq or in America.

Many states, including Bush's beloved "Dead or Alive" state of Texas are contemplating cutbacks or the outright suspension of death sentences after July 1st.

The old argument from the opposite view (from people who I would say have their poles reveresed), was that executions were good things because otherwise you have to house and feed inmates for the rest of their life. But, for decades, with the cost of a capital trial and the right to extensive appeals, has meant that a capital case was far more expensive than life imprisonment.


Even if the "it costs less" assertation were true, it would still not justify capital punishment...so the opposite argument is just as flimsy.....

..however...as my title suggests, right for the wrong reason...but let's take it.


TF

Odd

Headline today for CNN;

-- Ashton Kutcher is first to reach 1 million followers in Twitter contest with CNN.

Why is any part of that worth doing let alone "reporting"????????????

Let us eat cake

Wonderful attitude from our glorious leaders, from Today's Toronto Star.

The Prime Minister has obstinately refused to relax the requirements for EI. Indeed, his human resources minister, Diane Finley, has declared of the unemployed: "We do not want to make it lucrative for them to stay home and get paid for it."

Why this is not making sense

If you were putting together a tribe, would it not make sense that the leaders are the ones that are the wisest and have passed on the greatest skills to the strongest new generation of hunters and gatherers? Would you not want the leaders to be capable of learning new things?

Well, if you have lived in North America for the past decade, what has happened is exactly the opposite. In The US, they have begun to straighten things out. They hit a rock bottom I hope we never get near. We are going to move up soon, as well, I hope.

Neo-Cons, Right wingnuts (Bush-Harper) have been running the place in exactly the worst way. They are close minded people who ignore the great learning of the tribe. Religion is fine as long as it does not cut off your Brain from learning new things. Where it thinks the enlightenment and the scientific revolution are things that need to be ignored...well you get the mess we have today and you get the kind of Relgion that blows other people up.

I still cannot fathom the neo-con version of Christianity which ignores the vast bulk of what Jesus is saying in scripture - um, it's been a few years but I think Jesus is an important part of Christianity? There is no kindness and humilty to these bible thumpers.

In other words, they don't even follow their own teachers.

Bush was dumb - smart people tell me Harper is smart, but it is so tough to believe that when everything he says and does is so mean and narrow-minded. I guess he is a pigeon - his brain can fly thousands of miles, but try and catch him and he flies exactly 4 feet - just the minimum effort to solve the most immediate problem.

Harper sees his party as the one of practicality, and the "right wing" liberals as one of rigid ideas. First - they are further to the right than ever. I guess Harper does not believe in the existence of the NDP. This reminded me of The Russian Revloution. Lenin named his side and named his opponents. He called his folks "Bolsheviks" which means moderate, and Kerensky's people "Mensheviks" which means "radical". (my apologies to the Russian Language). Lenin, was of course, the real radical. Just as Harper pins definitions on two parties, in exactly the reverse of what they are making himelf seem like "one of us" while liberals live in ivory towers. ( I think Paul Martin sold off the Ivory Towers LOL).

TF

P.S. I missed this during the campaign, but Alec Baldwin called Sarah Palin "Bible Spice" Love it!

Faux News and The American Coverage

As far as I can tell, MSNBC (the best one down there) had it's own article about Fox News' call to invade Canada while we were all at yoga class. CNN had a link to youtube. Fox, of course, NOTHING on this. ABC had nothing but did cover the fallen Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. CBS had nothing. I did not have a chance to check The Daily Planet....

Twitter

I have yet to catch the twitter big. I am a Luddite, and so, email, facebook, my blog, MSN Live, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, my Cell Phone and smoke signals are my only ways of contacting the outside world.

I certainly have nothing against it, but I would never do this:

A recent tweet by one would-be Cisco employee proves that when it comes to placing a permanent black mark on your resume via the Internet, Twitter is now the tool of choice. To illustrate, here’s the tweet the now Web-infamous "theconnor" shared with the world:

"Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

TF

My letter sent to The Red Eye show on Fox News

The American right wing elite media has no sense of humour about itself. So, do not expect Canadians to be amused that you spat on the graves on 116 Canadian soldiers who gave their lives in this war of terror, as your ally. I assume that your show is not in any way meant to be "news" as the rest of planet understands the word. It is not punditry. It was not satire, as satire is meant to be funny, not to denigrate to an ally.

Where did the re-directed airlines land on Sept 11, 2001? We were your ally since before the war began. It is a shame that as little as you know your enemy, you know your friends even less.

Thomas Forten
Mississauga, Ontario