that ring of confidence

Vancouver don't vote

Last night Lydia and I were having an argument about the importance of voting in Saturday's Vancouver Civic Election.  My view was that after going through a Federal Election, a provincial bi-election and the Obama Election Miracle of '08 I'm pretty damn electioned out and frankly I don't really give a shit about civic politics anyway.

Lydia pressed me saying, probably correctly, that it's important and that I should care to which point I made the point that my general feeling is that most people who run for Mayor are idiots.  Now granted my view is probably skewed after growing up in Kelowna where mayoral candidates tended to either be failed business people, punk anarchists looking to make a political point but not win, or complete freaks.  By freaks I don't mean the sort of politically motivated hippie/freaks like Hunter S. Thompson when he ran for Sherrif of Aspen Colorado, I mean just complete nutbars.

But maybe I'm not giving Vancouver a chance.  I respect Don Iveson who was elected to Edmonton's city council [di], so I guess I can't really argue that the only people who run for civic office are complete douche monsters.  Maybe I should give the Vancouver mayoral candidates a chance.

Then they went and had a talent show, and basically proved my point.

From The Georgia Straight [tgs]:

Scott Yee, for example, was basically booed off stage for his collection of increasingly sexist and homophobic “jokes”; Menard Caissy, dressed in an oversized ski jacket, listened to an MP3 player through headphones and began yowling, sometimes crouched in a semi-fetal position, to what he said was a track by The Stains, all the while punctuating the racket with disconcerting hacking coughs; and the decidedly odd Gölök Buday joined Yee in the naughty corner for a racist and misogynist one-liner that offended everyone in the room.

Leon Kaplan's stand-up bit was fairly amusing, as he explained that he would split the right-wing vote with his plan to take tasers away from the cops—and give them to the Downtown Ambassadors. And Bill Ritchie performed a rather effective three-minute play that encapsulated the lives of five Vancouverites, from the wealthy businessman to the Hastings Street addict. 

The Nude Garden Party’s Patrick Britten did not, thankfully, appear sans clothing; in pyjamas and a bathrobe he sang "Don’t Fence Me In", then delivered Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy. Independent Marc Emery opted not to perform anything, instead delivering a rant about the economic crisis facing the city; and independent park board candidate Jamie Lee Hamilton delivered a bawdy set of one-liners: “I’ve counted 15 lesbians and 15 politicians here tonight—that makes 30 people here who don’t do dick.”

Vision Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson appeared alongside councillor Heather Deal and council candidate Geoff Meggs for some Tom Lehrer fun, and responded to a question about his top three skills by listing watering plants, flipping pancakes, and playing tuba.

Well there's one argument I win.

Oh yeah, by the way That One won

By the time I was done work on Tuesday the American Presidential Election had already been called, and Obama had won. Nathan came over, and Lydia roasted some chestnuts and we watched the coverage of the victory.

Though as a Canadian I didn't get a vote, and really did not have a horse in the race, as it where, but I was certainly pulling for Obama.

The election draws near and with it dark clouds

apparently D.L. Hughley [wp] has a late-night news chat show on CNN. If I think of who holds down the late-night CNN slot, I would never have thought that it was him. This is the sort of thing that an election year does, it drives me to channel surf to watch a standup comedian that I've got no great love for, chatting with the Reverend Al Sharpton before flipping back to a very dry episode of the CBC's The Passionate Eye on the ins and outs of campaign financing for the Presidential election.

The narrator of the documentary seems like he's trying to sound like George Takei. It's earnest and dry, clearly on the side of Barack Obama. If it's meant to be propaganda it's not particularly engaging, if it's not... well it's still not particularly engaging.

The U.S. Presidential Election is drawing nearer every day. After the Conservatives won the Federal election here in Canada I Tweeted that I think every Canadian will take another term of Stephen Harper as long as in the karma tradeoff Obama won. Certainly if the election was held up here Barack would win by a landslide.

It's not being held here of course, and we're not able to vote. So we remain the cheerleaders in the football game of politics, unable to get on the field but quite happy to cheer on who we want to win. I'm sure that Americans who know about how closely we follow the election probably find it kind of annoying, the same way it was kind of annoying when John F. Kennedy tried to get rid of John Diefenbaker.

Even though the polls say that Obama is leading, it's hard to believe he's going to win. The way that some people in the states just irrationally hate him, it's hard to see it being an easy victory. I might not love Harper, but I'm certainly not angry about him. He's just sort of... there. Like wallpaper.

Tuesday we'll see what happens. Dark clouds or something else. I'm bringing an umbrella.

Americans, remember to vote.

Thanks to Mac Reed's Twitter [twt].

The Jesus phone and my other blog

It is completely and entirely appropriate for you to tell me that I'm going to hell for this post.  Or rather for the picture to the left here.  However I've closed the comments so you can't do that can you.

It's just been awhile since I've played with my old friend the Church Sign Generator [csg] and so I figured that I'd have a little fun playing around with it while I try to drift off to sleep.

Meanwhile if you've been wanting to read some serious blogging from me then check out Metroblogging Vancouver.  In amongst some terrific new authors I blog about square watermelons [mbv], give an on the spot live blog of the downtown power outage from my cell phone [mbv] and go to a petting zoo at Maplewood Farms in North Vancouver [mbv].

All of that and more is waiting for you at Metroblogging Vancouver.  It's free, and maybe that's the sort of charity that will repay any existing deities for my blasphemies. 

I'm still closing the comments though.

Obama: the next President, I hope

  Senator Barack Obama 
  Originally uploaded by goodmosconi.

I am not American, I don't live in America and I don't vote in their elections.  However like the rest of the world whoever is living in the White House affects my life a great deal.  Canada has troops in Afghanistan because of George W. Bush, and we pay a lot more at the gas pumps because of George W. Bush. 

A change is needed, and last night Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee for President and the man that I'm hoping wins.  Jeff Weston, a high school friend whose living in Seattle for work, had been hoping that Hilary won and seems to really dislike Obama.  I'll admit to not knowing enough about their substantive policy differences, other than Clinton was for the invasion of Iraq, and Obama was not, but I'm glad that Barack one.

Crazy pastor aside, I'm sure we'll be finding out that he's a complicated and flawed man as the real race for the Presidency begins now, but he offers far more than anyone has in a long time.  Change might seem like the buzz word of the moment, as does hope but I think those both fit. 

Anyway he does have the very nice feature of not being George W. Bush.  And now with Clinton out of the race, we think, he's the most non-George W. Bush like person in the race, and so I'm hoping he's going to win.

Three things to read to pass the time: Dilbert, Bush and Lost

dilbert muraille
Originally uploaded by Ol.v!er [116aRT** * *** *].

A lot of people use the internet to kill time at work.  Not I of course, I'm always hard at work selling phones to the people who need the cellular.  But I do know of other people, such as my girlfriend Lydia, who require some reading to help pass the time while at work.  So in honour of those of you who are looking to knock a little bit off their work day here are three things worth reading about on the web today.

1) Scott Adams overcomes Spasmodic Dysphonia [db]:

Best known as the creator of the character Dilbert Scott Adams is a fairly funny humourist and seemingly a nice guy.  I was surprised to hear that he had a rare speech problem called Spasmodic Dyphonia that affects a part of the brain and prevents him from speaking properly.

Essentially a part of the brain that controls speech just shuts down in some people, usually after you strain your voice during a bout with allergies (in my case) or some other sort of normal laryngitis. It happens to people in my age bracket.

I asked my doctor – a specialist for this condition – how many people have ever gotten better. Answer: zero. While there’s no cure, painful Botox injections through the front of the neck and into the vocal cords can stop the spasms for a few months. That weakens the muscles that otherwise spasm, but your voice is breathy and weak.

The odd thing was that the disorder allowed him to do some kind of speaking, such as public speaking in front of large crowds, and not others such as regular talking.  Told that there was no cure he set about trying to figure out a way to overcome his affliction and eventually did this October [db] by trying to rhyme.  Since then his speech seems to have almost returned to normal.

The day before yesterday, while helping on a homework assignment, I noticed I could speak perfectly in rhyme. Rhyme was a context I hadn’t considered. A poem isn’t singing and it isn’t regular talking. But for some reason the context is just different enough from normal speech that my brain handled it fine.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.
Jack jumped over the candlestick.

I repeated it dozens of times, partly because I could. It was effortless, even though it was similar to regular speech. I enjoyed repeating it, hearing the sound of my own voice working almost flawlessly. I longed for that sound, and the memory of normal speech. Perhaps the rhyme took me back to my own childhood too. Or maybe it’s just plain catchy. I enjoyed repeating it more than I should have. Then something happened.

My brain remapped.

My speech returned.

Not 100%, but close, like a car starting up on a cold winter night. And so I talked that night. A lot. And all the next day. A few times I felt my voice slipping away, so I repeated the nursery rhyme and tuned it back in. By the following night my voice was almost completely normal.

It's a story worth checking out on his blog, as are the many, many comments [db]. 

2) US Mid-term election coverage from across the pond [guk]:

The Guardian's Simon Jenkins has a really interesting article up about the recent mid-term elections in the United States.  Seeing the election of Democrates to power in both houses of government he sees the results as the "It is a good day for level-headed Americans."  Still despite the results he saw the recent election as the most divisive in memory.

I have watched many American elections, but still find myself shocked by candidates accusing each other in public and on television of corruption, homosexuality, lying, surrendering to terror, killing babies, favouring torture, associating with hoodlums and consorting with prostitutes. My favourites this time were "Brad Miller pays for sex but not for body armour for our troops" and, most savage of all, "Michael Steele loves George Bush". Achieving office in Britain is a stroll in the country. In America the participant must carry the one true ring to the land of Mordor. The game goes only to the strong.

3) Wizard Magazine's review of the latest episode of Lost [wu]:

If you're not deep into the horribly confounding world of Lost then this might be the one recomendation that you might want to skip.  However Wizard has been doing a day after review of the show for this season, and it's helpful to keep track of what everything means.  Or might mean since nothing is clear.  If you haven't seen the episode yet you don't want to read it, but if you have it's a good crib sheet.

Sean: “I thought the writers laid it on a little thick during the ceremony. The priest says that one of the first things that struck him about ‘Monica’ was her honesty. How the hell would that work, anyway? Did he ask her if his robe made him look fat and she said, ‘Well, to be honest, yeah’? Not to mention the ‘what you see is what you get’ line. Dun-dun-DUNNNN!”

Justin: “The only thing more obvious were those ‘please murder him’ looks Juliet kept shooting Jack during the operation sequence.”

The selections I took from the articles don't spoil them.  If you're wanting to kill sometime, then head over and check these three suggestions out.

Memo to idiots: 9/11 actually happened

  Vancouver Art Gallery 
  Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

I blogged about the protest outside of the Vancouver Art Gallery over on Metroblogging Vancouver [mbv] earlier.  The protest was by a group of people claiming that the September 11th attacks five years ago were faked and nothing but a media hoax used to give George W. Bush a free hand to invade Iraq.

I'm anti-Bush and have always been against the invasion of Iraq, but this sort of bullshit blows me away.  It's as sick as denying the Holocaust occured and as factual as claiming that unicorns live in an enchanted forest on the edge of town and grant wishes to all who seek them out.

I mean wow.

Anyway I didn't argue with the dinkwallets with signs, just came home to blog about it, but I'm still really blown away by it.  I knew there was people out there who believed this crap, but I didn't think they would ever actually do so in public.  I can't wait for a pro-child molester protest out front of the VAG.

Below is a video from the Penn and Teller series Bullshit debunking this nonsense.

I predict a riot

Upturned car
Originally uploaded by phibsboro.

Dublin is rioting, and you can get information and updates Metroblogging Vancouver's sister site Metroblogging Dublin [mbd]. This is the view from the street, from the people there and not reporting from remote press rooms reading press releases.

There are reports of cars and buildings along Nassau Street being set alight, shops and cars being looted, and there are also reports of Pearse Street Garda station currently being attacked and set on fire. There also appears to be a concerted effort to attack journalists and photographers trying to cover the riots, with many photographers and tv camera crews having their cameras smashed, and RTE's Chief News correspondant, Charlie Bird has been seen running down O Connell Street with blood coming from his head.

The rioting was sparked by the yearly Love Ulster Parade, where Protestants march around the largely Catholic Dublin to proclaim how much better Protestants are than Catholics.

Now why did nobody think that might go wrong?

Edit: Currently (11:38 am PST) there is nothing on the riots on the CBC or CNN's websites but the BBC does have some information on it [bbc]. So this is sort of a scoop for ya'all.

Dublin riots Dublinriots Irishriots Irishriot Irish Ireland Thetroubles

I get the geek rage

Today I had to wake up early so I could walk to UBC's Robson Street Campus for the first day of Northern Voice 2006 [nv] the Vancouver based blogging conference that I'm attending today and tomorrow.  Maybe it was the walking to get there by 8:00 am but I just did not enjoy myself nearly as much as I thought I would

I posted a rant about the conference's major theme over at Metroblogging Vancouver [mbv], and how it just struck me the wrong way.  I guess maybe I'm used to Canadian University Press conferences which are, even the small regional ones, simply amazing.  This was well organized, and some of the speakers were real catches.  A few went over my head, or devolved into arguments about technical details between the speakers and members of the audiance, but it was the more abstract philosophical ones that sort of got my goat.

I think part of it was that today was supposed to be an open day, when people volunteered to do talks, and so it was less structured and the better speakers will be there tomorrow.  As it is I was frustrated enough with it that I snuck out early and went to see Goodnight and Good Luck at the Paramount Theatre (no not my Paramount Theatre).  Sadly while it was a great movie the getting up at 6:30 to walk to the conference by 8:00 am made me tired enough to fall asleep for a good chunk of it. 

I think I understood the main jist of it though, it was something about journalism.

Tags: Northern Voice, Northern Voice 2006, blog, blogging, conference, Paramount Theatre, Goodnight and Good Luck, movie UBC

Star Trek as Canadian politics

This post will also be mirrored at Vancouver's Metroblogging site [mbv] though it will appear here first.

I've been dwelling on the fact that Conservative leader Stephen Harper has come out of the closet, so to speak, and has been revealed as a Star Trek fan [mbv]. Former Canadian University Press President and all around Trek fan Don Iveson finds the revelation surprising given Trek fans' general lefty slant [di]. He points out an article on Salon.com [sal] that argues convincingly that Star Trek is the for egalitarians while it's Star Wars that is the franchise for rugged individualists.

The differences at first seem superficial. One saga has an air force motif (tiny fighters) while the other appears naval. In "Star Trek," the big ship is heroic and the cooperative effort required to maintain it is depicted as honorable. Indeed, "Star Trek" sees technology as useful and essentially friendly -- if at times also dangerous. Education is a great emancipator of the humble (e.g. Starfleet Academy). Futuristic institutions are basically good-natured (the Federation), though of course one must fight outbreaks of incompetence and corruption. Professionalism is respected, lesser characters make a difference and henchmen often become brave whistle-blowers -- as they do in America today.

In "Star Trek," when authorities are defied, it is in order to overcome their mistakes or expose particular villains, not to portray all institutions as inherently hopeless. Good cops sometimes come when you call for help. Ironically, this image fosters useful criticism of authority, because it suggests that any of us can gain access to our flawed institutions, if we are determined enough -- and perhaps even fix them with fierce tools of citizenship.

So Trek sounds more like some kind of left wing NDP show doesn't it?

Well I got to thinking, Harper only likes the original Trek. Maybe that's a clue since the original Star Trek was much less focused on the Federation and Star Fleet as a whole, Kirk and the like didn't become good public servants until the movies and even then they were court-martialed for being too awesome. In reality there are so many Star Trek series and thus faces of Trek that each can relate to a Canadian political party. Thus here it is, the definitve Canadian Election 2006: the Star Trek Edition.

The Liberal Party = Star Trek: the Original Series

Despite the fact that the original is Stephen Harper's favorite it's the show that best fits the Liberals since it's vaugely left leaning without actually being that way. The Liberals might have legalized gay marriage but they certainly didn't seem happy to have done it, similiarly Kirk may have kissed Uhura (in television's first inter-racial kiss) but he had to be mind-controlled into doing it.

Similiarly both the Liberals and the first Trek have mixed up views on war. On one hand we're still in Afghanistan despite the fact that we've got no real plan there other than to be targets in place of American soldiers who had to go in Iraq [cbc]. Our being there is enabling the American occupation of Iraq. In Trek Kirk was always good about avoiding war with the Klingons, but would be happy to whomp on the Romulans if they got uppity. Like the Liberals he might make friends with a planet of Native Americans but he certainly wasn't going to give them warp drive.

Kirk and crew tried to be good enviromentalists, they saved the whales and created a new fertile planet with the Genesis Device, but they generally did it out of only when forced to by aliens probes, Kahn or needing to court the NDP. Speaking of Khan Noonien Singh a Conservative show would have put him to death for his crimes on Earth, an NDP show would have tried to rehabilitate him, only a Liberal show would have taken the useless middle ground of sticking him in a rocket and shooting him into space [st].

As much as Kirk wanted to use time travel to alter the future and save his one true love Edith Keeler's life he had to realize that messing with the past was dangerous and so he watched her die before his eyes [st]. Paul Martin wasn't so smart when he decided to fool with the past and opened the Gomery Equiry which lead us to this election.

Star Trek's first series was meant to be a five year mission, but was cancelled after three years. Martin's government should have had four years, but alas it won't even make three.

More nerd politics after the break. Just click on read more and go to the rest of Canada's political parties.

If Bush was that close to God he'd have had an arc ready

People are finally getting angry at George W. Bush, though it's not over the thousands of American troops that have died in Iraq, or the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have died since the start of the war.  Nope, they're angry at his lack of swiftness in getting help to the thousands of people stranded in New Orleans and across the eastern seaboard. 

Now granted when he wanted to save a woman in a vegitative state he was able to recall Congress to pass legislation in the middle of the night, but to save people drowning he stuck around his holiday home in Crawford Texas for days.  If only more of them had been symbolic examples for the right to life side maybe we would have seen more leadership.

Though let's be honest, it's no good getting mad at Bush now.  He's been a fuckwit since he was first elected, and the American people decided they wanted him around so now they've got to lump it.  If the fact that his lies had cost the lives of American troops had not been enough reason to give him the heave-ho after 4 years, then there's nothing to complain about now that he's just sticking with par-for-the-course.

Again I apologize for not updating much lately, I've been busy working.  I tend to work 1 pm - 9 pm and I never feel like blogging in the morning and at night I'm at work and busy.  By the time I Skytrain and walk home after work it's about 10 at night and I basically only have enough energy to eat and veg out in front of the television.

Now I'm doing a thirty minute count-down until work is over and I get to go home.  I'll have the next two days off to relax.

Corporate bonding

From the Guardian:

Security sources fear that at least one senior figure in the global terror organisation is based in the UK. He may have taken part in a whitewater rafting trip used as a bonding session for several of the suicide bombers in north Wales in early June.

Funny as a senior sales rep for Pacific Cellular last summer I went to Whistler and went whitewater rafting as a team bonding session.  The line between global terrorism and retail sales may be thinner than we think.

We're one, but we're not the same

Bono and others like him have been pushing for the governments of the world to drop the debt of the poorest African countries, debt that ensures these nations will remain poor and unable to take care of themselves for decades to come. Sign up for the One campaign and add your voice to those who are calling for debt cancellation, fair trade, help on AIDS, increased aid and many other things for Africa.

And call Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to tell him we should be doing more. His number is 613-992-4211.

Saddam Hussein in Teen People

Reading this BBC report of GQ magazine's article about the life of Saddam after being captured in Iraq is pretty funny. The magazine seems to think that Saddam is some sort of movie star, since the information we get is pretty much on the level of something you'd expect to see on a Much Music special about Avril or Jessica Simpson.

The guard described how Saddam Hussein spent each day watering plants and was obsessive about cleanliness, continually wet-wiping the cutlery he used to eat his meals.

He did not want a treadmill that guards installed in his cell, asking instead for a table-tennis table. The request was turned down.

He enjoyed Raisin Bran Crunch for breakfast, but refused to eat Froot Loops.

He liked to snack on Cheetos, until someone brought him a bag of Doritos, which he took silently into a corner and ate in a hurry.

So there you go, the real reason the United States attacked Iraq was so we could introduce its dictator to Doritos. To be fair the article does get a bit serious for about thirty seconds when demands to see George W. Bush so he can negotiate a peace treaty and when he gets sad about hearing of the death of Ronald Reagan who sold him all his weapons of not-quite-mass-destruction.

Sorry Mr. President

Found this floating on the internet. If you've ever played the original Super Mario Brothers you should recognize the screen shot.

It's not guns that kill people, it's not having Pocket PCs with video feeds that kill people

While browsing the net I didn't notice that ER ended and King 5 news started. The segment that pulled me out of my reading was one about security measures being taken at schools to prevent school shootings. Metal detectors, cameras in every room which can be watched on Pocket PC handhelds and all sorts of new rules.

Why don't we try to figure out how kids get their hands on high powered weapons? Why don't we ask why they want to kill their fellow students? Spending what little money we devote to education on making schools more like prisons doesn't seem to be the best idea.

But what do I know? They never shot anyone at my school.

The new face of North America

Moby asked on his blog why the blue states can't simply leave America and become breakaway republics. Chad just sent me a map that offers another suggestion. The one thing the election results promise is that it will be another generation or two before Canada and the US are ever one country. America wouldn't want us, because if we had been a new state we'd have pushed Kerry into winning (Republicans don't want an influx of northerns who are even more liberal than those in New York and Washington state) and as much as we in Canada like That 70s' Show we're a long way off of becoming a new theocracy.

It was easy to believe we were the same when it was Bill Clinton calling the shots.

Midnight in the Land of Awesome

CBC News: Kerry concedes to Bush

George Bush is once again the President of the United States of America. I am of two minds of the outcome. On one hand it's bad because... well it's Bush. On the other hand it leaves him to clean up the mess he made in Iraq. Iraq will become the albatross around the neck of the Republican Party as the American death toll mounts.

Had Kerry won he would have looked weak because he would have had to pull out of Iraq. He would have been the next Jimmy Carter, perceived as being weak on foreign policy, and it would have hurt the Democratic Party for years.

4 states in

With 4 states declared, ie the news networks figured that someone has won in them, George Bush leads John Kerry 34 - 3 in Electoral College votes. A candidate needs 270 to win. So far Vermont has gone for Kerry and Indiana, Georgia and Kentucky are for Bush. I'm not sure if those states are a surprise to anyone or not, since they were never mentioned as key battle ground states, so it's hard to tell how the race is going.