2013-03-31
Jim Carrey: You're Fair Game
Lemme get this straight. Jim Carrey can make a video slandering, generalizing and stereotyping (under the premise of humor) but he's not to be criticized for it?
Is this guy kidding me?
I saw the video. It was a comedian/actor offering a political commentary. It was vapid (to me anyway) but it's his opinion.
More importantly, it was definitely political and for that he's fair game.
You can't put things like this 'out there' and not expect to be challenged. That would be, well, cowardly.
Worse, I really don't see the point in bringing Heston into this. Aside from the fact he can't be around to defend himself, Heston, from what I read, was one of the first people in Hollywood to back the Civil Rights Movement among other issues.
It's unfortunate Carrey chose this route. Seems to me, with all that experience and talent he could have tried a tad harder.
I'm just disappointed in the effort. I thought about posting the video but after a couple of viewings, I just felt it was more insulting than humorous. Hey, just my opinion.
Last point, he claims to have decided against suing Fox for slander inserting a somewhat weak reason for doing so. Well, if I'm slandered, I go after the people or organizations.
Carrey thinks rolling his eyes and hurling an ad hominen or two is enough to protect his reputation.
Excuse me if I'm not buying it.
Is this guy kidding me?
I saw the video. It was a comedian/actor offering a political commentary. It was vapid (to me anyway) but it's his opinion.
More importantly, it was definitely political and for that he's fair game.
You can't put things like this 'out there' and not expect to be challenged. That would be, well, cowardly.
Worse, I really don't see the point in bringing Heston into this. Aside from the fact he can't be around to defend himself, Heston, from what I read, was one of the first people in Hollywood to back the Civil Rights Movement among other issues.
It's unfortunate Carrey chose this route. Seems to me, with all that experience and talent he could have tried a tad harder.
I'm just disappointed in the effort. I thought about posting the video but after a couple of viewings, I just felt it was more insulting than humorous. Hey, just my opinion.
Last point, he claims to have decided against suing Fox for slander inserting a somewhat weak reason for doing so. Well, if I'm slandered, I go after the people or organizations.
Carrey thinks rolling his eyes and hurling an ad hominen or two is enough to protect his reputation.
Excuse me if I'm not buying it.
Diocletian's Curse
"Inflation was a huge, intractable problem, which Diocletian lacked the economic ingenuity to control. He tried, and failed, to fix prices by issuing edicts limiting both wages and the scale price of every sort of commodity and service. An army modius of ground millet, for instance, would cost 100 denarii; a pound of best-quality pork leg, 20 denarii;oysters, a denarius each, and so on. An arithmetic teacher was to earn 75 denarii per month; a carpenter, 50 per day; a scribe, "for second-quality writing," 20 denarii per 100 lines; a lawyer 1000 denarii for pleading a case, and a checkroom attendant in a bathhouse, 2 denarii per person. None of this worked, it merely produced a runaway black market." Robert Hughes, Rome. p. 129.
I love this paragraph. Notably because it points out what I've argued on this blog. Specifically, calling for higher taxes and regulation or "fixing" is the result of the lack of our imagination. It's our default set button. Somehow, we've apparently amassed an economic "body of evidence" proving this crap works. Ostensibly it does for the people who create it and who choose to look away afterwards; neglecting to observe the result; or the unintended consequence.
La, la, la, la...I'm not listening...extremist! Racist!
It's a lot how when we were kids we justified a statistic to defend the quality of a favorite team or player. As time goes on, as you mature, you begin to dissect, scrutinize and eventually learn that sometimes our premise was faulty or plain wrong.
I remember when I was nine years-old I briefly became a Buffalo Sabres fan for some reason. In my mind, they were the best team based on current realities at the time. Maybe I liked Danny Gare or something.
I was mentally myopic as any kid is. Until my neighbor, four years my senior, grabbed a sports almanac and pointed out that the Sabres actually never won a Stanley Cup having mustered only one appearance back in the mid-70s losing to the Flyers.
I was incredulous and tried to find some fact to the contrary but I was no match for reality.
I'm stretching a little here I understand, but hey.
Price controls. Interventionism. Minimum wage. Permits. Etc.
All illusions. We've come to accept them as not.
We've tricked ourselves into believing they work but in reality they don't. They hamper true, free economic activity. All they do is drive things underground, create a corruptive attitude for those in control and make criminals of free peoples. It then becomes "industry" for the state.
I won't get into the silliness of fixing prices and how distorts things. That should be self-evident by now.
We never learn.
Let's call it Diocletian's Curse.
I love this paragraph. Notably because it points out what I've argued on this blog. Specifically, calling for higher taxes and regulation or "fixing" is the result of the lack of our imagination. It's our default set button. Somehow, we've apparently amassed an economic "body of evidence" proving this crap works. Ostensibly it does for the people who create it and who choose to look away afterwards; neglecting to observe the result; or the unintended consequence.
La, la, la, la...I'm not listening...extremist! Racist!
It's a lot how when we were kids we justified a statistic to defend the quality of a favorite team or player. As time goes on, as you mature, you begin to dissect, scrutinize and eventually learn that sometimes our premise was faulty or plain wrong.
I remember when I was nine years-old I briefly became a Buffalo Sabres fan for some reason. In my mind, they were the best team based on current realities at the time. Maybe I liked Danny Gare or something.
I was mentally myopic as any kid is. Until my neighbor, four years my senior, grabbed a sports almanac and pointed out that the Sabres actually never won a Stanley Cup having mustered only one appearance back in the mid-70s losing to the Flyers.
I was incredulous and tried to find some fact to the contrary but I was no match for reality.
I'm stretching a little here I understand, but hey.
Price controls. Interventionism. Minimum wage. Permits. Etc.
All illusions. We've come to accept them as not.
We've tricked ourselves into believing they work but in reality they don't. They hamper true, free economic activity. All they do is drive things underground, create a corruptive attitude for those in control and make criminals of free peoples. It then becomes "industry" for the state.
I won't get into the silliness of fixing prices and how distorts things. That should be self-evident by now.
We never learn.
Let's call it Diocletian's Curse.
From Disney To Skanksney
What is it with all these former Disney girls turning all smutty and skanky?
Man, doesn't anyone pull these kids aside and tell them it's not cool? Unless it's all designed and orchestrated. Which is a shame; needing to slip a nipple to stay in the news.
I bring this up because my daughter is of an age where all she does is watch Disney and listens to Radio Disney and all that. I try to offset that a little with other forms of art - which she's thankfully open to - for the record.
But I gotta let her be a kid.
So I know who Selena Gomez is....and One Direction....and Austin Moon....and Austin Mahone...and Austin This....and Austin That.
It's an observation I've noticed that they go from all innocent and cute to scantily dressed wannabe bad girls. Maybe it's a rebel thing looking to shed a pristine image. "I'm more naughty than my image shows!" Miley Cyrus was the first example. From Hannah Montana she went on to bigger, and better boozy-sloozy things.
Hey, whatever works. I don't know how 'show biz' works. Thank God.
Another piece of work is Justin Beiber. The poster child for trying waaayyy too hard.
You can't manufacture real cool.
Cool just is, man.
Someone should explain this to these millionaires.
Man, doesn't anyone pull these kids aside and tell them it's not cool? Unless it's all designed and orchestrated. Which is a shame; needing to slip a nipple to stay in the news.
I bring this up because my daughter is of an age where all she does is watch Disney and listens to Radio Disney and all that. I try to offset that a little with other forms of art - which she's thankfully open to - for the record.
But I gotta let her be a kid.
So I know who Selena Gomez is....and One Direction....and Austin Moon....and Austin Mahone...and Austin This....and Austin That.
It's an observation I've noticed that they go from all innocent and cute to scantily dressed wannabe bad girls. Maybe it's a rebel thing looking to shed a pristine image. "I'm more naughty than my image shows!" Miley Cyrus was the first example. From Hannah Montana she went on to bigger, and better boozy-sloozy things.
Hey, whatever works. I don't know how 'show biz' works. Thank God.
Another piece of work is Justin Beiber. The poster child for trying waaayyy too hard.
You can't manufacture real cool.
Cool just is, man.
Someone should explain this to these millionaires.
2013-03-30
Fall Of The West Reason 3996684856
My cousin has been living in Spain for over a year now. Living in Northern Spain with a Gallician girlfriend is sweet I s'pose.
In any event, the news of Quebec's moronic language laws did make it there for the record. It was met with a huge '?' as in 'wtf?'
In any event - again - he was telling me, in a conversation he had with a top cop, in Spain the most time anyone can serve for any crime is 20 years.
You heard right. Kill someone? 20 years and you're out!
It brings back a line I heard - I forget which movie. The Red Dragon I think - delivered by one Anthony Hopkins playing the role of Hannibal. Essentially, it went something like, "any sane or rational society would either kill me or study me. Nothing in between."
Exactly.
***
But hey. These are times in which kids can't wear 'Hulk' t-shirts to school because they will 'imitate' them.
Such is the enlightened approaches employed. I think it's worse in the States than it is up here.
And that shit goes right to the top. Dr. Feel Good President of the United States hasn't shown any true leadership by preying on irrational fears after Sandy Hook. We're reluctant to send a message to would be criminals with harsh laws for serious crimes. A line if you will saying "this is civil society. Cross it and you're out." Instead, we choose to crack down on 'loss social leaders' that sway us from any rational thinking.
Right now. The patients run the asylum.
As it stands, reactions to a violent action is completely bunk and idiotic and the law seems to willing to comply.
In any event, the news of Quebec's moronic language laws did make it there for the record. It was met with a huge '?' as in 'wtf?'
In any event - again - he was telling me, in a conversation he had with a top cop, in Spain the most time anyone can serve for any crime is 20 years.
You heard right. Kill someone? 20 years and you're out!
It brings back a line I heard - I forget which movie. The Red Dragon I think - delivered by one Anthony Hopkins playing the role of Hannibal. Essentially, it went something like, "any sane or rational society would either kill me or study me. Nothing in between."
Exactly.
***
But hey. These are times in which kids can't wear 'Hulk' t-shirts to school because they will 'imitate' them.
Such is the enlightened approaches employed. I think it's worse in the States than it is up here.
And that shit goes right to the top. Dr. Feel Good President of the United States hasn't shown any true leadership by preying on irrational fears after Sandy Hook. We're reluctant to send a message to would be criminals with harsh laws for serious crimes. A line if you will saying "this is civil society. Cross it and you're out." Instead, we choose to crack down on 'loss social leaders' that sway us from any rational thinking.
Right now. The patients run the asylum.
As it stands, reactions to a violent action is completely bunk and idiotic and the law seems to willing to comply.
2013-03-28
Quote Of The Day
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they allow disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children now are tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers..."
Socrates.
Socrates.
2013-03-27
Wamos Cookie Master
I heard Wally Amos on the Jay Thomas Show today. Interesting guy.
Here's a link to his website selling cookies.
Here's a link to his website selling cookies.
Where's My Moonshine Cut?
I was watching a show called Moonshiners on TV earlier and was wondering why moonshining is illegal.
It had to do with government hypocrisy masking as protecting citizens.
Lo and behold a simple research banged out the clear answer: Because they don't collect taxes on it.
Nothing else, nothing more. They want their cut. Like they muscled in on video lotteries in Quebec.
No bigger mafia than the government. It plays both sides of the "bon cop, good cop" perfectly.
Watching cops bust up moonshine runs is such a waste of resources and time. Worse, people get thrown in jail for it. In this article from Slate, the person arrested could face 35 years!
Retarded.
To say nothing of being immoral.
If there's one example of how full of it the Feds are this is one of them.
It had to do with government hypocrisy masking as protecting citizens.
Lo and behold a simple research banged out the clear answer: Because they don't collect taxes on it.
Nothing else, nothing more. They want their cut. Like they muscled in on video lotteries in Quebec.
No bigger mafia than the government. It plays both sides of the "bon cop, good cop" perfectly.
Watching cops bust up moonshine runs is such a waste of resources and time. Worse, people get thrown in jail for it. In this article from Slate, the person arrested could face 35 years!
Retarded.
To say nothing of being immoral.
If there's one example of how full of it the Feds are this is one of them.
Life Of Excessive Luxury In California
Wow.
People do realize the President of the United States earns $400 000 a year, right?
A civil servant in California gets 400 k pension for life.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure in the order of things, the Pres has a tad more responsibilities.
Then they wonder why there's no money in the treasury.
Oh, I have a solution for that. Since the game is rigged as Warren charges, increase the taxes on the people of Alameda County to make up for the shortfall. I mean, they only have a median income average of $34 700. They should pay their fair share. Amiright?
Calirome!
Didn't some goofball suggest we tax email?
People do realize the President of the United States earns $400 000 a year, right?
A civil servant in California gets 400 k pension for life.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure in the order of things, the Pres has a tad more responsibilities.
Then they wonder why there's no money in the treasury.
Oh, I have a solution for that. Since the game is rigged as Warren charges, increase the taxes on the people of Alameda County to make up for the shortfall. I mean, they only have a median income average of $34 700. They should pay their fair share. Amiright?
Calirome!
Didn't some goofball suggest we tax email?
2013-03-26
RESP's Worth The Investment
With students protesting in the streets expecting society to pay for their post-secondary education, there are options available to young families starting out. When it comes to saving for anything, always best to start early because you'll hit bumps along the road and sometimes you may find yourself suspending saving. But once back on track, you resume.
Circle of life and it's no different with education.
Education costs are increasing (Quebec will discover it can't run against the grain) and if post-secondary education is important for you, then strongly consider investing in a Registered Education Savings Plan. It's like an RRSP but for education.
Take charge of YOUR LIFE. In this way, I support the government initiative.
Monthly payments can be as little as $50 or $100. Over 18 years, using $100, you have saved $21 600 not including interest. Assume a very modest 5% and you get another $1000. More importantly, as you'll see later, the government provides a contribution further adding to the load.
If you're two people, and agree to invest $150 (get your grandparents involved if you can!) and the amount pushes through $34 000. In Canada, that's gold. Once you get on a routine (that is, adjusting to life with $100 less in your pocket), the whole process becomes almost painless.
I know because we've been doing it for eight years now. We match what my mother invests. Education should be a family matter.
A few friends of mine have opted out of this investment vehicle for some inexplicable (and financially illogical perhaps) reason. They feel they can save on their own.
However, there are three important features why RESP's are no-brainers.
1) It's a forced savings and becoming more and more flexible. After 20 years, if you're child decides to go to an American university, it's a helluva lot less stressful to help out when you have the funds.
2) It's a tax-sheltered plan. That is, all monies earned over time do so tax-free. Not only that, once money is withdrawn it's taxed in the hands of the beneficiary - that being the child. This means they'll be in a much lower tax bracket than if you had chosen another route (likely at the highest marginal rate). Irrational to not consider this if you ask me.
3) Government contribution. As in, the government kicks in 20% over 18 years with a maximum of $9000 (I think. It was $7200 for me but rules may have changed). If you opt out of this, you basically leave $9000 on the table not including interest or dividend earned. You can never make that up. It's an excellent incentive meant to have you save for education.
Keep in mind only children under 10 are eligible and like RRSPs the trick is to start as early as you can to get the full benefit.
Planning for the future? Look at RESPs. As for which ones, I'd focus on Scholarship Trust Funds or other competitors. Find one that fits your needs and objectives.
You're welcome.
Circle of life and it's no different with education.
Education costs are increasing (Quebec will discover it can't run against the grain) and if post-secondary education is important for you, then strongly consider investing in a Registered Education Savings Plan. It's like an RRSP but for education.
Take charge of YOUR LIFE. In this way, I support the government initiative.
Monthly payments can be as little as $50 or $100. Over 18 years, using $100, you have saved $21 600 not including interest. Assume a very modest 5% and you get another $1000. More importantly, as you'll see later, the government provides a contribution further adding to the load.
If you're two people, and agree to invest $150 (get your grandparents involved if you can!) and the amount pushes through $34 000. In Canada, that's gold. Once you get on a routine (that is, adjusting to life with $100 less in your pocket), the whole process becomes almost painless.
I know because we've been doing it for eight years now. We match what my mother invests. Education should be a family matter.
A few friends of mine have opted out of this investment vehicle for some inexplicable (and financially illogical perhaps) reason. They feel they can save on their own.
However, there are three important features why RESP's are no-brainers.
1) It's a forced savings and becoming more and more flexible. After 20 years, if you're child decides to go to an American university, it's a helluva lot less stressful to help out when you have the funds.
2) It's a tax-sheltered plan. That is, all monies earned over time do so tax-free. Not only that, once money is withdrawn it's taxed in the hands of the beneficiary - that being the child. This means they'll be in a much lower tax bracket than if you had chosen another route (likely at the highest marginal rate). Irrational to not consider this if you ask me.
3) Government contribution. As in, the government kicks in 20% over 18 years with a maximum of $9000 (I think. It was $7200 for me but rules may have changed). If you opt out of this, you basically leave $9000 on the table not including interest or dividend earned. You can never make that up. It's an excellent incentive meant to have you save for education.
Keep in mind only children under 10 are eligible and like RRSPs the trick is to start as early as you can to get the full benefit.
Planning for the future? Look at RESPs. As for which ones, I'd focus on Scholarship Trust Funds or other competitors. Find one that fits your needs and objectives.
You're welcome.
2013-03-25
Quebec Distinct Indeed - For All The Wrong Reasons
An internet ban along linguistic lines is not that far off.
Mark my words.
They already discusses this. I think it was Louise Beaudoin - that wench - who brought it up.
I can read Quebec like a book these days.
Anyway.
I've noticed, among the many nonsensical and logical inconsistencies that drive Quebec's state-sanctioned discriminatory linguistic policies, people claiming that language laws exist in many places.
One guy even put a number to it stating speciously '28 jurisdictions; do so.
I'd love to read which ones because where I sit that's simply not true. Some places may have language laws but NONE - I repeat NONE to my knowledge and to people I speak to in Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, England and USA - enforce laws or have organizations on their books like the OLF. The rightfully conclude this is a line that can't be crossed.
Yet, in Canada it's been permitted.
Suppressing one group to promote another runs against the grain of all we're taught about civility in a pluralist society.
Not even in history, be it Beirut, Venice, Rome or Toledo (places where multiple civilizations and languages interacted) do we see such practices pitting one group against another where the law backs one over another.
Quebec feels so threatened that it's willing to stake its dignity to propel one group over another? By what right has it come that French-Canadians should govern through tyranny of the majority?
So, in international terms, Quebec does not have an argument. If anything, the international community is gaining knowledge on what NOT to do in the treatment of minorities.
Loathe as we Canadians are to hear it, but we can learn from a far more mature society in the United States. Specifically on how it assimilates peoples from around the world based on nothing but the willingness of its immigrants. It already has begun to incorporate Spanish into its social and political framework. No demonizing, no fear-mongering. Which is unique in a world where the technique of fear is often used to drive policy.
Demographically, Spanish is set to become a major player in America. Yet, there is NO movement or mobilization to curb this reality. No Mouvement Imperatif. No mainstream radio personalities drooling rabid insularism on the airwaves. If there are, and America has many things, they are marginalized. Very little of it, if any, makes it to LEGISLATION.
Rather, America is looking to coexist with Spanish - in PEACE. Just like India has taken in English. No signage laws there!
Alas, the English language has always been more flexible that way.
Quebec nationalists are incapable of many things. That much we've come to know and accept. Nationalism is a scourge against progress. But I'll be damned if they get to set the terms of the narrative.
I'm sickened by the excuses and the laws. Worse, as a trilingual worldly individual, I can't accept the excuses used to support this garbage. They're all one-sided, one-dimensional, insular, musings wrapped inside a tortilla of sophistry.
It's all, when you scratch it to its basic root, BIGOTED.
And you know this is true.
****
My wife and I have jotted down potential places to go. I suggested she send her resume out to schools in the United States and see where that goes. As much as we love the U.S., it's a much harder move to make at this stage. For that option, it would be my daughter.
More likely, is a move either out West or Ontario. Interestingly, my extended family may be considering it as well.
It's the exodus the assholes in Quebec City are looking for.
In the short-run, they'll be pleased with themselves.
In the long-run, I've no doubt the unintended consequences of their parochialism and bad karma will hurt this place.
What a shame because it IS home and we do wish to be a part of it.
Note to Jean-Francois Lisee: "We want in" yes, but I never realized we were "out" to begin with.
I don't want to be part of the PQ vision of Quebec. It's an ugly one. It's a two-tiered one with them propped up at the top. I don't respect the PQ so why should I tolerate them any longer?
I want to be part of a free Quebec in a free Canada.
So, I respectfully decline, his faux-olive branch.
Quebec created and fabricated social anarchy. Let them clean it up.
A Second Quiet Revolution in 3...2....
Mark my words.
They already discusses this. I think it was Louise Beaudoin - that wench - who brought it up.
I can read Quebec like a book these days.
Anyway.
I've noticed, among the many nonsensical and logical inconsistencies that drive Quebec's state-sanctioned discriminatory linguistic policies, people claiming that language laws exist in many places.
One guy even put a number to it stating speciously '28 jurisdictions; do so.
I'd love to read which ones because where I sit that's simply not true. Some places may have language laws but NONE - I repeat NONE to my knowledge and to people I speak to in Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, England and USA - enforce laws or have organizations on their books like the OLF. The rightfully conclude this is a line that can't be crossed.
Yet, in Canada it's been permitted.
Suppressing one group to promote another runs against the grain of all we're taught about civility in a pluralist society.
Not even in history, be it Beirut, Venice, Rome or Toledo (places where multiple civilizations and languages interacted) do we see such practices pitting one group against another where the law backs one over another.
Quebec feels so threatened that it's willing to stake its dignity to propel one group over another? By what right has it come that French-Canadians should govern through tyranny of the majority?
So, in international terms, Quebec does not have an argument. If anything, the international community is gaining knowledge on what NOT to do in the treatment of minorities.
Loathe as we Canadians are to hear it, but we can learn from a far more mature society in the United States. Specifically on how it assimilates peoples from around the world based on nothing but the willingness of its immigrants. It already has begun to incorporate Spanish into its social and political framework. No demonizing, no fear-mongering. Which is unique in a world where the technique of fear is often used to drive policy.
Demographically, Spanish is set to become a major player in America. Yet, there is NO movement or mobilization to curb this reality. No Mouvement Imperatif. No mainstream radio personalities drooling rabid insularism on the airwaves. If there are, and America has many things, they are marginalized. Very little of it, if any, makes it to LEGISLATION.
Rather, America is looking to coexist with Spanish - in PEACE. Just like India has taken in English. No signage laws there!
Alas, the English language has always been more flexible that way.
Quebec nationalists are incapable of many things. That much we've come to know and accept. Nationalism is a scourge against progress. But I'll be damned if they get to set the terms of the narrative.
I'm sickened by the excuses and the laws. Worse, as a trilingual worldly individual, I can't accept the excuses used to support this garbage. They're all one-sided, one-dimensional, insular, musings wrapped inside a tortilla of sophistry.
It's all, when you scratch it to its basic root, BIGOTED.
And you know this is true.
****
My wife and I have jotted down potential places to go. I suggested she send her resume out to schools in the United States and see where that goes. As much as we love the U.S., it's a much harder move to make at this stage. For that option, it would be my daughter.
More likely, is a move either out West or Ontario. Interestingly, my extended family may be considering it as well.
It's the exodus the assholes in Quebec City are looking for.
In the short-run, they'll be pleased with themselves.
In the long-run, I've no doubt the unintended consequences of their parochialism and bad karma will hurt this place.
What a shame because it IS home and we do wish to be a part of it.
Note to Jean-Francois Lisee: "We want in" yes, but I never realized we were "out" to begin with.
I don't want to be part of the PQ vision of Quebec. It's an ugly one. It's a two-tiered one with them propped up at the top. I don't respect the PQ so why should I tolerate them any longer?
I want to be part of a free Quebec in a free Canada.
So, I respectfully decline, his faux-olive branch.
Quebec created and fabricated social anarchy. Let them clean it up.
A Second Quiet Revolution in 3...2....
Question
Since English words threaten Quebec's version of French, when will Apple do the right thing and change its name to Pomme? It's a matter of "respect."
After all, some poor sucker may get confused and think he's buying something other than a computer.
After all, some poor sucker may get confused and think he's buying something other than a computer.
Banana Republic By Other Means
Bill 14 contains...
"Employers will be required to justify their need for employees who speak any language other than French — and risk being sued by employees required to speak English."
Hey, why not tattoo my hand and be done with it!
In Quebec, none of this constitutes an affront to basic freedom of speech and expression.
I've been reading the troll/apologists on The Economist, National Post etc. defending Bill 14 under the most specious and illogical of pretexts. For your amusement, scroll down and read the comments from 'Louis.'
The guy has no shame in showcasing his profound, myopic ignorance.
All I can say is Quebec lives in a parallel universe with its interpretation of basic rights.
Love how they lecture an international audience about "rights."
Quebec's education on full display for all to see.
Frightening.
"Employers will be required to justify their need for employees who speak any language other than French — and risk being sued by employees required to speak English."
Hey, why not tattoo my hand and be done with it!
In Quebec, none of this constitutes an affront to basic freedom of speech and expression.
I've been reading the troll/apologists on The Economist, National Post etc. defending Bill 14 under the most specious and illogical of pretexts. For your amusement, scroll down and read the comments from 'Louis.'
The guy has no shame in showcasing his profound, myopic ignorance.
All I can say is Quebec lives in a parallel universe with its interpretation of basic rights.
Love how they lecture an international audience about "rights."
Quebec's education on full display for all to see.
Frightening.
Meet The Losers
10 Quebec racists from No Dogs or Anglos Allowed.
I would have added that idiot Pierre Curzi.
And by racists, I don't mean they're marginalized figures on the fringe of society. Some of these people wield real power. They legislate, they write for big newspapers and have radio shows.
Let's be clear. They're racists. I love when they spew linguistic venom masquerading as facts and design legislation meant to eradicate minority rights and then with sad puppy eyes and with a straight face claim not the be racist.
Of course they fucking are. Call a spade a spade from now on.
Where any normal society would send this hacks to the periphery of civil society, Quebec gives a voice to them.
If these people had guns...
Again, if you were to take the PQ and place them on the political map in most countries, they'd be the nutty, right-wing racist group. In the USA, they'd be on 60 Minutes living in the deep South shouting lies and misconceptions through a megaphone. In America, they don't put these people anywhere near power. They marginalize them.
But here we do.
It wouldn't be as bad if they couldn't legislate thus forming the bedrock of our civil society.
The results have been clear.
I would have added that idiot Pierre Curzi.
And by racists, I don't mean they're marginalized figures on the fringe of society. Some of these people wield real power. They legislate, they write for big newspapers and have radio shows.
Let's be clear. They're racists. I love when they spew linguistic venom masquerading as facts and design legislation meant to eradicate minority rights and then with sad puppy eyes and with a straight face claim not the be racist.
Of course they fucking are. Call a spade a spade from now on.
Where any normal society would send this hacks to the periphery of civil society, Quebec gives a voice to them.
If these people had guns...
Again, if you were to take the PQ and place them on the political map in most countries, they'd be the nutty, right-wing racist group. In the USA, they'd be on 60 Minutes living in the deep South shouting lies and misconceptions through a megaphone. In America, they don't put these people anywhere near power. They marginalize them.
But here we do.
It wouldn't be as bad if they couldn't legislate thus forming the bedrock of our civil society.
The results have been clear.
2013-03-24
Of Liberty And Taxes As A Means To Civil Life
Training for my half-marathon in Vermont next month I was watching, naturally, Vermont This Week (it's so nice to view politics without the stench of parochialism like here). The panel was discussing gast tax hikes and other tax increases to raise revenues in the state.
Amazing. Just tax is the answer for all our revenue ills.
The real problem is on the other end - spending. Alas, that means cuts and where to cut?
It reminded me, yes all while I ran, of the Autun region in France founded by the Romans.
Autun, to you Ancient Rome buffs, was one of the few places that rebelled against oppressive taxes levied by the later Roman Empire. In fact, taxes have generally been the leitmotif of civil revolutions with the American Revolution being one of the last great rebellions against, among other issues, taxes. While the Autun region felt taxes were too heavy, the Americans sang the call of 'no taxation without representation.'
Fuck King George as it were.
Excessive taxes are evil the way I see it. I don't see anything logical or efficient in them especially in lieu of the known waste and corruption present. Of course, determining what constitutes "high" or "excessive" taxes is hard to determine. Today, bludgeoned by the benign stick of the state, people don't take to the streets when angry about taxes. Indeed, you're deemed an extremist for merely questioning an increase. The last time I witnesses a tax rebellion, led by immigrants, was when Montreal small-business owners (of which my father was present) fought Jean Dore's poll tax.
Yes. Montreal is a shining example of expropriating and using our money with any responsibility.
I guess the best determination is to employ the classic "I'll know it when I see it" acid test. And right now, I know it by seeing it.
My home province of Quebec is in a state of clueless anarchy where intellectual midgets obsessively funnel everything through the prism of linguistic nad cultural) segregation, dream of a socialist utopia with no entrepreneurial class to support it, or any idea of what constitutes a free and pluralists society where tyranny of the majority prevails all while operating in a highly corrupted political structure.
Fuck Ottawa as it were.
Quebec in the image of the PQ. Ca c'est beau! La liberte...pour nous et non vous!
Swinging back to Vermont. It's not the only state looking to find ways to raise revenues through higher taxes. Like New York, it's looking at "oppressive" taxes that discourage consumption habits like sodas and cigarettes.
In the end, all this will do is fuck the poor and the middle class in the ass, temporarily solve the revenue crunch and erode still more of free choice.
It's the cycle we're in.
Which brings me to Rome.
There's no question the great civilizations in human history rose from a foundation of free enterprise (in whatever form. In Rome, the great road systems allowed for the free movement of goods and services without interference whereas this was not the case in other places in antiquity. This is the single great accomplishment of Roman trade that thrust it to the forefront of power in the Mediterranean) where towns grew when taxes were honest, reasonable and low. It's once those societies amass wealth the trajectory compels us to tax more because our demands (including the unreasonable ones) from the state increase. Along with it, the political class calcifies (in its jealous attainment and protections of power) and steals from the public trust.
Rome fell, in part, due to the full weight of its luxuries and heavy taxes that burdened the people.
Sound familiar? Free public education is a luxury (not an investment) we can't afford. Public assistance is something entirely different. Even Rome had many of its subjects receiving assistance in some form or another. The thinking, like today, was to keep people busy and off the streets possibly committing crimes. Feed 'em and have 'em watching theater, gladiatorial or racing games.
I think we're at this point once again. North America is on that trajectory.
Hey. If you feel giving up in total 75% of your money (when all taxes are compiled) is the "price of civilization" be my guest. Taxes, when used properly and without prejudice or corruption, can be employed properly in providing certain benefits for the community at large.
If you feel our expanding welfare state (again, one can debate if this is the case) is a reflection of a great civilization then, again, your choice. Perhaps an argument can be made to the contrary of what I write.
But that's not the price of maintaining civilization.
It's the price (cost) of decadence.
Amazing. Just tax is the answer for all our revenue ills.
The real problem is on the other end - spending. Alas, that means cuts and where to cut?
It reminded me, yes all while I ran, of the Autun region in France founded by the Romans.
Autun, to you Ancient Rome buffs, was one of the few places that rebelled against oppressive taxes levied by the later Roman Empire. In fact, taxes have generally been the leitmotif of civil revolutions with the American Revolution being one of the last great rebellions against, among other issues, taxes. While the Autun region felt taxes were too heavy, the Americans sang the call of 'no taxation without representation.'
Fuck King George as it were.
Excessive taxes are evil the way I see it. I don't see anything logical or efficient in them especially in lieu of the known waste and corruption present. Of course, determining what constitutes "high" or "excessive" taxes is hard to determine. Today, bludgeoned by the benign stick of the state, people don't take to the streets when angry about taxes. Indeed, you're deemed an extremist for merely questioning an increase. The last time I witnesses a tax rebellion, led by immigrants, was when Montreal small-business owners (of which my father was present) fought Jean Dore's poll tax.
Yes. Montreal is a shining example of expropriating and using our money with any responsibility.
I guess the best determination is to employ the classic "I'll know it when I see it" acid test. And right now, I know it by seeing it.
My home province of Quebec is in a state of clueless anarchy where intellectual midgets obsessively funnel everything through the prism of linguistic nad cultural) segregation, dream of a socialist utopia with no entrepreneurial class to support it, or any idea of what constitutes a free and pluralists society where tyranny of the majority prevails all while operating in a highly corrupted political structure.
Fuck Ottawa as it were.
Quebec in the image of the PQ. Ca c'est beau! La liberte...pour nous et non vous!
Swinging back to Vermont. It's not the only state looking to find ways to raise revenues through higher taxes. Like New York, it's looking at "oppressive" taxes that discourage consumption habits like sodas and cigarettes.
In the end, all this will do is fuck the poor and the middle class in the ass, temporarily solve the revenue crunch and erode still more of free choice.
It's the cycle we're in.
Which brings me to Rome.
There's no question the great civilizations in human history rose from a foundation of free enterprise (in whatever form. In Rome, the great road systems allowed for the free movement of goods and services without interference whereas this was not the case in other places in antiquity. This is the single great accomplishment of Roman trade that thrust it to the forefront of power in the Mediterranean) where towns grew when taxes were honest, reasonable and low. It's once those societies amass wealth the trajectory compels us to tax more because our demands (including the unreasonable ones) from the state increase. Along with it, the political class calcifies (in its jealous attainment and protections of power) and steals from the public trust.
Rome fell, in part, due to the full weight of its luxuries and heavy taxes that burdened the people.
Sound familiar? Free public education is a luxury (not an investment) we can't afford. Public assistance is something entirely different. Even Rome had many of its subjects receiving assistance in some form or another. The thinking, like today, was to keep people busy and off the streets possibly committing crimes. Feed 'em and have 'em watching theater, gladiatorial or racing games.
I think we're at this point once again. North America is on that trajectory.
Hey. If you feel giving up in total 75% of your money (when all taxes are compiled) is the "price of civilization" be my guest. Taxes, when used properly and without prejudice or corruption, can be employed properly in providing certain benefits for the community at large.
If you feel our expanding welfare state (again, one can debate if this is the case) is a reflection of a great civilization then, again, your choice. Perhaps an argument can be made to the contrary of what I write.
But that's not the price of maintaining civilization.
It's the price (cost) of decadence.
Xenophobia Alive In Education In Quebec
The thin (thick?) line of xenophobia in Quebec remains.
We not only see it in the rhetoric of mainstream sports commentators, and politicians but it comes out in social protests like we saw during the student strikes.
One of the more disturbing things that oozed out, which generally is the case whenever French-Canadians hit the streets, was to single out the "disproportionate" amount of subsidizes Anglo-institutions received relative to its population.
As is usually the case, French commentators can't look beyond their god damn linguistic finger tips. Rather than look at the benefits of English institutions in the province, they reduce everything to language and culture.
THAT'S the very definition of xenophobia.
Consider this 'open letter' by ACADEMICS to Le Devoir who considered it a waste of resources. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, with an intelligent mind committed to the values of pluralism SHOULD be aghast - neigh, OUTRAGED - by this letter.
I know I was.
Could you imagine sitting around the dinner table discussing social issues with these people?
It was a dark reminded or where we stand in Quebec and those professors should be ashamed. Reminds me of those shitty letters academics used to write in defense of communism.
Idiots.
Get your fat, myopic thumbs out of your shit-stained arses.
Sadly, the quality of the thread in Montreal's "intellectual" paper leaves much to be desired. Scary stuff. One guy thinks Montreal is still under 'British rule' and another calls for 'emancipation.'
Fucking clowns.
My friend spent a year each at the faculties of University of Montreal and McGill. The culture was night and day. In his personal view, one spent its time figuring out ways to strike, while the other spent its time maintaining a culture of higher education.
But that's a "waste of resources" according to jerkoff, jingoist journalists.
There's a reason why the English side of the coin has a McGill. Rather than look at what McGill does right, nationalists look to demean and belittle it. They look to cut funding or other ways to bring it down to their level of thinking. In Quebec, you must tear down whatever doesn't fit their narrow "world" view. Usually, whatever is not in French. I mean, you have to "defend" the culture, no?
That in a nutshell, my friends, summarizes the petty outlook of Quebec. When there's an ill, point to what the English and ethnics are doing right. What? More Ontario players on Team Canada? Why, it can only mean Hockey Canada is prejudicial.
Don't laugh. This is what they believe.
Finger pointing is a hobby here.
This sort of garbage would be met with resistance by a true, open society. Open letters like this would be mocked and the people who put their names on this rightly shamed publicly in any other place on the continent.
But in Quebec, the under-siege mentality continues to corrode its thinking.
Get the government out of education because politics corrodes the entire process. Make people PAY and you'll see how fast their asses get back into line and proper perspective is restored.
Quebecers creates all the excuses in the world bouncing them of each other. That way, they can circulate and reinforce their stale views and give the misconception it's logical thinking. That's what it means to be myopic.
However, once you bounce their justifications to an outside world, it's exposed for what it is. That's the funny thing about liberty.
And that, they can never, ever control.
From Le Quebecois Libre:
"Beyond the simple math of the budget figures, there was a more sinister tone to some of the political discourse surrounding the issue. Journalist Michel David complained that English-language schools had 25% of the province's university students and received 30% of the funding whereas anglophones make up barely 8% of Quebec's population. David suggested boosting the French system by basing funding on the percentage of a university's students who were the first in their families to pursue post-secondary education: at English schools, this figure averages 36% (only 20% at McGill), as opposed to nearly 50% at the province's leading French-language universities. An open letter signed by dozens of Quebec academics claimed that only half of McGill's medical graduates remain in Quebec, lamenting the "waste of resources." Quebec's education minister, Pierre Duchesne, echoed these sentiments, wondering aloud what "the Quebec nation" gained when foreign students came to study here and then left.
If we politely ignore the casual and shameless xenophobia expressed by supposedly educated people, the question becomes: What do the events of the past year and the various "solutions" tell us about university funding? Might there have been another way to handle the situation, one that would have even avoided the problem in the first place?"
Bruce Springsteen sang in Thunder Road, "it's a town full of losers, and I'm pulling out of here to win."
With people like Michel David and Pierre Duchesne (and the entire PQ class) coming up with utter trash like this, Quebec's "winners" don't stay.
They leave.
***
My buddies on the French side keep saying, "they're a dying breed."
Perhaps.
But I see the students and I'm not encouraged. After all, are they not the future? Are they the majority? Are my friends, so filled with class and intelligence, a minority?
I think they are. All I see in Quebec is ONE huge misguided mess. I don't see it improving any time soon.
Hence, my decision to prepare sending my daughter to school elsewhere. I don't want her feeling or discussing the things we do here. That's, to borrow the term of those doctors, is a TRUE waste of resources.
We not only see it in the rhetoric of mainstream sports commentators, and politicians but it comes out in social protests like we saw during the student strikes.
One of the more disturbing things that oozed out, which generally is the case whenever French-Canadians hit the streets, was to single out the "disproportionate" amount of subsidizes Anglo-institutions received relative to its population.
As is usually the case, French commentators can't look beyond their god damn linguistic finger tips. Rather than look at the benefits of English institutions in the province, they reduce everything to language and culture.
THAT'S the very definition of xenophobia.
Consider this 'open letter' by ACADEMICS to Le Devoir who considered it a waste of resources. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, with an intelligent mind committed to the values of pluralism SHOULD be aghast - neigh, OUTRAGED - by this letter.
I know I was.
Could you imagine sitting around the dinner table discussing social issues with these people?
It was a dark reminded or where we stand in Quebec and those professors should be ashamed. Reminds me of those shitty letters academics used to write in defense of communism.
Idiots.
Get your fat, myopic thumbs out of your shit-stained arses.
Sadly, the quality of the thread in Montreal's "intellectual" paper leaves much to be desired. Scary stuff. One guy thinks Montreal is still under 'British rule' and another calls for 'emancipation.'
Fucking clowns.
My friend spent a year each at the faculties of University of Montreal and McGill. The culture was night and day. In his personal view, one spent its time figuring out ways to strike, while the other spent its time maintaining a culture of higher education.
But that's a "waste of resources" according to jerkoff, jingoist journalists.
There's a reason why the English side of the coin has a McGill. Rather than look at what McGill does right, nationalists look to demean and belittle it. They look to cut funding or other ways to bring it down to their level of thinking. In Quebec, you must tear down whatever doesn't fit their narrow "world" view. Usually, whatever is not in French. I mean, you have to "defend" the culture, no?
That in a nutshell, my friends, summarizes the petty outlook of Quebec. When there's an ill, point to what the English and ethnics are doing right. What? More Ontario players on Team Canada? Why, it can only mean Hockey Canada is prejudicial.
Don't laugh. This is what they believe.
Finger pointing is a hobby here.
This sort of garbage would be met with resistance by a true, open society. Open letters like this would be mocked and the people who put their names on this rightly shamed publicly in any other place on the continent.
But in Quebec, the under-siege mentality continues to corrode its thinking.
Get the government out of education because politics corrodes the entire process. Make people PAY and you'll see how fast their asses get back into line and proper perspective is restored.
Quebecers creates all the excuses in the world bouncing them of each other. That way, they can circulate and reinforce their stale views and give the misconception it's logical thinking. That's what it means to be myopic.
However, once you bounce their justifications to an outside world, it's exposed for what it is. That's the funny thing about liberty.
And that, they can never, ever control.
From Le Quebecois Libre:
"Beyond the simple math of the budget figures, there was a more sinister tone to some of the political discourse surrounding the issue. Journalist Michel David complained that English-language schools had 25% of the province's university students and received 30% of the funding whereas anglophones make up barely 8% of Quebec's population. David suggested boosting the French system by basing funding on the percentage of a university's students who were the first in their families to pursue post-secondary education: at English schools, this figure averages 36% (only 20% at McGill), as opposed to nearly 50% at the province's leading French-language universities. An open letter signed by dozens of Quebec academics claimed that only half of McGill's medical graduates remain in Quebec, lamenting the "waste of resources." Quebec's education minister, Pierre Duchesne, echoed these sentiments, wondering aloud what "the Quebec nation" gained when foreign students came to study here and then left.
If we politely ignore the casual and shameless xenophobia expressed by supposedly educated people, the question becomes: What do the events of the past year and the various "solutions" tell us about university funding? Might there have been another way to handle the situation, one that would have even avoided the problem in the first place?"
Bruce Springsteen sang in Thunder Road, "it's a town full of losers, and I'm pulling out of here to win."
With people like Michel David and Pierre Duchesne (and the entire PQ class) coming up with utter trash like this, Quebec's "winners" don't stay.
They leave.
***
My buddies on the French side keep saying, "they're a dying breed."
Perhaps.
But I see the students and I'm not encouraged. After all, are they not the future? Are they the majority? Are my friends, so filled with class and intelligence, a minority?
I think they are. All I see in Quebec is ONE huge misguided mess. I don't see it improving any time soon.
Hence, my decision to prepare sending my daughter to school elsewhere. I don't want her feeling or discussing the things we do here. That's, to borrow the term of those doctors, is a TRUE waste of resources.
2013-03-23
Obama's Face Palm Analogy
By now, I think most Canadians have heard Obama's little analogy using Canada-USA relations with Israel and Palestine.
Yes. So many similarities. I can't keep track.
Poor Canada. Such an afterthought, and even when thought of beforehand it doesn't usually end well for us.
Heh.
If you haven't heard by now....read here.
“I mean, you know, the United States and Canada has arguments once in a while, but they’re not the nature of arguments that can’t be solved diplomatically.”
Real orators don't say "you know" and "I mean."
Just saying.
He's a lecturer.
There's a difference to me.
Yes. So many similarities. I can't keep track.
Poor Canada. Such an afterthought, and even when thought of beforehand it doesn't usually end well for us.
Heh.
If you haven't heard by now....read here.
“I mean, you know, the United States and Canada has arguments once in a while, but they’re not the nature of arguments that can’t be solved diplomatically.”
Real orators don't say "you know" and "I mean."
Just saying.
He's a lecturer.
There's a difference to me.
Song Of The Day
What song is a "must play" when great musicians band together on stage to perform or jam to? The Band's The Weight of course. The list of people who have played it is endless. And with just cause. It's a beautiful song. For Marco because I know he'd love this.
2013-03-22
Tales From Yokel Quebec
Just came back from an event. It's amazing how many people are disgusted with the situation in Quebec. The stories I heard were quite infuriating.
One story was about an agent for Payless Shoes based in Kansas. Someone was relaying how the first thing that came out of the agents mouth when he found out the person telling the story was from Montreal was, "Quebec? Language police, huh?" He went on to explain how they had to change their entire software for Quebec after ONE complaint. Needless to say, Quebec was the butt end of jokes.
Personally, I don't know why A) companies comply and B) why bother with the hassle for 7 million people. Keep hassling companies and I think they'll come to the same conclusion. Already Wal-Mart and Costco are showing their impatience.
Another one, was told by someone who was walking their dog in Montreal West and was told and lectured to speak to their dog in French.
I kid you not.
And my personal favorite was about the insufferable Bernard Landry. Seems he was asked by someone, en anglais, to move his car. He responded in French "this is Quebec speak to me in French." The person didn't and proceeded to repeat him to move his ass in English.
Good for him. I'd shake his hand. To be honest, I can't say I wouldn't do the same. There's no way in hell I'd speak to a Pequiste in French - just to rag them. I have so little respect for them.
Ironically, a person listening to this story is originally from Spain. Apparently, Landry speaks Spanish well, but English is a problem. Yeah right. These yokels aren't prejudicial. Right.
Anyway, she ain't impressed by them - at all. They completely miss the point of what constitutes being a real, strong culture.
The shit they pull is an outright embarrassment.
She came to the same conclusion as me. Her kids, out. Education elsewhere. Opportunity elsehwere. No interest here. Why? So my kid can bump into the Bernie Landry's of this world and be treated like it's fucking Nazi Germany?
Fuck 'em.
As one guy put it, "the shittiest state in the USA is better than Quebec these days. I just came back from Georgia and couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised by what I saw."
No kidding. Georgia is far more progressive than the spoon lickers in the PQ.
Anyway.
The next fight should be about how they don't have ANY right to tell ANYONE to speak ANY language. We made international headlines. We need to keep the pressure up.
It seems these are the stories I keep hearing now. And most are being told in front of French-Canadians. One person, from Croatia, even said "I'm looking to argue now I'm so angry."
Terrible what the PQ do.
Awful.
One story was about an agent for Payless Shoes based in Kansas. Someone was relaying how the first thing that came out of the agents mouth when he found out the person telling the story was from Montreal was, "Quebec? Language police, huh?" He went on to explain how they had to change their entire software for Quebec after ONE complaint. Needless to say, Quebec was the butt end of jokes.
Personally, I don't know why A) companies comply and B) why bother with the hassle for 7 million people. Keep hassling companies and I think they'll come to the same conclusion. Already Wal-Mart and Costco are showing their impatience.
Another one, was told by someone who was walking their dog in Montreal West and was told and lectured to speak to their dog in French.
I kid you not.
And my personal favorite was about the insufferable Bernard Landry. Seems he was asked by someone, en anglais, to move his car. He responded in French "this is Quebec speak to me in French." The person didn't and proceeded to repeat him to move his ass in English.
Good for him. I'd shake his hand. To be honest, I can't say I wouldn't do the same. There's no way in hell I'd speak to a Pequiste in French - just to rag them. I have so little respect for them.
Ironically, a person listening to this story is originally from Spain. Apparently, Landry speaks Spanish well, but English is a problem. Yeah right. These yokels aren't prejudicial. Right.
Anyway, she ain't impressed by them - at all. They completely miss the point of what constitutes being a real, strong culture.
The shit they pull is an outright embarrassment.
She came to the same conclusion as me. Her kids, out. Education elsewhere. Opportunity elsehwere. No interest here. Why? So my kid can bump into the Bernie Landry's of this world and be treated like it's fucking Nazi Germany?
Fuck 'em.
As one guy put it, "the shittiest state in the USA is better than Quebec these days. I just came back from Georgia and couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised by what I saw."
No kidding. Georgia is far more progressive than the spoon lickers in the PQ.
Anyway.
The next fight should be about how they don't have ANY right to tell ANYONE to speak ANY language. We made international headlines. We need to keep the pressure up.
It seems these are the stories I keep hearing now. And most are being told in front of French-Canadians. One person, from Croatia, even said "I'm looking to argue now I'm so angry."
Terrible what the PQ do.
Awful.
State Language Discrimination Comes In Many Forms
"...One of the major issues the Left has is their conflation of market forces with things like racial prejudice. In the South, the first mass transit was private sector, and it was integrated, not segregated. So the government forced them to segregate, or drove them out of business with anti competitive laws in order to run public, segregated mass transit. Then decades later, when the political winds had changed, they integrated the mass transit that they had segregated in the first place. And the statists and morons rejoiced, for the loving government had given back what they had taken away in the first place."
I can't verify the accuracy of this comment but it is an interesting one and if I were to guess, probably true.
I look at Quebec and it's pitiful language situation and one needs to understand it's the STATE that has forced language discrimination upon the people. They can argue, like they did in the South, it reflects the "will" of the people but when something is flat out discriminatory it eventually falls from under its weight of bull shit.
***
One of the most heinous of excuses I've heard justifying the PQ's segregationist behavior (according to nationalists, Quebec is the most "worldly" of peoples) is that "many" jurisdictions have language laws on the books.
Whatever that means. How to begin breaking that argument?
Let's concede that there are laws, NONE (to my knowledge - and to my circle of friends who live across the globe) go the lengths Quebec goes. Compelling free citizens under the threat of coercion is NOT a justifiable action under any circumstances.
No jurisdiction is insecure (or even mad) enough to declare wars on words. NONE. Find me one.
***
Time to rethink and look beyond our tiny finger nails and understand the unintended consequences of our decisions and actions.
***
The other day a friend was telling me that panel on a French-language sports show were discussing Quebecois GM's in the NHL. They showed a list but the panelist who, I guess, put it together forgot to add Dale Tallon. When it was mentioned, he made a face and the face said it all "he's not really Quebecois."
The person was Michel Bergeron on a show called L'anti Chambre and his attitude is more prevalent than you think.
In their eyes, we're not all Quebecers. This is a fact. I know, I hear it all the time.
He added, "Tallon speaks French like PJ Stock (an English-speaking co-panelist).
Nice guy.
That in a nutshell is acceptable behavior here. No one says anything because no one gives a shit about what two-bit commentators in Quebec think and those of us who look at this in shock are too weak, tired and fragmented to muster up any energy to say, "hey, that's just not right."
Can you imagine this being said in the rest of Canada or the USA without some sort of reaction, an apology or even a firing?
I can't.
Quebec is leagues, - LEAGUES - behind the continent on that front.
I can but use my blog to voice opposition. What bothers me most is the silence it's met with.
A couple of years back sportswriter Bertrand Raymond went on English radio to say he was not a "bigot" for talking about language in the Montreal Canadiends organization. It suddenly wasn't about merely making an effort to speak French as it was always presented to us, the proficiency matters!
Yes, because Quebec does a great job at preserving the quality of the French language. I was told by a Revenu Quebec agent she didn't understand my "patente" as if she was eating a poutine in a truck stop. This is how they speak to tax payers.
It was pathetic to listen to Raymond's protestations as everyone tried to assuage the poor soul's heart.
Of course, they did this to keep the peace but it WAS prejudicial behavior. They can't seem to comprehend when you favor one group of people in any capacity over another it's PREJUDICED.
Quebecers feel that, "hey, we're the majority here and a minority on the continent ergo we must do what we do."
And that's when the shit hits the fan.
"It’s not enough to observe that peaceful, voluntary cooperation is possible without the state. Chartier goes the next step by positing that the state is actively inimical to such cooperation. Besides its reliance on aggression, the state uses power to favor groups over one another, making people more likely to regard each other in adversarial ways. If one group is the beneficiary of special privileges, this not only makes life difficult for others, but creates incentives for antagonistic, zero-sum thinking. Chartier’s point is that in order to have a society of peaceful, voluntary cooperation, we need to eliminate all forms of aggression—and that the leading source of that aggression is the state."
In light of the above quote, what do you think Bill 14 is?
This shit is toxic, man.
I can't verify the accuracy of this comment but it is an interesting one and if I were to guess, probably true.
I look at Quebec and it's pitiful language situation and one needs to understand it's the STATE that has forced language discrimination upon the people. They can argue, like they did in the South, it reflects the "will" of the people but when something is flat out discriminatory it eventually falls from under its weight of bull shit.
***
One of the most heinous of excuses I've heard justifying the PQ's segregationist behavior (according to nationalists, Quebec is the most "worldly" of peoples) is that "many" jurisdictions have language laws on the books.
Whatever that means. How to begin breaking that argument?
Let's concede that there are laws, NONE (to my knowledge - and to my circle of friends who live across the globe) go the lengths Quebec goes. Compelling free citizens under the threat of coercion is NOT a justifiable action under any circumstances.
No jurisdiction is insecure (or even mad) enough to declare wars on words. NONE. Find me one.
***
Time to rethink and look beyond our tiny finger nails and understand the unintended consequences of our decisions and actions.
***
The other day a friend was telling me that panel on a French-language sports show were discussing Quebecois GM's in the NHL. They showed a list but the panelist who, I guess, put it together forgot to add Dale Tallon. When it was mentioned, he made a face and the face said it all "he's not really Quebecois."
The person was Michel Bergeron on a show called L'anti Chambre and his attitude is more prevalent than you think.
In their eyes, we're not all Quebecers. This is a fact. I know, I hear it all the time.
He added, "Tallon speaks French like PJ Stock (an English-speaking co-panelist).
Nice guy.
That in a nutshell is acceptable behavior here. No one says anything because no one gives a shit about what two-bit commentators in Quebec think and those of us who look at this in shock are too weak, tired and fragmented to muster up any energy to say, "hey, that's just not right."
Can you imagine this being said in the rest of Canada or the USA without some sort of reaction, an apology or even a firing?
I can't.
Quebec is leagues, - LEAGUES - behind the continent on that front.
I can but use my blog to voice opposition. What bothers me most is the silence it's met with.
A couple of years back sportswriter Bertrand Raymond went on English radio to say he was not a "bigot" for talking about language in the Montreal Canadiends organization. It suddenly wasn't about merely making an effort to speak French as it was always presented to us, the proficiency matters!
Yes, because Quebec does a great job at preserving the quality of the French language. I was told by a Revenu Quebec agent she didn't understand my "patente" as if she was eating a poutine in a truck stop. This is how they speak to tax payers.
It was pathetic to listen to Raymond's protestations as everyone tried to assuage the poor soul's heart.
Of course, they did this to keep the peace but it WAS prejudicial behavior. They can't seem to comprehend when you favor one group of people in any capacity over another it's PREJUDICED.
Quebecers feel that, "hey, we're the majority here and a minority on the continent ergo we must do what we do."
And that's when the shit hits the fan.
"It’s not enough to observe that peaceful, voluntary cooperation is possible without the state. Chartier goes the next step by positing that the state is actively inimical to such cooperation. Besides its reliance on aggression, the state uses power to favor groups over one another, making people more likely to regard each other in adversarial ways. If one group is the beneficiary of special privileges, this not only makes life difficult for others, but creates incentives for antagonistic, zero-sum thinking. Chartier’s point is that in order to have a society of peaceful, voluntary cooperation, we need to eliminate all forms of aggression—and that the leading source of that aggression is the state."
In light of the above quote, what do you think Bill 14 is?
This shit is toxic, man.
2013-03-20
Mr. Old Ways
I get quite a few requests and solicitations through email to donate or sponsor friends or people I know who run or participate in various charity events.
I couldn't be bothered to respond.
Call it bad, lazy or whatever else.
I ain't gonna fight it.
The best way to get me is to confront me and ask for the cash. I'll give.
You're talking to a guy who doesn't respond to texts in any coherent or timely manner. Which leads to all sorts of frustration on the other end.
Call it rude, lazy or whatever else.
Texting is a fucking nuisance. Moreover, reading texting lingo is a frightening nightmare. I shutter for our species.
Call me. I'll answer.
I couldn't be bothered to respond.
Call it bad, lazy or whatever else.
I ain't gonna fight it.
The best way to get me is to confront me and ask for the cash. I'll give.
You're talking to a guy who doesn't respond to texts in any coherent or timely manner. Which leads to all sorts of frustration on the other end.
Call it rude, lazy or whatever else.
Texting is a fucking nuisance. Moreover, reading texting lingo is a frightening nightmare. I shutter for our species.
Call me. I'll answer.
Shame Indeed
Shame indeed. Shame on this shitheads at the Daily News. Out of respect for these children I ain't gonna expand on what I think of their moral and intellectual constitution for taking this route.
Sandy Hook is plain too awful to contemplate. Yet, here's the media manipulating emotions striking people at their weakest. It's called an appeal to emotions and I have no respect for people who use and listen to it.
2013-03-19
Foul Mood I Am; Expletives Abound For Jerks
"Our Quebec language police, officially known as the Office québécois de la langue française, often seems to go after businesses that are associated with anglophones and allophones. But, does it ignore francophone businesses? It would probably say “No.”
Last week, we decided to eat at a well-known francophone and popular Rôtisserie St-Hubert restaurant franchise, commonly known as St-Hubert Bar-B-Q. We chose its Express outlet on Autoroute 13 in Laval, Laval being a francophone bastion. Arriving at the counter, the special was plainly advertised, a sign stating “Sandwich Hot chicken,” an item that is also so listed on St-Hubert’s website menu.
Is it even remotely possible that no OQLF inspector has ever eaten at St-Hubert, or has never ordered delivery service from its menu? Is it possible that those thousands of complainers to the OQLF, about English public wording in Quebec, have never realized that “hot” and “chicken” are definitely English words being currently utilized by Quebec’s best known restaurant chain?
Are the OQLF and those who complain to them prejudiced? It surely seems so."
You can, literally, find hundreds of example like this which only makes the point all the more poignant. St-Hubert, for the record, does an excellent job of offering services in English. Trust me, in this crappy environment under the PQ buffoons this is much appreciated.
It is prejudiced behavior. Until apologists come to this realization, we're stuck with it. The best we can do is post them on websites. Expose it.
What angers me most is the moniker 'angryphones.' Those who think this can suck my dick.
They seem to be under the impression that we should just "take it." Fuck them and fuck the OLF.
The word 'Bravo' for the record, is Italian - assholes.
I'm so sick of this language crap.
***
Here's an excerpt from another letter to the editor:
"...I just came back from Florida and came across many French Canadians...a lot of them cannot speak English and they expect to be spoken in French, forgetting they are in the United States. On many occasions, I could have helped them, since I was standing right behind them at the counter but I decided not to do it...let them learn English."
French is a useless language in the USA. Spanish is the dominant second language so to think they can be served in French stinks of pure parochial ignorance.
This is an interesting letter. It's one of those things that happen but never spoken about. It goes to show how pissed off we are for this to come out in the open. Thank you Marois!
It's sad but true. We've all been at similar counter experiences like this writer, I too rarely, if ever, intervene.
When we're abroad we just don't ally with those we identify as 'ugly Quebecers' choosing instead to blend into the American culture. Again, sad, but true.
The legacy of the PQ I reckon.
Vacationing in Maine a couple of years back my sister was snubbed by fellow campers from Quebec who thought she was "English" and thus were not worthy of acknowledgment. When she found out my sister spoke French, she suddenly warmed up. My sister then switched to English and respectfully put her in her place asking in three languages.
It was quite a story.
Why do they vacation in the States if they're going to act like complete morons?
Look, to be fair, of course I'm picking on the exceptions but it's an attitude reinforced when the PQ come into power. Behind their backs, we laugh. I can't tell you how many times we've had to apologize to an American on their soil for the rude behavior of a fellow Quebecer. They have no clue about out situation here and when explained they care even less. Rude is rude. I don't blame them.
My buddy has lived in Florida for over 20 years and still sees idiot Quebecers at the cash. They're simply not liked according to him.
Quebecers to their credit, the ones who don't vote PQ, are not all that enamored with the PQ, Bill 14 and the behavior of the OLF. Quebecers are a wired people, intelligent enough to grasp it's reached an apex with all this 'defend the culture' stuff.
And yes, the legend of the 'Ugly American' (and recently 'ugly Canadian) is well-documented, but we seem to want to challenge this notion.
The PQ are whoring themselves to try and salvage anything of Bill 14 which means a piece of shit legislation will be mutilated and corroded enough to become legislation with pimples oozing with puss.
A tipping point takes place. I think we hit it.
***
Since I'm on a post laced with profanity, it's about time someone says it: Fuck you Amir Khadir. Fuck you and your piece of shit left-wing views.
Disrespectfully, T.C.
This is what left-wing socialists do. They praise immoral thugs and murderers like Paul Rose.
Probably jerked off to the 60th anniversary of Stalin's death. Surprised he didn't ask for a moment of silence in the National Assembly.
/hand job motion.
***
Yeah. I'm in a foul mood.
It's hard not to be.
Consider this forum on post-secondary education in America. It's thoughtful and full of ideas to fix what ails their institutions. Most of which are among the best on the planet.
Here?
We talk about "free" education.
And what of Obama? After reading the articles, one should be struck by how sadly unimaginative and typical Obama really is. In addition to his sophomoric recommendation to raise the minimum wage, he merely wants to add more students to a water-downed education system where costs are skyrocketing for multiple reasons.
America needs REAL ideas. Not piss-fuck platitudes that will do shit to help their educational institutions. Meanwhilesssss, charter schools seem to be doing well and the government hates them.
No shit they do.
***
Anyway, I was reading about Hillsdale College in the USA. The way they run their show reminds me of where I stand on daycare.
Lo and behold Hillsdale is a conservative school that gets no subsidies.
***
Really, should anyone be surprised?
The issue becomes, how much of an impact will Obamacare have on wealth creation and GDP growth?
Last week, we decided to eat at a well-known francophone and popular Rôtisserie St-Hubert restaurant franchise, commonly known as St-Hubert Bar-B-Q. We chose its Express outlet on Autoroute 13 in Laval, Laval being a francophone bastion. Arriving at the counter, the special was plainly advertised, a sign stating “Sandwich Hot chicken,” an item that is also so listed on St-Hubert’s website menu.
Is it even remotely possible that no OQLF inspector has ever eaten at St-Hubert, or has never ordered delivery service from its menu? Is it possible that those thousands of complainers to the OQLF, about English public wording in Quebec, have never realized that “hot” and “chicken” are definitely English words being currently utilized by Quebec’s best known restaurant chain?
Are the OQLF and those who complain to them prejudiced? It surely seems so."
You can, literally, find hundreds of example like this which only makes the point all the more poignant. St-Hubert, for the record, does an excellent job of offering services in English. Trust me, in this crappy environment under the PQ buffoons this is much appreciated.
It is prejudiced behavior. Until apologists come to this realization, we're stuck with it. The best we can do is post them on websites. Expose it.
What angers me most is the moniker 'angryphones.' Those who think this can suck my dick.
They seem to be under the impression that we should just "take it." Fuck them and fuck the OLF.
The word 'Bravo' for the record, is Italian - assholes.
I'm so sick of this language crap.
***
Here's an excerpt from another letter to the editor:
"...I just came back from Florida and came across many French Canadians...a lot of them cannot speak English and they expect to be spoken in French, forgetting they are in the United States. On many occasions, I could have helped them, since I was standing right behind them at the counter but I decided not to do it...let them learn English."
French is a useless language in the USA. Spanish is the dominant second language so to think they can be served in French stinks of pure parochial ignorance.
This is an interesting letter. It's one of those things that happen but never spoken about. It goes to show how pissed off we are for this to come out in the open. Thank you Marois!
It's sad but true. We've all been at similar counter experiences like this writer, I too rarely, if ever, intervene.
When we're abroad we just don't ally with those we identify as 'ugly Quebecers' choosing instead to blend into the American culture. Again, sad, but true.
The legacy of the PQ I reckon.
Vacationing in Maine a couple of years back my sister was snubbed by fellow campers from Quebec who thought she was "English" and thus were not worthy of acknowledgment. When she found out my sister spoke French, she suddenly warmed up. My sister then switched to English and respectfully put her in her place asking in three languages.
It was quite a story.
Why do they vacation in the States if they're going to act like complete morons?
Look, to be fair, of course I'm picking on the exceptions but it's an attitude reinforced when the PQ come into power. Behind their backs, we laugh. I can't tell you how many times we've had to apologize to an American on their soil for the rude behavior of a fellow Quebecer. They have no clue about out situation here and when explained they care even less. Rude is rude. I don't blame them.
My buddy has lived in Florida for over 20 years and still sees idiot Quebecers at the cash. They're simply not liked according to him.
Quebecers to their credit, the ones who don't vote PQ, are not all that enamored with the PQ, Bill 14 and the behavior of the OLF. Quebecers are a wired people, intelligent enough to grasp it's reached an apex with all this 'defend the culture' stuff.
And yes, the legend of the 'Ugly American' (and recently 'ugly Canadian) is well-documented, but we seem to want to challenge this notion.
The PQ are whoring themselves to try and salvage anything of Bill 14 which means a piece of shit legislation will be mutilated and corroded enough to become legislation with pimples oozing with puss.
A tipping point takes place. I think we hit it.
***
Since I'm on a post laced with profanity, it's about time someone says it: Fuck you Amir Khadir. Fuck you and your piece of shit left-wing views.
Disrespectfully, T.C.
This is what left-wing socialists do. They praise immoral thugs and murderers like Paul Rose.
Probably jerked off to the 60th anniversary of Stalin's death. Surprised he didn't ask for a moment of silence in the National Assembly.
/hand job motion.
***
Yeah. I'm in a foul mood.
It's hard not to be.
Consider this forum on post-secondary education in America. It's thoughtful and full of ideas to fix what ails their institutions. Most of which are among the best on the planet.
Here?
We talk about "free" education.
And what of Obama? After reading the articles, one should be struck by how sadly unimaginative and typical Obama really is. In addition to his sophomoric recommendation to raise the minimum wage, he merely wants to add more students to a water-downed education system where costs are skyrocketing for multiple reasons.
America needs REAL ideas. Not piss-fuck platitudes that will do shit to help their educational institutions. Meanwhilesssss, charter schools seem to be doing well and the government hates them.
No shit they do.
***
Anyway, I was reading about Hillsdale College in the USA. The way they run their show reminds me of where I stand on daycare.
Lo and behold Hillsdale is a conservative school that gets no subsidies.
***
Really, should anyone be surprised?
The issue becomes, how much of an impact will Obamacare have on wealth creation and GDP growth?
Now The CPE Get Whacked
Before I begin, I read someone make the comment that the government is cutting the CPE budget and giving it to private daycares.
Let me get one thing straight, the government isn't "giving" squat to me. Nor do I want it.
What they're doing, and for once I agree (to the extent the government has to involve itself in), is looking to increase the tax credit for parents.
When private daycares threaten to close because the government decides to open up subsidized spots next to them, that's unfair. In this instance, it's a completely different matter since CPE's are creations of the state.
Now they get why unionized salaries and all the perks are ridiculous?
Jesus me.
People freaking out on potentially losing the $7 a day option live in a bubble. Aside from the fact they're not entitled to it just like post-secondary education, what business model survives on $7? Do people pay attention at all AT THE COST to run subsidized daycares?
It's enough to bankrupt the treasury. I'm not sure the women who work to offset the cost make up the difference. I doubt it because there's a lot of waste on the government side - and shenanigans.
Just give parents a tax credit based on income. It's not the best option and still open to arbitrary scales and interpretation but it's the most equitable and efficient one.
Those who were critics of the subsidized models back when, were right all along. The same people argued when you begin to censor and ban people's habits (ie smoking) food would be next (and I was one of them). Guess what...look at Bloomberg in NYC. The guy has lost his fucking mind.
It's not that hard to see it never pans out as the government claims. The slippery slope can be a logical fallacy but not in this case. When the government claims something, the opposite will likely happen.
As an aside, in Quebec, investment groups emerged pooling their money in CPE's.
I never understood this.
I would never recommend or put money into something that's subsidized because you're at the mercy of the government and not market forces.
The government can cut without mercy and without explanation. It comes out of nowhere.
In any event, Pauline Marois and the PQ are the biggest clowns I've seen govern Quebec.
They shamelessly lied about "free" education and have flip-flopped more than John Kerry on political issues. To say nothing of introducing the fascist Bill 14 law and having ruled over one of the most embarrassing episodes in recent memory that garnered international attention through the 'pasta' incident and the OLF.
/face palm.
Let me get one thing straight, the government isn't "giving" squat to me. Nor do I want it.
What they're doing, and for once I agree (to the extent the government has to involve itself in), is looking to increase the tax credit for parents.
When private daycares threaten to close because the government decides to open up subsidized spots next to them, that's unfair. In this instance, it's a completely different matter since CPE's are creations of the state.
Now they get why unionized salaries and all the perks are ridiculous?
Jesus me.
People freaking out on potentially losing the $7 a day option live in a bubble. Aside from the fact they're not entitled to it just like post-secondary education, what business model survives on $7? Do people pay attention at all AT THE COST to run subsidized daycares?
It's enough to bankrupt the treasury. I'm not sure the women who work to offset the cost make up the difference. I doubt it because there's a lot of waste on the government side - and shenanigans.
Just give parents a tax credit based on income. It's not the best option and still open to arbitrary scales and interpretation but it's the most equitable and efficient one.
Those who were critics of the subsidized models back when, were right all along. The same people argued when you begin to censor and ban people's habits (ie smoking) food would be next (and I was one of them). Guess what...look at Bloomberg in NYC. The guy has lost his fucking mind.
It's not that hard to see it never pans out as the government claims. The slippery slope can be a logical fallacy but not in this case. When the government claims something, the opposite will likely happen.
As an aside, in Quebec, investment groups emerged pooling their money in CPE's.
I never understood this.
I would never recommend or put money into something that's subsidized because you're at the mercy of the government and not market forces.
The government can cut without mercy and without explanation. It comes out of nowhere.
In any event, Pauline Marois and the PQ are the biggest clowns I've seen govern Quebec.
They shamelessly lied about "free" education and have flip-flopped more than John Kerry on political issues. To say nothing of introducing the fascist Bill 14 law and having ruled over one of the most embarrassing episodes in recent memory that garnered international attention through the 'pasta' incident and the OLF.
/face palm.
2013-03-16
Elizabeth Warren And Mayor Bloomberg's Regulation Fetishes
I don't understand Warren's fetish for regulation. Why is she singing the praises of regulation so much? Who is attacking regulations so much to elicit such committed defenses for it? I think what people are skeptical of is what they perceive to be - and in some cases experience - excessive regulation.
It's just bizarre:
"It's thanks to federal agencies that no one has to worry that those white pills are baking soda instead of antibiotics or that the paint on the baby’s crib is laced with lead,”
and
If as many people were dying of a mysterious disease as innocent bystanders are dying from firearms, a cure would be our top priority,” Warren said. “But we don’t even have good data on gun violence. Why? Because the NRA and the gun industry lobby made it their goal to prevent any serious effort to document the violence.”
Really?
I see plenty of good date on gun violence. Plenty. It's just that, I think, Warren may not like the facts she's reading. Just saying.
As for financial regulations, jesus, let's not go overboard. I'm not crazy about some of the practices but her consistent use of the word "rigged" is getting tired. No one is forcing people to take out credit cards or take out bad mortgages. At the end of the day, the bush stops with YOU. ME.
She can litter the world with all the unicorns and regulations she wants but the nanny-state will never be able to legislate its way to eradicating the stupid.
The problem I have with the Warren's of this world is they over play federal agencies as a positive force. While I don't doubt some of it is necessary and still more even practical but there are many that simply aren't.
Take my situation in daycare. Prior to $7 dollar a day daycare, the market was pretty much a private and semi-private one. Not everyone could afford it. As is the case with so many services and products in life.
The PQ government decided it was time to create a system whereby everyone had access to it. Because we needed more egalitarianism we couldn't afford.
Of course, subsidized daycare is nothing but a bureaucratic, corrupt and inchorent and expensive mess now.
Oh what a surprise.
With it came the involvement of the state and the expansion of still more government agencies. The government provides "philosophical" literature that I must adhere to worth probably no more than the lint on a sweater made in Moldova.
It further enforces a giant and mercurial book of codes so filled with grey matter, physicists wouldn't touch it choosing rather to break their heads on quantum theories.
To Warren, this would be "evidence" of how regulation provides advanced, progressive and intelligent daycare. Prior to this, the world was but a dark, dingy world of private drivel that was "rigged."
How did we live! Animals!
I can tell you, with confidence, there is no such thing. Most of regulations on the books are pointless and even inefficient if not impractical. Most of it was written for CPE's but enforced upon private daycares which creates immediate friction and unfair pressures and practices. Private daycares don't have the luxiry of getting a fat subsidy to pay for a lot of the stuff, yet we can be cited if we don't comply.
Little of it is evidence based. I know because I ask for data to which they readily admit there is none. Basically it all amounts to "fuck you, because we say so."
Government regulation in daycare is (mostly) an illusion. I kinda get some of the codes but most of it keeps you mired in unnecessary red tape. Between all the "taker" agencies that collect from you, it's not that far fetched to joke about dealing with the Politburo.
We "comply" to avoid a citation and not because it makes things "better."
Most of the practices that go into creating and maintaining a good day care is straight forward, basic and common sense. If you can't do it, then you're in the wrong business.
They like to point out the bad cases in private daycare, but won't tell you there are plenty of people on the subsifdized side who are in it to get the subsidy and don't necessarily care about daycare.
It's part of Marois's pseudo-communistic bull shit about there being "many complaints with private daycare." No shit. People tend to complain more when they pay $40. When they pay $7 they put up with all sorts of crap.
It's only normal.
****
Speaking of egotistical nanny-staters, some sanity was restored in NYC when a judge struck down Bloomberg's bad on sodas. True, it was mostly based on a technicality and less to defend the consumers right to choose but a win is a win.
Too many unelected health bodies are having a say on how we eat.
They have available to them a ready audience in people like Bloomberg.
"I think that it is incumbent on government to tell people what they're doing to themselves and let people make their own decisions," said Mayor Bloomberg on the Late Show with David Letterman the evening the ban was overturned. "So our job is to educate people[.]”
I would firmly counter no it's not "incumbent" nor is it necessarily their jobs to "educate" people.
I can make educated choices on my own.
I don't have that much trust in strangers.
It's just bizarre:
"It's thanks to federal agencies that no one has to worry that those white pills are baking soda instead of antibiotics or that the paint on the baby’s crib is laced with lead,”
and
If as many people were dying of a mysterious disease as innocent bystanders are dying from firearms, a cure would be our top priority,” Warren said. “But we don’t even have good data on gun violence. Why? Because the NRA and the gun industry lobby made it their goal to prevent any serious effort to document the violence.”
Really?
I see plenty of good date on gun violence. Plenty. It's just that, I think, Warren may not like the facts she's reading. Just saying.
As for financial regulations, jesus, let's not go overboard. I'm not crazy about some of the practices but her consistent use of the word "rigged" is getting tired. No one is forcing people to take out credit cards or take out bad mortgages. At the end of the day, the bush stops with YOU. ME.
She can litter the world with all the unicorns and regulations she wants but the nanny-state will never be able to legislate its way to eradicating the stupid.
The problem I have with the Warren's of this world is they over play federal agencies as a positive force. While I don't doubt some of it is necessary and still more even practical but there are many that simply aren't.
Take my situation in daycare. Prior to $7 dollar a day daycare, the market was pretty much a private and semi-private one. Not everyone could afford it. As is the case with so many services and products in life.
The PQ government decided it was time to create a system whereby everyone had access to it. Because we needed more egalitarianism we couldn't afford.
Of course, subsidized daycare is nothing but a bureaucratic, corrupt and inchorent and expensive mess now.
Oh what a surprise.
With it came the involvement of the state and the expansion of still more government agencies. The government provides "philosophical" literature that I must adhere to worth probably no more than the lint on a sweater made in Moldova.
It further enforces a giant and mercurial book of codes so filled with grey matter, physicists wouldn't touch it choosing rather to break their heads on quantum theories.
To Warren, this would be "evidence" of how regulation provides advanced, progressive and intelligent daycare. Prior to this, the world was but a dark, dingy world of private drivel that was "rigged."
How did we live! Animals!
I can tell you, with confidence, there is no such thing. Most of regulations on the books are pointless and even inefficient if not impractical. Most of it was written for CPE's but enforced upon private daycares which creates immediate friction and unfair pressures and practices. Private daycares don't have the luxiry of getting a fat subsidy to pay for a lot of the stuff, yet we can be cited if we don't comply.
Little of it is evidence based. I know because I ask for data to which they readily admit there is none. Basically it all amounts to "fuck you, because we say so."
Government regulation in daycare is (mostly) an illusion. I kinda get some of the codes but most of it keeps you mired in unnecessary red tape. Between all the "taker" agencies that collect from you, it's not that far fetched to joke about dealing with the Politburo.
We "comply" to avoid a citation and not because it makes things "better."
Most of the practices that go into creating and maintaining a good day care is straight forward, basic and common sense. If you can't do it, then you're in the wrong business.
They like to point out the bad cases in private daycare, but won't tell you there are plenty of people on the subsifdized side who are in it to get the subsidy and don't necessarily care about daycare.
It's part of Marois's pseudo-communistic bull shit about there being "many complaints with private daycare." No shit. People tend to complain more when they pay $40. When they pay $7 they put up with all sorts of crap.
It's only normal.
****
Speaking of egotistical nanny-staters, some sanity was restored in NYC when a judge struck down Bloomberg's bad on sodas. True, it was mostly based on a technicality and less to defend the consumers right to choose but a win is a win.
Too many unelected health bodies are having a say on how we eat.
They have available to them a ready audience in people like Bloomberg.
"I think that it is incumbent on government to tell people what they're doing to themselves and let people make their own decisions," said Mayor Bloomberg on the Late Show with David Letterman the evening the ban was overturned. "So our job is to educate people[.]”
I would firmly counter no it's not "incumbent" nor is it necessarily their jobs to "educate" people.
I can make educated choices on my own.
I don't have that much trust in strangers.
RIP Marco
First Carmelo ten years earlier and now Marco. Two talented, well-liked and good looking guys with much to give, big hearts, sharp personalities and interesting characters taken way too early.
More Takers Than Producers?
"...when the proportion of those who received, exceeded the proportion of those who contributed, the provinces were oppressed by the weight of its tributes."
Edward Gibbon; The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Both the right and left compare Washington with Rome. But for different reasons.
Edward Gibbon; The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Both the right and left compare Washington with Rome. But for different reasons.
2013-03-15
Quebec: Laughing At, Not With You
The Economist has picked up the language story in Quebec.
Once they laugh at you...
Indeed.
If you want to get an insight into the mindset of a nationalist, go to the threads and read the guy named 'Drouin.' I'm glad a few people weighed in against him. I thought of it myself but it pretty much echoed what I thought so I decided to just blog about it.
Priceless stuff.
I can break it down and dismantle it but it would be wasting my time. I can't believe people in this day and age would showcase such ignorance in public like that.
Dude is throwing around specious stats, activities of the KKK in the 1920s (little mention of the internment of Italians and Japanese or treatment of Natives naturally), using terms like 'anglo occupants.' Not to mention the bizarre argument that there are Quebecers who live here who can't speak a lick of French. This is a notion even moderate Quebecers hold.
He even went as far as to assert that French-Canadians are multilingual as if to say they're more open and worldly than the ROC. They also reinvent economics with how they spin our debt by claiming we magically take back our equalization payments. Quebec is at best a place that fails to capitalize on its human resource potential. Period.
Another popular tactic used by trolls is to contend many places have language policies. This is true, but no jurisdiction or region or place goes as far as Quebec. None. Zero. It's too 'out there.'
It's insane.
It can all seem reasonable within the confines of Quebec, but once exposed (because the world is filled with intelligent people) it holds no water. It releases the under lying insecurity that drives public policy.
The concept of 'freedom of expression and speech' has a long way to go here.
It's all part and parcel to a parochial society.
It never occurs to them that the arguments they use, logically, has a counter-argument just as, if not more, valid. History doesn't begin and end with the Quebec nationalists version. That's the problem, they want to end the discussion there so as to defend their pitiful game.
They have little justification beyond the "we need to defend ourselves" tact. At some point, it crosses a line and it did.
As I've said in the past, a second Quiet Revolution is required at some point to jolt these dolts out of their minds.
But keep going around Marois trying to convince Americans to come here. The best we can do is tip them off as to what awaits them.
Hey. If my language threatens, then so does my pasta.
Once they laugh at you...
Indeed.
If you want to get an insight into the mindset of a nationalist, go to the threads and read the guy named 'Drouin.' I'm glad a few people weighed in against him. I thought of it myself but it pretty much echoed what I thought so I decided to just blog about it.
Priceless stuff.
I can break it down and dismantle it but it would be wasting my time. I can't believe people in this day and age would showcase such ignorance in public like that.
Dude is throwing around specious stats, activities of the KKK in the 1920s (little mention of the internment of Italians and Japanese or treatment of Natives naturally), using terms like 'anglo occupants.' Not to mention the bizarre argument that there are Quebecers who live here who can't speak a lick of French. This is a notion even moderate Quebecers hold.
He even went as far as to assert that French-Canadians are multilingual as if to say they're more open and worldly than the ROC. They also reinvent economics with how they spin our debt by claiming we magically take back our equalization payments. Quebec is at best a place that fails to capitalize on its human resource potential. Period.
Another popular tactic used by trolls is to contend many places have language policies. This is true, but no jurisdiction or region or place goes as far as Quebec. None. Zero. It's too 'out there.'
It's insane.
It can all seem reasonable within the confines of Quebec, but once exposed (because the world is filled with intelligent people) it holds no water. It releases the under lying insecurity that drives public policy.
The concept of 'freedom of expression and speech' has a long way to go here.
It's all part and parcel to a parochial society.
It never occurs to them that the arguments they use, logically, has a counter-argument just as, if not more, valid. History doesn't begin and end with the Quebec nationalists version. That's the problem, they want to end the discussion there so as to defend their pitiful game.
They have little justification beyond the "we need to defend ourselves" tact. At some point, it crosses a line and it did.
As I've said in the past, a second Quiet Revolution is required at some point to jolt these dolts out of their minds.
But keep going around Marois trying to convince Americans to come here. The best we can do is tip them off as to what awaits them.
Hey. If my language threatens, then so does my pasta.
2013-03-14
Two Wrongs Make A Right In Obama's World
Obama is pretty good at this strawman thing apparently. When (rightly) pressed on about his disturbing drone policies authorizing to kill Americans, he answered at least he's "not Cheney."
That in a nutshell summarizes the type of "leader" this President is. Deflect, erect strawmen and deflect.
By all accounts, he's worse than Dick.
It's so laughable, furthermore, for him to suggest as he did a while ago, he has the most "transparent administration ever."
Not sure how deep his arrogance runs.
God, four more years of this childish President.
That in a nutshell summarizes the type of "leader" this President is. Deflect, erect strawmen and deflect.
By all accounts, he's worse than Dick.
It's so laughable, furthermore, for him to suggest as he did a while ago, he has the most "transparent administration ever."
Not sure how deep his arrogance runs.
God, four more years of this childish President.
2013-03-13
Losing A Piece Of Canadiana
Stompin' Tom Connors wrote Canada's real anthem. The other one is just an alternate cut.
Fricken Bobby Orr. Total, absolute legend.
Connors has passed on but he left a hockey insane nation with a song that will last forever.
Fricken Bobby Orr. Total, absolute legend.
Connors has passed on but he left a hockey insane nation with a song that will last forever.
Garneau Pulls Out Of Race
You know. It's such a shame substance has no place in politics anymore.
Trudeau has little vision or ideas except for platitudes but he has the name - and that's good enough for the fricken Liberals apparently.
72% support for Trudeau? Sheesh.
Oh well.
Conservative I remain.
Trudeau has little vision or ideas except for platitudes but he has the name - and that's good enough for the fricken Liberals apparently.
72% support for Trudeau? Sheesh.
Oh well.
Conservative I remain.
Take A Bow Communism
Ideologically, nothing matches communism when it comes to murder.
Nothing.
Have a look at this chart.
I like the way it adds democracy and American proxy wars to keep things in perspective.
Yet people still actually think the left side of the spectrum cares for people "more."
Retarded.
Left-winger claiming capitalism is worse in 3...2...
Nothing.
Have a look at this chart.
I like the way it adds democracy and American proxy wars to keep things in perspective.
Yet people still actually think the left side of the spectrum cares for people "more."
Retarded.
Left-winger claiming capitalism is worse in 3...2...
Revenue Quebec Rant
I hate calling RevenuE Quebec.
It's one of the last places in the Quebec bureaucracy universe that hasn't evolved.
Agents there still use words like "patente" (a slang word roughly translated as "thing") and tend to let it be known they lose patience with you with subtle sighs.
Heaven forbid someone there speaks a little English. J'amais!
I fucking hate it. It's unprofessional.
Anyway, they send me literature in French (which I never read. I just let my book keeper and accountant that stuff since my language is such a problem for them) including the recent "Guide du releve 1."
That Quebec was allowed to collect its own taxes still irks me. Mostly because we pay income taxes on TWO levels. It's obscene.
It irks me because they take my tax money and turn around and give it to prejudicial bureaucracies like the OLF.
Apparently, money knows no language when it suits them.
Which is why I reject their "contribue a l'avenir de notre societe" line. Aside from its communistic overtones, I never agreed to what they define as "our society." I don't want my money going to fund, for example, "free" post-secondary education.
'Notre' clearly means 'theirs' and that we're merely 'renting' the joint from them.
Just keeping it real.
Just my small way of sending a middle finger. I'm pretty sure many people feel like me.
It's one of the last places in the Quebec bureaucracy universe that hasn't evolved.
Agents there still use words like "patente" (a slang word roughly translated as "thing") and tend to let it be known they lose patience with you with subtle sighs.
Heaven forbid someone there speaks a little English. J'amais!
I fucking hate it. It's unprofessional.
Anyway, they send me literature in French (which I never read. I just let my book keeper and accountant that stuff since my language is such a problem for them) including the recent "Guide du releve 1."
That Quebec was allowed to collect its own taxes still irks me. Mostly because we pay income taxes on TWO levels. It's obscene.
It irks me because they take my tax money and turn around and give it to prejudicial bureaucracies like the OLF.
Apparently, money knows no language when it suits them.
Which is why I reject their "contribue a l'avenir de notre societe" line. Aside from its communistic overtones, I never agreed to what they define as "our society." I don't want my money going to fund, for example, "free" post-secondary education.
'Notre' clearly means 'theirs' and that we're merely 'renting' the joint from them.
Just keeping it real.
Just my small way of sending a middle finger. I'm pretty sure many people feel like me.
2013-03-12
Gifford's Husband Packs Assault Heat; Vets Hit By Obamacare. Costs Passed On To...
...anyone? That's right...the consumer!
Once again from the top: Taxes are inefficient.
They always come with unintended consequences.
If Obamacare manages to bring health care costs down it will be interesting to see if it comes at the expense of eroding personal wealth and growth through higher taxes.
***
Hypocrisy at its heights.
Mark Kelly, husband of Gabrielle Giffords buys...an assault rifle.
He's skating explaining why.
It's hard to learn to skate backwards.
No one has a problem with the purchase. They have a problem with the 'do as we say and not as we do' attitude of their politicalleaders masters.
Once again from the top: Taxes are inefficient.
They always come with unintended consequences.
If Obamacare manages to bring health care costs down it will be interesting to see if it comes at the expense of eroding personal wealth and growth through higher taxes.
***
Hypocrisy at its heights.
Mark Kelly, husband of Gabrielle Giffords buys...an assault rifle.
He's skating explaining why.
It's hard to learn to skate backwards.
No one has a problem with the purchase. They have a problem with the 'do as we say and not as we do' attitude of their political
Whither Redskins: Political Correctness Moving Forward
"...The overall point, of course, is that white people feel an overall need to protect the darker skinned people, as though darker skinned people are not capable of looking out for themselves just fine, thank you, and it is up to white people to save other people from whatever might be bothering them. Or at least things that white people think should be bothering people who are not from east of the Caucasus Mountains. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the White Man's Burden has changed shape. Has it occurred to any of the white people who are trying to save the rest of the world that non-whites are quite capable of dealing with problems and they might not need saving from themselves? See, non-whites have these things called brains and they happen to use them every day, so they are very used to their functions. But it seems that white people are attempting to keep non-whites from having to worry their pretty little heads about all those big concerns in life and, don’t worry, white people will take care of the problems. This certainly explains the way that white people try to figure out solutions to the problems of Africa without consulting, let's say, Africans.
The battle over mascots is just part of a larger problem in which white people pretend to have all the answers and they will always be there to prevent non-whites from having to actually think. Maybe if white people would stop treating non-whites like wildlife, the world would be a much happier place. But, unfortunately, white people are all more than happy to try to prevent non-whites from actually thinking. And they are doing non-whites no favors by it.
Fucking white people."
Anyway.
Then there's the whole branding issue. Of course the Redskins will get hurt by this. I don't know how but they will. Shit, the Washington Redskins have been around for what, 90 years?
Sometimes it's just bet the let sleeping dogs lie for fuck sakes.
How about a compromise? The Washington Congressmen? Burgundies? Burgundians? Jewish Lobbyists?
Ok. I'm not good at this.
As long as they don't touch the Chicago Blackhawks. That jersey is sick-cool.
The Things I Hate
People who wear their fucking iPhone ear phones while they drive.
Fuck those irresponsible, clueless, dangerous dicks.
Same with those assholes who cross an intersection without looking while they text.
Fuck those zombies.
***
While I'm at it (digesting a rather tart grapefruit), man, The Beatles were dickish towards Pete Best turns out. Geez. All that money you can't throw him a few bones?
Same with Led Zeppelin. They're talking of reuniting. Last time out they forgot to invite John Paul Jones. Man.
Fuck those irresponsible, clueless, dangerous dicks.
Same with those assholes who cross an intersection without looking while they text.
Fuck those zombies.
***
While I'm at it (digesting a rather tart grapefruit), man, The Beatles were dickish towards Pete Best turns out. Geez. All that money you can't throw him a few bones?
Same with Led Zeppelin. They're talking of reuniting. Last time out they forgot to invite John Paul Jones. Man.
2013-03-11
Note To PQ Fascistic Dweebs: It's Not Us The Problem
Don't people in the ROC and ROW (rest of the world) know it's a matter of "principles?" Sheesh.
Pasta, dildos, Wal-Mart. Come on!
"...When an Office inspector discovered the Doc Johnson sex aid for sale in Montreal’s Boutique Séduction back in 2007, he immediately recognized an infraction of Quebec’s language law. Never mind that the shop sold just 10 of the vibrators a year and would lose money if forced to translate the packaging; the instructions and warranty information were in English only, so the store was fined $500. Séduction chose to fight the fine rather than remove the product from its shelves, and six years and eight court dates later, the case comes to trial Nov. 28."
"...A rigid, coercive investigation style does not encourage dialogue and can lead to excessive behaviour on both sides,” Diane De Courcy, the minister responsible for the French Language Charter told RDI...."
Excessive behavior on both sides? Is De Courcy insane? Oh. She's a Pequiste. Of course she is.
I wonder what she means by this. Is using a word "excessive" in their minds?
Look. Bottom line and fact: Quebec is the most political region in North America. It finds politics in all facets of life. No jurisdiction is obsessed with politics like Quebec is. Language is so far away the list of interests on political discourse among non-Francophones it makes her comment all the more frivolous. It's not us going around busting people's balls. It's them.
"...It was all a little rich coming from the minister behind Bill 14, the proposed tightening of Quebec’s language law that would give the Office’s inspectors new powers of search and seizure and allow them to refer complaints directly to prosecutors without giving alleged offenders time to comply.
Ms. De Courcy has advocated a public-shaming approach toward violators of the language law, calling last fall on all Quebec citizens to act as “language sentries” snitching on companies. She has also promised to out offenders on a government website from the moment a complaint is filed. And one of her government’s first moves after its election last September, at a time of budget cutting in most departments, was to increase the Office’s staff...."
Exactly. It's the PQ that sets the toxic tone. To have the gall to throw some of it back on us is disgusting. They're the ones who come out chest thumping about the need of tightening regressive laws. Not us. They're the ones who drew up the contemptible Bill 14. Not us.
It's not us the problem. YOU MAKE US THE PROBLEM.
Defend Bill 14 to a panel of Human Rights lawyers. International intellectuals committed to civil rights.
Go ahead. I'm gonna sit back and laugh as you muddle around with the gibberish sure to follow.
"...Edith Arsenault, vice-president of Séduction’s parent company, said those conditions apply to the “niche” vibrator in question. Her store fought a similar complaint by the Office against another sex aid — the Super Stretch Sleeves — and saw the prosecution withdraw the charge just as it was to go to trial for a second time.
“We fight this in the courts to keep products available on the market, because we sell products that are not available elsewhere,” she said in an interview.
“It’s specialized for erotic boutiques. We want to offer this choice to our customers, the choice of the products they desire. It’s a question of sexual health. We do not want our clients to suffer from this.
We do not want Quebec to suffer.”
She has had enough run-ins with the language police to be skeptical that they can alter their approach overnight. “Honestly, the people who work there, it will take a real change of culture for them,” she said. “I think it is going to be a difficult job for the new president.”
Mme. Arsenault is absolutely right. It's about customers. It's about choice. It's about her decisions to make right by her business and clients. She doesn't have to answer to ANYONE let alone the OLF.
It's a point of basic rights and logic that is completely absent from the minds of the PQ, the leftists who support them and nationalists.
They leave a path of unseen destruction on the economy.
Quebec suffers a lot in terms of what's available here. If you've shopped in Ontario or the States, you know what I mean. There's no doubt in my mind many small businesses with superb products don't bother expanding into Quebec.
Not worth the headaches and judging by the kooks currently running the joint, I don't blame them.
I made a similar point about the culture at the OLF. It attracts a certain type of individual. The sort you wouldn't normally consider "enlightened" or want to hang around with. The sort that's already predisposed to be close-minded, clueless and rigid. The sort who enjoys exercising power on helpless individuals.
It's an ugly culture.
That's what we have.
***
We should reframe and rephrase the narrative from one of language to that of basic rights.
Pasta, dildos, Wal-Mart. Come on!
"...When an Office inspector discovered the Doc Johnson sex aid for sale in Montreal’s Boutique Séduction back in 2007, he immediately recognized an infraction of Quebec’s language law. Never mind that the shop sold just 10 of the vibrators a year and would lose money if forced to translate the packaging; the instructions and warranty information were in English only, so the store was fined $500. Séduction chose to fight the fine rather than remove the product from its shelves, and six years and eight court dates later, the case comes to trial Nov. 28."
"...A rigid, coercive investigation style does not encourage dialogue and can lead to excessive behaviour on both sides,” Diane De Courcy, the minister responsible for the French Language Charter told RDI...."
Excessive behavior on both sides? Is De Courcy insane? Oh. She's a Pequiste. Of course she is.
I wonder what she means by this. Is using a word "excessive" in their minds?
Look. Bottom line and fact: Quebec is the most political region in North America. It finds politics in all facets of life. No jurisdiction is obsessed with politics like Quebec is. Language is so far away the list of interests on political discourse among non-Francophones it makes her comment all the more frivolous. It's not us going around busting people's balls. It's them.
"...It was all a little rich coming from the minister behind Bill 14, the proposed tightening of Quebec’s language law that would give the Office’s inspectors new powers of search and seizure and allow them to refer complaints directly to prosecutors without giving alleged offenders time to comply.
Ms. De Courcy has advocated a public-shaming approach toward violators of the language law, calling last fall on all Quebec citizens to act as “language sentries” snitching on companies. She has also promised to out offenders on a government website from the moment a complaint is filed. And one of her government’s first moves after its election last September, at a time of budget cutting in most departments, was to increase the Office’s staff...."
Exactly. It's the PQ that sets the toxic tone. To have the gall to throw some of it back on us is disgusting. They're the ones who come out chest thumping about the need of tightening regressive laws. Not us. They're the ones who drew up the contemptible Bill 14. Not us.
It's not us the problem. YOU MAKE US THE PROBLEM.
Defend Bill 14 to a panel of Human Rights lawyers. International intellectuals committed to civil rights.
Go ahead. I'm gonna sit back and laugh as you muddle around with the gibberish sure to follow.
"...Edith Arsenault, vice-president of Séduction’s parent company, said those conditions apply to the “niche” vibrator in question. Her store fought a similar complaint by the Office against another sex aid — the Super Stretch Sleeves — and saw the prosecution withdraw the charge just as it was to go to trial for a second time.
“We fight this in the courts to keep products available on the market, because we sell products that are not available elsewhere,” she said in an interview.
“It’s specialized for erotic boutiques. We want to offer this choice to our customers, the choice of the products they desire. It’s a question of sexual health. We do not want our clients to suffer from this.
We do not want Quebec to suffer.”
She has had enough run-ins with the language police to be skeptical that they can alter their approach overnight. “Honestly, the people who work there, it will take a real change of culture for them,” she said. “I think it is going to be a difficult job for the new president.”
Mme. Arsenault is absolutely right. It's about customers. It's about choice. It's about her decisions to make right by her business and clients. She doesn't have to answer to ANYONE let alone the OLF.
It's a point of basic rights and logic that is completely absent from the minds of the PQ, the leftists who support them and nationalists.
They leave a path of unseen destruction on the economy.
Quebec suffers a lot in terms of what's available here. If you've shopped in Ontario or the States, you know what I mean. There's no doubt in my mind many small businesses with superb products don't bother expanding into Quebec.
Not worth the headaches and judging by the kooks currently running the joint, I don't blame them.
I made a similar point about the culture at the OLF. It attracts a certain type of individual. The sort you wouldn't normally consider "enlightened" or want to hang around with. The sort that's already predisposed to be close-minded, clueless and rigid. The sort who enjoys exercising power on helpless individuals.
It's an ugly culture.
That's what we have.
***
We should reframe and rephrase the narrative from one of language to that of basic rights.
Castro And Chavez: Not BFF Anymore
Too funny.
Right out of South Park.
Celebrities moonlighting as diplomats is the single most hilarious thing. Please don't stop. You go, Sean Penn!
Just don't give them access to a military. Leftists love to go Medieval on people's asses.
Right out of South Park.
Celebrities moonlighting as diplomats is the single most hilarious thing. Please don't stop. You go, Sean Penn!
Just don't give them access to a military. Leftists love to go Medieval on people's asses.
Contradictions, Contradictions
It's funny that the state most associated with shallowness and quackery is also considered to be 'progressive.'
Not a sound mix for public policy for the sane and sober minded.
Not a sound mix for public policy for the sane and sober minded.
2013-03-10
Canada-Mexico Brawl It Out At Baseball Classic
Here's the thing.
Canadians are a rather rambunctious sort when they want to be so when the Mexicans decided they wanted to get tough, Canadian ball players obliged.
I understand Mexico's gripe but this ain't MLB. Canada was only playing within the prescribed rules. I never like point differential as a tiebreaker much for obvious reasons, but it's not Canada's fault the Mexicans were ignorant of this fact.
Clearly Mexico started all this and it's rather silly no suspensions were handed out. They basically started a fight for no reason.
Silly Mexicans. Canadians moonlight by playing hockey. Don't mess with us.
Peter Rose was a mean son of a bitch who took no prisoners.
Canada is but a team of Pete Roses.
It's the one feature and characteristic of Canadian athletes I've always liked. They play for keeps and won't back down from any challenge.
.
Canadians are a rather rambunctious sort when they want to be so when the Mexicans decided they wanted to get tough, Canadian ball players obliged.
I understand Mexico's gripe but this ain't MLB. Canada was only playing within the prescribed rules. I never like point differential as a tiebreaker much for obvious reasons, but it's not Canada's fault the Mexicans were ignorant of this fact.
Clearly Mexico started all this and it's rather silly no suspensions were handed out. They basically started a fight for no reason.
Silly Mexicans. Canadians moonlight by playing hockey. Don't mess with us.
Peter Rose was a mean son of a bitch who took no prisoners.
Canada is but a team of Pete Roses.
It's the one feature and characteristic of Canadian athletes I've always liked. They play for keeps and won't back down from any challenge.
.
My Trip To New York, By T.C.
On my March break I went to NYC with my parents, a clown we picked up on the way in, my pet hamster and my mistress. We had a good time. I went to a peep show on 42nd street, hit up the Lower-east side for some corn-beef and played craps with some low-level mobsters in Chelsea.
A+!
***
Yes, visited the Big Apple for I think the 7th time.
This time, it was different as we took our seven year-old daughter with us. No night life this time around. We had to use some of our time to take her to the usual main attractions - notably Times Square (the Disney Store, American Girl and Toys 'R' Us') and F.A.O. Schwartz. And everything in between the whole area around Park Ave. and Madison and all that.
Too much to do, no kidding, in NYC in four days. The weather wasn't all that cooperative forcing us to cab around. Which is too bad because part of the fun is to walk NYC - and taking a cab, though cheap, adds up when you're going from Soho to, say, the Upper West Side.
Anyway. Still managed to cram in most of what we wanted to do. The only thing we couldn't manage due to scheduling was Broadway. Next time for sure.
Nor did we get to our dinner reservations in Queens because of weather.
I was hoping to get to my usual trek into the financial district but with the little one I had to be pragmatic (American Girl was her choice) while Little Italy, the Meat Packing District, the Empire State building or Statue of Liberty - attractions we've seen but wanted to take our daughter to - had to be deferred for next time.
What did we do?
Skating in Central Park, brief walk in Soho, 42nd street, took in a NYC breakfast deli frequented by locas, ate a Kobe burger at Ellen's Stardust, and made a point to hit Trader Joe's, Dean & Deluca's and Mario Batali's Eataly. Eataly was rather spectacular. Had a nice meal there.
Montreal has a handful of seriously good pizza places (and by a handful I mean four or five places), NYC is littered with outstanding pizza places. They sure love their pizza thin though.
Same with espresso bars. We have, really, a few go-to places, New York has an endless stream of them.
I keep hearing how Montreal has the best restaurants. We do have very good affordable restaurants but it ain't NYC.
I'm sorry, but that can only come out of the mouths of people who haven't been to New York. New York suprasses Montreal (which usually copies NYC restaurants) so much it's not even worth discussing.
It's only natural, it's five times the size!
Headed to the Natural Museum of History thanks largely to my wife's friend who lent us her membership pass (saving us $60). She lives in a NYC penthouse with full view of the Empire State. I kept the Diff'rent Strokes and Dudley's molestation jokes at a minimum. Penthouses will always be associated with Mr. Drummond to me.
The trip hit its final apex when we took in a wonderful Italian meal at Biricchino's in Chelsea on 29th and a New York Rangers game at Madison Square Garden afterwards.
Rangers fans are a blast. Typical New York sports experience and my kid absolutely loved it. New York fans shout all sorts of things during a game that we don't typically see in Canada. It makes for a different (and more interesting to me anyway) experience. Talked on and off to the 'two Richie's' seated behind us from Long Island all game.
On this night, the Rangers played like little girls losing to the Ottawa Senators 3-2.
Love the non-sequitur shouts of 'Potvin Sucks!'
As for MSG, what can you say? One of the great sports venues in all of North America. Great restaurant choices too.
The walk back to 48th was nice.
Ended the trip at Woodbury Commons Outlets and Plattsburgh. Our pantry is filled with NY items.
The cost?
Let's just say we have to lick our wounds. Just eating in NYC alone is a fortune. That Kobe burger I mentioned earlier was $20.
***
Day at the museum.
Staring at sea lions.
Wife: They're so cute!
T.C.: If I opened my own museum I'd have the sea hunt clubbing one right next to this window.
Daughter: Mommy, what's a seal hunt?
Wife: Come honey, let's go see the whale.
T.C.: I'd also have a stuffed Italian man in an apron drinking espresso making pizza.
Wife: We should go see Annie.
T.C.: Who's Annie?
Wife: The Broadway show.
T.C.: Not interested.
Wife: We should try for a Matinee show.
T.C.: What part of I hate poor people don't you get?
Wife: We should go try and get them at TKS. It's last minute...
T.C.: I have no interest in seeing a poor shlep sing. I hate Oliver Twist and I sure as hell can't stand Anne of Green fucking Gables so what makes you think I want to listen to a red headed squirt sing for 2 1/2 hours? Nah. I want to see the Book of Mormon.
Wife: It's sold out until April.
T.C.: Well you go while I take in a peep show on 33rd. Or a comedy show with the dregs of NYC. You know, my kinda or people.
Wife: You're exasperating.
T.C.: What did you learn here at the museum?
Wife: I don't know.
T.C: That all these animals live to feed us and that there are a lot of useless cultures on this planet.
Wife: Cover your ears, love. She's seven you know.
T.C.: Just keeping it real, man.
Wife: Go get a cab and shut up.
T.C.: You bet.
A+!
***
Yes, visited the Big Apple for I think the 7th time.
This time, it was different as we took our seven year-old daughter with us. No night life this time around. We had to use some of our time to take her to the usual main attractions - notably Times Square (the Disney Store, American Girl and Toys 'R' Us') and F.A.O. Schwartz. And everything in between the whole area around Park Ave. and Madison and all that.
Too much to do, no kidding, in NYC in four days. The weather wasn't all that cooperative forcing us to cab around. Which is too bad because part of the fun is to walk NYC - and taking a cab, though cheap, adds up when you're going from Soho to, say, the Upper West Side.
Anyway. Still managed to cram in most of what we wanted to do. The only thing we couldn't manage due to scheduling was Broadway. Next time for sure.
Nor did we get to our dinner reservations in Queens because of weather.
I was hoping to get to my usual trek into the financial district but with the little one I had to be pragmatic (American Girl was her choice) while Little Italy, the Meat Packing District, the Empire State building or Statue of Liberty - attractions we've seen but wanted to take our daughter to - had to be deferred for next time.
What did we do?
Skating in Central Park, brief walk in Soho, 42nd street, took in a NYC breakfast deli frequented by locas, ate a Kobe burger at Ellen's Stardust, and made a point to hit Trader Joe's, Dean & Deluca's and Mario Batali's Eataly. Eataly was rather spectacular. Had a nice meal there.
Montreal has a handful of seriously good pizza places (and by a handful I mean four or five places), NYC is littered with outstanding pizza places. They sure love their pizza thin though.
Same with espresso bars. We have, really, a few go-to places, New York has an endless stream of them.
I keep hearing how Montreal has the best restaurants. We do have very good affordable restaurants but it ain't NYC.
I'm sorry, but that can only come out of the mouths of people who haven't been to New York. New York suprasses Montreal (which usually copies NYC restaurants) so much it's not even worth discussing.
It's only natural, it's five times the size!
Headed to the Natural Museum of History thanks largely to my wife's friend who lent us her membership pass (saving us $60). She lives in a NYC penthouse with full view of the Empire State. I kept the Diff'rent Strokes and Dudley's molestation jokes at a minimum. Penthouses will always be associated with Mr. Drummond to me.
The trip hit its final apex when we took in a wonderful Italian meal at Biricchino's in Chelsea on 29th and a New York Rangers game at Madison Square Garden afterwards.
Rangers fans are a blast. Typical New York sports experience and my kid absolutely loved it. New York fans shout all sorts of things during a game that we don't typically see in Canada. It makes for a different (and more interesting to me anyway) experience. Talked on and off to the 'two Richie's' seated behind us from Long Island all game.
On this night, the Rangers played like little girls losing to the Ottawa Senators 3-2.
Love the non-sequitur shouts of 'Potvin Sucks!'
As for MSG, what can you say? One of the great sports venues in all of North America. Great restaurant choices too.
The walk back to 48th was nice.
Ended the trip at Woodbury Commons Outlets and Plattsburgh. Our pantry is filled with NY items.
The cost?
Let's just say we have to lick our wounds. Just eating in NYC alone is a fortune. That Kobe burger I mentioned earlier was $20.
***
Day at the museum.
Staring at sea lions.
Wife: They're so cute!
T.C.: If I opened my own museum I'd have the sea hunt clubbing one right next to this window.
Daughter: Mommy, what's a seal hunt?
Wife: Come honey, let's go see the whale.
T.C.: I'd also have a stuffed Italian man in an apron drinking espresso making pizza.
Wife: We should go see Annie.
T.C.: Who's Annie?
Wife: The Broadway show.
T.C.: Not interested.
Wife: We should try for a Matinee show.
T.C.: What part of I hate poor people don't you get?
Wife: We should go try and get them at TKS. It's last minute...
T.C.: I have no interest in seeing a poor shlep sing. I hate Oliver Twist and I sure as hell can't stand Anne of Green fucking Gables so what makes you think I want to listen to a red headed squirt sing for 2 1/2 hours? Nah. I want to see the Book of Mormon.
Wife: It's sold out until April.
T.C.: Well you go while I take in a peep show on 33rd. Or a comedy show with the dregs of NYC. You know, my kinda or people.
Wife: You're exasperating.
T.C.: What did you learn here at the museum?
Wife: I don't know.
T.C: That all these animals live to feed us and that there are a lot of useless cultures on this planet.
Wife: Cover your ears, love. She's seven you know.
T.C.: Just keeping it real, man.
Wife: Go get a cab and shut up.
T.C.: You bet.
Give Them What They Want And Dr. Obdrama
On a cab ride into Soho, we had a Punjab taxi driver who decided it was a good idea to talk politics. Among many things, he said something that really caught my ear about the political direction of the USA. "Communism is already here" was what he said. Specifically, he was talking about the socialistic policies that are found in Canada. "It's what the people want."
Right then and there I knew, for those of us on the the skeptical side of government welfare, we were fucking screwed. As we got out and headed into Dean & Deluca's (after hitting Trader Joe's), I looked at my wife and nodded, "we're fucking screwed."
She had no clue what I was talking about only concerned with picking up a jar of curry for my sister.
Giving what the people want is key here. Why is it when we expand the welfare state it's seen as positive but when companies use resources to study 'what people want' it's seen as preying on hapless consumers?
If anything, seems to me, companies spend an incredible amount of time and energy perfecting the art of what consumers want. Left-wingers seem to think it's companies that force demand when in fact it's the other way around. Always was, always will be. In the end no one forces anyone to buy anything. The most powerful tool in its arsenal is the power of persuasion. That's it.
The government doesn't need to figure out what people want. It just coerces through fines, taxes and jail time. People vote, sure, but don't forget, when it comes to voting the winners DON'T speak for millions. People who are ignorant of small-business needs, for example, out number entrepreneurs and so the laws or policies will generally move in that direction.
Private takes on the needs of consumers eliminates that. It's a much more accurate guage.
Yeah, 'capitalism killed Mars. Yeah, yeah.
What a douche he was.
***
Speaking of small business. Was listening to Fran Tarkenton's radio show. A perk of having moved to Sirius radio. Best thing we've done. Such a big world out there.
It's so nice to have a show that discusses like adults the needs of small business. Absent was all the doom and gloom, childish 9/hr stupidity that can only come out of a mouth of a politician who is clueless and indifferent to small business.
President Obama has been most disappointing on this front. What part of 'shut up and let business build confidence in order to hire' doesn't he get? He doesn't have to say anything anymore. He spent four years setting an anti-business narrative. People know where he stands. Now he can step aside and let the economy actually do what it does best, fix itself without intervention.
He'll look like a hero.
Rather, he's into all this cynical game laced with hyperbole and dramatic rhetoric with the GOP on sequestration.
***
Mentioned we signed on to Sirius. Adam Corolla, Jay Thomas, all the ESPN channels, Radio Disney etc. - it's like coming out of a drab forest and into a world filled with wonderful gnomes and dragons dancing and singing by a waterfall.
Were listening to Howard Stern's Toronto Conference from 1997 when he came into Canada.
Holy crap, I know Canada's reaction to Stern was stupid and immature, but man, I didn't realize it was that bad. It was embarrassing the questions. That's when I realized to how Montrealers view Plattsburgh, that's probably the view Americans have of Canada. The nice, quaint, parochial country that should be a state - like Minnesota.
No kidding.
We just sat there face palming the whole time. We could picture the journalists in their dunce hats, bucked-teeth while holding hockey sticks as they stood to ask Stern questions.
The contrast was stark.
Stern absolutely obliterated and schooled our "journalists" on how things work in art, business, radio and basically all things related to freedom of expression and speech. Stupid former PQ boob Serge Menard threatening to sue Stern for 'hate-mongering.' Fucking idiots. If anything, someone should sue the effen PQ. They do more to suppress civil rights and incite 'hate-mongering' through language laws, than anything Stern could ever do.
A god damn Disc Jockey.
You know things are bad when Stern is a voice of intellectual reason.
Alas, after complaints and censorship took root (something the CRTC like its crappy brethren the FCC in the USA, is all too happy to engage in), Stern was taken off the air in 1998 in Montreal and 2001 in Toronto despite strong ratings that were likely to go up. Pathetic.
In the end, he was right. It was the competition the Canadian market was most afraid of. He was going to eat up all the advertising coin.
But we Canadians are so in love with ourselves thinking to be so much more civilized and sophisticated, we can't see beyond the fact we're asshole-gazers.
And the quality of our radio entertainment reflects that.
The truth is the Howard Stern's and Don Cherry's of this world give and understand more about what the people want than any nanny-stater, paternalistic, complaining dweeb could ever do. Too often journalists are on the wrong side of that coin.
Yet, all they have to do is, you know, CHANGE THE FUCKING CHANNEL.
Right then and there I knew, for those of us on the the skeptical side of government welfare, we were fucking screwed. As we got out and headed into Dean & Deluca's (after hitting Trader Joe's), I looked at my wife and nodded, "we're fucking screwed."
She had no clue what I was talking about only concerned with picking up a jar of curry for my sister.
Giving what the people want is key here. Why is it when we expand the welfare state it's seen as positive but when companies use resources to study 'what people want' it's seen as preying on hapless consumers?
If anything, seems to me, companies spend an incredible amount of time and energy perfecting the art of what consumers want. Left-wingers seem to think it's companies that force demand when in fact it's the other way around. Always was, always will be. In the end no one forces anyone to buy anything. The most powerful tool in its arsenal is the power of persuasion. That's it.
The government doesn't need to figure out what people want. It just coerces through fines, taxes and jail time. People vote, sure, but don't forget, when it comes to voting the winners DON'T speak for millions. People who are ignorant of small-business needs, for example, out number entrepreneurs and so the laws or policies will generally move in that direction.
Private takes on the needs of consumers eliminates that. It's a much more accurate guage.
Yeah, 'capitalism killed Mars. Yeah, yeah.
What a douche he was.
***
Speaking of small business. Was listening to Fran Tarkenton's radio show. A perk of having moved to Sirius radio. Best thing we've done. Such a big world out there.
It's so nice to have a show that discusses like adults the needs of small business. Absent was all the doom and gloom, childish 9/hr stupidity that can only come out of a mouth of a politician who is clueless and indifferent to small business.
President Obama has been most disappointing on this front. What part of 'shut up and let business build confidence in order to hire' doesn't he get? He doesn't have to say anything anymore. He spent four years setting an anti-business narrative. People know where he stands. Now he can step aside and let the economy actually do what it does best, fix itself without intervention.
He'll look like a hero.
Rather, he's into all this cynical game laced with hyperbole and dramatic rhetoric with the GOP on sequestration.
***
Mentioned we signed on to Sirius. Adam Corolla, Jay Thomas, all the ESPN channels, Radio Disney etc. - it's like coming out of a drab forest and into a world filled with wonderful gnomes and dragons dancing and singing by a waterfall.
Were listening to Howard Stern's Toronto Conference from 1997 when he came into Canada.
Holy crap, I know Canada's reaction to Stern was stupid and immature, but man, I didn't realize it was that bad. It was embarrassing the questions. That's when I realized to how Montrealers view Plattsburgh, that's probably the view Americans have of Canada. The nice, quaint, parochial country that should be a state - like Minnesota.
No kidding.
We just sat there face palming the whole time. We could picture the journalists in their dunce hats, bucked-teeth while holding hockey sticks as they stood to ask Stern questions.
The contrast was stark.
Stern absolutely obliterated and schooled our "journalists" on how things work in art, business, radio and basically all things related to freedom of expression and speech. Stupid former PQ boob Serge Menard threatening to sue Stern for 'hate-mongering.' Fucking idiots. If anything, someone should sue the effen PQ. They do more to suppress civil rights and incite 'hate-mongering' through language laws, than anything Stern could ever do.
A god damn Disc Jockey.
You know things are bad when Stern is a voice of intellectual reason.
Alas, after complaints and censorship took root (something the CRTC like its crappy brethren the FCC in the USA, is all too happy to engage in), Stern was taken off the air in 1998 in Montreal and 2001 in Toronto despite strong ratings that were likely to go up. Pathetic.
In the end, he was right. It was the competition the Canadian market was most afraid of. He was going to eat up all the advertising coin.
But we Canadians are so in love with ourselves thinking to be so much more civilized and sophisticated, we can't see beyond the fact we're asshole-gazers.
And the quality of our radio entertainment reflects that.
The truth is the Howard Stern's and Don Cherry's of this world give and understand more about what the people want than any nanny-stater, paternalistic, complaining dweeb could ever do. Too often journalists are on the wrong side of that coin.
Yet, all they have to do is, you know, CHANGE THE FUCKING CHANNEL.
Get Lost. Marois Next
So. I come back from New York City to a bureaucrat no one has ever heard of resigned from her post at L'Office de la Langue Francaise - otherwise known as The Office.
Good riddance.
Now it's time for Marois to step down. Every time the PQ and their merry band of yokel hicks come into power they're a drag on the province on too many levels. Marois's bull shit has been too toxic. Her divisive rhetoric on language belongs to another time; another era. She looks like, literally, a dinosaur in an iPad age. She talks out of, like all nationalists who take us for fools, two sides of her mouth. This thing about English needing to be "curbed" is retarded now.
The economy and handling of the student protests have been botched to comical levels.
You know. Standing around and absorbing NYC, I realized that's a city of mega-proportions economically, politically, socially, culturally etc.
Montreal brags and boasts about a lot of things one of those is multiculturalism. Something Quebec nationalists have never been comfortable of even fond of. It's true Montreal is cosmopolitan (though no more or less than any great city on the continent) and for the most part it does act and think in multiple languages but it's hampered by the PQ.
In NYC, everything has, out of COMMON COURTESY and without LAWS, a sign in Spanish. Seems that although Spanish is a language on the rise demograhpically in the USA, the Americans aren't losing their effen minds over it. They're finding ways to incorporate it into their culture. That's called the natural flow of the melting pot. Nothing forced, nothing coerced, no draconian laws.
Americans won't force you to speak a language in the work place. That's Nazi-Ayrian type bull shit and Quebec excels at it. It's not normal to force an American company with more than 'x' amount of employees to communicate in French even between two English workers. It's not normal to force English institutions to send out communcations AMONG EACH OTHER in French all the time.
Not normal.
That shit doesn't protect jack squat. It's there to send a message as to who's 'boss.'
NYC is a city of over 10 million. It has many lessons we can learn from. Ironically, even on matters of culture and how to live in linguistic peace.
Feeling threatened is a state of mind.
Good riddance.
Now it's time for Marois to step down. Every time the PQ and their merry band of yokel hicks come into power they're a drag on the province on too many levels. Marois's bull shit has been too toxic. Her divisive rhetoric on language belongs to another time; another era. She looks like, literally, a dinosaur in an iPad age. She talks out of, like all nationalists who take us for fools, two sides of her mouth. This thing about English needing to be "curbed" is retarded now.
The economy and handling of the student protests have been botched to comical levels.
You know. Standing around and absorbing NYC, I realized that's a city of mega-proportions economically, politically, socially, culturally etc.
Montreal brags and boasts about a lot of things one of those is multiculturalism. Something Quebec nationalists have never been comfortable of even fond of. It's true Montreal is cosmopolitan (though no more or less than any great city on the continent) and for the most part it does act and think in multiple languages but it's hampered by the PQ.
In NYC, everything has, out of COMMON COURTESY and without LAWS, a sign in Spanish. Seems that although Spanish is a language on the rise demograhpically in the USA, the Americans aren't losing their effen minds over it. They're finding ways to incorporate it into their culture. That's called the natural flow of the melting pot. Nothing forced, nothing coerced, no draconian laws.
Americans won't force you to speak a language in the work place. That's Nazi-Ayrian type bull shit and Quebec excels at it. It's not normal to force an American company with more than 'x' amount of employees to communicate in French even between two English workers. It's not normal to force English institutions to send out communcations AMONG EACH OTHER in French all the time.
Not normal.
That shit doesn't protect jack squat. It's there to send a message as to who's 'boss.'
NYC is a city of over 10 million. It has many lessons we can learn from. Ironically, even on matters of culture and how to live in linguistic peace.
Feeling threatened is a state of mind.
2013-03-05
One Less Over Rated Tin Pot Dictator To Deal With
Oh, what will Sean Penn and other left-wing useful idiots do!
Have Justin Trudeau and President Obama sent in their condolences for Hugo Chavez yet?
Have Justin Trudeau and President Obama sent in their condolences for Hugo Chavez yet?
Death Of Fortune Cookie Romance
From the New York Post:
"Romance is dead — in your fortune cookie!
The world’s largest fortune-cookie manufacturer has cut the heart out of its confections, removing romantic messages in response to complaints from parents of young children.
“Some parents sent us e-mails. They said they didn’t want their kids reading them,” said Derrick Wong, a VP at Brooklyn-based Wonton Food. “Different people have a different perspective.”
Gone are suggestive fortunes such as, “One who admires you greatly is hidden before your eyes,” “Romance and travel go together,” “The evening promises romantic interest,” and “A romantic mystery will soon add interest to your life.”
Company officials said they understood why parents said some of their cookies were too hot to handle.
“Romance and travel, for example. Suppose you’re on a business trip with a colleague, that doesn’t mean you want to have a romantic affair,” said Danny Zeng, another VP at Wonton.
God forbid you know the fucking difference. No wonder people can't read anymore. And by reading I mean by knowing how to 'read between the lines.'
These piece of shits, not happy to sink in ignorance, want to take the rest of us down with them.
Fuck them in the ear.
Stupid parents. More tyranny of the minority.
The people doing the complaining are probably the same folks who go Medieval on the teacher's ass.
leave little monsters off at school who after being disciplined for their self-entitled obnoxious behavior
Fuck parents who all they do is complain about bull shit and do nothing to actually parent.
Apparently, companies and people like me have to raise their asshole kids.
It's a FUCKING FORTUNE COOKIE YOU FUCKING LOSERS.
Now go and god damn PARENT.
"Romance is dead — in your fortune cookie!
The world’s largest fortune-cookie manufacturer has cut the heart out of its confections, removing romantic messages in response to complaints from parents of young children.
“Some parents sent us e-mails. They said they didn’t want their kids reading them,” said Derrick Wong, a VP at Brooklyn-based Wonton Food. “Different people have a different perspective.”
Gone are suggestive fortunes such as, “One who admires you greatly is hidden before your eyes,” “Romance and travel go together,” “The evening promises romantic interest,” and “A romantic mystery will soon add interest to your life.”
“Romance and travel, for example. Suppose you’re on a business trip with a colleague, that doesn’t mean you want to have a romantic affair,” said Danny Zeng, another VP at Wonton.
God forbid you know the fucking difference. No wonder people can't read anymore. And by reading I mean by knowing how to 'read between the lines.'
These piece of shits, not happy to sink in ignorance, want to take the rest of us down with them.
Fuck them in the ear.
Stupid parents. More tyranny of the minority.
The people doing the complaining are probably the same folks who go Medieval on the teacher's ass.
leave little monsters off at school who after being disciplined for their self-entitled obnoxious behavior
Fuck parents who all they do is complain about bull shit and do nothing to actually parent.
Apparently, companies and people like me have to raise their asshole kids.
It's a FUCKING FORTUNE COOKIE YOU FUCKING LOSERS.
Now go and god damn PARENT.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)