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Month: September 2008

Twitter Updates for 2008-09-30

  • Spencer the Cat woke me up by biting my hands and elbows this morning. This is his friendly good morning. #
  • Too. Much. Fibre. #
  • I dreamed last night that I was trapped in a grand hotel with no electricity or running water, the road outside was full of sand dunes. #
  • Theme Notes “The Comments need to be fixed” http://tinyurl.com/53xhfy #
  • Neat “Gapminder” http://www.gapminder.org/ #
  • @RevNathan you can finally finish some of that short fiction you’ve been flailing at. LoL in reply to RevNathan #
  • The main Difference between Suge Knight and Sarah Palin is Suge knight would have the sense to keep that kid away from his daughter. #
  • Suge Knight once developed a means to bring comic characters into reality, just so he could smack Superman around for kicks #
  • Once upon a time Suge Knight met the big bad wolf in the deep dark forest, now Suge has a wolf skin coat. #
  • When your cat just freezes and stares at nothing, they are watching out for Suge Knight, somewhere, out there…. #
  • Awaiting feedback. #
  • Please accept that I find Dexter and Trueblood to be very poorly written exercises in television. Also, I hate “Sassy” stereo-characters. #
  • While @warrenellis is like Tesla with Beer, Jack Black is like Emile Hirsch, with a face that ages naturally, as opposed to perpetual boyism #
  • Rogers Routing issues resolved in London #

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Maybe Sarah Palin is Illiterate

“All of them”

I’m beginning to think that Sarah Palin might not be able to read; not at an adult level.  It’s looking more and more like the McCain/Palin ticket might be more special that one might first understand.

And yes, she gets more precious when she is cornered.  It’s amazing, this was not a compliment.

Updated: a transcript

COURIC: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this — to stay informed and to understand the world?

PALIN: I’ve read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media —

COURIC: But what ones specifically? I’m curious.

PALIN: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.

COURIC: Can you name any of them?

PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news.

The National Post Fails the "Truthiness" Test

In the past, we’ve been hard on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In many cases, our criticism of the Ceeb’s left-wing editorial stances has resulted in run-ins on these pages with such senior corporate executives as former CBC News editor-in-chief Tony Burman. These dust-ups have provided spirited entertainment for readers, but they have also served a serious purpose: Canadians who disagree with the world-view of CBC editors and reporters should not be forced, through their tax dollars, to subsidize our public broadcaster’s unremitting attack on conservative ideas they hold dear.

No Byline Opinion Piece in the National Post

I’ve been appreciative in the past of the National Post’s online component, especially their prediliction for publishing a vastly more robust version of the facts in a given story.  Their well-rounded coverage of stories have often allowed their readers a well-informed view of a given subejct.  Bravo.

Then there is their right-wing editorial staff who don’t seem to have the intestinal fortitude to sign a byline on their opinion spots.  Why?

I take responsibility for my opinion, why can’t the author of this fox-news snorting one?  It’s all well-and-good to love the Americans and their right-wing politicians, but you should put your name on your work, right?

Twitter Updates for 2008-09-29

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Project Billy Part 4

Pika-Pooooooooo

The yellow rat was cute, that was for sure.  Billy didn’t look too happy about having a small pile of raisin-style defecants in his hand though.  For once, he wasn’t crying about it though.  Billy began to pet the neon-colored rat and it nuzzled his palm as he stroked it.

Billy pushed past me and sat at Mitzi’s desk, setting the rodent down on Mitzi’s paperwork and wiping the small pile of pellets from his hand into the trash.

“He hasn’t ate anything, but he keeps on pooping!” Billy lopsidedly grinned, “it’s a little poop machine, I guess it’s better than an electric mouse.  So, guys, what is going on?”

“Billy, uh, what do you mean?” I stammered a bit and looked to Mitzi to navigate through this.

“You two are both talkin’ in here, like it’s some kinda work meeting that.  Somethin’ up?” Billy scratched the Yellow Rat’s head.  It prompty soiled every paper on Mitzi’s desk out of sheer happiness. “I’m done with the project by the way, man.  It’s all over.  Do you think I could take a few days off this week, just today and tomorrow?”

Mitzi unclenched and walked over behind his desk and sat down, he saved what papers he could and noted on post-it’s what he would have to replace.   “Sure Billy, you can take a couple days off.  What about your partner here?”

“I,uh, yeah, I could use a couple days off too”  I sat down in the chair next to Billy.

“You guys are so intent on working me until I’m crazy, aren’t you” Billy straightened up. “The Popes, now this. You left your laptop on when you went to your desk and I could see some of the IMs from Mitzi up.”

“Look Billy, it’s not like we were trying to hurt you, these popes are amazing!  Did you always make stuff appear like this?” Mitzi started to settle into a rhythm, trying to smooth Billy out. “Billy, we’re your friends, it’s okay, you know.  You’re going to be well-paid for this when we figure out all the details, you know?”

“I know, man!  I know!  I already snagged all the notes off of Jerk-ass’s laptop here”  He thumbed at me.  “I’m gonna spend the next few days thinking about what I’m gonna do about this.  I can’t sue your asses, that would mean I’d have to produce these things,”he motioned to the foot tall Pope Eustace III that had waddled into the room, “all the time, just to prove I can.  Naw, man.  This is something else, I was going crazy.  YOU!  You put the idea in my head about the John Lennon thing too.”

I willed myself to get smaller, to shrink out of sight.  Billy was my friend and I had been exploiting his neurosis for my own ends.  I couldn’t have felt worse at that point in time. Mitzi figured out how to make it worse.

“Billy, c’mon, cool down.  It’s just between us.”

“Shut up! You Jim-Jay-Bullock looking fucker!” Billy stood up and pointed at me “This fucker is going to take me to the bar and get me drunker than a middle-school kid with two bottles of manischewitz!  Then you’re gonna cut me a check for a nice vacation, away from you assholes.  Maybe I’ll go to Disney World or something. C’mon asshole, get your ass in gear, it’s time to get my dose of Vitamin B”

Mitzi gave me a pained look and I got up to follow Billy as he led me out of the office and down the streets.  He straightened himself and looked at me with a devilish gleam in his eye.  “Do you wanna see something really cool man?”

“Uh, sure” I said, not sure what to expect.

“Check this out!” Billy held out his hand and 2 one-hundred dollar bills appeared in his hand.

“Holy Shit, since when can you do that?” I stared at the bills.

“Since I read your reports to Mitzi, man.  I was so mad at first, then I figured out what was really going on, I can make shit appear outta nowhere.  Then I gave it a bit of thought, I was kinda heavy when this all started and now I’m sorta thin, right?”

Billy had lost a ton of weight since we started seeing the Popes, mitzi and I had chalked it up to stress.

“It’s why they poop so much, they’re made of the stuff.  I make them out of the crap in my colon”  Billy beamed.  It’s poop-magic.

“So What now?  Are we cool?”  I asked.

“Oh yeah, man, we’re cool.  I know you didn’t really want to hurt me.  Next time you have a project that involves me thoughh, you tell me, kay?” he put his arm around me and stuff the bills into my pocket.

“How did you know abou the Poke-monster thing?”

“I was outside the door when Mitzi said it. So, are we gonna get our drunk on?”  Billy swerved me towards the Bar and sat at the counter.

“Billy, it’s only 10 AM.  Can we start with something light?”  I was overwhelmed.

“Sure man, two stouts”

Suddenly two stouts appeared in front of me.

“Drink up man”

Billy Grinned.

Twitter Updates for 2008-09-26

  • Suge Knight knows how to the stop the violence, take a nap #
  • Suge Knight knows how to play the violin #
  • Suge Knight’s got a taste for Diamonds #
  • And Suge Knight’s got a taste for Violence. #
  • There is a rap song about Suge Knight running through my head. It is a song that ONLY exisits in my head. #
  • It is performed by Fat Lip. #
  • If you eat at McDonalds, Suge Knight is keep your food preserved: http://tinyurl.com/3l2ukt #
  • The Cold War Kids are much more Generic when you get into their Album. Which is not so good. #
  • @RayS The View is okay, it’s better than Maury or Montel. in reply to RayS #
  • I don’t magically know you work for a competitor, if you do, you have to disclose that fact or you are acting in bad faith. #
  • WE all looked at each other and decided that public opinion was easily swayed, so we released an ad that said Our Guy won, and that was it. #
  • @joeljohnson It just dawned on me that you’ll have like 2000 UO kids pinging you all over so you won’t need any advice on where to go at all in reply to joeljohnson #
  • @happyguy I believe so in reply to happyguy #
  • Have to leave soon, putting the “batmobile” into the shop to get the muffler replaced. #
  • Alright, heading out. Time to visit the car doctor. #
  • @shelisrael McCain pulls ahead based on what though? I really want to start getting polls with comments on “why” from the polled. in reply to shelisrael #

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The Moral Majority Never Cease to Amaze

FedUp Canadian Fri, Sep 26, 08 at 08:27 AM
Firstly – obviously she is not responsible, mentally stable and mature enough to take care of a child. Children having children. And who’s stuck paying the bill? Secondly, (3) hours! Come on people, use your heads!! Think for gosh sakes! Enough already. Yes everyone, it’s just that easy for the Police and RCMP – “Oh Please, can you give us the baby.” Get Real! What kind of a society are we living in when the average Canadian cannot see past their noses what’s really going on out there! For all you Smart As___ . why don’t you go out there and deal with what the Police and RCMP have to deal with. Good Luck. But then when it comes Your Turn and you need their help, don’t complain because they tasered the guy who’s holding you hostage and some of that shock may have inadvertantly transfered to your body. Rather that than they try shooting him and hit you instead. Or maybe they don’t respond immediately when your house is broken into because they are spending (3) hours trying to talk a 16 yr old into handing over a baby she shouldn’t have custody of in the first place. And where were the parents and grandmother when all this was going on? Never mind, where were they before the incident began? Why is it that in todays society, it’s always someone else’s fault? I was raised to take responsibility for each and every one of my actions!

oh please Fri, Sep 26, 08 at 08:17 AM
i am not sure what all the fuse is about. it is obvious from this story that a taser was used on the stun mode. they did not shoot barbs into her. there is an infant at risk in an out of control situation and this “poor” teen is refusing all direction given by the police officers to let the baby go. lets not forget that the mother defied a supervision order, refused to give the baby to the officers and now wants to play the victim pathetic

B. Fri, Sep 26, 08 at 09:00 AM
Sorry Ms. Peterson but you’re definitely in the wrong on this one. Do as a police officer tells you what to do and you won’t get hurt. You weren’t being reasonable at all. You seemed to have very little respect for what the officers were telling you.

This is the WINNAR!

The backstory on this post is over here; essentially a young mother (16) wouldn’t let the police take her sick baby away from her.  The police were (if the story is accurate) simply acting in the “best interest” of the baby, but that’s not the reason I’m interested in this story.  It sucks that the girl was tasered, it sucks worse that the baby is going to have all this turmoil in their life and be sick (for the rest of their life).  I’ll quote the article here so that the main thrust is apparent:

A teen who was Tasered by police as she clutched her one-month-old son just wants her baby back.

Misha Peterson, 16, said Vancouver police held her down on a bed and shot her with a Taser twice on Monday while she held her one-month-old son, Taige.

“Three or four cops were holding me down and they Tasered me twice in the neck until I let go of my baby,” said Peterson.

Peterson said social services were trying to take Taige because her 17-year-old boyfriend, Scott Michell, broke a supervision requirement.

Michell can’t see his child without adult supervision after an argument about Peterson moving back to her mother’s “got out of hand,” she said.

Some of the details in the original story are vague, it takes a neutral tone to a fault, making the whole situation kind of muddy and doesn’t really provide enough framing on an obviously emotional story to allow us to form an opinion either way.  It’s good news, but a smart editor should have caught the kind of emotions it would provoke and tossed in some detail about the mother, the police and the whole situation to allow for fully-formed emotional responses rather than the knee-jerk ones we are treated to by the anonymous trolls I’ve quoted above.

It’s these trolls that I wish to address; I’m not referring to them as trolls in the internet sense (as in trolling for newbs, yo!) I’m referring to them in the (excuse the term) biblical sense, real trolls.  They squat around the internet and look for their next moral target, blaming the victims of police or government over-exuberance for not “just laying back and taking it like a man”

This girl has done what the Trolls wanted, she birthed a baby when she clearly could not handle it and should have taken the sane option of simply aborting the fetus or giving it up for adoption.  She clearly loves and wants the child.  She has passed the “life is important test” which the right to life will tell you is the most important test of all.  Why then, is she in a situation like this?  Shouldn’t society be all over her?  Making sure that both child and mother are in good shape?  It certainly seems like the police are acting to enforce the will of society to “help” the child, but I would state that perhaps they were too exuberant.

It’s this very exuberance that the trolls on the page applaud.

Which makes me question their very humanity.