#WritingFromIsolationWard
Category: Current Events
Republish this everywhere; okay?
From The Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/570638
The Canadian Auto Workers is criticizing the federal government for awarding a $254 million contract to a U.S. company to build trucks for the Canadian Forces at its plant in Texas while it is laying off workers at its plant in Chatham.
“Somebody has to explain to us why Canadian workers can’t build military trucks for the Canadian military,” said senior CAW executive Bob Chernecki, referring to a defence department contract to Illinois-based Navistar International Corp. to build 1,300 medium-duty trucks for the Canadian Forces.
…
Asked yesterday why the contract couldn’t have stipulated the trucks be built in Canada, a spokesperson for
Defense Minister Peter MacKay referred the Toronto Star to the public works department.“The workers in these facilities absolutely deserve the support of their government as we go through these very difficult and challenging times in our country,” said Lewenza’s letter.
“It seems the federal government has lost sight that in 2003 they invested in the Chatham facility, by
agreeing to provide over $30 million of assistance to Navistar to maintain these important jobs in the community and Ontario,” he told MacKay.In 2003, the Ontario government gave $35 million to Navistar to avert threatened closing of the Chatham plant.
Chernecki called it “nonsense” for Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to promise to boost the Canadian economy
with infrastructure jobs in the Jan. 27 budget, while another department “is putting taxpayer dollars into the U.S. economy.”A regional benefits clause requires Navistar to match the $254 million contract with equal investment in Canada.
My response:
Dear Pres. Obama,
Just caught the news that the Harper Tories are handing out cash from our taxes to your citizens, sweet deal. Tell you what; apply this “bailout” towards any unresolved debt I have left behind in the USA as I feel strongly that my 10000 dollar tax bill for 2008 will easily cover anything I have left behind. Use the remainder for your kids, I think they may need more school clothes or something.
Hugs and Kisses,
Kevin.
Seriously; could the Harper Government be any more transparently pro-USA? Its no wonder that the Harper Government is rolling towards Bush Levels of approval (35% right now) .
Why not just outsource the bureaucracy to some overseas form while you’re at it Stephen?
This image boils my butt; the pilot landed the craft. It wasn’t some miracle; human effort save all those people. It would have been a miracle if the plane had landed without any intervention on the part of the Pilot at all. Why minimize Human Achievement like this?
Growing up, it was my little sister who bled all the time. Her nose was like a Blood Pez Dispenser, dropping it’s wares all over the acres of the world at a moments notice with no warning or rhyme to why it was doing so. She wasn’t a nose picker (That was Me). I never got nose bleeds growing up, so whenever my nose would bleed it was an “event” for me. If only for the copious amounts of blood that would come from a relativley minor injury and in some cases from a mystery source (up my nose).
The first nosebleed I can clearly recall was given to me by one Raplph Grass, who punched me in the face during a shoving match at the beach. Dude was bigger than me, no joke and for the life of me he didn’t chase me off. I stood up to him and took my bloody nose like a small boy with a bloody nose who then went on to get serious sunstroke from being out in the summer sun for about 12 hours that day. So, Ralph Grass, thank-you for my first memorable nosebleed.
The next nosebleed I remember “for sure” was from Monique Duguay, who smacked me in the face with a snowball. It didn’t bleed much, but I remember to never again confess to anyone how much I admired her, as she was clearly a bitch. I don’t think that anymore, but for a while there, I was inconsolable on the matter.
After that it was a couple of years before anyone smacked me in the face hard enough to cause bleeding, in fact someone hit me SO HARD that I blacked out. He was twice my weight and goaded me into a fight, where he walloped me in the face and made me lose my mind. Oh well, I changed buses after that. I really forget his name, his surname was “White” he was a teacher’s kid and we all called him Winston. He was a big fat bully, simple as that.
Gillian bromfield punched me in the nose around the same time, when a cancer survivor is smacking you in the nose, you’re being an asshole. Right?
I think I’ve had a couple mystery bleeds along the way since then, but nothing to write home about (or even a blog post about). This last one over the weekend was a strange one because it bled like crazy for ages. I ended up with a tissue up my nose for about 30 minutes catching the dregs of it. It wasn’t volume, you understand, just persistence.
How about you? Any memorable Nosebleeds?
I’m no rock historian, I know about as much about the Stooges as the next guy, fronted by Wild Jim (Iggy Pop) and infamously awesome, The Stooges backed up one of (if not the most) explosive personalities to come out of Michigan (Fuck the Nuge) . I was not a fan of the Stooges in my youth, preferring the Mall-Ternative sounds of the Housemartins or The Sex Pistols to the “real shit” from American Artists. However, I was turned on to them by my (noticeably un-hip) room mate who made a joke about how I was hopelessly involved with a girl (You wanna be her Dog). He giggled himself stupid over how clever he was and when I didn’t get it he explained the whole Stooges connection. I liked Iggy Pop, but not as much as I did after that; because I really did want to be her Dog.
So, yeah. Dead at 60. Mr. Asheton leaves behind a catalogue of music to inspire generations of musicians and make kids want to bash themselves bloody in the name of Rock and Roll.
[Ron] Paul supports giving educational control back to parents, rather than allowing the federal government to fund the schools. He plans to discontinue the Department of Education and return its functions to the states
I lived in the States for a while, Oregon to be precise. State control of the Education Budget would be a disaster there; as the people would underfund the school system to death, then blame the schools for failing to educate their kids. I overheard dozens of Walmart Butter Trolls talking about vetoing school budget increases (needed to offset cuts imposed by NCLB) because the schools were doing a poor job of educating their kids. Of course! The answer is obvious, force the schools to cut budgets for education, that’ll make them teach HARDER to survive!
I wonder if the education System in Oregon has been producing these dunderheads forever or only since the electorate got to vote on budgets?
People will vote down any tax “increase” simple as that.
Good Old Ron Paul was like Tax Panecea for some folks, stupid folks.
M. Night Shyamalan has decided to cast white actors in the main roles of the upcoming motion picture based on the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. The problem: Avatar featured an Asian world with Asian characters, including Aang, the titular character, and his friends Sokka and Katara.
Some people are pissed, pointing to other instances of whitewashing. There’s a letter writing campaign and a Facebook group.
So now what? I’m tired of reading the LJ drama aroudn all of this; but here’s what I was going to post about this somewhere else:
I dig on the Airbender; it’s clever and funny. It’s not as smart as Phineas and Firb but what is on Saturday mornings? All that said, I don’t get this outrage at all.
Not a bit.
I’m not from North America, I come from a culture that is as old as any other, but I don’t “get” when people (who are predominantly not a member of my cultural group) both co-opt and defend my group. It’s my culture guys, if I want to defend it, let me handle the heavy lifting.
I can’t speak for the billions of Asians, no way, but I can speak for me and let me simply state what the outraged seem to fail to grasp, there is a vital and vibrant Asian film production market, Asians get to churn out all shades of asian movies all the time. If an Asian film maker wants to make a movie that resembles the Airbender story (let’s face it, it’s REALLY generic) with an all Thai cast (for example) then so be it.
In this case a Malay person is at the reigns (for the most part) and has cast some box office candy in the roles. This outrage really smacks of Otaku-Fanism, as if sharing your toy with the unwashed masses will somehow dilute the experience. I’m not grasping how this is Racist at all, it might be a bit desperate or money grubbing, but Racist? Please.
Me, I don’t know if I will pay to see a movie adaption of Avatar, why bother, right? The cartoons are out there for me to watch with the kids if I want. Why waste cash on what is bound to dilute the experience by virtue of not being the source material.
The last movie I saw that really expanded upon and made the source material pop was Trainspotting, so I don’t think any adaption cum money grab is going to shake any trees.
If you are REALLY outraged, vote with your feet and just avoid the damn thing.
I (for one) will be disappointed if they do recast the roles that have already been set; I’d hate to lose a job over my ethnicity, wouldn’t you? That kind of sums it up right there, in some way there are people out there so obsessed with their own ethnicity that it allows them to attempt to victimize others (en-masse) to somehow promote and protect that ethnicity. Imagine if there had already been a full cast of Asians in place and the reverse was now true? A bunch of European fans get together and form groups around demands for Caucasian actors in the roles of the title character and the blind girl (along with most of the people in the snow kingdom) then what?
In the end; the source material stands and the movie will be the movie. If you feel that strongly about the movie’s cast, by all means, feel strongly about it, but why impose your beliefs upon the general public? Avatar isn’t some cultural phenomenon like “Kung-Fu” it’s a somewhat well known Nick cartoon, the general public isn’t down with it, so it doesn’t have a cultural cache to pull from, it’s got a studio, some creative types and a need to make money. If we (as the general public) could have our dreams casts in our favourite movies Pierce Brosnan would have been bond right after Roger Moore and the Next Doctor might have been Joanna Lumley (or Rowan Atkinson) but we don’t get our dreams. Do we?
Fight on you crazy stars, it’s your right to complain about casting choices, but damn if I wish that the racism card wouldn’t be tossed around so quickly, and this is coming from a guy who actually profiles racists on his blog. I know that the last qualifier reads like “I can’t possibly be racist” which is the furthest from the truth, I totally can be racist and catch myself being so. It’s one of those human failings that we should recognise in ourselves.
The whole discussion of “I don’t see people like me on the screen” argument blows me away. Seriously. Outside of imported TV, I don’t see anyone like me on TV either, and when I do see someone like me on North American TV or Movies, they are buffoons (without fail). So What? Should I bitch about it and keep a blog of how offensive it is? OR have I learned one of the big lessons about life that some folks still need to learn, the prevailing culture of North America is a melange of cultures that end up in a stew or milieu that doesn’t actually reflect society instead it distorts society for it’s own entertainment, which the majority seems to like. Case Closed.
As for “I can’t Be Ang if Ang isn’t Asian on screen” what? How did you kill that kid’s imagination? Is it drugs? Seriously, that kid is having trouble seperating themselves from cartoons as fantasy.
Crazy Like a FOX! (UPDATED)
Published by NiteMayr on January 20, 2009If you didn’t see this “thinking” coming down the pipe when Justice Roberts intentionally flubbed the Oath, then you should shake your head and get it on straight. The Hope-Sauce won’t stop the serious nuts from trying to tear down their enemy by any mean necessary, imagine the rules-lawyering that will be deployed over that series of words!
Expect more of this kind of stuff over the next few weeks; it’ll be on snopes by end of week in an email circulated by the National Review’s readership.
In case you think I’m crazy:
Obama’s Oath: ‘Faithfully’ misspoken
Faithfully Misspoken: Close enough for Government Work?
As if on cue