Find Your Targets

I was watching the local news last night, mostly to see if anything new was going on in Ford Nation.

They ran a story about how His Worship Laughable Bumblefuck still has strong supporters and showed interviews with 3 or 4 people who more or less made excuses.

"There's been nothing proven in the courts."

"I think he's doing a good job, and if this doesn't interfere, who cares?"

"Everyone makes mistakes, we're all human."

etc..

Now, for the majority of viewers, this may have seemed fine. I noticed something though. I knew the neighbourhood all these people were being interviewed in. I used to live nearby, and I worked a couple summers across the road. All these people-in-the-street were found in the same place - directly in front of a pub, in the middle of the day. Each one looked... off. Unkempt, eyes glazed, and speech a wee bit slurred.

Yup, they found a bunch of drunks and asked them what they thought of Rob Ford.

At least we have an excuse for his base now.

Or Else What?

As a kid I remember it occurring to me that "or else" could mean nothing. Counting to 3 without a defined punishment at the end means that 4 could be what comes next.

I often find myself also thinking how delicate the agreed-upon rules of society are. If you walk out of a store with a bag full of stuff, that's shoplifting. I'd like to think most people don't steal because they know it's wrong. Many probably don't because they're afraid of getting arrested. But the reality is that if you went somewhere you rarely frequent and randomly walked out of a small store without paying for anything, that you'd probably never be punished.

An extreme example? Maybe. But so many rules are set up with the expectation people will act decently. The line "make me" or "what are you gonna do about it?" come to mind.

Which brings me to Rob Ford.

Toronto's Mayor's foibles and fuck ups have been well-documented. The latest twist is his friend, Alexander Lisi, a "stand-up guy" by Ford's own written admission, has been arrested for extortion, drug trafficking, and probably a few other things. The press got the documentation for the search warrants released, and they were revealing. Photos of Lisi and Ford going through spy-level package drops and meets, possibly drinking and driving, and generally looking shifty. Along with these came the admission from the Chief of Police that the cops also now had a copy of the crack-smoking video in their possession. The video Ford said didn't exist. The one that Ford had hoped had been mostly forgotten.

Oops.

So with this revelation, the media descended on City Hall. Ford came out, mumbled his way through excuses, and said he wasn't going to resign, because there was no reason for him to.

He's kind of right.

There are no criminal charges against Ford. Even if he WAS smoking crack in the video (and his lawyer has already said it wasn't crack in the pipe, or more accurately, that they can't prove it was crack, because straws offer good grasping support), that's not enough evidence to charge him with anything. It just means he's a liar, which most people already knew.

If you were accused of a crime and told to quit your job, would you? Or would you defend yourself? Especially if there was no actual charge, just the public casting you as guilty.

Ford SHOULD temporarily step aside to avoid being a further distraction, with the promise to return when his name is cleared. But he won't do that either.

For he knows full well that there's nothing anybody can do to him. Council can't have him removed. There's no recall option. The Provincial Government can only remove him if he's charged with (or convicted of?) a crime. He also knows the support he has left is among die-hard morons who would stand behind him as he threw puppies at a button that would nuke the city. So in short, what can be done to him? He'll just keep deflecting and denying and hoping it all blows over and is forgotten.

What this will do is reignite the investigations into his life and past. He will have no privacy, and no secrets. He knows the police are following and recording him. His friends are rapidly getting arrested. His allies are abandoning him to save their own hides. It will end up being him, his brother, David Price, and maybe one or two council members who are too stupid to get away.

Oh, and I expect Lisi will look for a plea bargain to avoid court, which could keep the video under wraps indefinitely. Because for some reason, the Ford family seems to be scarier to criminals than jail.

Here's hoping he doesn't see a second term.

Cracked

If you still read here, you've seen my rants against Mayor Laughable Bumblefuck, AKA Rob Ford. If you pay attention to any of the same information streams I do, then you know there's a video out there that appears to show our beloved mayor smoking crack with drug dealers in what's generally considered one of Toronto's worst neighbourhoods.

The saddest part about this is that it's not really all that surprising.

Alright, fine, nobody expected crack. Cocaine had been rumoured for a while. Getting drunk wasn't uncommon for him. He had been pulled over in the States once possessing weed. But crack? Really? Our millionaire moron mayor smoking crack? It'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic (okay, it's still funny).  This will all be rambly from here on out. What else is new.


It's day 7 since this all started, and there has been one comment from the Mayor. He claimed this was the Toronto Star going after him and that the claim is ridiculous. His brother Doug, a councilman, spoke yesterday with what sounded more like a campaign speech than anything of substance. Oh, and he attacked the Star as well.

As an aside, it should be pointed out that the Toronto Star is the most-read newspaper in Canada. It's generally well-respected, if a bit left-leaning. It isn't a tabloid, or a rag, or known for wild accusations and ill-researched propaganda.  That's the Sun (the firmly right-wing tabloid counterpart that Ford loves). The way the brothers Ford have talked about it for the past few years though might leave the impression it's the National Enquirer and Daily Mail and NY Post all in one. It isn't.

Also absent in these attacks is mention of Gawker's independent description of the video. That would lend credence to the story of course.

So, a week since this story broke, and no real comment from the accused Mayor. I'll grant the long weekend to him as time to circle the wagons and meet with his lawyers. But it's 3 days now since that ended. Indications are that his lawyers told him to shut the fuck up, and he's listening for a change.

Of course, none of that looks good on him. I mean, if I hadn't smoked crack and someone had video of someone who looked like me smoking crack, I'd deny it immediately.

Any hope that this will go away is foolish. It's only getting bigger.

Of course, with everything else this dipshit of a politician has done, who knows what effect this will have long-term?

Although he has lost his real job - high school football coach. The one he spent more time at than his elected office. The one that had him hire football assistants on the city payroll. The one that got him booted once from office for raising funds using city materials. I imaging being told he can't coach his team any more to be the bigger blow to him than any political fallout. Because priorities.

My guess for what will happen. Eventually he will have to speak. Either because Gawker buys the video and posts it, or his team finally figures out a way to confront this. It will go like this:

Blahblahblah I've done great things for this city blahdebloopbeblah The Toronto Star hates me and has been harrassing my family blahblahblahblah the left-wing commies are out to get me blahblahblah I am not perfect and have made mistakes blahdeblah nothing in my personal life has affected my performance at City Hall, I fight for the taxpayers, I'm doing a great job blablahblah I am stepping down as Mayor because of the pressure from the media on my family and it's affect on my health or some bullshit.

A video of him smoking from a pipe isn't nearly enough for a criminal charge. An admission of guilt might be problematic. So he won't directly admit anything while admitting it. Or, maybe his blubbering honesty will come through and he'll actually admit to it, seek help, and still blame the Star and the leftists.

One other alternative: A conspiracy gets tossed out. He was drugged and then given the crack when he was under the influence of something else in order to blackmail him. He's the victim here. He confronted these guys to protect his at-risk players, and they tricked him.

Regardless, this isn't the last we've heard of this buffoon.

Hey, local news is now covered with coverage of a city Councillor getting pulled over and failing  a breathalyzer and getting a warning. That should buy Rob another day.

Well, It's a Start

There's a post making the rounds in these parts from someone who voted for Rob Ford (henceforth known as Mayor Laughable Bumblefuck - H/T to Cory Doctorow). In it, the author tries to explain his ignorance at the polling station 2 years ago. How he thought Bumblefuck had more achievable goals, and that the stories of his ineptitude HAD to be overblown, because nobody could be that much of a buffoon, right?

Of course, he now realizes how wrong he was.

It's no excuse. You were a fucking moron.

I'm glad you've seen the error of your ways and are looking to make amends. But because of people who couldn't be bothered to spend about 30 seconds THINKING about the idiot who would be Mayor, we've had 2 years of bumbling idiocy from His Worship Bumblefuck.

Seriously, other than the union negotiations, can anybody tell me something productive he's achieved? And I'm not talking about the increase in civic interest because of his floundering.

Anybody with a brain and 5 minutes of time to read should have been able to see that Ford's "plans" were useless. That his promises held no ground in reality. Sure, we all wanted to believe there was tons of "gravy" at City Hall, but a look at the numbers showed that Toronto was pretty efficient as it was, and that the savings that could be found wouldn't amount to enough without severe cuts to services.

That aside, Bumblefuck's unadulterated aggression towards things like realistic transportation, bikes, urban dwellers, environmental causes, Pride, crime prevention over policing, or any sort of personal responsibility, not to mention his racist comments, legal troubles, and general stubbornness and buffoonery should have been red flags that he wasn't the mayor you wanted.

Sure, Smitherman was no peach himself, but was clearly the lesser of two evils. And when you vote for the lesser of two evils... YOU GET LESS EVIL.

The worst kind of voter is the uninformed one. The one who steps behind the box still debating who they'll vote for because they DON'T UNDERSTAND THE POSITIONS OR THE CANDIDATES. I'd rather you had come out and said "I got Rob Ford, I knew he could be a disaster, but I thought he was the better choice because his politics lined up more with my own." I might disagree with you then, but at least you'd come off as someone who gave a damn.  Instead you sound like you flipped a fucking coin because you got tired of hearing aspiring teachers cheer their union. Mayor Laughable Bumblefuck wasn't some unknown. He wasn't Rossi or Thompson. He had been a Councillor for TEN YEARS. His voting record and NUMEROUS public fuck-ups were well known. To say, "...claims about Ford’s ineptitude seemed not just exaggerated, but made up. Could anyone be so wildly unfit?" just says, "I was too lazy to use Google."

I'm glad you learned a lesson. I'm glad you're telling other people it's okay to be ashamed of their terrible choice. But maybe you should also talk about how you could have avoided looking like such an idiot in the first place.

But you ask for clemency. Fine, now that that's off my chest, you have it. You were young and inexperienced. You actually believed a politician and not your own brain. Never make that mistake again. If something sounds like it's so easy it should have already been done, spend at least a few minutes trying to find out why it hasn't. And for whatever being you choose's sake, don't EVER walk into a polling booth still trying to figure out who gets the X.

Up a Political Level

Tiny bit about the beauty of political nannyism from a Provincial level.

A while back, our Provincial government mandated that only healthy food be served in school cafeterias. No more fried crap and other unhealthy options that teenagers devour. Why? Because teens are morons who don't know better obviously. I'd kill for my teenage metabolism.

Seriously, large double Big Mac combo with a double Big Mac on the side with no weight gain. Man, I miss those days. Seems like only 30 lbs ago...

Anyway, since teenagers aren't generally held captive in their schools at lunch time around here, they all went across the road to their local malls and plazas to spend their money at the fast food establishments there instead of in the caf. Oh, yah, because they also pay for their meals.

Result? A few dozen school cafeterias are being shut down in the latest round of school board cuts because they've become money-losers after they couldn't sell cheap crap anymore.

Which means that the healthy option provided by those cafeterias is now gone, leaving... the same (or worse) crap food that they kids had before, except now the money goes to businesses instead of the schools.

Bravo.

City Swing

I had a fear when Rob Ford was elected as our mayor. The fear was that such a hard-right leaning mayor, who also happens to be an idiot, would result in a hard-left backlash come the next election. Toronto doesn't need a fiscally irresponsible hippie throwing money at every project and idea any more than it needs a mayor who doesn't understand that income is required to run a city.

Last week, the Mayor got his vote to cancel a 5-cent plastic bag fee to Council. The fee was instituted by the previous Mayor and has been incredibly successful in reducing the number of plastic bags being produced and sent to landfills. Some people are annoyed by it, but if you live here, it's not that difficult to get a few reusable bags or pay a nickel or two every once in a while.

To the surprise of many, the repeal of the fee passed. I had figured it would fail, but a motion to better direct these fees would come forward.

Instead, the fee was removed, and immediately afterwards, Council voted to ban plastic bags by next January. This was little more than big "fuck you" to Ford.

And it was a mistake.

I'm not against a plastic bag ban. I am against one that is done as a knee-jerk reaction with no planning, consultation, or plan. Are produce bags banned? Bulk food bags? What replaces the plastic bags? Do I have to buy a reusable bag every time I forget one? Or will paper be available? (Toronto has never really had the "paper or plastic?" option while I've been alive)

The LCBO (liquor store) dropped plastic bags a few years back, and many wept. They had the best plastic bags, those thick fuckers that could hold a ton of stuff and barely stretch, let alone break. They switched to paper only, except... not paper with handles. A big booze shopping trip now results in awkward balancing of bags if you don't bring your own or take a box. It's completely impractical if you want to pick up a couple bottles in the middle of shopping. If grocery stores switch to these type of bags, it could have a serious effect on those of us who walk to the store.

In the grand scheme of things, this is admittedly minor, if inconvenient. It certainly seems that the environmental benefit will be net positive, and people can adapt easily enough. Where my concern lies is that Council so easily passed this. They were annoyed with the Mayor and another of his stupid crusades, and they reacted by essentially saying "sure, here's what you want... and then something worse!" That's just poor governing. I want Council to be a voice of reason and a controlling element versus a terrible leader, not a power-mad organization who ignore what's best for what's most dramatic.

Bits

Leafs still suck, our Mayor and his lapdogs are still idiots, and I still have no idea what my final photography project will be.

Leafs - 8-0?? 8-0?????? WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Yah, it's Boston. Yah, they own us. Still 8-0?? You can't throw the whole season in ONE game guys! You have to lose them one at a time! Damned Leafs can't even lose right.

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OK Blue Jays!

Brett Lawrie's spring training numbers? 9 games, 23 AB, 5 runs, 14 hits, 6 doubles, 1 triple, 8 RBI, 1 walk, 1 strike out, 5 stolen bases, .609 avg, .625 OBP, .957 SLG!

Out with a groin strain.  Pulled himself from the game. All indications are he's a full-throttle player but a smart kid. Has superstar written all over him.

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Hey, let's say you really tied yourself to a failing plan for subways, but your council has all the evidence that supports light rail transit instead, and the citizens of your city are slowly swinging that way because they have brains and can see the evidence.

Do you

A) Provide feasible counter-evidence supporting subways as a better long-term solution, along with at least a bare-bones plan for funding the subway?

B) Enter into an intelligent debate in an attempt to find a workable compromise between the plans.

C) Call the latest commissioned report "hogwash", without any evidence, because it 100% supports LRT development as the best option even when money isn't taken into account. Then have one of your lackey councillors hand out pictures of LRT crashes to the opposition, including pictures of a couple that died in one, considering that some sort of evidence that subways are better.

If you said C, then you may be qualified to be Mayor of Toronto! Actually, no, you aren't qualified, you're an idiot who might get elected by people who were too lazy to spend 5 seconds looking beyond your obviously empty promises.

Remember kids - things crash! You know what crashes more? Cars! Also bikes. And planes. And people running, or walking but not looking where they're going.  Oh, and subways sometimes. Devastatingly so.

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Final project is due in a couple weeks for the latest photography class. Subject - whatever the hell I want.  Just make it look purdy.

Except I have no idea what I want to do.  Poker night last semester didn't work as I wanted. So I'm hesitant to set up a whole scene again.

My latest thought was origami.  I have a rather kick-ass Zombiegami book I got for Christmas, with coloured papers and complex designs.  My first attempt from it half worked out, but if I actually started folding when not watching TV, I imagine I could get a nice little paper zombie apocalypse going... a couple set pieces and it could be something interesting.

Yah, I'm liking that more all the time. It's good to type things out.

Tit for Tat

Yah, yah... Toronto politics.

Okay, quick recap: Toronto had viable transit expansion plan and funding. New Mayor comes in, tries to scuttle plan for some unaffordable less expansive plan that is all underground because he wants that, despite driving everywhere. Council grows a spine and stands up to him, with major help from his hand-picked head of the Transit board., who I can only believe learned something about the city's transit by being in charge of it. Mayor rejects compromise that would make him look like a winner and quasi-decent leader who is learning from mistakes. Council restores old plan, tells Mayor to go fuck himself.  Mayor calls council irrelevant. Mayor's lackeys fire Chief General Manager of TTC, who has worked there 35 years. Why? Because he did his job and told the truth about how dumb the Mayor's plan was.

Mayor and Councillor Stintz (TTC board Chair) both wanted to revamp the board. They reached a compromise, and then something happened on the Mayor's side that derailed the whole thing. Likely that he refused to acknowledge the will of the council. Compromise was 5 Councillors,  4 citizens, current board in place until June.

Yesterday, Council shitcanned all the Mayor's lackeys from the TTC board. The 5 lapdogs who fired the GM are now wondering what board they can sit on now. They also changed the makeup of the board - now 7 councillors, 4 citizens, with the councillors being appointed immediately, citizens coming on in June.

Board, including Chair was dissolved, and then a new one voted on. Stintz was re-elected as chair, and the 6 other members were minus all the Mayoral asskissers from before, replaced with a heavier pro-logic group. In short, Mayor gets his ass handed to him again. This time, the vote in favour of Stintz' plan was even more in her favour than the last big one.

So now there's a TTC board that's aligned with council, meaning yet another avenue of roadblocks from the Mayor has been repaved for smoother driving.

Oddly enough, Mayor Ford has yet to open his mouth yet, likely because his handlers have pointed out it's harder to put his foot in it that way.  He was barely in the meeting yesterday - you know, where he should be as a leader.

Now, some leaders realize that they have to reach a compromise with the representatives they supposedly lead. This can be done either by meeting them partway, bullying, bribing, or convincing.  Ford is not great orator. He's shown that his arguments time and again lack any validity in the world of truth and logic, so convincing is right out. He successfully bullied and bribed for a while, but has since run into issues bigger than his short term threats and promises. He's been offered compromises that are HEAVILY in his favour time and again and rejected them without a second thought.  Most people would realize they're beat at this point and that maybe they're part of the problem. Some people, like our esteemed Mayor, entrench themselves further, bury their head in the sand, and throw tantrums.  He continues to neuter himself in the eyes of the city and the province. He continues to be an embarrassment to those he claims to represent.

And as he continues to lose power and face, he'll continue to lose supporters. Those who still vote unquestioningly with him will drift. Those who have become so embedded with him that they can't escape will seek spin. There's his major ring-kisser who has shifted his rhetoric to include his riding more often now - possibly in an effort to play the "I fought for my riding's best interests!" card when elections roll around again, and hope that's enough to beat the "He stuck to the Mayor like a conjoined twin!" spiel from whoever his opponents will be.

As before, if nothing else, he's made the citizens of Toronto give a damn about their political process.

The Flailing of a Failing Dictator

More Toronto politics folks.

When we last left our intrepid mayor, he had suffered a defeat at the hands of council. His lackeys looked chagrined, and he was at a bit of a loss.

To the surprise of nobody, he's been lashing out in his own special petty way.

First, there were the Ford-side councillors who sent a letter to our Provincial government that said "hey, council is irrelevant, so you should just ignore that vote."

You don't get to pick and choose if you're relevant in a democracy. You can't cry because you didn't get your way and say you don't matter. Because the next time something goes your way, but the people up the ladder don't like it, they can say, "huh, I thought you said you were irrelevant."

Idiots.

Then word came that the TTC chief general manager, Gary Webster, had sent a report to Ford a while back basically saying, "Um, dude, your plan for a subway makes no sense, will never make sense, isn't feasible, and would be extending a mistake made over a decade ago that resulted in none of the promised gains."  Also known as the truth. Our esteemed mayor and his lackeys decided this report wouldn't be released to the public or council - you know, a vital piece of information that could help inform their decisions about the project.

That same guy made the mistake of telling the truth at the big special council meeting too - 135,000 more people served using the LRT plan instead of the subway plan. Far better value for the dollar.

In short, he wasn't making friends with Ford.  He refused to drop to his knees for the emperor of Toronto.

So Ford's lackeys on the TTC board called their own special meeting of their group, and fired the chief general manager. The guy who's been working for the city for 37 years. Why? For no just cause, but because he didn't kowtow to the Mayor's whims.

The sycophants who still side with Ford toed the same line - "A civic employee should hold the same vision as the Mayor."

No. A civil servant should serve the needs of the citizenry. The ideal civil servant should be apolitical, and be relying on facts and the truth. They shouldn't twist these things to match the current administration's viewpoint if it's directly at odds with reality.  This is why there is a civil service and bureaucracy - to maintain a steady flow of operations as leadership and mandates change.

Oh, and the vote? 5-4. Exactly along the lines of those who "want subways" and those who have a fucking brain.

But, council has still spoken. Firing the guy running the day-to-day of the TTC doesn't change that. It's the bully going after the random kid because his teacher gave him detention and the Principal backed it up. I'm sure Webster's replacement will be someone more in-line with our Mayor. Which means more roadblocks and stumbling blocks to a realistic transit solution finding its way into my city. But hey, anyone who thought Ford wouldn't muck up the works instead of accomplishing anything of significance needs to have their independent thought examined.

Edit: Turns out Webster was one year away from retirement. Also, The Holy Roman Mayor managed to say that the "general public" wanted the TTC to "move forward" with a straight face. I assume he fist-pumped once he was out of sight.

Addendum #2: I forgot to mention that the whispered cost of terminating his contract early? $500,000. Yup. Ford's desire to turf someone who didn't agree with him will cost his beloved "taxpayers" half a mil so he can sit at home instead of working for one more year for, I assume, less money. CHOO CHOO! What's that? Oh, it's the GRAVY TRAIN!!! WOOO WOOO!! Thanks for stopping that your Worship.

Note: "His Worship" is actually the proper title/address for the Mayor.

The Better Way

This is Toronto-centric. Also, it's long. Leave now if you don't care.

Yesterday, an astounding example of community activism and municipal democracy happened in my fair city.  But first, some background.

Our previous city government, under mayor David Miller, approved the most ambitious transit plan that Toronto has seen in decades. Ours is a city of the car - gridlock during the day, poor bike infrastructure, 3 subway lines, and a bunch of streetcars and buses. The Transit City plan would use LRT lines to expand this infrastructre - replacing a line at the end of its life (Scarborough RT), replacing a dozen bus lines with one contiguous rapid transit line (Eglinton), providing those with the worst commute in the city with a sleek new system (Finch), and extending other lines to the people who needed them.  Environmental assessments were done, provincial funding was guaranteed to the tune of $8.4 billion, and while some compromises had to be found, it was full steam ahead to finally expand a system that had only seen a stub of a subway line added in the previous 30 years of explosive growth.

If it all worked out, even more ambitious plans were in the works - a downtown relief line, extensions to University and College campuses that are currently a pain to get to, connections to major attractions and the airport. In short, what would eventually be better access through one of North America's largest cities.

Then came Rob Ford. Our current buffoon of a mayor. He campaigned on "ending the gravy train" at City Hall. He promised those wonderful "efficiencies" that are all the rage but never really found.  He also promised a subway to our eastern wing, Scarborough.  A subway that would run along a stretch where the density is far too low to support such a system. Hell, they build a Sheppard subway in the 90's that they considered closing in the 2000's because ridership was so low.  He wanted to extend that mistake.

So day 1 in office, he "cancelled" Transit City. A plan, that while not perfect, was our best hope for comprehensive transit in our lifetimes. A project that was fully funded, fully supported, and where DIGGING HAD ALREADY STARTED.  Why? He wanted a subway to Scarborough. Fuck the rest of the city.

So he marched to our Provincial leader and demanded they let him have his way. They acquiesced - an election was coming after all, the world was jerking to the right, and Ford had some sort of inexplicable momentum behind him.

So work stopped. The organization in charge looked at alternatives. Ford demanded that the $8.4 billion, instead of building 2 new lines, replacing a 3rd, and extending a 4th, all be dumped into burying the Eglinton line and replacing the Scarborough RT. Because that's how much it would cost to take a reasonable plan for that street (buried for a bunch, surface route in lower-density areas) into a "subway".  I guess it beat his alternative - the whole kitty into the subway to the east that would be underutilized for 50 years.

But all was not lost! No! He also was going to find magic beans he called "private sector money" to pay for his glorious Sheppard subway to Scarborough. Of course, nobody in the private sector had been consulted. Nobody had done a study to see if it was even feasible. But dammit, Rob Ford felt it in his gut, so it would be!

Except it wasn't. Instead of a proper feasibility study, he asked one lackey to put together a report. This guy came up with "yah, it could happen. If we have road tolls to pay for 60% of it." Road tolls being anathema to politicians in this city. I dunno, New York seems to get by with them. I hear  London has adapted too.

Anyway, along with this report came a legal decision that another councillor had asked for. A prominent legal firm here determined that no, Rob Ford was not, in fact, a king. He couldn't unilaterally cancel a plan that had been approved by the council. The council had to vote on it.

Drats! Democracy again?

And that was the release on the giant boulder at the top of the ramp. Within days of this opinion being released, Ford's plans were being squashed. Karen Stintz, former Ford lackey who he had hand-picked to head up our Transit Commission turned on him. She presented a compromise! A COMPROMISE! THE HEATHEN! She suggested that maybe Eglinton could be unburied a little bit. Not as much as originally, but also not all underground. It could save $2 billion that could restore some of the other plans a bit, and give Ford a boost for his white elephant subway.

The response? NO! NO! NO! Ford gets tantrumy (as is his wont) and his lapdogs on the TTC board turn on their leader and vote her down.

So she says, fine... I tried to be nice.

She gathered up more than half the councillors and had them sign a petition to call a special meeting of council. This is an exceedingly rare occurrence. I'm not entirely sure it's EVER happened before. This meeting was to put forth the original plan in all its glory for final approval. Mayor be damned.

Rob cried and whined! NO! I'M THE MAYOR! PEOPLE ELECTED ME TO BUILD SUBWAYS!! I WILL REND THE EARTH WITH MY BARE HANDS AND YELL CHOO! CHOO! DOWN THE TUNNELS!

Or something to that effect.

The councillors approached him right up the last minute, offering compromises that would still make him look good. There could still be a subway! Just make an allowance here so the poor (literally) people on Finch can get to work faster.  He refused.

So yesterday, the full council met, made speeches, pleas, and motions. Even then, a compromise was made - Sheppard was left off the table. It would be further explored to see if a subway made sense. Rob still bitched. He tried to get the whole thing delayed - that was defeated quickly, and he disappeared for hours afterwards.

His yes-people spewed blatant lies and the same old misinformation to try and swing the vote and instill fear. They read letters from citizens that sounded hand-written by the mayor himself so effusive of his plan were they.  Those who supported the original plan spoke clearly, used facts, and even a bit of sarcasm and humour to shoot down their opponents. They swayed a couple more votes in the process, and in the end, 58% of the council voted to approve the original plan, and tell the mayor to go fuck himself.  In far more political language of course.

So naturally, the mayor called the meeting "irrelevant", his #1 fluffer said the meeting was an exercise in ramming things down their throats.  Some of his supporters looked a bit ashamed that they were following such a moron who had no respect for democracy.  Some claimed the mayor and the province should just ignore the wishes of council. After all, the mayor was elected, so people want what he wants. The rest of council, also elected and representing citizens, be damned.

Then, our esteemed mayor went out the broke-down, soon-to-be-replaced Scarborough RT and rode it. He asked people if they'd rather a subway than that piece of crap. Unsurprisingly, they said yes. Of course, he didn't ask if they'd rather have ANYTHING other than that piece of crap.  It was a publicity stunt that screamed of desperation.

But, to the chagrin of him, and joy of more than him - the province came out almost immediately and essentially said "We will do what council wants, not one man."

So, now the next step comes. Metrolinx (the overseeing organization) now has to figure out the logistics. The TTC has to move forward with them. The mayor will likely try a few more things to stop it, but for now, the will of the people and their representatives seem strong.  People are fed up with a 3rd-rate transit system in a gridlocked city.

This mayor has been a disgrace, and embarrassment, and a fool. We have him for almost 3 more years. But his defeats are starting to pile up as the level of political activism in my fair city continues to rise. People are involved in the process in a way never before seen. They've realized that their voice counts, and that they can bring change where they want it.  Either Ford has to learn to accept compromises, or he has to get used to losing. His "Ford Nation" is now a small island, and it's shrinking.

Bye Jack

Canada has had 3 major federal parties for decades now. The youngest of those is the NDP. Little more than a fringe party for most of my life (amassing 5-10% of the seats), its fortunes turned around in our last federal election.

Starting out as a big farm-supporting party, it became synonymous with union support, exorbitant spending, and general leftist policies. I supported many of their beliefs (green before green was a thing, support for the needy, and generally being decent human beings), but not their economics. Plus, their leaders were often about as endearing as a soggy piece of toast.

Then Jack Layton came along. Still an NDP idealist, he seemed to recognize that they had to play ball with politics at some level if they wanted to be more than a disproportionately loud voice in the House of Commons. He got the NDP fundraising to a level its never seen, he dragged the party to a more centrist and populist point. He took his used-car salesman look and became an endearing man of the people.

I voted for him. My justification was that I couldn't get behind the other two serious options available - a right-wing party that wasn't the progressive conservatives I had grown up with, and a centrist party that had managed to do nothing of substance over my lifetime. The NDP was never going to win, but I liked them as a conscience vote. They could have swing power in the minority governments we'd been seeing. Their policies would have to be enacted to some degree, filtered through a more economically conservative sieve. They kept the other parties more honest.

Then something unexpected happened last time. They started winning seats. Lots of seats. Way more than they'd ever seen. The supporters of the do-nothing Liberals were sick of their smarmy leader and lack of achievement, and those of the Bloc Quebecois were heading to the NDP in droves. The NDP pulled in over 100 seats, when they'd seldom seen 20 in the past. They were the official opposition to an (unfortunate) Conservative majority, behind by only 63 seats, and 9% of the vote. They had a larger voice than ever, but very little power. Regardless, it was a watershed event in Canadian politics, and there was no doubt in anybody's mind that it was all due to Jack. His "nice smile", friendly demeanour, and promises of holding our Prime Minister accountable for his actions brought the whole party's standing upwards. Candidates who were nothing more than placeholders found themselves elected despite not running any sort of real campaign. The "orange wave" swept across the country and sent a message that people wanted a change. I actually found it a little scary, and recall fearing that they could actually WIN the election while I watched the votes come in. The party had never seen these heights. And it was all thanks to their leader.

This morning he died.

Three and a half months after his party swept to their greatest victory ever, he lost his battle with cancer and passed away at home with his family by his side. A sad day in Canadian politics to be sure.

His legacy will live on. His wife Olivia Chow is also a Member of Parliament for the NDP. His son Mike is a Toronto City Councillor. But neither has the charisma of Jack.

With Jack's death the fate of the NDP is very much up in the air. Think Apple if Steve Jobs died. The party will obviously continue on, and will maintain its position as the official opposition until the next election. But without the cult of personality that surrounds its departed leader, their chances of maintaining their momentum are in doubt. If they maintain a loud, unified voice over the next 4 years, and prove they have Canada's interests ahead of their own, then they might be able to continue being a force. But if they falter, if they return to their socialist roots (and they have been unabashedly so in the past), if they once again give the idea that they'd rather tax and spend then bring realistic economics to bear, then they'll find themselves back on the fringe.

But for now, they have a voice. Here's hoping they won't waste what their leader gave them.

One more thing. At this year's Toronto Pride Parade, there was no cheer louder than the one that went up when the NDP's orange float went by. The Conservatives were nowhere to be seen, the Liberals had all the oomph that would be expected of a defeated giant and felt like little more than vague political grandstanding, but the NDP float was pumped - flags, cheers, jumping, dancing, and smiles all around. Led by this guy:



Bye Jack.

Combinatorics

I don't know about you, but when actually start to study a topic I already know something about, I often see the baby flying out in a large splash of bathwater before I pull it back in. Or less terribly-worded, I jump into the new ideas, ignoring what I already know, but eventually find the right combination of new and old experience.

Politics - what's the old saying? You're a democrat until the government takes your money, and then you go republican. I'd like to think that as we become more exposed to life, the intelligent among us start to see the subtleties and realities that we missed in our younger rose-coloured days. We find what we're passionate about, or what makes sense to us, and follow that path. Some eschew all materialism and build a cabin the woods to live off the land while giving all their possessions to an orphanage. Others become birthers who move to a cabin in the woods afraid the gubmint is gonna take their teeth. Most find a happy medium where they develop an opinion about stuff and continue on with their daily lives, adjusting as needed.

Poker? Read Harrington, or Negreanu, go through a thread on a forum about small ball, and our game changes overnight. Suddenly we're playing crap for small bets or checking M constantly to determine if our JTo is push-worthy. Inevitably, sticking "to the book" results in being very easy to read and control. Good players adapt and find some combination of lessons that fits their situation. Changing gears and all that.

We read about someone who took their own path and found a life model that made them rich and successful. Suddenly, what they did is what we're going to do, with no consideration for the differences in our situations. You can't invent a second pet rock and expect it to sell as well as the first.

No, eventually the excitement of our "discovery" of new methodologies wanes, and our old practices start to reassert themselves. These former rivals often find a means of melding into a new outlook that often works better, for us, than either did by themselves.

I'm slowly coming to that stage in photography. I find I'm swinging wildly between old habits and new lessons. I long ago started filtering the information being fed to me through a screen of care/don't care, but now I'm starting to see what's left behind.

We covered portraits a few weeks back, something I've never really done. I learned something - I hate portraits. I can't help but think that a couple pieces of advice from the teacher might have changed that mindset a bit. Even so, posing someone, checking lighting while the subject is in flux, and trying to make a living, breathing, feeling person look good is a collection of things I don't like. If you take a bad picture of a landscape, the landscape isn't going to care, and it will still be where you left it. The whole class was me trying to apply the various points of instruction from the previous week. I was a bit stressed, and fairly unhappy by the end. I looked at the hundreds of shots I took during that session, and was glad I only had to find 5-10, since I dislike most of them. I had applied none of the things I've learned in the past, and my shots look like those of a raw newbie. I'll see what I can fix in post.

But then we did black and white photography - another area I have zero experience in. This time, I had much more fun. I can look back and see various reasons - subjects that don't move or care what their picture looks like, more real-time advice from the instructor, and a bit more comfort in the studio after the portraiture session. But I think the key change was me tossing aside some of the opinions that had been pressed on us and going with what I knew. My tripod was out early and my camera stayed on it. My Promote Control was attached and I was bracketing shots for HDR use later. I switched between prime and zoom lenses as needed (although I pretty much stuck with my macro by the end). I went back into a comfort zone I've known for years and found the right amount of new education to bring in. Looking through the, again, hundreds of images from that session, I loved most of them. I'm in the process of whittling down the count to a displayable number, some HDR, some not.

I think my favourite part of that session was when the teacher was talking to my group towards the end. I had my camera 6ft in the air on the tripod, control in my hand, and I fired off 9 bracketed shots. The "what the hell is he doing?" look crossed the teacher's face, which one of my partners graciously responded to with "HDR" in a tone that said, "he's been doing this all class." El instructo thought for a second, said, "Black and white HDR?" thought some more, and then said "That could be really interesting."

Considering HDR is all about light and texture, the same areas that B&W focuses on, I had thought the same thing.

Favourite shot from the session so far:

So It Begins (local politics)

Rob Ford begins his tenure as our esteemed Mayor today.

Always a wallflower and one who likes to keep his big trap shut, he's already pissing me off. This will be all over the place, with no backing evidence, and also, I'm hungover and tired. Forewarned, you are.

"People do not want streetcars. We're going to start building subways and we're going to start right now."

This one sentence contains so much condensed stupid, I'm surprised it didn't collapse into a black hole of stupid, dragging all surrounding intelligence into its stupid maw.

Toronto has an approved and funded transit plan. Transit City will lay out light rail transit lines across the city (not streetcars), cost a few billion over decades, and should surpass the needs of this city beyond that. Assessments of ridership, growth, cost, and environmental impact have been done. Contracts have been signed with various companies to provide vehicles, lay track, etc.. Higher levels of government have approved the plan and promised funding for it. It's all been budgeted, and the ball is already rolling.

Subways are a pipe dream. They'll cost 3-5x more than the agreed-upon system, create even larger disruptions in traffic and daily life (entire streets completely dug up and exposed, buildings and houses torn down for stations, etc.), and would require a whole new round of assessments that wouldn't be completed until at least the NEXT election has come and gone. Sure, subways would be great, if they were remotely practical.

On top of that, subways would be nearly empty. The proposed routes don't have nearly enough ridership throughout the day to support the capacity of a subway system. An LRT system not only meets current needs, but surpasses them enough that it will take decades of growth to reach a level of saturation.

Then there's the contracts already signed. Bombardier and others aren't going to shrug and say, "oh, you changed your mind... that's okay." Hundreds of millions in cancellation costs would come into play. Years of planning tossed out the window. For something that WILL NOT BE REALIZED. "Start right now?" You're fucking dreaming.

Now, this level of idiocy sets of alarms in my head - he can't be THIS stupid, can he? It's some sort of political ploy. Distract the masses with an outrageous claim. The real goal is to just dismantle transit plans until the next Mayor has to make decisions. Something like that. Except that Ford and his team haven't shown nearly enough acumen to be that smart. This reeks of pure, unadulterated stupid. Our mayor can't see past the end of his nose, let alone any sort of broad picture or consequences.

He wants to cut costs, and the FIRST thing he proposes would add BILLIONS to them.

Maybe he should just set up a model railroad and convince himself he's achieved his goal. He can be mayor of Moronia.

Fuck, it's going to be a long four years.

The Economy and Poker Comparisons

A rather long, boring write-up on market reaction to the EU's proposed trillion $ aid package is here. But the segment I'm interested in is this:

“There has been a poker game going on between the markets and the EU,” said Gary Jenkins, head of credit strategy at Evolution Securities Ltd. in London. “This is probably reaching a climax as the EU has just gone ‘all in.’”

This is hardly the most egregious misuse of the phrase "all in", but it's not precisely accurate. Going all-in suggests that you've put everything you have on the line. In a tournament, if you lose, you're out.

But the economy isn't a tournament. It's a cash game. You go all-in there, then you may very well have some more cash in your pocket, or be willing to make a trip to Ye Olde ATM. In fact, if you aren't, then maybe you shouldn't have sat down in the first place.

And the opponent they're going all-in against in this case is a broke-ass degenerate gambler who's chasing more losses than he could ever hope to repay. This is the guy who has markers at every casino, have hit up all their friends for cash to the point where they don't have any more friends, been disowned by their family, and have five gorillas standing at the rail waiting to break their knees or take their money for the mobs they work for.

In short, they're going to call no matter what. Then, regardless of the cards, they're going to take all the cash and run for it. By the time the EU catches them, they'll have lost all the money and be sitting at another table.

And the EU will pull out its ATM card and reload.

A Thought

A while back, Canada had 3 major airlines. Air Canada, CP Air, and Wardair.

Air Canada was government owned, CP Air (formerly Canadian Pacific, later Canadian Airlines) was your everyday publicly owned company with stocks and such, as was Wardair.

Wardair had fantastic service, great meals, and was the smallest of the three. They were eventually bought by CP Air (leading to the change to Canadian Airlines). There were two big players in the market.

Canadian had struggled throughout their existence, like most airlines do. Air Canada, being owned by the government, was "debt-free", and the bigger dog.

Then the government decided to sell Air Canada off. It became a public corporation just like Canadian. Then the usual airline downswings happened, and competition between two large airlines in a country with fairly low population density was looking unfeasible. They merged, with Air Canada taking over Canadian by government decree. Why? Because Air Canada was the one in the better position. To speak to Air Canada employees, it was because they were the better company and that their competition was never good at running a business. Woe be they who reminded them that they were born, raised, and matured as a wholly-owned government agency. So when they finally became public, they were debt-free. It had nothing to do with running a business and everything to do with taxpayers footing the bill for decades.

Soon enough, they went bankrupt too, then again, then almost again a few weeks ago before refinancing like mad.

The point? That government corporations have built-in safety net with the taxpayers. The reason private companies can effectively compete with them is because they are so INefficient that if it wasn't for this net, they'd be dead.

I can't imagine a parallel that could be drawn in the US right now...

When You Don't Need It

Good ol' Helicopter Ben Bernanke is sitting in front of the Senate Banking Committee and spinning his usual bullshit.

But I want to focus on one thing that's been consistent throughout this whole debacle - the constant pressure for banks to lend to "creditworthy" customers.

What's the old saying? Banks only lend you money if you can prove you don't need them to.

The people who have good credit are those who have shown that they have the ability to spend within their means. Mortgages used to only go to people who could show that they'd EVENTUALLY have the money for the house anyway - after all, that's what you're doing with a mortgage, slowly buying your house - but only had a percentage of that money on hand. Same with business loans - you've proven that your business can pay off the loan, and if you'd just save the money now, you could eventually pay for it yourself.

But loans exist because of time. Sure, a business owner could put $1000 a month in the bank for 5 years and have $60,000 to renovate or expand the business. But in 5 years, that $60k won't buy as much, and it's 5 years of the business getting by without the changes. So the owner goes to the bank, shows that he has an extra $1000 a month, and the bank exchanges him $60k for that $1000 every month. This way, the owner can make the changes now, reap the rewards, and he eventually has paid off that $60k, plus some interest, which is for the convenience of having the money now.

That all changed during the credit bubble.

Rates got so low, that the interest became inconsequential. Banks weren't going to earn much on the loans, so they needed to make more of them. They loosened the standards because the collateral being used - largely real estate - was going up, up, up in value.

And then it collapsed, and everybody who should never have seen a loan in the first place defaulted on them.

The banks tightened the purse strings, and were responsible again for the first time in nearly a decade. They're getting berated for being financially sound in their decisions now, because the world has become so used to living on borrowed money that they can't remember fundamental economics - if you don't have the money, don't buy it.

And now the pressure is being reapplied - lend to the creditworthy! It used to just be "lend!" now they've added a qualifier so as to not piss people off. The problem is this: The creditworthy are too smart to borrow money.

They've saved. They've taken note of what they can and can't afford. They look at investments and determine what is actually a value play instead of just a dream and crying call of a purchase in hopes of positive return. And they're patient.

The business owners who have solid credit scores are biding their time. The addition on the building can wait. The expansion plans aren't necessary right now when business has dropped. The upgraded equipment will still be available in six months. The money can be saved with minimal concern at this point, because it's better to have a cushion of cash than a black hole of debt. Those that DO want loans will shop around for the best rate, and they'll minimize that loan by finding opportunities that offer the best value. If they need $20,000, they'll ask for $20,000. They won't take the $100,000 they'll be offered, because they don't need it.

The point being - you can't lend to customers that don't exist. The pool of borrowers has dried up to a puddle, and the fish aren't jumping. Turning up the heat on the banks to lend to the creditworthy at this point means redefining "creditworthy", and that's what go us into this mess in the first place.

Iran

In Canada, there's currently a bit of debate going on between our minority government and the official opposition. Something about employment insurance and other items that are being used as a political springboard as Michael Ignatieff (or "Iggy") tests the waters to see if we'd accept another election.

The short answer is, "no." The only people who want an election are the Liberals and NDP. The rest of the country still doesn't want to go to the polls AGAIN, even if we generally think our Prime Minister is an asshole and a dork who has no fucking clue what he's doing. Thing is, Iggy's not that much better a choice.

But regardless of the outcome, this is a battle carried on mostly in the media, with the citizens grumbling a bit and generally not giving much of a rat's ass.

It's all quite boring and inconsequential when you compare it to what's going on in Iran.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a landslide (62% of the vote) victory over the weekend over his opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi. (An aside: When did over 60% become a landslide? I'd think 70% would be the minimum qualification for such a powerful word). Of course, very few people believe this. Mousavi lost in his home town, which is kind of hard to believe. He lost in districts that were politically aligned with his views. And not by a little. Election results were announced BEFORE THE POLLS CLOSED. In short, other than Ahmadinejad's supporters, nobody in the country believes the election was fair.

Here's the interesting thing - they're not taking it quietly. Iran has traditionally been a theocracy. The President isn't even the true leader, that's the Ayatollah. This is a region of the world where the oppressed tend to stay oppressed. Police and military enforce the will of the leadership. This time though, there are angry riots, demonstrations, and protests. The millions of opposition supporters aren't taking it lying down.

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad is making speeches about how Iran is the most pure democracy in the world, and how it's the most stable government in the world. As Jon Stewart put it last night - not even his translator is buying it.

Apparently the Ayatollah has requested an investigation into the election. One might suspect such an investigation would be as believable as the election results to the protestors.

I'm in no position to say if the election was legit or not. My gut says it wasn't, but I'm watching this from half a world away.

The true results of this chaos is in the hands of the Iranian citizenry. The rest of the world will offer support, will chastise the government if an investigation isn't done properly, and might even threaten a sanction or two. But Iran is too powerful a country in too volatile a part of the world for the major countries to piss off. So the questions that need to be asked are - Is the will of the people strong enough to accomplish change? Can they bring a government that is truly representative of the people into being? What do the people truly believe anyway?

In the meantime, I feel for the people. They are standing up for what they believe, and the emotions have simmered below the surface for so long that now they're erupting through the fissure that's been created by this election. I find myself siding with the protestors - if for no other reason that image #29 in the photo set linked above.

China's Laughing

I might as well link to Mish again, since he's got the important parts up.

Yu Yongding, is a former advisor to China's central bank. He publicly asked Tim Geithner if he could see his math on the idiotic lies that the Fed and Gubmint have been spouting about how they'll lower the deficit and keep the dollar strong.

He then called the US, "the world’s biggest junk investor" and then said the Fed has dropped “tons of money from the sky since the subprime crisis.”

When Geither spoke at Peking University (I'm surprised it would still be called Peking U), he assured the crowd of students that Chinese assets (those billions, if not trillions of dollars invested in US treasuries and such) were very safe, the auditorium of students broke out in laughter.

China isn't full of idiots. Sure, they may be sequestered, blocked from free information, and under government control, but they aren't all uneducated country bumpkins. And they've got the best bullshit training in the world dealing with their government... you think Geithner can convince them that a single turd coming from his hole is gold?

China also dumped some big money in stimulus packages. You know where it went? Manufacturing and industry. They showed growth last month. Sure, it's artificial, but it's more useful than bailing out banks.

They're starting to realize they have the power in this partnership now. Others will smell the sick economic carcass of Uncle Sam too. Then things will get... interesting. Or maybe your leaders can get their heads out of their asses and do something useful for a change.

A Little Canadian Idiocy For a Change

Just because some of us are damned-near perfect (we're called Torontonians) doesn't mean the WHOLE country is.

Alberta's done gone and passed a stupid law allowing parents to pull their kids from classes when sex, religion, or sexual orientation discussions come up. The parents must be notified, and then they can opt to have their children taken out of the discussion.

This is a clause in a bill that brings gay rights under the umbrella of Alberta's Human Rights code.

The argument on the pro side is that this allows parents to have greater say in their children's education.

The arguement on the side that makes any damned sense is that a bunch of uneducated, homophobic, bigoted morons are scared their kids are going to be turned gay.

Let's cover the 3 topics.

Sex - Okay, so you don't want your kids to be involved in discussions of sex. Because they're too young? Guess what? "You show me yours and I'll show you mine" has been around forever. And you sure as hell aren't going to teach your kids about sex until they already know more than you've built up the guts to talk about. Hell, you'll probably teach 'em wrong. Sexual education doesn't lead to promiscuity, earlier sex, or more babies. It actually leads to the opposite. But then, we still live in a society where sex is somehow far, far worse than violence.

Religion - Please go lobotomize yourself now. Oh, you already did? That explains that. What possible discussion of religion would you pull your kids from? Are you terrified they'll LEARN about one? Or maybe they'll learn about one you don't follow? I went to Catholic school from senior kindergarten up to my last year of high school - 14 years. I don't consider myself Catholic, despite receiving all those big ol' sacraments that one does. The BEST religion classes we took were those that covered OTHER religions. They were fair, honest, and actually interesting. You know what? Everyone believes the same shit, it's just in the practical side of the worship where they differ. Hell, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all worship the same God, yet they've been killing each other in his name for millenia. But hey, it'd be terrible if your kids learned something like TOLERANCE and UNDERSTANDING.

Sexual Orientation - Ah, here's the rub. This is the ONLY FUCKING REASON this law is here. Can't you hear it? "Sex, religion, and *mumblemumble*sexualorientation*mumblecough*". Yup, can't have your kids learn about the gays. Much better you sit in your slack-jawed, drooling way and tell 'em how gays is an abomination and ain't not good. How gays wanting to get married somehow invalidates your pathetic and unhappy marriage. Because damn, if they came home talking about how being gay isn't really a big deal at all, you'd have to beat 'em until they were straight.

And the whole thing is such an obvious start to a slippery slope. What if you're talking about something else and the class discussion moves into one of these topics? Is teacher going to cut it off there because a parent might sue? Will teachers be even MORE controlled and boring because they fear the parents?

You don't want your kids learning what's being taught in the school? HOME SCHOOL THEM INTO PERVETED UNSOCIALIZED FREAKS like every other paranoid parent out there who can't admit that they're woefully underqualified to handle their childrens' education. Parents already HAVE a say in their kids' education. They have a HUGE say. The problem is that most are TOO FUCKING LAZY to take advantage of this and take an active role in it. You get to see their homework, you get to have a dinnetime discussion of what they covered (but of course, letting them grab a slice of pizza and run up to their room isn't conducive to that), and you can bloody well set up an appointment with their teachers whenever you damn well please. But fuck that! You'd actually have to TALK to your kids and show an IOTA of intelligent thought. Nope, much easier to legislate that you have to get a note sent home letting you know that the clitoris, Hinduism, or Prop 8 is going to be discussed next week so you can send Billy to the library for 30 minutes, which will mark him as the kid with the crazy parents.

Could you imagine Kat teaching with that law in place?

Nice job Alberta. You've elected morons like everyone else.

Let's See What Happens

I wonder if I can pull a rant out of this. I'm feeling a bit tired today, so it may not be in me.

There's a couple decent reads here and here. Both criticize Franky Roosevelt's post-depression actions. The first claims his moves extended The Great Depression by 7 years, and the second points out the economic idiocy of the New Deal and why Democrats are fools for blindly accepting it as the thing that saved the economy.

They're both fairly common-sense and free-market oriented. It boils down to the same thing that is being said by the ignored - artificially inflating the economy achieves nothing but an air pocket. Bailing out banks in order to create unworthy credit flow means that we'll face another credit crunch in the future. Bailing out automakers to save jobs means there will continued to be overpaid, underworked employees making crap with nobody being held accountable. Circumventing established free market and corporate procedures to look like you're doing something results in an artificial economy that WILL collapse under its own bloat. And to do all this, the burden is ultimately placed on the shoulders of the taxpayers and those who did the RIGHT thing and have managed to stay solvent in these times.

As I said earlier, the reason the US thrived after The Great Depression is because they were one of the only fully-equipped countries in the world for manufacturing. They provided the cars, the construction equipment, the raw materials, and the transportation of these things to the war-battered nations of Europe and Asia. The US practically rebuilt Japan. They PRODUCED material objects that could be bought and sold for REAL money. On top of that, they built good will and made allies. The US nuked Japan... TWICE, and then became its biggest trading partner. How the fuck does that happen?

There is no such opportunity in the future. Manufacturing is outsourced and globalized, and in no danger of being physically destroyed. The US has spread only ill will to the world, be it Bush's hamfisted foreign policy or the continued economic crisis that's spanned two administrations. I'm still shocked Putin has declared the entire thing the US's fault and restarted the cold war.

And the unwillingness of the entire world (save New Zealand I think) to let the free market be a free market, and let the failures collapse, just leads to more artificial wealth and forced "green shoots" that are already dying from the lack of a root system.

In the end, the current times will be seen as a strange hump before a return to old lows that will drag on for years. Eventually, the government will give up, because someone will look at the books and realize they were insolvent a long time ago.

Obama's a nice guy... so far, he's a floundering president who increasingly disappoints with his scattershot approach to various issues in the hopes we miss the epic failures that his administration is continuing. Perhaps he needs to hire a few of those dissenting voices he claimed he wanted in his cabinet, instead of morons who spew the same bullshit reasoning and flaccid arguments for their unrealistic policies.