The Ungrateful Profs

The pinko socialists who've dominated Saskatchewan's indoctrina- er, I mean, educational system for upteen years, are showing their asses to the world again. Only a bunch of old hippie has beens (or their heirs) could a come up with a zinger like this.

A Four-Year scholarship program for the children of Dead Soldiers has gained the support of colleges and Universities across Canada except at the University of Regina. Sixteen Professors who enjoy life on the public tit, who are allowed the freedom to teach whatever anti-west swill they please because of the freedoms earned by our military, have signed a letter protesting the University's decision to honor the scholarship because they feel it glorifies militarism.

What a bunch of sorry short-sighted out-of-touch ivory-tower fucks.

I wonder how long they'd last if they were trying to teach their pie-in-the-sky worldview under a Taliban regime?

Art imitates life

I've enjoyed Scott Kurtz's work for years. His Webcomic, PvP (Player vs. Player) is about the staff at a small magazine dedicated to computer gaming. The current story line is about how two of the staffers decide to make love on the boss's new D&D gaming table and get caught.



I laughed; thought, "c'mon Scott, no one would actually do that..." and then remembered how, twenty-two years ago my then brand-new bride and I were almost caught doing the same thing late at night in a basement office at the second radio station I'd ever worked at, CFOK radio.

Zombie Bite Calculator

Politically incorrect doesn't' even come close to describing the Oatmeal. Damn. I really liked the "How Twilight works" and "How everything goes to hell in a Zombie Apocalypse."

Moose in my back yard

Woke up last Monday morning to the sight of two moose in the back yard. The neighbors told us about all the wildlife we'd be seeing when we moved out here a year ago, but this is only the second time we've seen Moose. Our place is only a few miles outside of Edmonton City limits.

One wag asked me why I hadn't shot the Male, as I would be able to 'get away with it' with my Metis status. I had to tell ol' 'Hunts at Safeway' that I'm too damned citified to do all the bloody, heavy work involved in gutting and dressing a moose all by my lonesome. As for the shot, I'm as proud of my marksmanship as the next guy, maybe moreso, but there's a safety issue because of all the houses just the other side of the trees behind the Moose, and probably a violation of local ordinances to boot.

Besides which, I don't consider myself a subsistence hunter at present.

Saving Local Television

The actual issue is an attempt to make viewers pay for something that they've never had to pay for before. Local TV signals.

As broadcasters catch up with digital and high-definition technologies, the old style analog television transmissions will disappear.

The current campaign by Canadian television broadcasters asking viewers to demand the CRTC force Satellite and Cable Companies to pay for local stations' content is pure misdirection. The Broadcasters would have you believe that the issue is fairness; a need to make the cable companies pay for the use of the local stations they carry.

Bullshit. That's just a strawman.

1. First off, Despite their protestations to the contrary, if the broadcasters succeed in forcing the cable and Satellite providers to pay for the use of local stations, the costs will be passed directly to the consumers.
2. Secondly, the Parent companies of the local tv stations, companies like like Canwest Global and Quebecor, own a significant portion of the Cable and Satellite Providers own part of or in some cases all of the specialty channels that consumers are paying the cable companies to access. Asking consumers to pay again is almost like asking them to pay twice for the same damn thing.
3. Third, the cable and satellite companies include the local tv stations in the basic access packages they force every customer to buy before we can get access to the specialty channels we REALLY want to watch. I suspect that were some of the local stations to go under, the basic packages would remain largely unchanged, just carrying more of the alphabet networks' different regional feeds.
   
4. It's a changing marketplace. If local tv stations and their parent companies can't keep up and adjust to the new technologies, it's not fair to have the government (in the guise of new CRTC regulation) force consumers to keep the dinosaurs alive.
   

As a consumer, I gave up on local TV over a decade ago. There are perhaps twelve specialty channels I wanted when I ordered my satellite TV system. But I am forced to pay for hundreds of signals I NEVER WATCH in order the get the few I am interested in. Were the satellite and Cable companies serious about providing content choice they'd let us order the specific specialty channels we want to see.

The last thing I need is another bullshit charge added to my bill.

Lies Lies Lies.

I didn't think the Nobel Prize committee could cheapen their awards any more than they did after giving it to Al Gore for making a so-called documentary whose most accurate fact was that the earth has a climate.

That was until this past week when they gave the Peace Prize to Barrack Obama for all his accomplishments.

What accomplishments? The deadline for submitting entries was only one week after he assumed office. Obama doesn't even qualify (hmmm, again?) for the Peace Prize according to the criteria the applicants are supposed to meet. Not that following neither the spirit nor the letter of the law has been a big concern for Obama's supporters but geeze whiz, this just looks stupid.

With regards to the Peace Prize, and according to Alfred Nobel's will, the Peace Prize was for:

“

during the preceding year [...] shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.[1]

”

Poseur.

Zombie UPdate

I see the DeadJournal is updating again! Cool!

Speaking of Zombies, #1 son and I saw Zombie Land opening day. Take it in the spirit it was intended, and your only complaint will be that the movie is too short. Bill Murray's cameo alone made it worth the price of admission.

We also saw Pandorum this week, and I think it (inadvertently) falls into the 'zombie movie' genre too. Way more suspenseful than Zombie Land, it does a far far better job of playing with your fear of the unknown than, say, Event Horizon. (Which is still a classic!)

Marketing 101

Here's a few logos I'd like to see more of in popular culture:




Here's why:

Where did Spink go?

Just throwing this out there:

The blogger Spink, and his blogs, "spink about it" and "101 people who are messing up Canada" are now missing in action. Known for his right-of-centre viewpoint (can you say, "common-sense point of view?") his material is worth reading, if only to counter the CBC-promoted myth that there is no legitimate every-man Canadian viewpoint on the right side of the political spectrum too.

Spink's 101 people list and the reason they're listed should be read by every Junior-High social studies student in the country.

A quick google search and I find only a post on the Daily Gleaner from april 21st, 2009,

"With that said, I am walking away from blogging at least for now."

Oh Spink. Say it isn't so...

Swine Influsteria part 2

I was right to worry.

Tamiflu strains o f the swine flu have now appeared here, in Alberta. Bloomberg is reporting that it isn't as easily spread as the original strain, but...

Swine InFlusteria

At first I thought the stupidest things tick me off. But I think this may be serious.

One of my favorite web cartoonists, PVP author Scott Kurtz posted on his site Thursday that he and other guests have come down with the Flu after shaking thousands of hands at PAX, the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle this week. There has been at least one confirmed case of swine flu at that event.

• On his website, Scott said,

"So when I took a turn for the worse yesterday, and then Kris and Mike started to feel sick, I took a trip to the clinic and tested positive for the flu. The doctor doesn’t think it’s the swine flu but either way the treatment is the same: Tamaflu, bed rest, fluids and NO FLYING."

Not the first time I've heard that. That's what's bugging me. Overuse.

Now I'm glad Scott's getting treatment. I really like his stuff. I can see using using Tamaflu for the weak, sickly, very young and very old. But On the surface, Scott Kurtz appears to be a young, healthy guy who's been successfully losing weight and working at improving his health.

Damn near every time the subject of the flu has come up in the news this year the doctors have been using Tamaflu. Fucking overuse if you ask me. Especially for a strain of Flu that this year has had only a fraction of the lethality of our regular flu seasons in the past. The medical profession appears to be determined to ruin the effectiveness of Tamaflu through overuse just like they've done with damn near every antibiotic in the past half century.

A Fake Crisis

Came across this gem of information after SondraK pointed the way:

The Obamunists are claiming that there's 12 or 24 or even 40 million Americans who desperately need socialized medical coverage. They're using these numbers to justify the creation of what will surely be the latest (if not the biggest) real life exercise that proves socialism doesn't work.

But While channel surfing this week, I heard Glen Beck, give a much more realistic breakdown of the actual number of un-covered Amercians. He also pointed out that if Obama really wanted to get them coverage it would be cheaper to simply buy them coverage than to set up a nationalized government health care system [complete with the requisite perpetually self-bloating civil service bureaucracy to run it, like Canada has.] (my words)

Here's the breakdown, according to Karl Rove in today's Wall Street Journal:




So, buying them coverage (5 million uncovered Americans) at say, $100 to $500 per month each, works out to between six and thirty billion a year. Damn.

That's gotta be cheaper than building a whole new Health Care bureaucracy complete with waiting lists and all the other weaknesses of rationed health care.