kimmy

Here's a staple of Canadian classic-rock radio, "I Do Crap" by Chad Kroeger. Hey waitaminit, that wasn't the Chad Kroeger video. Oh well. This is actually kind of like a 3-minute mini-documentary about night life in the instantly connected age. Kind of like Saturday Night Fever was for the 1970s or Night At The Roxbury for the early 1990s. -k {"there is no vodka at this table. do you know anybody else here?"}

I just did a quick survey of my government-issued ID. My driver's license, passport, and birth certificate all specify Sex, not gender. My firearms PAL, oddly enough, does say Gender. However, I think that by the time somebody's old enough to own a gun they should have their gender sorted out. If the answer to this silly lawsuit is to make the firearms licensing people change their terminology from Gender to Sex, then so be it. But I don't see any value in eliminating Sex as part of a person's identification. It seems like an example of political correctness run amok. -k

It is important to understand that the demand for electricity is not steady throughout the day. There are peak times when the power company has little electricity to spare, and off times when the power company has all kinds of capacity that it isn't using. They are stretched to the limit at 6pm each day, while during the middle of the night, demand for electricity drops to very low levels. It is important to get people to use less electricity during the peak times and move non-essential stuff to the off times. If everybody insists on cooking their supper and doing their laundry and running their air-conditioning and charging their electric car at 6pm, then the power company won't have enough electricity for everybody. There will be brown-outs. They will have to build a new generating station. It will cost a lot of money. But if people decide that they can cook their supper and run their air conditioning at 6pm, and do their laundry at 10pm, and charge their electric car from midnight to 4am, then they don't have to build a new generating station. There will be lots of spare electricity. How to do that? Make electricity expensive at 6pm, and cheap between midnight and 4am. Then people will say "Holy crap! It's too expensive to charge my electric car and do my laundry at 6pm! If I do the laundry before bed, and charge my electric car overnight, it will save me a bunch of money." People will try to save money by using less electricity during peak hours when it is expensive, and using more electricity during off-peak hours. -k

This sort of thing gets said often enough that people take it at face value, but I think it deserves some discussion. Where are "they" going to go, and what "money" and "jobs" are they going to take with them? For example: are "they" going to shut down their Wal-Mart stores? No, they're not, because those stores make a lot of money. Rest assured, "they" don't create jobs here out of the goodness of their hearts. They create jobs here to make money. Any jobs that they could take away, they've already taken away. Whether it's moving manufacturing locations to countries with cheap labor, or automation, or offshoring IT services, or eliminating product lines, or centralizing operations, or whatever. Reducing cost of inputs, including labor, is an inevitable part of running a profitable business. If the job exists, it's because they haven't figured out how to eliminate it yet. Nobody hires employees they don't need. "They" will leave? Does it make any difference to you or me where Jim Pattison or Daryl Katz or Galen Weston's ass is physically located at any given moment? Does it make a difference if they are physically in Canada or in the Caymans? "They" will take their money away? Their money is their money. It only dies "us" any good when it is being spent here or when it is being taxed. So it becomes kind of a circular argument. -k

We already know the NSA and Britain's GCHQ have a massive repository of intercepted webcam footage in their vault; this was revealed just last month. And there are documented cases of NSA employees and contractors caught using their access to stalk their ex-girlfriends. Who would be in the least surprised if NSA agents spend some private time with their intercepted webcam footage and a jar of lube and a box of tissues in the "research room"? But that's really beside the point. To briefly summarize, the argument you are presenting is that I shouldn't be concerned about government surveillance because some sexual predator just got put in jail for doing something creepy. And I'd just like to take a moment to talk about how hilarious that is. I actually can't stop giggling at the idea that "well at least we're not as bad as a creepy internet sexual predator" is now being proposed as a justification for government surveillance. Actually, it's not really that funny. Actually, it kind of makes me sad. But I still can't stop giggling. -k

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. -k

You'll have to help me find that. I'm at that website right now, and all I can find is this: That's not a policy, that's a sound-bite. Where's the actual policy? yeah yeah, CPAC isn't affiliated with the Republican Party, but most of these prominent speakers are. There were at least 5 guys on the podium who might or will be contending for the 2016 nomination, and I think it's reasonable to expect them to to talk about some actual policies. They talked about policies in other areas. They're unanimous on repealing the ACA, but not a peep about what they would replace it with. -k

Those aren't the only murder cases that become sensationalized, though. I remember about 10 years ago when that American highschool girl disappeared on her class trip to Aruba. One girl disappears... and it's a media sensation? Why? Lots and lots of people disappear. But this one happened to be a pretty white girl from a rich family and there was a possibility that it was a sex slaying. That much, I was used to. Nothing new about that. But what made me stop and take notice of that particular case: at the time I was out of school, only worked evenings, and had the chance to watch daytime TV once in a while. I'm flipping channels, and amongst all the soap operas I find Access Hollywood or one of those shows. And instead of celebrity gossip and all that other stuff, they had wall to wall coverage of this girl's disappearance. And that stopped me cold. Why was this girl's disappearance on a Hollywood tabloid show? Since when is this "entertainment"? That's when it struck me how sick it was. -k

A line she's used before. I assume that if she's pumping Ted's tires she is probably not planning on running. -k

Ok I listened to this while I played with Shadow, and honestly I don't hear anything worth talking about. Did she say a single thing that I couldn't have got from previous Palin speeches or reading a bunch of Breitbart headlines or Rush Limbah clips? Capsule review: -Obama sucks -Obamacare sucks -establishment Republicans suck, Tea Party rocks -Obama is wimpy and Putin is not scared of him -lamestream media and Hollywood elites -the liberals oppressed Duck Dynasty Phil -but we are fighting back! -women care about jobs and economy and energy just like men -prolife -restore freedom! -Fight! Fight! Fight! I get that Republicans like this stuff because it gets the team fired up. Ok, that's fine. But is there one thing in this entire speech you could show a person who wasn't already a Republican and say "here's an idea you should think about" or "here's something that might change your mind"? I'd suggest that no, there is not. -k

It's hard to make a straight apples-to-apples comparison. Gas is more expensive, but cars are more fuel efficient, but you probably have to drive a lot longer to get to work. Disposable income isn't growing as fast as the CPI. Debt is growing faster than either. Household debt is at record levels. If more people have homes or degrees today, it's not because those things are more affordable, it's because it's easier than ever for people to borrow themselves into oblivion. -k

Given Santorum's statements of the past, I would find it impossible to believe he's sincere if he talks about respecting gay people or non-Christians. I don't think he can ever untangle his political career from that stuff, and I don't think he will be able to be a presidential candidate as a result. But I think the acknowledgment that people who start their own business is actually a very small percentage of Americans is almost revolutionary for a Republican. Talking about how they have to appeal to unemployed people and underemployed people and people who don't have college degrees and the economically vulnerable is vital, and yet when have Republicans done that in a serious manner? It's always been "trust us, we know business, we'll create jobs!" and "low taxes will spur the economy" and "a rising tide lifts all boats" type of stuff, but people just don't believe that stuff anymore. Rand Paul's comments about surveillance were interesting... not so much that a libertarian-leaning guy would oppose surveillance, but in the way he promoted that viewpoint. Conservatives like national security... but by talking about it as a small-government issue and a Fourth Amendment issue, he found a way to sell a position that's popular with younger voters in a way that older voters and conservatives can be more comfortable with. Ditto Rick Perry's comments about alternative sentencing for marijuana offenses. Calling it "alternative sentencing" sound suspiciously liberal, but reframing it as "drug courts" and talking about closing prisons, he positions it as a "small government" issue without upsetting old-people. -k

It was actually a really good speech that (IMO) hit the nail right on the head. There is of course a lot of talk about "reclaiming marriage" and about his own 2012 campaign for the 2012 nomination. But if you leave those things aside and look at the parts where he talks about how Republicans have lost sight of the regular guy, I think he makes important points. I wish I had a text transcript so I could cut and paste. "When I was out there campaigning, I was out there talking about the 70% of Americans who will not get a college degrees. 70% of Americans do not have college degrees, and that number is not changing. What are we going to do to talk to them? Our answer has alwas been 'well we'll cut taxes for high income people.' Now, I believe in that policy, but if you're sitting there unemployed, underemployed, looking for a job, looking for a way to move up in your job, and all we're talking about is cutting taxes for high income people, that doesn't exactly connect emotionally, doesn't exactly resonate with the people we're talking about. So what I did is I talked about cutting taxes, but for manufacturing, so that we could create good jobs for people who don't go to college..." "[voters] couldn't vote for Barack Obama, because they knew that his policies were hurting them... but they couldn't vote for us either, because they didn't think we cared about them. So they stayed home. And now we're here, because we didn't connect with them." "Times are uncertain in America, even today. You see the unemployment numbers, not getting any better... you hear predictions that the economy is going to start to falter again. People are anxious, nervous, and yes, fearful. People ask why we didn't win an election when so many people were doing poorly and the economy was so bad. Fear. Look at where Barack Obama got the votes. He got the votes of the people who are the most economically vulnerable. Fear. And we're out there saying we're gonna cut that and cut that and cut this... when you're sitting there holding on by your fingernails? And we have no message about how things are going to get better for you-- not for the employer who might hire you-- then we're in trouble." "We trotted out small business person, after small business person after larger business person to say, to the very small percentage of business people who start their own businesses in America... we built that." "I understand... people come out on this stage and they bang away at President Obama. I mean, I know. It's fun. I get that. It's easy-- and getting easier, I might add. But that isn't going to win people who are sitting at home who are hurting. They don't feel better. We feel better." In amongst all the talk about family values, I think he made some excellent points about why the Republican message has badly missed the mark with voters. Now, whether Republican policies actually have any sort of positive message for those voters is another question entirely. -k

I don't think I could bear to watch that. A couple of interesting sound-bites from CPAC: Rick Santorum: Rick Perry: -k

But that's always been the strategy of the NSA defenders. Try and make it about Snowden... anything to deflect from the programs themselves, and all the outrageous lies that its defenders have told the public. -k

Why aren't the people who are licking their lips for Snowden to see trial equally interested in seeing James Clapper get 5 years in prison for committing willful, admitted perjury before Congress? -k

And? So the information that he brought to public attention is not worth considering because he picked the wrong country to flee to? Is that the argument? -k

The devil is ... a black man in a hoodie? So I was looking over the list of credits, and they have... Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Goliath... I gather they're starting right from The Beginning? -k

This song had confused the heck out of me for a couple of weeks, because I heard it a lot on the radio and never heard who the artist was. The music sounded a lot like the Black Keys, with the heavy drum and guitar sound, but the vocal didn't sound like the Black Keys. Mystery solved! It's "the Arctic Monkeys", whoever the hell they are. The song is called "Do I Wanna Know?" from their record "AM". The video is really cool, and at first glance you might think it plays on the AM theme. However, as Bonam would be quick to point out, this isn't actually amplitude modulation at all, it's just a bunch of sine waves that are not, in fact, an amplitude-modulated radio signal. -k

I wonder if people who turn off a song because the intro was too long would walk out of a movie because they didn't like the opening credits? I had heard that Matthew Good was a jerk, difficult to work with, alienated people, and so on... hearing that he had undiagnosed bipolar disorder makes it all make sense. Sometimes you find out stuff about an artist that puts a song into a new context in hindsight. "Out in the Cold" by Judas Priest kind of took on a new context for me when I found out that behind the scenes, Rob Halford was struggling with living "in the closet" and his boyfriend committed suicide around the time that record was released. -k

I can't imagine why anybody would "revel" in a domestic violence trial. -k

Prices of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation are all reflected in the price-indexes that are used to generate the "inflation-adjusted" income charts (which have been more or less flat for most individuals for many years.) The change in those prices is the very yardstick by which we compare today's incomes to those of the past and find their growth to be "meh" at best. By contrast, the greatly increased costs of education and home ownership are not included in those price indexes, for reasons I explained in my previous post. -k

If it was a Canadian athlete, or an athlete in a sport that Canadians actually care about, I could understand why this is getting the Celebrity Trial treatment. But he's a South African, and nobody on this continent cares about track and field, except for the Men's 100m (for about 9.8 seconds every four years.) IMO just another example of pathetic drooling celebrity culture in search of a new celebrity event to sensationalize. -k

Leaving aside the question of whether how believable his excuse is... does anybody actually care about this murder trial? I found it quite annoying when the story of the murder and his arrest that it was such big news here. A domestic murder case on the other side of the world is news? Why? Do people actually care about Oscar Pistorius? Some guy famous for running fast with flippers instead of feet? Great. Who gives a crap. We have plenty of domestic murder trials right here in Canada and they don't make headlines. But here's this sensationalized tripe from the other side of the world and it's front page news because the guy is famous for running fast on his flippers. That's ridiculous. I think it's a sad indictment of the intelligence of either the people running newsrooms in Canada, or the general public, or both. In my opinion Oscar Pistorius can go do a backflip into an empty pool, and the news directors that are cramming this crap down our throats can go drink Draino. -k