Palindrome

Well, McCain may have shot himself in the foot with his V.P. announcement. If the American voters bothered to think about important issues anyways, instead of just caring that she's both a woman, and kind of pretty. Sarah Palin is, to be blunt, a terrible choice.
She may be a governor, and she was a beauty queen, but that doesn't necessarily make you a good V.P. candidate. And this coming from someone who is a firm supporter of having attractive people in important positions.
Think about it this way, McCain is 72. He has a history of health issues, and being President is a very stressful position. Were he elected, it must be considered that he might not be able to serve a full term because of death or illness. Wouldn't it make sense to have a V.P. who is experienced and capable? Some foreign policy experience might be a good idea too. It is a very real possibility that, were McCain elected, Palin would have to take on all the responsibilities of President for part of his term. Do you really want a vice president who is so completely naive in foreign politics? Do you want a vice president who doesn't believe that human activity having an effect on the climate? Do you want a vice president who will actively help to overturn abortion rights?
Palin is a selfish choice by McCain, he wants someone who can help make up for his charisma deficits, and he chose someone who will not stand up to him on important issues. The vice president should be willing to give the president an opposing point of view, if they consider the president to be wrong about something. Palin will not do that, she will be a cheering section, nothing more.
John McCain also must think that he can lock up the female vote just by having a woman as his running mate. To me, that shows a great disrespect for female voters in America. Are there some people who will vote for a candidate just because of their gender? Absolutely. Is it a large proportion of the voting population? I don't think so. I have no problem with the idea of a woman as president or vice president, but to choose someone so inexperienced tells us that McCain thinks women are an easy vote to grab. It also tells us that he is more concerned with what happens on November 4th than with what happens after it. He cares more about being elected than he does about governing.
Is Palin (by far) the best looking Vice Presidential candidate ever? Absolutely. Is she probably the least qualified Vice Presidential candidate in my lifetime (so far)? Absolutely.

Election Time?

Well, I'm finally installed at my place in Montreal, got my room all set up.

McCain has finally announced his VP pick, and it is Sarah Palin.
If you asked "Sarah who?" then I'm with you.
Apparently she's the first-term governor of Alaska. Pretty much an unknown, but she's younger than Obama (to try and grab the young vote) and she's (obviously/allegedly) a woman (to grab the "I like Clinton only because I'm a woman" vote). Other than that, she seems to be a political nobody outside of Alaska, which makes her a bit of a wild card in the election.

On my side of the border, Prime Minister Harper is going ape-shit crazy. He's been frantically calling by-elections (to replace vacated seats in the house) and refusing to co-operate with investigations into his party's (alleged) violation of funding rules, and goading the opposition parties. Now he's claiming that parliament isn't working (even though it's only because of his party) and he will probably call a snap election in the next couple of weeks. If he does he will be hindered by a couple things: firstly, calling a general election will tell the voters in the by-election ridings that they don't matter. Second, it would violate a law that government passed that makes fixed elections (not due until next fall) unless the government gets defeated in parliament on a confidence motion (which it hasn't). What makes this a little more interesting is that even if he calls an election, it might not happen. The Governor General can refuse to dissolve parliament. Or, because we're in a minority government, can even tell the opposition parties to form their own government (of course this has only happened once so far, in 1926). If he really wants an election, he should introduce legislation that overturns the fixed elections, and make it a confidence motion. If he wins, he can call an election, and if he loses, the Governor General dissolves parliament.
Meanwhile, Harper is criticizing the Governor General for not returning early from her vacation to deal with a "political crisis" that he created. And yet his health minister, Tony Clement, didn't cut his vacation short (and still hasn't returned) to deal with a very real health crisis. You know, that listeriosis outbreak that could potentially make thousands ill (though now only in the dozens, thousands were exposed to tainted meat).
Oh well, Harper is trailing the Liberals (narrowly) in the polls, but I think Canadians have had enough of the Conservatives for a couple years.

Possibly My Last Post Ever! (In the next few days)

Well, it's moving time for me.

Bright and early tomorrow morning, anyways.

Since I'm packing, today's post will be in point-form.

-Not happy with Biden for V.P.

-Still don't like McCain.

-Canadian election soon?

I might not post/have the internet for the next few days, unless I can find a wifi spot.

See you all when I get back online.

Changes

Just a few small changes around the blog today.

Both have to do with making your life easier.

And no, I'm not shutting down.

You can now subscribe to me!

In two different ways, too!

You can subscribe to my feed and have it on your Google or Yahoo page (and a couple others too).

Or, even better, you can get my updates by email. No more frantically checking to see if I've put up anything new!

Foreign Follies

The ceasefire between Georgia and Russia is in effect, sort of. The Russians aren't too blatant in violating it, except for the whole fortifying their positions inside Georgia thing. But I'm not going to rag on Russia, or Georgia because that whole region is pretty messed up.

No, I'm going to talk about what the United States has to do with this, because they have some (though only a small amount of blame) to take for the war that broke out a couple weeks ago.

You see, what the United States did was make Georgia think its military could hit above its weight class. They genuinely believed that they could go into South Ossetia (where Russian soldiers were already stationed), take it over by force (which would involve engaging the Russians in combat) and hold off or deter any Russian response. Obviously they were completely incorrect. Instead, the Georgian David got curb-stomped by the Russian Goliath. Where the Americans come in is that they, indirectly, are the reason that the Georgians were so overconfident. You see, the Americans have about 1000 "military advisors" in Georgia, training the Georgian military. They also sell large amounts of arms to the Georgians, to modernize their military and bring them up to western (NATO) standards. I think the Georgians believed that either: a) That the presence of American soldiers in the country would prevent the Russians from attacking. b) That their new military gear purchased from the United States and Israel (which almost stopped sales to Georgia because of the conflict) would give them a massive technological advantage over the Russians. Or finally, c) That the Americans would respond to the Russians with something more than a stern talking-to.

Obviously option "c" is the least likely by far, America's military is too stretched to consider even a small-scale conflict with the Russians, not to mention that the American people would never stand for it.  "a" is also unlikely for reasons that the Georgians should have recognized. Russia is a big kid on the block once again, and fully intends to throw its weight around. They are not going to worry about hurting a few feelings here and there, even with the United States. The Russians are going to actively try to rebuild a power block to counter NATO's influence, and I think that this was the beginning of that effort. Russia isn't going to look the other way anymore in exchange for some Adidas track suits and a BMW. They're back in the game.

So it must have been option "b". Technological superiority. There is some merit to this theory, as the Georgians did manage to knock out several state-of-the-art Russian tanks with their new Israeli missiles (again, the Israelis were NOT pleased about the Georgians using those missiles). But ultimately the technological edge was minimal, and the Russians are (for now) much better trained, and had far more combat power in the area than the entire Georgian army possessed.

In things closer to home (just a little south to be exact), Obama has picked his running mate, and Joe Biden will be his V.P. candidate. I don't know much about Biden right now, but I will be reading up on him in the next few days.

I'm just glad Obama didn't make the colossal mistake that having Clinton as V.P. would have been.

It's Your Fault, America

It's going to be a busy week for me coming up. Yes! It's moving time! I get to truck a second van-load of my junk out to Montreal and finish setting up my apartment. And then it's school. Again.

Anyways, it'll be nice to be back in Montreal again, I missed it this summer.

It seems like Americans are getting ready to shoot themselves in the foot. Again.

John McCain is 5 points up in the polls over Barack Obama, and American voters think he has more credibility on the economy. McCain being the candidate who, in the primaries, admitted that he doesn't understand the economy. He also backed the (useless) gas tax holiday proposal. And he can't keep track of how many homes he has (7, worth almost 14 million dollars) in a time when foreclosure rates are approaching depression levels. 

At least people (including Governator Schwarzenegger) are lining up to back Obama on the whole tire inflation thing. It's interesting that the Republicans were so quick to ridicule something tangible and simple, that anyone can do for the price of a tire gauge, that will help reduce the United States' reliance on oil. It's because the Republican leadership doesn't want Americans to take things into their own hands. They want to keep getting fat kickbacks from oil companies, and a lot of them were oil men to begin with.

Anyways, it is entirely possible that McCain only got into the lead because Obama was away all week. Obama was looking and sounding sharp as soon as he got back.

But what it comes down to is that 67% of the United States is unhappy with the status quo, and only 28% are happy with it. John McCain will continue the status quo. And yet almost 50% of Americans would vote for him. America, when you do things like that, it makes it harder and harder for those of us who say we love Americans and hate your government. When you do things like that, it implicates you in your government and makes people like me sound like morons. So America I beg you, for my sake, please wake up and smell the instant coffee. You really do not want John McCain for 4 years. Just picture having Bush for 12 years. Sure McCain might, arguably, be more of a capable adult. But ask yourself this: is it better to have an incompetent idiot implementing bad policies, or to have a capable (and allegedly rage-filled) person implementing bad policies? That is the difference between Bush and McCain.

--------This Post Has Been Interrupted Because I'm Tired----------

Olympics, Russian Bear, PETP

Well, the Olympics are in full swing now and, I have to admit, I haven't really been paying attention. I realized that watching things like the parallel bars, while impressive feats of human ability, still don't interest me. Even when it's on the Olympic level. My participation in this year's Olympics has been pretty much limited to checking the medal counts every day or two. Canada, please stop letting me down on this one, it's just depressing to see 0 medals every day. And to watch you sink further in the medal rankings. Warm-ups are over Canada, let's see some wins!

Anyways, in things that matter, it looks like there's a cease-fire between Georgia and Russia which should, at least temporarily, halt the violence there. I'm not sure whether or not I'm on the Russian side of this, or the Georgian side just yet, to be honest, I don't know enough about the region or the events to pick a side. But one way or the other one thing is certain: the Russia of the 90s is gone. The new Russia is going to be a lot more assertive in its politics, and I think we can expect to see more of these "interventions" in the next few years. The biggest question is: where will Russia decide that their influence ends?

And Bush's personal take on the conflict?

http://www.latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/09/beachvolleyball2.jpg

Aww hell, women's beach volleyball is way more interesting than Russia!

And back to PETA, I think we need a new organization. One specifically to deal with PETA's tactics. How about People for the Ethical Treatment of People? PETP. I guess it's not a very pronounceable acronym, but it's the thought that counts. How would PETA members feel if their personal tragedies were twisted to promote political messages that they don't support? What if a beef company parodied Pamela Anderson's divorce in an advertisement? No, I've come to the conclusion that PETA is a hypocritical, selfish organization that not only assumes to be the moral superior of common people, but will also trample their privacy, and their tragedy in order to advance its own agenda. PETA is a perfect example of people with (relative) privilege preaching to those who may not. Like they say, there are no starving vegetarians. While probably not literally true, it does point out that if you're hungry enough, you will eat whatever you can. And if you don't worry about where your next meal is coming from, you can be picky. Stupid PETA.

Would PETA Please Just Fuck Off?

Well, PETA is continuing its run on my list of organizations that I want to punch right in the diaphragm. Generally I ignore them, my personal opinion on meat being that I will stop eating cows when they stop being delicious. 

But PETA has decided to continue their run of tasteless, offensive advertising with an ad campaign comparing the brutal murder and beheading of Tim Mclean on a Greyhound bus to eating meat. Now, with most organizations, I'd think that this sort of ad was a fluke from a marketing agency to a young, ambitious advertising person. However, PETA has pulled this sort of trick before. Remember, lets, the Pickton murder trial in British Columbia. You know, the one where the accused murdered and dismembered anywhere from 25-50 prostitutes? And remember how it was rumoured that he mixed in some human remains with pork that he sold to friends? Well PETA had an ad about that too, a young woman dressed like a prostitute, and the words "I'm not food either". This is an organization that bills itself on offensive shock tactics. Let's have a little fucking respect for the dead, shall we? Don't try and tack on your personal moral agenda onto a tragedy that does not have anything to do with you. Is PETA's message really so out of touch with society that they have to resort to these leeching tactics to get attention? It is a sign of a dying message, or at least a dying messenger, when you have to resort to shock tactics and fear-mongering. And those are words I usually reserve for the GOP. Let's go back to having Pamela Anderson pose nude. Actually, having just googled her, lets not.

This ad is one of the few things that actually made me angry in recent memory. While I think that us humans are basically poorly insulated monkeys, there are some things that many animals that are not the dominant species on this planet can do that apparently PETA can't. It's called mourning the dead. I will not have respect for any organization that makes light of someone's murder and dismemberment in order to claim moral superiority over others.

And how about being demeaning to women, PETA? While I'm all for female nudity, can you really claim moral superiority over us carnivorous neanderthals when your site seems to be a collection of famous, attractive women posing nude, and videos of your supporters having whipped-cream wrestling matches with playboy bunnies? I have a challenge for you PETA, get your message out in a way that is respectful to murder victims, and doesn't use women as sex objects.

Now I'm going to call PETA hypocrites, because I can.

If anyone related to their policies or advertising has ever: killed a mosquito, gotten rid of an ant infestation, swatted at an irritating fly, or used antibacterial soap; they are hypocrites. Why? Because what makes vertebrates better than invertebrates? If it is a sin to eat a cow, why should insects, bacterium, or viruses be singled (or in this case, tripled) out for bad treatment?

While I do enjoy eating meat, I do think that animals should be treated well. Until they are slaughtered to be eaten. But PETA seems to have become more concerned with being a media whore than actually getting anything accomplished. They demonize people who have the diet that their species evolved to have. We have meat eating teeth as well as veggie-teeth. Not to mention an intestinal system that is not made to handle lots of plants.

Now, let me be clear, I have no problem with people who want to be vegetarians or vegans. Just like I have no problem with Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindi, etc. As long as they don't try and pull some "holier than thou" bullshit on me. So I have an idea, how about a tailgate party right in front of some PETA offices, have some steaks, hot dogs, the works. Anyone can come. BBQ all day. So they can smell all the delicious flesh cooking. Think of it as revenge for putting booths with video of slaughterhouses next to hot dog stands (made me hungry).

I know this is kind of rambling. I'll fix it when it's not 1am.

Nothing To See Here

Well, to be honest, I don't really have too much to say right now.
I just felt like making a post from my new MacBook. I'll probably take this down later when the novelty wears off.

Apple Store Take My Money, Please!

Well, I just got back from the Apple Store a little while ago, my greedy arms full of wonderful new gadgets.
I picked up a new low-end MacBook as well as a soon-to-be-free iPod Touch.
I know I wrote about the Touch already but, since I got it out of the box, I have not been able to put it down. It is just so much damn fun to play with.
I am also completely in love with Leopard on the new laptop (I've still been plunking around on Tiger on my iMac)
While I really love the iPod Touch and the MacBook, my advice to anyone who is thinking of getting one soon, but doesn't really NEED one is this: wait until October. The back-to-school promotion ends mid-September, and Apple has traditionally brought out new laptops and iPods after that promotion. If you need one, there's no point in waiting, because the products are amazing right now, but if you can wait, do. Who knows what sweet updates are coming.

Oh, and for anyone who hasn't seen the fourth Indiana Jones movie yet: don't.

Would The Government Please Stop Trying To Register My Life?

I'm sure most of you have heard about the horrible murder that happened yesterday on a Greyhound bus.
For those of you who haven't, basically a guy stabbed the person next to him to death, and beheaded him without any apparent motive.
This is a rare, tragic, random killing, and should not be used for political grandstanding. Apparently, a few opposition MPs have mentioned a "Knife Registry" along the same lines as our former long-gun registry. Now, I'm no big fan of the current government in Canada, but they had the sense to slap that idea down pretty quickly.
A knife registry would be expensive, invasive, and stupid.
It would be nearly impossible to track the sale of every single knife in a country of 32 million people. And even harder to figure out what knives are already in the hands of the people.
All a knife registry would do is waste funding that could be used for something useful, like health care, infrastructure, etc. It would also give more unnecessary information to a government with a pretty weak track record when it comes to respecting the privacy of the average citizen.
Not to mention the question of actually having to register knives. Would I have to fill out a form every time I buy a knife? Would I have to send in a form to declare all the knives I already own? If I do all that and then find a knife sitting around that I didn't know about, would I be breaking the law?
Also there is the question of how the information would be used. Would it be like the gun registry where the police would check it before raids or before trying to arrest someone? (Personally, if they checked me up in a knife registry, there would be quite a list just for the kitchen) Or would it just be information for informations sake?
And would this be a slippery slope of registries for anything potentially dangerous? A knife is a tool that can be used to kill. So is a screwdriver. Or many power tools. Hammers. Hell, I could probably even bludgeon someone to death with my computer if I wanted to. Theoretically, with enough time, you could even paper-cut someone to death. Would we start keeping registries of these murderous items too? Until the government (and anyone who can get into their systems) has a complete inventory of everything bought and sold, and everything in every home in the country?
The problem here isn't knives, if the attacker had had a gun, he would have used it and more people would be dead. If he'd had a hammer, he would have used it. And so on. It seems that this man was determined to kill someone, with whatever means were at his disposal. The problem is that there are people in the world who will do something as awful as this, and making me fill out a form to buy a pocket knife won't help. You can't register psychopaths, sociopaths, and homicidal maniacs out of existence, you can only register the population into frustration.
I don't know how this awful event could have been avoided, but I do know that treating every citizen as a potential murderer is not the answer.