Foster, Smurfsbane??

I woke up Sunday morning to the sight of my dog sitting on the foot of the bed staring at me, nothing new there, that's his usual routine just before attacking my face with his tongue in an attempt to get me up to take him out. The difference this Sunday was that he didn't look the same as he did when I had closed my eyes the night before. The first thought that ran through my head was, "Great, Foster's joined a punk band", followed quickly by "Is he auditioning for the remake of Braveheart?" and "OMG, he's killed a Smurf!".

Despite the bright blue coloring all over his face and head I wasn't in too much of a hurry to get up instead opting for the sweet surrender into the arms of helpless ignorance figuring that whatever the real cause, there was probably little I could do to remedy the situation (I wasn't totally heartless, but I figured that if a creature 3 apples high had lost what in caparison would have equated to several pints of blood, there was nothing I could do for them now).

As it turned out, as is usually the case, the truth was nothing so dramatic, but nevertheless, much more devastating. Foster, in a fit of puppy rage, had attacked, and fatally wounded, my Staedler Liquid Ball pen. This Staedler was not just any pen, but my favourite Soduku solving pen. Not because of any inherent wisdom or luck in the pen itself, but because it flows so easily that no pressure at all is required against the delicate newsprint.

I tried to replace my lost pen with a regular Bic this morning, but it's just wasn't the same; the paper constantly threatened to tear, and when the writing at any sort of an angle, the ink flow was almost nonexistent. So my search for a suitable replacement begins; the current contender, a Pentel EnerGel with 0.8mm Cushion Point that I found on my desk. While the ink appears to flow pretty well, I won't know until tomorrow, reclined on my couch, just how good a replacement this Pentel will be.

I'll keep you posted.


P.S. In the case of the US/UAE Port deal, I'll have to come down in favour of the sale. I really hate to agree with Jimmy Carter on anything, but that's just the way I see it.

No posting this weekend

I switched from a Bell line to Rogers home phone on Wednesday but wanted to keep Sympatico High speed. The upside is under the new rules (I think it's CRTC thing) Bell has to offer DSL service even if they don't provide the home phone line.

That's great news for me because the restrictions Rogers high speed places on DL and UL speeds and usage are not something I want to have the deal with again any time soon, the bad news, although it is technically only an electronic change over on the Bell side, they said it won't be till next Wednesday that my DSL will be back up.

I really don't understand that. No one has to come anywhere near my apartment or even leave the Bell office for that matter, and it still takes almost a week to switch over? Oh well, at least I won't be losing any of my email accounts. That would have been a real pain.

So I guess the point of this story is to say, once I leave my office in about 10 minutes, I won't be near an internet connection until sometime Monday morning. So have a great weekend folks.

Happy Birthday Becca

Hope you have a great day, and I promise, when I say 'the gifts are in the mail' I mean it (not like certain parents of yours =).

I looked it up and there are a few famous people born on the 24th, but I'm not sure how many of them a 12 year old will be familiar with. There's Joe Lieberman, Commander Adama himself, Steve Jobs, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz (hey who else has their own class of nuclear powered aircraft carriers named after them), one of the two Grimm Brothers, and last but certainly not least, Abe Vigoda.

So going from past histories of those born on the 24th, you are either going to become famous for scaring children around the world, become a TV icon, or rule the galaxy, so start planning ahead. I'm not sure which path you'll choose but I would like to hedge my bets and jump the queue by calling dibs on Hawaii.

It's Curling Day in Newfoundland

Not that we take sports seriously back home or anything, but at roughly noon today in Newfoundland all public schools and most public buildings will be shut down.

The reason, the men's curling gold medal game starts at 1:00 and there is almost no chance of any work getting done after that point. No Newfoundland based team or individual competitor has ever won an Olympic gold medal. Andrew Crosby won a gold in '92 for rowing, but he was just one member of a 9 man crew. Today in Turin, Brad, Mark, Russ, Jamie and Mike can change all that. With 2 of the 5 from the island itself, 2 from Labrador City, and Russ being from Cape Breton, which is beer parlance could be considered essentially 'Newfoundland Lite', they have already become the most celebrated Olympians in the 709 area code, a gold medal would just be the icing on the cake.

If you are anywhere near the east coast, or for that matter large sections of Alberta and Ontario, expect to hear a lot of noise or even see the occasional spontaneous parade sometime around 1:30 eastern time.

Go Team Gushue!!

Update:
The final result, Canada wins gold by a score of 10-4. Let the parties begin.

Even with their 2 steals early in the game, things stayed pretty close until the sixth end. Starting with an amazing shot by Mark Nichols to clear the house of any red stones, and ending with a unlucky hit off a guard by the Finnish skip, the game went from a 4-3 nail biter to a 10-4 blowout. Then it was all over except for the handshakes.

Time flies...

Was browsing my archives looking for a particular story when I noticed something completely by accident, this post marks exactly 1 year and a week since I created this blog, well that and 'Constatine' hit theaters on February 18th of last year.

Funny, in my mind I had it pegged as more of an early summer flick.

Things that make you go hmmmmm...

Anyone else out there have an LG 535.

If you do you understand my pondery. Sure it looks nice, has a great size screen, good sound, good reception and some nice features, but why does it do the things it does the way it does?

Take the phone book for example. While it organizes the entries very well, what's up with the search feature? When I enter the phone book and type 'R' I get as results, Chris, Eric, Heather, Jennifer, Kerry, Maria, Norm, Patricia, Randy, Rockwell's and Shirley; every name that contains the letter 'R'. So to get to Randy's entry I have to either type 'RA' or scroll down to the second results page.

While that can be mildly annoying, the MP3 player is just a mystery to me. What were they thinking? Who was it that after creating a relatively good sounding MP3 player decided to:

• not implement any type of playlist system
• sort by how the songs were entered onto the memory card
• not implement any way to rearrange the songs without wiping the card clean and starting from scratch
• default to the option to play only the current song and stop
• play a full screen animation which never turns off. (And this on the same phone that gives you a battery life warning if you turn the autoscreen shutoff time to 30 seconds.)
  

But I have to admit, that even with all that, and the myriad of other impossible to explain menu options, it's still miles better than my old phone. While virtually indestructible, the only feature it had was the 'send' button.

The official ECW Olympic post

Looks like the goal of 25 medals for the Canadian team wasn't so 'pie in the sky' as first believed.

Of all the Olympic sports, I have to say my favorite to watch has to be curling. I don't know why, it might just be the Canadian in me, but I can hardly ever pass a curling tournament on TV without stopping to watch at lest a few stones. It also doesn't hurt that 2 of the members of the Canadian's Men's team are from my home town; soon to be playing for the gold medal. As for the women's team, with the brief exception of the semi-final game, they've been playing pretty good. Of course that did mean they met up with Norway for the bronze and since they won, and Norway's second has got to be in the running for cutest Olympian of these games, it's all good.

Being a pure blooded Canadian I also watch almost every hockey game. In general it was pretty good, but when the women's team out scores their opponents 42-2 and the men, can't seem to find the opposing net with a map (although I still think that was a quick whistle in during the Russian/Canadian third period), there wasn't much doubt as to the final results. Congrats to the Swedish women though, for their upset of the Americans. While another American/Canadian showdown would probably have resulted in a more exciting game, the sport really needs more competition to allow it to grow.

I saw one stat that showed out of 150,000 women playing organized hockey in the world, 65,000+ are in Canada and 50,000+ are in the U.S.. Quick math shows that leaves less than 35,000 for the rest of the world. For example, Italy only has as few as 170 female hockey players, and while they played their heart out, watching team after team being beaten by the Canadians or the Americans by double digit scores is most likely not going to get more to sign up.

Even the Canadian women themselves were trying to help out their opponents to make a better show of it. In the Italy game specifically, they were told to not break up the icings so that the Italian women could get a bit of a break. While as a Canadian fan that's fun to hear, knowing our team is so dominating, as a hockey fan you want to see real competition on the ice.

So here's a shout out to all the Olympians from all the different countries; hope you had a great games and win or lose, you got something from the experience. And please, don't take anything Bryant Gumbal says seriously.

Lost in the 'save as draft' abyss (Part 2)

This has been sitting around for a while too, but luckily it just happens to perfectly fit in with the Pew study on happiness I posted about a few days ago.

---------------------

You owe it to yourself* to check out Greg Gutfeld's posts** over at The Huffington Post (the only reason I ever find to go there).

You'll never find a group of liberals in more need of a funny bone than those who take the time to comment there.

*Unless of course you've been very bad today, in which case go help an old lady across the street first and then click on the link above.

**And keep an eye out for Greg's "DOUBLE SECRET HIDDEN BLOG"

Lost in the 'save as draft' abyss (Part 1)

Just noticed I had this saved as a draft for 2 weeks. Guess I should browse my post listing a little more frequently
=)

-------------

What he said (Daimnation!)!

From the 'Worlds Dumbest Criminals' files

Case#: 604 872 213
Country: Germany
Crime: Drug possession

A 52 year old man, upset over the low quality of the pot he had purchased, attempted to get a refund from his dealer. When that was unsuccessful (big surprise there) he went to the police for help in settling the dispute. To his surprise, and only his surprise, when he walked into the police station with the 200 grams of marijuana to file his complaint, instead of helping him get a refund, he was arrested and his drugs seized.

My only question, how did this man manage to make it to age of 52?

(h/t todays Ottawa Sun , print edition)

Know your audience

It nice to see Victoria's Secret finally adding a new commercial to their line up. Not that I'm complaining mind you, just that they've been running the same commercial for the past few weeks during every prime time show. And sure the girl in the new 'Secret Embrace' ad is nice and all, but it's just not a VS ad without shots of Adriana, Gisele and Allesandra. And it wouldn't hurt to add a little Marisa or this girl to the mix either.

And just to make it look like I wasn't just writing this to give myself an excuse to browse the VS web site I'd like to mention two other commercials that have been getting a lot of air time lately.

On the more 'G' side of things, I think Tim Horton's wins hands down in the 'pulling on the ol' heart strings' category with their 'Asian Hockey Dad' commercial. You just can't help but smile after that 'give me back my picture' line.

And the worst Olympic inspired ad winner has to be the McDonald's commercial with the kid in the home built go-cart. I just can't get past that stupid grin on his face while he's riding his go-cart down the side walk, it's just not natural. They need to learn, beautiful girls in skimpy clothing can sell anything; well at least they'll keep you watching.

Something to smile about

As if we really needed a study to figure this out (from the Pew Research Study, h/t Powerline).

Of course if this gets too much attention the left might just let them catch on and cause us conservatives to lose one of our biggest sources of amusement, driving liberals crazy.

Come on, admit it, we (meaning conservatives) have all jumped into some far left discussion about how capitalism is evil or Bush is the next Hitler, only to either thrown in some even wilder conspiracy theory than the one being discussed, just to watch them run with it as if it actually made sense, or toss in a fact or two that totally destroys their argument just to watch the mental gymnastics they have to do to ignore it.

Sure it's like fishing with dynamite, a little too easy and not much sport, but sometimes it's just fun to watch things go boom.

=)

A simple question for any Muslim experts out there

From what I understand of Islam, the restriction on creating images of Mohammed was an order from Mohammed himself, as a way to prevent his followers from idolizing him instead of Allah, and in the stricter forms of Islam, this ban extends to all images, of anything. This leads me to ask three questions:

1. As an outsider looking in, how is the Muslim fixation on Mohammed, including having to say a little blessing after even mentioning his name and the extreme reaction to anything portraying him as anything short of perfection itself, not a form of worship of 'the prophet', picture or no picture?


2. Do the cartoons published by the Danish paper truly violate the spirit of Mohammed's orders since they are not being used as focus points for his idolization?
   


3. For those who follow the more hard lined Wahhabism which forbids any type of portraits of anything, unless you are in fact 'worshipping' Mohammed yourself, why would these cartoons be any more of a violation of your faith than the millions of pictures printed every day around the world?
   

Christians have the same belief that no person should be placed above God, but as we believe that Jesus was not only a prophet but also the son of God and a part of the Holy Trinity and therefore God himself, we can idolize him all we want and not violate that rule*; hence the abundance of Jesus related memorabilia such as MacDaddy's 'Jesus pencil toppers' he has on his desk.


*Of course that doesn't explain the Catholic churches fixation on Saints and Mary or for that matter the Pope, but that's a topic for another post, though I would appreciate examples of Biblical backing for the religious authority assigned to any of them if anyone happens to have any .

How the West was lost.

And so the collapse of Western civilization continues as pretty much every major Canadian bookstore has buckled under the threats from Muslim extremists and refused to even carry the current issue of the Western Standard.

Before Mr./Ms. Anonymous jumps in I'd like to state quite clearly that in a capitalist society that the various Indigo and McNally Robinson chains are well within their rights to choose not to carry the issue, but once again, the excuse of 'tolerance for others' rings hollow. Indigo's refusal to carry the issue is especially important since, not too long ago, the government allowed Indigo to buy out Canada's only other large national book chain, Chapters, to become an effective book selling monopoly.

On the slightly brighter side, at least one paper has broken with the "tolerance" meme and had the honesty to state the obvious truth,

"Simply stated, we are being terrorized, and as deeply as we believe in the principles of free speech and a free press, we could not in good conscience place the men and women who work at the Phoenix and its related companies in physical jeopardy. As we feel forced, literally, to bend to maniacal pressure, this may be the darkest moment in our 40-year publishing history."

Who's Better than Ezra?

Way to go Mr, Lavant. Finally, a Canadian publisher not afraid to report the news.

So for those keeping track at home, I believe that makes it one University paper (later overruled by the University board) and one Conservative Paper that have had the journalistic integrity to actually report the news.

Update:
CTV also has the story except there seems to be a typo in the headline:

"Publisher defends decision to reprint cartoons"

I believe they meant to write:

"Publisher Forces News Agencies To Defend Decision NOT to Reprint Cartoons"

No thanks required for the correction, I'm just doing my part to help.

Update II:
Ezra replies to his critics.

More on the cartoon controversy

First, Ian over at Expose the Left, has a great video from a CNN segment with Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit, trying to teach journalist what it actually means to report the news.

And second, a link to TShirt Hell. No matter what the controversy, you can count on these guys to make things worse. Now that's freedom of speech.

This is what all the fuss is about??

It's hard to believe that these 12 simple cartoons could cause so much trouble.
(Click on image to read Michelle's post containing the 12 individual cartoons)

Sadly, in an effort to quell the angry Muslim crowds, governments across the globe have decided to play into these extremists hands and begin to regulate what can and can be published by their privately owned papers, in some cases going so far as to have courts impose injunctions against their printing.

I'm almost embarrassed, though I have to admit not all that surprised, to see that trend occur even here, in Canada (h/t Rants from the Right Coast by way of Malkin).

This has to stop, now. No matter how distasteful you may find an article, editorial, cartoon or ad in a privately owned paper, no one should have the right to block those things from being printed. Sure you have the right to protest or write angry letters to the editors but making any topic sacrosanct and declaring it out of bounds, especially one like religion (and at this moment in history, Islam in particular), destroys any chance for an truly well rounded news source.

And to all these big papers and news agencies who refuse to show the cartoon 'out of respect for Islam', I'm sorry but that excuse just doesn't cut it. When a story this big, with such wide ranging affects occurs, you can not just skip over the crux of the conflict 'out of respect' for anyone or anything. When is the last time you've ever heard that type of language from real journalists. If you are afraid of having yourself or your field journalists targeting by Islamic extremists that's fine, just say so, but to try and hide under the cover of 'respect' is just cowardly to the nth degree. The real reasons behind such decisions is blatently obvious when, as in the case of the NYT just yesterday, these same papers have no problem running (or in this case re-running) images that would be knowingly offensive to millions of Christians (and in in the NYT case especially offensive to Catholics). But of course when is the last time you saw the radical right wing of any Christian group behead someone for offending them. Sure they can be extremely annoying, but rarely deadly. In most cases the greatest complaint would be the number of times you are forced to listen to 100 off key voices sing "Amazing Grace".

Now that doesn't mean you can't show some restraint. You do not need to run the cartoons in question every day (i.e. the NYT and the Abu Ghraib story) but to truly inform your readers you must at least run the pictures once. So far few major papers, anywhere, have had the courage to even do that much.

And don't forget to get drunk on Carlsberg this weekend. Don't worry, it's for a good cause.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Yesterday's Cox & Forkum cartoon.



Their accompanying post expands on the importance of 'simple cartoons' such as the one pictured above or those printed in the Danish paper. A definite must read.

Ottawa Traffic (part 6)

Ok, just a word of advice to Ottawa area drivers, if OC Paratranspo buses are driving by you like you're standing still, it's time to either stay home or hand in your license.


Previous Ottawa Traffic posts

It's time for the Dems to grow up.

It seems Democrats know no bounds when it comes to inappropriate venues to bash Bush.

Both former President Jimmy Carter and Reverend Joseph Lowery took their turns at the podium during Coretta Scott King's funeral service to take their jabs at the current administration. At least it appears former President Bill Clinton had the common decency to keep his speech apolitical and not try to use the great accomplishments of the Kings to further his own agenda.

When Bill Clinton is the best example of Democratic restraint, you know your party's in trouble.

(h/t Michelle and Expose the Left)

Stephen, Stephen, Stephen.

I can't say I'm overly impressed with Stephen Harper's odd moves during yesterdays Cabinet appointments.

While I don't have too much trouble with appointing a non-elected party member to a cabinet position, as long as they bring a unique skill set or viewpoint that can justify their appointment, I'm not too big on the whole process of how an MP crosses the floor. While I don't have a problem with MP's changing parties, per se, I do think we need some sort of mechanism for constituents in his or her riding to voice their opinions on the matter, and if a significant number disagree with the move, a way for the riding to force a by election.

While not the case in all ridings, MPs are often elected as much due to party allegiances as voters like or dislike of the individual candidates. By changing that allegiance, while a sitting member, you have essentially betrayed your constituents trust and you owe it to them to allow their voices to be heard.

I understand Harper's wanting to get representatives in his Cabinet from two of the largest cities in the country, but while I might be able to give him a pass on the appointment of Fortier to be a voice for Montreal, the Emerson move still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I understand that he may have been a good Industry Minister under Martin, and that as a Vancouver MP he has a unique perspective regarding trade with Asia and the upcoming Olympic games, but still, there had to be a better way to do this.

Harper has to definitely do some spin control to keep his image as a force for change in parliament from being completely destroyed. The one good development from yesterday's announcements is that he reconfirmed his dedication to creating an elected Senate, and by the sounds of it, by the next federal election. If he can manage to succeed in that then maybe, just maybe, he'll come out on top of this whole mess.

Of course, on the brighter side, there is always the Liberals response to this whole affair to bring a smile to your face. Who else besides a Liberal MP could keep a straight face when condemning this move, when just 6 months ago the committed the most blatant act of vote buying ever witnessed in Canadian parliament. Bill Graham meet Belinda Stronach, Belinda Stronach, Bill Graham.

Eric, Eric, Eric.

Margolis, what has happened to you.

I might not have agreed with everything he wrote before but now he's jumped fully into the BDS camp. No matter what the topic he reflexively takes the anti-Bush stance. I've actually commented on his site before calling him on some of the falsehoods and ignored facts he used to back up another argument, but even then I could give him some of the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he hadn't read a newspaper for a few weeks, maybe he was getting his information from Kos, whatever. Now, he's 'jumped the shark' in a way only a devote anti-Bush reporter can; he's actually trying to defend Iran's attempt to build a nuclear arsenal* simply because Bush opposes it.

From what I can grasp of his fractured logic, Iran needs to protect itself from the evil intentions of Israel and hey, everyone else has nukes so why not Iran. The fact that Iran's current leader has repeatedly stated, quite publicly as to avoid any possible misinterpretations, that he is devoted to wiping Israel off the map, well that's just some good natured ribbing on an international scale. Come on Bush, lighten up, can't you take a joke.

The worse part, I was actually starting this post because of his article in the Sun condemning Bush for his vow not to aid Hamas, in which he says Israel and the U.S. have to start talking with Hamas's 'moderate' wing. And by moderate I guess he means the political leaders who order the attacks on civilians as opposed to the military leaders who commit them.

And here's tip for both Eric and all the other journalists who like to make themselves feel better by pointing out what they see as the apparent hypocrisy of Bush calling for an end to aid after the elections by the Palestinians; he's not contesting the elections or saying the Pals don't deserve the right to vote, all he is saying is that by electing an organization who's stated purpose is to destroy Israel and kill Jews, an opinion not shared by the vast majority of Americans, he cannot continue to send aid. He's not calling for a recount, or the Hamas politicians to be somehow invalidated, just the opposite; he respects the Palestinians decision to give Hamas a controlling power in their government, but they, must now learn to live with the consequences of their choices. Oddly enough he didn't once mention similar demands set forth by Egypt with respect to aid. I guess because it's hard to accuse Egypt of being one of Bush's puppet regimes and therefore it doesn't fit to well with Eric's world view.

He continues his decent into anti-Bush territory with his little comment about the only other fair elections held in the region prior to the Palestinian was in Algeria, in 1991. I believe their are 25 million people a little further east, many of which with purple stained fingers, who may have some quarrel with that statement Eric.

Wow, I mean just, wow!

* The link to the actual article doesn't seem to be working at the moment for the moment it is on his main page.

A word of advice to Tom Toles

With a friend like this, who needs enemies.

You may have ticked off all the Joint Chiefs enough for them to send a letter to the editor (and despite what some on the extreme left think, freedom of speech does not end at the Pentagon's doorstep) but as any sane thinking individual knows, there is a 0% chance of them actually ordering the military to 'make you disappear' or do anything else to you or the Washington Post. They were just expressing their disappointment at your choice of using the image of an injured soldier as a backdrop for your cartoon. No threats, just honest expression. Fair enough.

Oh the other hand, having Ted Rall out in public defending you - nothing good can come of that.

I just watched the 'Hannity and Colmes" segment with Ted Rall defending the cartoon. Nothing special there, but once Hannity went to show one of Rall's own cartoons, Rall began to thrown a fit and then tried to act indifferent while continuing to protest the showing of his strip. I can't say it's because he doesn't want his face directly linked to the bile that he draws, but he definitely didn't act like a proud artist about to have his work shown on national television. Even Colmes was taking Hannity's side in reference to showing the cartoon.

Rall has never net a serviceman or woman he couldn't hate. His extreme dislike for the military was perfectly on display as he tried to debate Hannity over the fact that the freedoms we enjoy today are in large part due to the West's military strength. In Rall's world the Constitution alone does that. Well, Ted, the next time a tyrant like Hitler decides he wants to rule the world, you have fun waving your copy of the Constitution at his invading tanks; me, I'll be standing over by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.

Time

Ever just sit around contemplating the meaning of 'time'.

Ever wonder why 'time' seems to fly when you're having fun and seem stationary when you're not.

Ever wonder why you are still in your office at 4:00 on a Friday when you could be having a better 'time' anywhere else.

Iron Mike indeed

Tyson could only dream of being this tough.

The 'Ask The Prophet Archives'

In a continuing mocking of the Muslim over reaction to the political cartoons I give you the Ask The Prophet Archives by way of This Blog is Full of Crap.

Please, make good use of it.

Compare and contrast

I'd just like to compare the Muslims reaction to the printing of political cartoons featuring Mohammed in a Danish paper, and then later in French and German amongst others as a sign of solidarity, to the Christian uprising to graphics like this one (from T-Shirt Hell) featuring images of Jesus.

My guess is while you haven't necessarily seen this particular shirt you've seen ones like it and I've yet to hear of any death threats of bomb scares over it. Although I guess the fact T-Shirt Hell is blocked by Websense as our office under the "tasteless" flag could be considered a kind of protest. But then again, there are much worse shirts than that one on their site.

(Personally, while I don't see myself ever wearing one, it still makes me chuckle)

"Hindsight alone ...

.. is not wisdom and second-guessing is not a strategy"

Whichever speech writer came up with that little line deserves a raise. In one simple sentence he or she managed to sum up the last 6 years of Democrat fumbling. One of the best indirect slaps in the face I've heard in a speech and judging by their gleeful and proud reactions to the failure of the Congress to correct the soon to be devastating US Social Security shortfall, I think they deserved that and a whole lot more.

I only caught snippets of Bush's State of the Union address (had a much more important GuildWars appointment to keep), but just from reading some of the reactions from those on the left and the right, it seems he did ok.