Article about how the UN condemned Israel, and not Hamas, about what happened in Gaza. I couldn't help noticing 10 of the 25 countries in favour of the resolution are Muslim majority, which will surely vote favourably against a Jewish state.
Interesting article about a video which highly implicates Iran and its nuclear program. Too bad the UN doesn't want you to see it.
How the Obama presidency is giving countries license to treat Israel like s**t. He certainly is bringing change.
Now to switch tact on article focuses...
After mentioning climate change twice in Parliament in the last 6 months, Ignatieff has now made it the plank of his next campaign. Sounds like he's really passionate about it.
Socialized health medicine. If you're not fit you will be fined. Liberty is awesome. California is also banning people from buying big screen tvs.
1 in 8 girls in some high school are preggers!!! My potential solutions. No glove no love, or kick it really old school and only sleep with your wife.
The situation in Afghanistan continues to get worse. I hope Obama listens to his generals and not Joe Biden.
Up to 138 in Rolling Stone songs list. Most of the old songs are dreck. Good Vibrations while a good song should not be number 6. Also, Let it Be is clearly better than Hey Jude. Mr. Tambourine Man by the Byrds is better than the Dylan version. Gimme Shelter is pure awesomeness, also Changes by Bowie, gotta love that chorus. Norwegian Wood is a funny name for a song. Songs with gibberish word choruses are good, like LAI LAI LAI in the Boxer, and SHA NANANANA in Brown Eyed Girl. A Jew tops the list, way to go Robert Zimmerman, or Bob Dylan as some call him.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Which ailment do I have?
I keep on waking up in the middle of the night... with a deep burning....in my wrist!
I think I may actually have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Freaking laptop and gameboy. I should probably go to a doctor. I guess it's true that the things you love the most have the greatest potential to hurt you, except Coca Cola, my teeth love sugar so much they fondly embrace it for several hours. Sneering comments are welcomed (I'm looking at you Eric). Hopefully it's not Lupus.
Seinfeld References=2
In better news, I think puberty has kicked in and I might need to shave twice a week now!
I think I may actually have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Freaking laptop and gameboy. I should probably go to a doctor. I guess it's true that the things you love the most have the greatest potential to hurt you, except Coca Cola, my teeth love sugar so much they fondly embrace it for several hours. Sneering comments are welcomed (I'm looking at you Eric). Hopefully it's not Lupus.
Seinfeld References=2
In better news, I think puberty has kicked in and I might need to shave twice a week now!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Thing I saw on the Daily Show or Colbert Report.
Sometime last week A.J Jacobs was the guest on one of these shows, promoting his new book about him becoming a human guinea pig. Seeing as I have tons of spare time, maybe I should do the same thing. That's why my years of musical neglect will now lead me on a quixotic music journey of self discovery. In the next month I will try to listen to the Rolling Stones top 500 song play list, and if I get around to it the 100 greatest songs of Rap and Hip Hop. I guess I'll keep you guys posted on my progress.
If you have any recommendations for good stuff lemme know.
If you have any recommendations for good stuff lemme know.
Movies you should watch: The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker is possibly the best war movie ever, save Full Metal Jacket, that movie was awesome! Anyways, The Hurt Locker is a movie about a bomb disposal team in Iraq. The movie gives a great account of the difficulties there are fighting in an urban setting. Every man with a cell phone can potentially set off a bomb, any stack of garbage can have hidden explosives in it. Despite this, the soldiers act in as humane a way as possible, although one sees behind the scenes the pent up aggression they hold. The soldiers are shown to be unable to live outside of a war setting, despite the constant danger they face every day. This is illustrated near the end of the movie with one of the soldiers doing the mundane task of shopping for groceries, wondering how exactly this is making a difference for his country.
The film is not overtly political, which is why most war movies fail. The film is beautifully shot, with lots of tense scenes. Guy Pierce and Ralph Fiennes make cameos, and the acting is generally excellent. The movie was surprisingly shot by a woman, however this probably gives the movie a different perspective than one is used to.
All in all one should definitely see this movie. It's got everything you need. Bombs, guns, and tanks....
The film is not overtly political, which is why most war movies fail. The film is beautifully shot, with lots of tense scenes. Guy Pierce and Ralph Fiennes make cameos, and the acting is generally excellent. The movie was surprisingly shot by a woman, however this probably gives the movie a different perspective than one is used to.
All in all one should definitely see this movie. It's got everything you need. Bombs, guns, and tanks....
Capitalism: A Love Story Review
So last night I decided to go to see said movie (with my delightful Liberal friend), and came away with many interesting thoughts. The review will probably feel a little scatterbrained, but then again the movie wasn't so coherent either.
Moore starts off the movie by juxtaposing the reasons for the fall of Rome with America today. The reason for this collapse falls at the feet of capitalism, which he describes as evil at the end of the movie. Of course it's debatable if an economic system can have descriptive words attached to it. I guess I'll just proceed with some things I agreed with, and some things I didn't.
Firstly, I do agree that most people in our society are quite selfish. The lust for materials can be quite disheartening. Clearly, a ton of people are not happy, which is puzzling, as they seem to have so much. Maybe possessions and materials do not provide one with happiness. Instead of blaming the collapse on the economy on human greed, which seems much more likely than capitalism, Moore instead pits the evil rich against the worthy poor. Offhandedly he admits that the reason the poor allow capitalism is because they hope they can become rich pricks one day too, kind of taking away their virtuosity....
Moore uses a lot of religious iconography in making his claims. He states that Jesus wouldn't have stood for so much economic disparity, and I'm inclined to believe that. In Judaism one is supposed to give away 10 percent of their salary to charity, let the poor eat from your fields for free every 7 years, and during harvest time leave the corners of your field for the poor. Money is shown to be a corrupting power in the bible, eg the prohibition by a king not to collect horses, in fears he'll be consumed by materialism. Being humble is a virtue, and recognizing that G-d gives one his money keeps one in the proper perspective. But who needs all this, science,the human mind, and unlicensed sexual liberty can make a much better society...
Obviously the stories he brings are heartbreaking, but they must be taken with a grain of salt. If you can't pay for your property you don't deserve it, even if it seems nice to let people live there for free. The philosophical concept of liberty does not allow emotion to get the better of reason. It does also not allow the government to take everyone's money and give it to the poor (only to a certain extent).
Moore yearns to go back to the good old days where one man could raise his family, and you get a car every 3 years. He actually sounds very conservative here as he wants to return to the past in loo of the present. Of course times have changed for people working in car factories. Moore admits America didn't have to compete with Germany and Japan in making cars back then. Now that they do, how does he expect people to get paid the same as they did back then? He rails against Gm (and the air industry) for paying their workers so badly, but fails to mention they lose tons of money. How does he expect these companies to run with thousands more workers, pay them lavish salaries, and still stay in business?
Moore praises unions as the greatest things ever. Like ordinary people aren't greedy. Sure seemed that way to me last summer when the garbage men in Toronto went on strike during a recession for higher wages. The fact of the matter is, industry is dying in America. Countries can build stuff for a lot cheaper than we can, and don't need to pay their workers nearly as much. We are becoming a society where we provide services domestically and internationally. And no offense to some of the workers, but they are not cared about for the simple reason that they can be easily replaced by people with similar skills. It's a lot harder to replace someone with a Harvard degree, which is why they get paid more...
His whole political shlock also makes little sense. Because Reagan's treasury secretary worked for Merrill Lynch means that a sinister conspiracy is in the works? Apparently so according to the conspiracy minded congresswoman he keeps on talking too. George Bush in a stroke of genius planned the whole economic collapse so Larry Summers could make Goldman Sachs the number one financial company on Wall Street. Moore claims the bailout stole taxpayers money, thank the Democratic Congress for that. I wonder what his thoughts are about the health care bill, which will 'steal' a trillion dollars of taxpayer money. I didn't agree with the bailouts either, simply because CAPITALISM would say that these companies should fail. Government intervention is allowing this to go on.
Moore then paints Obama as the heroic figure who so wants to change the world, but is being influenced against his will by Wall Street. Like he didn't get elected to the Senate with the help of rich and powerful people. Obama appointed a 'wall street' guy to be his treasury secretary too. Personally, I don't think that by Goldman Sachs giving him a 500 000 dollar donation, he'll suddenly pass a 700 billion dollar helping them. Maybe -Shocker- the bailout bill can help the common people.
He ends the movie by saying the people are rising up against the rich, to bad this is not even close to the truth. People in industrial towns need to realize the world is changing, and they need new skills. We've had to adjust before and we can do it again.
In summation, capitalism is not an evil system, it is people who are evil and greedy. Seen throughout the movie are examples of businesses where the CEO doesn't get more than the worker, and capitalism doesn't state there is anything wrong with that. Human greed and lack of compassion makes companies act in callous ways. If we want to save our economy, start by looking deep inside yourself, and realize that money isn't everything.
Moore starts off the movie by juxtaposing the reasons for the fall of Rome with America today. The reason for this collapse falls at the feet of capitalism, which he describes as evil at the end of the movie. Of course it's debatable if an economic system can have descriptive words attached to it. I guess I'll just proceed with some things I agreed with, and some things I didn't.
Firstly, I do agree that most people in our society are quite selfish. The lust for materials can be quite disheartening. Clearly, a ton of people are not happy, which is puzzling, as they seem to have so much. Maybe possessions and materials do not provide one with happiness. Instead of blaming the collapse on the economy on human greed, which seems much more likely than capitalism, Moore instead pits the evil rich against the worthy poor. Offhandedly he admits that the reason the poor allow capitalism is because they hope they can become rich pricks one day too, kind of taking away their virtuosity....
Moore uses a lot of religious iconography in making his claims. He states that Jesus wouldn't have stood for so much economic disparity, and I'm inclined to believe that. In Judaism one is supposed to give away 10 percent of their salary to charity, let the poor eat from your fields for free every 7 years, and during harvest time leave the corners of your field for the poor. Money is shown to be a corrupting power in the bible, eg the prohibition by a king not to collect horses, in fears he'll be consumed by materialism. Being humble is a virtue, and recognizing that G-d gives one his money keeps one in the proper perspective. But who needs all this, science,the human mind, and unlicensed sexual liberty can make a much better society...
Obviously the stories he brings are heartbreaking, but they must be taken with a grain of salt. If you can't pay for your property you don't deserve it, even if it seems nice to let people live there for free. The philosophical concept of liberty does not allow emotion to get the better of reason. It does also not allow the government to take everyone's money and give it to the poor (only to a certain extent).
Moore yearns to go back to the good old days where one man could raise his family, and you get a car every 3 years. He actually sounds very conservative here as he wants to return to the past in loo of the present. Of course times have changed for people working in car factories. Moore admits America didn't have to compete with Germany and Japan in making cars back then. Now that they do, how does he expect people to get paid the same as they did back then? He rails against Gm (and the air industry) for paying their workers so badly, but fails to mention they lose tons of money. How does he expect these companies to run with thousands more workers, pay them lavish salaries, and still stay in business?
Moore praises unions as the greatest things ever. Like ordinary people aren't greedy. Sure seemed that way to me last summer when the garbage men in Toronto went on strike during a recession for higher wages. The fact of the matter is, industry is dying in America. Countries can build stuff for a lot cheaper than we can, and don't need to pay their workers nearly as much. We are becoming a society where we provide services domestically and internationally. And no offense to some of the workers, but they are not cared about for the simple reason that they can be easily replaced by people with similar skills. It's a lot harder to replace someone with a Harvard degree, which is why they get paid more...
His whole political shlock also makes little sense. Because Reagan's treasury secretary worked for Merrill Lynch means that a sinister conspiracy is in the works? Apparently so according to the conspiracy minded congresswoman he keeps on talking too. George Bush in a stroke of genius planned the whole economic collapse so Larry Summers could make Goldman Sachs the number one financial company on Wall Street. Moore claims the bailout stole taxpayers money, thank the Democratic Congress for that. I wonder what his thoughts are about the health care bill, which will 'steal' a trillion dollars of taxpayer money. I didn't agree with the bailouts either, simply because CAPITALISM would say that these companies should fail. Government intervention is allowing this to go on.
Moore then paints Obama as the heroic figure who so wants to change the world, but is being influenced against his will by Wall Street. Like he didn't get elected to the Senate with the help of rich and powerful people. Obama appointed a 'wall street' guy to be his treasury secretary too. Personally, I don't think that by Goldman Sachs giving him a 500 000 dollar donation, he'll suddenly pass a 700 billion dollar helping them. Maybe -Shocker- the bailout bill can help the common people.
He ends the movie by saying the people are rising up against the rich, to bad this is not even close to the truth. People in industrial towns need to realize the world is changing, and they need new skills. We've had to adjust before and we can do it again.
In summation, capitalism is not an evil system, it is people who are evil and greedy. Seen throughout the movie are examples of businesses where the CEO doesn't get more than the worker, and capitalism doesn't state there is anything wrong with that. Human greed and lack of compassion makes companies act in callous ways. If we want to save our economy, start by looking deep inside yourself, and realize that money isn't everything.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Seeing the new Michael Moore movie tomorrow..
Will it be better or worse than an Endoscopy? Only time will tell....
Fatah has given up hope......oh no!
It was reported today that in an internal memo circulated by the PA it stated that the Palestinian leadership has lost hope in Obama (despite his Nobel prize win). The reason for this is because Obama has recently backed off his harsh demand of Israel to completely stop building 'settlements', instead they only have to stop building in 95% of them. The sinister 'zionist lobby' in the USA is apparently to blame for Obama's sudden decision.
Firstly, if the Palestinians are complaining of a Zionist lobby is this a group one wants to make peace with?
Secondly, it's called a compromise. Obama demands 100 percent, Israel says it will comply a little bit less, and they agree on that. This is how negotiation works, a fact the Palestinians don't seem to recognize as all they do is demand, and never give up anything in return. In fact I'm strongly critical of Obama for not pushing the Palestinians more on this front. It seems Abbas is content to let Obama pressure Israel into making concessions, while he sits back and does nothing.
Captain Wonderful has some work cut out for him if he wants to get a deal done.
Firstly, if the Palestinians are complaining of a Zionist lobby is this a group one wants to make peace with?
Secondly, it's called a compromise. Obama demands 100 percent, Israel says it will comply a little bit less, and they agree on that. This is how negotiation works, a fact the Palestinians don't seem to recognize as all they do is demand, and never give up anything in return. In fact I'm strongly critical of Obama for not pushing the Palestinians more on this front. It seems Abbas is content to let Obama pressure Israel into making concessions, while he sits back and does nothing.
Captain Wonderful has some work cut out for him if he wants to get a deal done.
Monday, October 12, 2009
I'm back again....
Let's hope I'm not to lazy to keep this going.
I will blog on basically everything, save reviews of desperate housewives and other things of that vein...
I will blog on basically everything, save reviews of desperate housewives and other things of that vein...
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