Tag: postaday2011

Occupational Demands

On By WinstonIn Media, Personal Responsibility, Politics, Pop Culture, Society, ValuesLeave a comment

Usually, I try not to write about the same thing two days in a row. This isn’t my fault though. If the Occupy the Media people would just shut up, I could move on peacefully. Instead, they are talking about maybe issuing demands.

Really? Demands? Who do they think they are? What right do they have to make demands on anyone let alone everyone.

I know they claim to be the ninety-nine percent, but even they can’t be stupid enough to actually believe that. Or can they? Well, it seems they can. Wait, maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe stupid isn’t the right word. Maybe delusional would fit better…. Nope. Stupid it is.

It’s ridiculous, but it started me thinking. Why would this tiny little group of people think the rest of the world should listen to their demands? The answer of course is the world we live in. My theory goes something like this:

We live in a brand driven society. Elections aren’t about platforms, they’re about personality and name recognition. Advertisements substitute product information for celebrities, flashy visuals and are often unrelated to the product being advertised. Celebrities use their fame and name recognition to try and shape public policy as though singing or acting has given some insight denied to us mere mortals.

Combine this with reality media which imply that everyone is secretly a celebrity or a potential business success or otherwise just one video away from fame and it all makes sense. If being a media brand is all it takes, then of course they think their demands should be acted on. The media has taken to referring to them as Occupiers. As soon as they started capitalizing that word, it became a brand and gave them the same social credibility as other pop media brands. Brands such as Bono (0%), Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie (0.03%), or Michael Moore (-300%).

It’s that assumed credibility that creates the delusion of grandeur to which they have succumbed. The media refers to them as the 99% and it reinforces their idea that they really represent all these other people. The fact is they don’t. I’ll tell you why they don’t.

The real ninety-nine percent didn’t vote for them. In our society, we vote for people to represent us. I didn’t vote for them, and neither did anyone else. They need to stop saying they represent us, and the media needs to stop reinforcing that misinformation. Which is funny because the Occupado folks love talking about corporate or government misinformation, but are not so strident when the error is in their favor.

The good news in all of this is the probable timeline. The campers are so fragmented that after two months, they still haven’t decided if they have demands. If they do have demands, they haven’t been able to decide what they are. If they figure out what the demands are, they aren’t sure if they should go public with them. At the current rate and with their “organizational structure” their grandkids may actually produce a working draft for consideration by future generations.

In the meantime, thousands are expected to flood Wall Street to celebrate the two month anniversary of the movement. The plan is to obstruct and delay workers on their way at those evil banks and such. Just out of curiosity, how does their right to free assembly trump these people’s right to go to work and support their families? But that’s not the way Occupied mind works. The unOccupied mind is a much simpler creature. Occupiers are good and therefore whatever they do must be right. Banks and those who work for them are bad keeping them from doing what they do is good.

For my money, the police and civic authorities have a responsibility to ensure the workers can get to work unhindered. The only surprise would involve them siding with the public instead of the alleged protesters. I think it would be cool if the bankers showed up for work carrying signs saying, ” The Pandering Stops Here!”.

They should be allowed to protest too.

Cheers, Winston

Unhappy Campers

On By WinstonIn Personal, Personal Responsibility, Politics, Pop Culture, SocietyLeave a comment

It seems some jokes have a shelf life. Apparently, people are done laughing at the Occupy (Camp) Wherever movement. Now, like “Train-wreck” Charlie’s one man show, it’s time to get them off the stage.

The protesters have proven their irrelevance. Two months into their protest, the only people who care about their pet issues are them. Sadly, after listening to the same tired lines for too long, they aren’t even really funny anymore.

Such media coverage as they have garnered has been more about their novelty value than their message. Of course that could have something to do with their own lack of focus. Really, there’s only so much air time in “Too few people control too much money.”.

Nobody cares. More accurately, people do care. The problem is that the protesters are just pointing at problems everyone already knows about. We don’t need a bunch of whiny, bored urban campers to tell us about them.

If they really want to make a difference, maybe they could volunteer in their communities. Right now all they’re doing is annoying people and creating a mess. That mess by the way, is going to be cleaned up with the tax dollars of the real ninety-nine percent.

The whole Occupy crowd has always struck me as being a symptom of society’s distress rather than it’s cure. Here is an analogy to demonstrate:

A parent takes their child with them while running errands. The child doesn’t want to go, but the parent promises them a treat. This goes on for a while. Finally one say the parent says “No. Not today,”.

The child now has a problem and an easily identifiable villain. Being generally over-indulged has given the child a hyper-developed sense of entitlement. As a result, the child sits on the floor in the store, screams, refuses to move and annoys everyone around in an effort to force the parent to give them what they want.

Unlike various urban bureaucrats, most parents don’t leave the child there for two months. However tempting it may be.

There has been failure on both sides in this fiasco. The second order failures involved city officials allowing the installation of tent encampments in the first place. That was just plain stupid as it did nothing but feed into the protester’s sense of entitlement. Oh it also annoyed people, damaged parks and left taxpayers to foot the bill for cleaning and repairs. Way to pander you spineless bureaucrats.

The truly epic, first order failure must be awarded to the protesters themselves. The idea of alleged grown ups thinking that camping and rallying would end human greed is mind boggling. It’s magical thinking.

I’m old enough to remember Harmonic Convergence (the rest of you should look it up). The short version involved getting a specific percentage of the world’s population to create a certain tone at a certain time. This was going to change the Earth’s vibration at an atomic level and so return us to a state of universal harmony.

That had a better chance of success than marching around saying greed is bad and then sitting in a park waiting for people to stop being greedy. Really. It’s like me writing my blog and waiting for those protesters to stop being spoiled children. The main difference being, I don’t expect my fantasy to come true.

The Occupy movement has once more proven the adage “If you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”. So far, they haven’t offered any practicable solutions that I’ve heard of. On the other hand, with the ever increasing cost of policing, cleanup, detention processing, eventual trials, appeals etc, they are definitely part of the problem.

Just like the public meltdown of the Sheen Machine, they aren’t funny anymore. They’re just pathetic. It’s time to get off the stage and go home.

Cheers, Winston

Welcome To Pavillion Wyo. Population: Poisoned

On By WinstonIn Environment, Global Issues, Personal Responsibility, Society, Values1 Comment

A story on MSNBC caught my eye today.  For years now, the residents of Pavillion Wyoming have been complaining about their drinking water.  They claim it’s turned black and stinks of gasoline.  Many are claiming serious health issues relate to the problems with the water.  Why am I writing about this?

Well, aside from the genuine tragedy of the situation, there’s a Canadian connection to all of this.  You see, Pavillion sits on a large natural gas deposit.  The only practicable way to get to that gas is process known as “fracking”.

This process involves pumping a mix of water and toxic chemicals under high pressure deep underground to fracture the rock strata and release the gas.  Residents have long been convinced that this is the source of the problems with their water.  Not least because the start of “fracking” and the problems with the water were too close together to seem entirely coincidental.

What does all that have to do with Canada?  Well, as you may know we have a companies here with a lot of experience at pulling fossil fuels out of the ground regardless of the cost.  At least the environmental cost.  One of those is called EnCana.

When the people of Pavillion originally spoke up about their concerns, the company that owned the drilling rights decided it was a good time to cut their losses.  All they needed was a buyer with more cash than ethics.  Fortunately, EnCana fit that bill perfectly.

For years now they have been insisting that the issues with the local aquifer have nothing to do with all the chemicals and toxins they pump into the ground.  I mean really, what are the odds that toxic water pumped into the ground could possibly contaminate the groundwater?

Apparently, they may have miscalculated.  Responding to the ongoing concerns of the residents, the Environmental Protection Agency drilled a couple of deep monitoring wells in the area.  Can anyone guess what they found?

If you said nothing, go buy some EnCana shares.  If you said seriously life threatening levels of exactly the sort of toxins one associates with “fracking”.   These include 2-Butoxyethanol, commonly used in the “fracking” process, fifty times the safe levels of Benzene, Phenois, Acetone, Toluene, Napthalene and Diesel Fuel.  Despite attempts at damage control by EnCana, there were no traces of Nitrates or fertilizers which would have pointed to an agricultural source for the contamination.

Nope, there’s only one source, and in the words of Battlestar Gallactica’s Starbuck, “It’s pretty “fracking” obvious!”

The EPA has released the raw data, but to minimize any claims of error, they are holding off publishing findings pending further analysis.  They want to have all their ducks in a row before it all gets tied up in court for the next thirty years or so.

Meanwhile back in Pavillion Wyoming.  EnCana has denied any culpability for the contaminated ground water.  It is an act of pure charity that sees them supplying drinking water to the townsfolk.  At the same time, they are said to negotiating the sale of their local wells to an outfit from Texas.

The previous owners may not have taught them a clean way to get gas out of the ground, but at least they taught them to cut and run when the going gets tough.

Let’s be clear on one thing though.  When I talk about EnCana’s underhanded dealings with the nice folks of Pavillion, I’m not just talking about a greedy CEO or even a greed Board of Directors.  I’m talking about the greedy shareholders who don’t waste a lot of time looking at the ethical stance of the companies in their portfolios.  They just look at the bottom line and congratulate themselves on backing a winner.

If the EPA rules that EnCana and it’s predecessor and probable successor are responsible for the issues in Pavillion, then their stocks should be frozen the moment the handwriting is on the wall.  The people who wanted to profit off the misery of others shouldn’t really be given a chance to sell out.  Maybe losing some money will make them a little more sympathetic to those who’ve lost their health, their peace of mind, their homes and for  some, their lives.  As for the executives and their boards of directors, all of their assets should be seized and turned over to their victims and they should be banned for life from holding such positions of authority and abuse.

Just one person’s opinion.

Cheers, Winston

A Good News Day

On By WinstonIn Enlightenment, Loving Life, PersonalLeave a comment

My day started off with a lost wallet.  I also needed to get a blank cheque for payroll at my new job, and I had stuff to clean up in the back yard before the snow flies.

I went online to order cheques the other day and discovered I didn’t have enough in my account to pay for them.  So I went to the bank to get a printout as a substitute so I can get paid.  Of course, the bank can’t give me that information without the ID in my lost wallet.  Of course they can’t give my banking information to just anyone.

So I walked back home empty handed.  But not before I found out when a staffer know at the bank would be working.  Once home, I did the stuff I needed to get done in the yard.  Good news #1.   Then I had lunch and walked back to the bank .  By that time, my friend had gone for supper.

So I walked back home empty handed.  I read for a while, did some writing and watched some TV with Lynn.  I had a nap and then then went back to the bank.  This time, I caught up to the person I needed to talk to.  Because I’ve been banking with her for years, she was able to make the cheque for me.  Good news #2

So that time I didn’t go home empty handed.  I took my new cheque and went to drop it off at work.  My boss wasn’t there to give the cheque to, but a co-worker informed me that my wallet was in the washroom in the back.  Good new #3.  Apparently it had fallen out of my pocket at work the night before.

Overall, what started out as an incredibly stressful day ended really well.  Just a quick reminder to myself to have a little more faith, and a little less stress.  I often stress over things I have no control over such as a lost wallet only to have them sort themselves out.  The truth is, it’s only when I stop stressing and accept things that I can start to see ways of resolving them.

It’s something I’m working on.  It’s taking me a while to get the hang of it, but it’s worth the effort.  I still get stressed, but I’m getting better at not letting it cripple me. That’s good news #4.

Cheers, Winston

 

Mayor Misses The Point On Abusive Bus Driver

On By WinstonIn Bullying, Personal, Society, ValuesLeave a comment

So a driver on an OC Transpo bus went off on a passenger.  The driver yelled, swore and threatened a passenger.  The passenger, who deals with mild autism was reciting a play he had written for a screen writing class.  He was at the front of the bus and apparently, the driver didn’t like the play.  When the passenger wouldn’t stop reciting, the driver became progressively more abusive.

The driver yelled, swore including repeated use of the “F” word and culminated in threats of physical violence.  Unfortunately for the driver but fortunately for everyone else, another passenger recorded the incident on her phone and uploaded it to Youtube.  OC Transpo is investigating.

I’m not sure what there is to investigate.  The driver verbally abused and threatened a rider on his bus.  There is a video of the incident.  Thousands have seen it.  These are my tax dollars that pay this uber-jerk.  I don’t think that’s appropriate.  I’ve dealt with some really people over the years, and I’ve never pulled that sort of crap.  The other ninety-nine percent of the drivers at OC Transpo put up with everything he does, but they remain professional and courteous.  he doesn’t deserve to be part of that group.  Fire him now and restore some public faith in the cities decision making process.

Which brings me to Mayor Jim Watson.  After offering his pro-forma apology, he said he hopes OC Transpo will share the outcome of their investigation.  Wait a minute!  Who runs this place?  Apparently not  our elected officials.  Seems like the it’s actually the bureaucrats and unions.  Makes me want to vote next election.  Probably for someone willing to stand up for the people who pay the bills.  You know.  Us.

The other gem from Mayor Watson runs as follows.  “People should govern themselves accordingly knowing most people are carrying cameras.”  What the hell?  How about this?  People shouldn’t verbally abuse and threaten other people because it’s wrong whether you’re being filmed or not.  To figure.  It’s wrong.  Maybe I should mention this again.  It’s wrong!

The head of the driver’s union responded to the incident by saying the witness shouldn’t have filmed the incident.  He’s apparently on the same page as the Mayor.  The problem isn’t with the psycho driver.  Hell no, the only problem they see is that he shouldn’t have been filmed doing it.  Thank you ATU president Garry Queale.

By your reasoning, the police who beat Rodney King shouldn’t have been filmed and held to account.  No one should record or report abuses of power.  It seems he and Mayor Watson would be happier if there was some sort of blanket amnesty for their pet idiot.  Fortunately for the rest of us, there’s no such thing.

Cheers, Winston

Just A Quick Note… And Major General Peter Fuller Gets The Boot

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Politics, SocietyLeave a comment

Working on catching up on my NaNoWriMo project so not a lot of time for the blog tonight.  Serious backlog of writing to take care of.  The timing is however quite excellent.  I had not idea what to write about tonight.

Of course, this is also true of the novel I’m supposed to be writing.  This whole idea of randomly deciding to write a novel in a month may not be my most well thought out plan ever.  Still, if I don’t try, I’m guaranteed not to do it.  Of course, deciding to go ahead with it only slightly increases the odds.

So now it’s time to get back to it.  But first, the news.Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller is being yanked from Afghanistan for making some wildly inappropriate, entertaining and true comments.  Fuller said something terrible about Hamid Karzai.  According to the general, who was the deputy commander of training for Afghan security forces, the Afgan President is a little erratic.  Why would he say such a thing?  Probably it has a little something to do with the Prez saying Afghanistan would side with Pakistan in a war against the U.S.

You know the same Afghanistan the U.S. just spent billions of dollars saving from the Taliban.  Yep their puppet just bit the hand that put him on the throne.  And the nasty general called him on it.  Bad General Fuller.  So says the State Department.

These are  people who should have pyramids beside them and crocodile insurance.  Yep, they spend that much time in “de-nial”.  When the president of your client state says he would help another country go to war with you it may be a sign.  Pretending it isn’t is…. what’s the term?  Oh yeah.  Delusional.

The evil general also mentioned that contrary to expectations among some Afghan leadership, U.S. pockets are not bottomless.  In his words “They think the streets are paved with gold and everyone lives in Hollywood.

So basically, a man who put his life on the line to bring freedom to the Afghans  is being punished for telling the truth.  That is what we commoners refer to as irony.  Mostly because we’re too polite to call it utter stupidity.  If they really want to punish someone, how about replacing the ungrateful wretch who just offered to go to war with them.  They’ve replaced one Afghan leader, why not go two for two?

That seems like common sense to me.  That’s why it isn’t going to happen.  There’s one thing we all know about government, military and the situation in Afghanistan in particular; common sense isn’t.

Cheers, Winston

Lindsay Lohan To Pose For Playboy

On By WinstonIn Pop Culture, Rants, Society, ValuesLeave a comment

In the Ottawa Sun there’s an article about Lindsay Lohan. It seems she’s now going to pose for Playboy. That’s not really that surprising. Lots of “off prime” female celebs have taken that route. I’m probably the only one who finds this hilariously funny.

My first giggle is the idea of her getting paid for what she’s already given away for free. Considering that Ms. Lohan was part of the knicker free craze that included Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. A quick Google search will also “reveal” (double entendre #1) that she has a penchant for bra-free, sheer tops. Given all that, what has she got left that qualifies as a million dollar surprise.

About her only claim to current fame is with the male of the “Prison Bunny” species. Her acting career such as it was, tanked ages ago. The only time we see her anymore is during tabloid TV coverage of her latest court appearance. I can understand her motive. Everyone’s seen everything, so why not get some cash out of it while there’s still at least some interest. But why would Playboy give a million dollars to a no-talent has-been for a been there, seen that bill of goods?

That’s not the biggest giggle though. Nope. That title goes to her mother’s take on the “spread”(double entendre #2). Dina Lohan says “It will be tastefully done.” So Mom is one hundred percent supportive of her daughters decision. Oh Yes! Momma Lohan is soooo gonna get Mother of the Year! How could she not? After all, she’s just being incredibly supportive of her daughter. Really now, just ’cause she isn’t currently a cash cow doesn’t mean she can’t be a trash cow.

Just A Quick Clarification
On re-reading this post I realized it could give the impression that I feel it’s

trashy

to pose for Playboy. This is not the case. I’m certain that the majority of their models are fine people, or as much so as any other group of people.

The term

trash cow

refers to a faded, wannabe starlet trying desperately to extend a totally undeserved fifteen minutes in the spotlight. She is the sad product of our current

cult of celebrity

wherein there is a growing failure to differentiate notoriety from fame.

Cheers, Winston

A Little Celebration

On By WinstonIn Humor, Loving Life, Personal2 Comments

Anyone who knows me can tell you I’m not the most mechanically inclined person. If my family would please stop laughing, we can continue.

My washing machine has been leaking for a while now. It’s been getting worse as time goes by. Now so much time has gone by that it’s starting to erode a river channel in the concrete floor of my laundry room. A small but thriving ecosystem has grown up around the drain in the floor. Despite the potential environment disaster, I decided it might be a good time to think about considering the possibility of looking at it.

Yeah, sometimes I too am amazed at how committed I get to these little projects.

So I tipped it back and looked to see where it was leaking. Then I found the model number (cleverly hidden on a sticker right on the front of the machine), and went to ask Google about it. According to an overwhelming percentage of answers, it is a pump. The same piece coincidentally that had water running out of it when I tipped the machine up to check.

More Googling gave me a manufacturers part number. Another search gave the phone number of the local appliance repair place where I had bought a part for my dryer a couple of months ago. A quick call confirmed that they had a pump in stock and available for immediate pick up. The manufacturer had just bumped the price up to eighty-five dollars, but they could let me have it for the old price of seventy.

Darn. Now I don’t have any excuse to delay this project. I’ll have to find something else to put off.

After picking up the new pump, I prepared an awesome stir-fry for supper for Lynn and I. Most yummy grilled, cubed chicken thighs. ;^D

After supper, I removed the old pump, put on the new one. Slightly bent a clip putting the body back on and bolted everything back together.

It is currently slaving away while I type this. The former wetlands are drying out and some very vexed wildlife is looking to relocate. Not bad for someone who’s mechanical skills usually involve looking up the repair guy’s number for Lynn to call.

So yeah, I think I’m entitled to a little celebration.

Cheers, Winston

NaNoWriMo Day 2 And An F-35 Update

On By WinstonIn Canadian Military, Personal, Politics, TechnologyLeave a comment

Greetings from the land of poor but quick writing.  One of the key pieces of advice for this process is don’t edit as you write.  Just get the words down on the page and worry about everything else later.  That’s why I specify poor writing.  turns out it’s not too hard to write badly.

Writing quickly on the other hand is apparently another matter all together.  To achieve the stated goal of fifty thousand words by November thirtieth, I need to write one thousand, six hundred and sixty-seven words every day.  To put that in perspective, an average post here on Brain Bits is between two hundred and five hundred words.

So far, I’ve gotten just over two thousand words.  That leaves me with around thirteen hundred to write before bed.  Now all I have to do is figure out what the heck they’re going to be.

Of course, the more I write here, the less I’m writing there.  But there was one more thing just before I get back to it.  It’s a quick follow up to the post I wrote the other day about our pending F-35 purchase.

Michael Gilmore the top Pentagon weapons tester has put out a memo saying that training flights should be delayed for at least ten months.  The memo sites a variety of potentially fatal issues including an untested ejection system, a faulty generator, and incomplete flight manuals.

Mr. Gilmore expects it to take about ten months to get everything up to snuff to resume testing.  The U.S. Army and Air Force disagree with him, as does manufacturer Lockheed Martin.  Of course they do.  That’s why we have third party, civilian consultants.  No vested interest equals a better chance of honesty.

Yup.  That deal keeps looking better and better every time I hear more about it.

Cheers, Winston

NaNoWriMo = No Free Time In November

On By WinstonIn PersonalLeave a comment

It’s time to start my entry for the National Novel Writing Month challenge.  It’s a really simple idea.  Write a fifty thousand word novel in November.  Sure it’s only thirty days, but at least they don’t hold it in February.

What this means for Brain Bits To Go is pretty simple.  My posts may be a little shorter.  I may miss a couple of days here or there this month, but things should be back to normal in December.  If anyone is interested, I may post occasional excerpts here during the process.  Okay, truth is I may post them here whether anyone is interested or not.

So I just wanted to give people a heads up that I may not have quite as much free time this month, but I’m not abandoning my blog.  Just may not be as focused on it as I have been to date.  This novel project is going to involve writing a little over sixteen-hundred words a day.  That’s not going to leave a lot of words to go in here.

Hopefully I can do both.  How hard can it be?

That’s a rhetorical question buy the way.

Cheers, Winston