Author: tony

PM Harper to take a look at unspecified ‘tougher laws’ in wake of shooting. What laws? he doesn’t know. Of course that doesn’t prevent him from rehashing the old right-wing claptrap about “being tough” when he clearly doesn’t have much of a grasp of the situation he’s trying to address. You know, at least under Martin and even Chretien you had a feeling that the PM actually thought things through before speaking. But then neither of those men was striving to be a clone of George W. Bush.

I am having the most aggravating time dealing with Videotron right now. Videotron is the television cable monopoly provider here in Montreal, for those who don’t know; and really, for people like me who don’t have either a private home or an apartment with a balcony facing South, they are the entertainment monopoly that has to be dealt with, for lack of alternatives. And boy, do they know it. Continue reading The Opposite of Usability.

Steppin’ out. Whoever is in charge of handling Bush’s public demeanor is obviously out to lunch these days, or just plain on drugs. You’d think Laura would know better than to join him in this faux-pas, but you’d be wrong.

The world will end because of nuclear war starting on Tuesday 9/12/06! Sure, doomsday rants have been said before, but then Yisrayl Hawkins is apparently not your average crackpot (which, I guess, makes him a special crackpot!). Not everyone agrees of course. Continue reading If you had the maid coming in tomorrow, better cancel and have her come Wednesday instead.

No matter how overwhelming an event is it will always be discussed by individuals with their own point of view that may tend towards making fun of tragedy (‘gallows humor’) or simply refuse to let outside events take precedence over their own personal concerns. On September 7th, 2002 Salon.com ran a featured called Forbidden Thoughts in which ideas were retold that either were overheard on 9/11 or reported by others. Apparently Salon got such a response from viewers adding their own inappropriate comments that they ran a followup feature based on the feedback, and ran it on September 11th 2002.

The Idiocy of Crowds. It turns out that collaboration and groupthink have no inherent efficiency and that a single competent individual produces better work than a stable-full of people with less knowledge… a development that many are calling “obvious”. Hell, anyone who’s ever been to a meeting populated by yes-men and time-wasting boardroom jockeys already knew that.

Despite claims to the contrary the US negociated with and surrendered to the demands of Middle-East kidnappers who took two journalists hostage.  Normally the hostages would have been left to rot, but this Administration pulls out all stops for the employees of its unofficial propaganda arm, a.k.a. Fox News Channel. I wonder if Shrub will claim, just like his dad did, that he wasn’t aware of the operation even taking place.

Look Around You. A brilliant multi-episode parody of English pop-science shows from the 60s and 70s, made by the BBC, which is probably also responsible for a lot of the shows that are parodied.

Watching Grass Grow. No, not even *that* kind of grass, just the stuff on a lawn. May be good viewing if you’ve had too much coffee this morning.