junk and crap, amen

Why you ask? Two reasons mainly. Two standout wackos jumped into my fairly wide field of vision recently with these stories:

Republican Congressman Steve King, who believes the following:
I recognized that we're a Christian nation founded on Christian principles, and we're coming up to Christmastime. ... It's time we stood up and said so, and said to the rest of America, Be who you are and be confident.
That's right, Jesus Freaks. It's time y'all stood up to the heathens and blasphemers in your midst. It only takes a bit of extra inquisitiveness on your part to root them out.

And Republican Senator Bond, Kit Bond, who likens waterboarding, or torture as I prefer to call it, to swimming. OK, maybe swimming after a big pig out on caviar and chocolate truffles.... with someone holding your fucking head underwater. Asshole.

Labels: politics, religion, stupidity, torture

Well, I would if there were any. The gig on Saturday went great and my finger held up fine. No trauma.

I think the duct tape suit of armour I wrapped around it definitely helped with the discomfort level. That and sacrificing a bit of ghost note finesse. I barely felt a thing, although I can still feel the nerves repairing themselves when I put pressure on the cut.

Dealing with trauma is the forté of modern western medicine.

Labels: health care, music, stupidity

A new condo development at Yonge & Bloor in downtown Toronto seems to be causing mass insanity. People waiting in line for up to 2 weeks for yesterdays opening of the sales office.

As people were standing in line, the price of the most expensive units actually rose $millions before their eyes. Many people at the front of the line were expected to flip their condo instantly to the people at the back of the line.

And for those too busy or without an umbrella:

The people lining up are mostly real estate agents or people being paid by them to hold their spot in line. Though they wouldn't say how much they were being paid, some hinted they were being paid between $2,000 and $3,000 for the week.

Here we are in Toronto with a housing shortage, with moderately priced rental units being hard to come by. According to this report, over 250,000 Torontonians spend over one third of their incomes on rent, and 71,000 families are on the waiting list for affordable housing.

Madness.

Labels: housing, stupidity, Toronto

So, on Sunday morning while making breakfast I managed to cut my finger. Specifically the left pointer. And pretty deeply. Deeply enough to make me want to hurl the chunk of bread I was trying to cut across the room in a fit of rage. Fucking BREAD! Anyway, at first I didn't think it was so bad, so I bandaged it up and went and did some things for a couple hours.

Back home, I had another look it the gash. It didn't look too bad, but it was bigger and deeper than I had thought. After a debate about seeking medical attention with my house mates, me being strangely on the con side (probably because I knew a trip to the emerge would eat the entire day), I took the short walk to St. Michaels Hospital, downtown T.O., to seek stitching.

So, what's a downtown Toronto emergency room like on a Sunday evening after a Halloween party weekend? Fairly - kind of reassuringly - mundane. No big emergencies; no gunshots or stabbings, crazies or DOA's. At least not that I saw. So after around 4 hours of my head buried in "Slave Species of God" by Michael Tellinger (hey, why not something fantastical , improbable and yet possible while sitting congregated with the sick and wounded after losing a battle with a loaf of rye?), I and two others were ushered into private examination rooms where I waited some more.

After some time (10 minutes or so) a medical student came in named Sacha who had a look at my finger and told me maybe stitches, maybe not, the Doctor'll be here in a minute and tell me what to do. Apparently there's a time limit on getting stitches of around 6-8 hours. I was at 9 hours. Luckily the rule isn't hard and fast so the Doc gave the go ahead for some needlework.

Alright! Let me say here that this would be the first time I'd had stitches. Yes, I managed to grow up in northern Alberta, live in the subarctic, work with my hands my entire life and travel numerous ways and countless times across the country without ever requiring stitches (I played little organized sports however, which may be a key factor). So I was really looking forward to it. I felt kinda pumped, like I was having a required human experience which would elevate my consciousness. You know?

So Sacha, the med student (I hoped not a psych major, but he never really clarified) came in and prepped the wound for stitching. First cleaning, then freezing. That was really the most painful part to date; the needle for the local anesthetic. But by most painful, I mean in an unpainful, relativistic way. All in all a pain free experience, including the initial laceration.

I've never been squeemish about blood or needles, having gone through a childhood full of allergy shots and occasional hospitilizations, and getting stitched was no different. It was odd feeling the tugging of the needle and thread, but Sacha was steady and thankfully seemed to be staying away from the booze at the frat house.

After 20 minutes and 5 stitches, the doctor came back in, had a look and proclaimed everything hunky dory. I was then fitted with an expert dressing (which managed to pop right off later at home when I removed my sweater, but hey...) by two lovely ladies of mercy, who were devastated to hear that I did make my living (or at least part of it) with my hands and sincerely hoped and believed I would overcome this obstacle.

And so, after 5 hours I walked out of St. Mike's proudly brandishing my finger with it's dildo-sized dressing as testament of my elevated status as a human being, confident of my full and complete recovery.

Labels: health care, stupidity, Toronto

At some point, you really have to start wondering if some people just didn't get enough vitamins when they were babies. Take the case of evangelical Christian leaders in the US. One after another, not unlike lemmings following each other off the cliff, they proceed to shove their heads entirely up their own asses, pull them back out and let shit fly from their mouths.

The newest facilitator of fecal fecundity is William Donahue.

To quote (click for audio - happens at 7:33):

"Just imagine if a white guy is performing oral sex on a statue of Martin Luther King with an erection. Do you need to see it to know it's ugly?"

That is some ugly shit.

Labels: religion, stupidity

Americans are having a hard time believing that the Iraq war is a nightmare.

According to a CBS New/NY Times poll taken two weeks ago, 32% of Americans believe the Iraq war is going well, and 5% believe it's going very well (I guess five percent of the US population are vampires), and a mind boggling 43% believe that the US did the right thing invading Iraq. 43 percent of the adult population in the USA believe that the right thing to do was to invade a country and destroy it, just for the hell of it, because no one at this point can claim there has been a coherent and consistently justifiable reason for this war. The big three: Saddam involved in 9/11, WoMD, and The Unclesam-o-liscious Democracy Constructor Set have all proven to be false.

At the same time, never has there been more news about just how horrifyingly bad it is going in Iraq. On FOX news even, you hear occasional mention of the chaos and inhumanity and absurdity happening on a daily basis. But I believe that, at least in mainstream, corporate controlled media, the situation is being framed in a way that downplays the full responsibility that the US should bear for the horror show and reinforces the manufactured notions of Iraq's (and the people of the middle east in general) inability to govern itself and the perceived intrinsic tendencies toward violence contained within the souls of middle easterners; that they're a violent, chaotic people who will slaughter themselves and others at the drop of a hat. And that frightens Mr. or Ms. 43%.

The favorite tool of war mongers is fear. A frightened populace will overlook or forgive actions by their government that, under conditions without fear, would cause outrage. Mr. and Ms. 43% watch TV and listen to the politiclones endlessly and confidently interpret the powerful images and video footage of the hell Iraq has become, and perhaps conclude that these people need to be destroyed in order to ensure the safety of the rest of the world.

In other words, the tragedy and chaos in Iraq, rather than dissuading them, strengthens their belief that their government is doing the right thing. And this, of course, plays right into the war mongers plans; cultivate fear and confusion to justify endless war.

When major media outlets are owned by the same companies that manufacture the tools of war, and when the most powerful politicians are little more than mouthpieces for the same corporations, when most people are struggling to make ends meet while working for these same corporations, can you blame the 43% for their confused fear?

Now...read this and imagine the same people and systems in power 20 years into the future. How confused and afraid will our children be?

Labels: Iraq, stupidity, war

Here's more on the 'Is Bush an idiot?' question that Joe Scarborough of MSNBC posed to us a few days ago.

Halfway through he interviews some politiclone named Terry Holt, who had this to say in the presidents defense (at 7:37):

...ultimately there's nobody else better at articulating the vision and the inspiration that we need to get back on our feet."

Seriously.

Besides the sentence having no real meaning, he seems to sincerely believe that nobody else can articulate vision and inspiration better than Bush. He's just the best damn orator in the entire country, or at least the entire Republican party. He simply needs to open his mouth and people's lives are instantly crystallized into optimistic focus.

It must be the warm, friendly, patronizing tone he often uses. Or maybe it's the commanding deer-in-the-headlights look he gives people when someone has asked him a question that requires him to think. Maybe it's the eloquent mispronunciation of words, or the mis-quoting or constant repetition that's so inspiring. Maybe it's when he makes up completely new nonsensical words, that assist his efforts at disengenuousness, which people feel cradling them down the road to destiny.

Labels: Bush, Mangled Logic, stupidity, war criminal

Labels: music, stupidity