Well, Harper finally looked in the mirror, and thought to himself, "Screw doing what the population wants (The population in the latest Ipsos-Reid Poll last week said 61% don’t want an election right now), and stop caring about keeping the country together (He is working actively now with the Bloc Quebecois to bring down the government, a party he used to vehemently oppose), it is now time for my turn at being Prime Minister."

So, he trodded out the ol’ Horse and Tory show over the last week. First, announcing at the NDP apparently are the devil and thus the Liberals are making a deal with the devil. Then, he goes on to declare that he is going to bring down the government right away (even though he said he wants the Canadian population to decide when the next election is… which means that if the polls are right, he’s lying yet again.)

Oh yeah, and then NDP leader Jack Layton brought up a really interesting point that I had not even considered. If the budget does not go through, all of the benefits due to offshore revenues for Atlantic Canada will be tossed the wayside. Taking money away from legitimate businessmen in the Atlantic.

But that’s okay, Harper looked in the mirror and decided it’s time to roll out the ol’ horse and tory show, and stop caring about actually trying to do anything helpful for the Canadian population.

But, hey… I could be wrong. Maybe he will get a pang of conscience and decide to listen to Canadians rather than play silly political games. (The same goes for Martin, albeit he seems to be getting better at trying to please Canadians.)

—

In other news, >50% of Quebecois want to seperate from Canada now. Personally, I cannot decide if this is a good or a bad thing yet. I will have to see how this all plays out.

…..1337hax0r…..

Apenwarr: Surprisingly, not mine, I overheard it in Jasper once.

Person 1: You cannot assume that while the tourist season is happening

Person 2: Why is that?

Person 1: Because it must be pre-some-tourist for you to assume that.

Person 2: *ugh*

So yeah, there you go. It’s not particularly witty, but it may fit your needs.

…..1337hax0r…..

They complain endlessly about the Liberals and this allegations against them in the Gomery Commission. But now, they are starting to sound as bad as American conservatives with their "talking points" and mistruths.

For example, from this article: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/04/16/politics-polls050416.html

"I think the polls are looking like Canadians are beginning to make a judgment about Liberal criminality and corruption," Alberta Conservative MP Jason Kenney said Saturday.

But this makes no sense, because if you look at the ipsos-reid poll directly, the Liberals have not changed at all in popularity since the last poll.

April 12th Poll: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/pressrelease.cfm?id=2628

April 16th Poll: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/pressrelease.cfm?id=2636

Now, if you look at these two polls, the Liberals are staying at a pretty stable 27%, and in fact it’s the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois that have been losing support, not the Liberals. It’s true that there was an initial drop in support from the liberals, but it has not been significantly changed since the Gomery report came out, and in fact, I’m almost willing to say that statistically the liberals have been sitting right at 27% for a while now, and the conservatives are closer to 33%. Which naturally implies a minority government again, this time with the Cons in charge.

Now if you look at the April 16th poll again, you’ll be able to also note that 53% of the Canadian population does not want an election right now, and in fact is reasonable enough to wait to hear how valid these allegations (which is all they are currently) are, and how they will be handled by the Libs. Only 11% (which, I’m willing to guess are the extremist right) want an election right now, while 53% want to wait until October.

An interesting point is that the Liberal drop in polls seems to have mostly gone to NDP and Bloc as opposed to Conservatives, as the Liberals have dropped an entire 10% in polls (and remained there) after the commissions reports, while the Conservatives have only gained around 5-6% if you average the two polls.

I’m going to probably get a subscription to Ipsos-Reid’s service so I can keep everyone up to date with the latest polls. If you know any other good polling companies that cover Canada, please click on the "Scream at Me" above, and send me their addresses.

…..1337hax0r…..

In response to Jimmy:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/04/12/samesexvote050412.html

It still is a divisive issue, but at least politically it’s still being discussed in a somewhat sane manner.

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Independent TV shows have been impressing me more and more every month. First there was mega64 (which really wasn’t independent, but close enough), and the came out the beauty that is Pure Pwnage (http://www.purepwnage.com) and now there is a dramatic one that really pushes the edge of what can be done in a show, The Scene (http://www.welcometothescene.com). If you are in the least bit involved in "the scene" you should check out the show, it’s pretty wicked.

I think that there may be really sometime to this independent television scene. Computers that can do video have gotten cheap enough now that almost anyone can make a TV show, and without deadlines or a need to get a show out every week, these shows produce quality products on a irregular basis.

I look forward to seeing more of these over the next few years.

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Lately, I have been watching and reading a lot on evolution. During one episode of PBS’s Evolution show, I began to think about the liberal ideology with which I follow and considering the people who also follow this ideology. The Hedonist Party of Canada (http://www.hedonist.ca) sums it up reasonably well but still there is a realization I had recently that may explain why in the end this ideology is predestined to not survive. Not because of any religious belief (God won’t smite us, we do have free will and all), but rather because in its current state it’s unfit evolutionwise.

One thing our ideology does not have as much respect for as other ideologies (read right-wing christians) is reproduction as a responsibility to the community. It seems that with our respect for people’s right to contraception, right to choose, etc. this ideology does not have that belief at all. Thus we are destined before we start to be outbred by those who do believe that to raise a child in your beliefs and ideologies is not a right, but rather a responsibility to the community. In evolution it’s not the creature that does the least damage to other creatures that survives, but rather the creature that reproduces the most and is able to raise their young to a point where they can reproduce.

Now, before I start this diatribe, don’t get me wrong. I am going to set the record straight. I do believe that people have the right to contraception and the right to choose within the first trimester. As well, I do not have issues with gays, or any other lifestyle which does not harm other people. This is just a realization I had when I was considering evolution of species and the right of prima noctes as a way of outbreeding people who disagreed with you. A very primal element to evolutionary theory is that reproduction is vital to the survival of a species. Liberal people believe that their memes can be passed on through other ways, but from what I am seeing this is invalid, and rather most people (not all) follow the beliefs or some variations thereof, of their parents, not their teachers. The noblemen of history knew this and thus tried to just outbreed those that opposed them. Liberals are defeating themselves by having this fatal flaw in their structure.

Now, a very well examined element is philosophy and psychology is self-delusion. Essentially, doing something you know is wrong but at the same time giving yourself an excuse to avoid blame. Some people convince themselves that raising a child is unnecessary by feeding themselves with illusions of overpopulation (not in Canada), or the idea that by teaching the truth or contributing in any other way will bring significant numbers of people to your viewpoint. These, and other beliefs, have led to the people on the left to basically start to be outbred by those who basically believe that anything that prevents having children is bad. Sure there are children being brought up in bad families, and in general showing aggressive traits themselves (on both sides of the spectrum), but if this teaches us anything it’s that children commonly do _not_ break from the mold of the ideologies of their parents, and become as abusive, disrespectful, or filled with ideology as their parents are.

In the end liberals are destined to lose. Not because they are wrong, but because their ideology has one fatal flaw. They do not see the responsibility of bearing children (lots of children preferably), and raising them in your belief structure and morality. If the liberals really are supposed to be rational and scientific, a quick examination of evolution will tell them that a path which does not involve reproduction will eventually lead to the end of the liberal ideal, or at very least the minoritization of it, and being a minority in a society where the majority of people mistreat them is essentially the end as well.

Just some ponderances,

…..1337hax0r…..

I’ve been pondering life a lot lately, and one thing I’ve realized is how dependent I’ve become on other people. So dependent in fact that some people have the ability to royally screw me over if they wanted to, or if the system as we know it were to collapse I’d be pretty badly screwed. As well, the system as it currently exists is distasteful to me. It encourages immorality, as the person who can screw the most people without getting caught gets the most rewards. Whether those actions they perform harms other people or not is not meaningful.

The belief is that if everyone does this, then a "hidden hand" will guide everyone to what would be considered a Nash equilibrium. The unfortunate thing that most people don’t realize is that these Nash Equlibriums can be very unbalanced, or even worse, signicantly worse than the social optimum. Now I understand that having everyone move off the grid is not a possibility, the algorithms do not exist to calculate the optimal way to handle large numbers of people without anarchy. A prime example of this is the communist regime in Russia, which quickly became overran with corruption, and decay.

Some people pulling themselves off the grid slowly may actually be beneficial. This does not imply that you are completely off the grid, or you stop using technology. You take advantage of existing technologies whenever it will benefit everyone in the group. For example, let’s say I was able to purchase a small farm in Alberta. I place a small wind generator there that can provide enough power for me, and will feed the grid a bit to give myself some extra income. Eventually I develop enough efficiency to produce my own hydrogen fuel, and convert my tractor to use the hydrogen fuel. Now, this may take 15 years+ to accomplish but at that point, not only will I be off the power grid, but I will also be off the fuel grid.

Now, given enough time, and no fear of using the available technologies, a small community could make itself independent, only providing output, and requiring no input. Not that this would be easy, but if things are done in small steps with a small enough group (similar to how Gmail was invite-only at the start), the mathematical algorithms that optimize food production, political structure and power generation could be created that will handle larger and larger groups without permitting inequality. As well the research done with this community will be beneficial for the outer world as a whole because it would allow people to be more self-sufficient and find out more efficient ways to acheive a more equal system of economy and government without sacrificing any of the consumer goods we have.

I know, I know, this sounds like "Utopia" by Thomas More. But, unlike when that book was written, I’m starting to think that this may even be possible.

So, to start pulling myself off various grids, I’m teaching myself the basic cooking skills and gardening skills so I do not need to purchase premade foods (bread, beer, ice cream, herbs) from a grocery store if I can make them myself. (Just so you know, homemade bread is far superior to storebought bread.) I know they are baby steps, but you have to start somewhere and it is one part of my life that I can afford to do this.

It is more important to note that this does not imply sacrificing any of the luxuries that life provides but rather seeing if you can provide those luxuries yourself without being dependent on others for it, and through that, provide those luxuries to other people who don’t abuse the priviledge. (If you want fresh bread or herbs, feel free to ask and I’ll provide it gladly.)

Basically, it’s a return to a lifestyle where money, and status don’t matter, but rather living happily and following the one rule that has ever made any sense to me. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Even if the rest of the world disregards it, and punishes those who do follow that rule honestly without hypocrisy.

…..1337hax0r…..

CBC News story

prime quote from the article: “He saw that to hate anyone was a sin.”

prime quotes from JPII:

“Social justice cannot be attained by violence. Violence kills what it intends to create.”

“Humanity should question itself, once more, about the absurd and always unfair phenomenon of war, on whose stage of death and pain only remain standing the negotiating table that could and should have prevented it.”

That is all.

…..1337hax0r…..

jnc:

not only has foxtrot http://www.foxtrot.com and getfuzzy http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/

pearls before swine has this joke as well: http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/

…..1337hax0r…..