January 30, 2004

I prefer the Old left

Read this the other day over at Daimnation and was struck by how far the left has fallen away...

"The left doesn't see because a lot of people, in their good-hearted effort to respect cultural differences, have concluded that Arabs must for inscrutable reasons of their own like to live under grotesque dictatorships and are not really capable of anything else, or won't be ready to do so for another five hundred years, and Arab liberals should be regarded as somehow inauthentic. Which is to say, a lot of people, swept along by their own high-minded principles of cultural tolerance, have ended up clinging to attitudes that can only be regarded as racist against Arabs."

I used to argue with a lot of people who used to tell me that we had no right to dictate to lesser developed countries what kind of society they should have. They had the gall to say that our society was just as corrupt and evil as the worst of the worst dictatorships...Therefore we had no right to insist that the third world clean up its act. I asked them how many of their relatives had been taken away in the dead of night, never to be seen again because they had spoken out against the government.

"Oh, it happens here," they'd crow smugly.

"Name me ONE person," I'd counter.

Of course they couldn't because they were full of shit. But the obvious truth didn't sink in past the rhetoric.

"The old-fashioned left used to be universalist-used to think that everyone, all over the world, would some day want to live according to the same fundamental values, and ought to be helped to do so. They thought this was especially true for people in reasonably modern societies with universities, industries, and a sophisticated bureaucracy-societies like the one in Iraq. But no more! Today, people say, out of a spirit of egalitarian tolerance: Social democracy for Swedes! Tyranny for Arabs! And this is supposed to be a left-wing attitude? By the way, you don't hear much from the left about the non-Arabs in countries like Iraq, do you? The left, the real left, used to be the champion of minority populations-of people like the Kurds. No more! The left, my friend, has abandoned the values of the left-except for a few of us, of course."

But, of course the new left can't be bothered: droning anti-Bush rhetoric is a lot easier.

Posted by Ray at 11:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I think it was K.I.T.T. actually...

Hasselhoff claims he had hand in Berlin Wall falling

David Hasselhoff has complained to museum curators after finding his photo absent in a collection of memorabilia about the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I'm not making this up.

The actor and producer, who says he is working on a film version of TV series Knight Rider, claims he is partly responsible for the fall of the concrete divide.

I'm not making this up.

He said he felt he had moved people on both sides of the wall, although he admitted hardly any of the East Germans could speak English.

The East Germans were trying to bust down the Wall so they could put the dying animal out of its misery...who knew it was actually Hasselhoff torturing West Germans with his "singing."

Posted by Ray at 09:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Too easy

Warning: more Canadian politics a-brewing...

I could start hacking away, but I'll leave it short and sweet:

Sheila's still whining.

The former heritage minister and leadership rival to Martin — who has toyed with running for the New Democrats if she can't win in Hamilton — sees this as a sign of desperation. "It tells me that they think Tony can't win," Copps said.

...or that her own party REALLY can't stand her.

Posted by Ray at 12:07 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 29, 2004

Hair Cut

So the two-year old BooBoo was taken to get her first hair cut today.

"What would you like today, BooBoo?" the nice lady asks as she sits in her kids chair that looks like a miniature train. (God this was SO much better than when my parents took shears to my hair...)

"I look like BUFFY!" she screams.

I'm expecting her to develop Vampire slayer powers at any moment...

Posted by Ray at 08:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 28, 2004

States I've visited

create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

And most of those States I've only driven through.

via aka cooties

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January 27, 2004

Snow snow and more snow

Bloody Hell! Talk about a ton of snow!

My muscles are giving me that "we're billing ya tomorrow" feeling after moving the 2 or 3 feet that piled up in drifts around the property. They formed due to the excessive winds that blew non-stop yesterday and today.

I thought that the For Sale sign had disappeared, but no: the wind was so strong it was blowing the sign horizontal so it was damn near invisible. Hadn't seen that before...

That's not gonna help sell the place.

Posted by Ray at 11:25 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Costanza Lives

Is Curb Your Enthusiasm the best sitcom on TV? I'm thinking the answer is YES!

Larry David IS George Costanza!

Posted by Ray at 11:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 25, 2004

Gore Tolerance Dropping...

Something weird just happened to me.

Excessive gore on TV has disturbed me. I mean, I saw Dawn of the Dead at 16 and it bugged me for two days afterwards. Not for the gore and the flesh-eating zombie scenes (which did go on a little too long, but whaddaya expect) but for, ahem, it's social commentary. Spoiler (highlight to read): The zombies triumph, but only because one group of humans fuck over another group of humans to get at resources. I found that quite disturbing

I've seen a lot of gory movies in my time, with no lasting ill effects. Usually the gore is way over the top like Evil Dead or was way oversold and wasn't nearly as bad as was made out to be. Either way I wasn't disturbed.

Until today that is.

And what the hell did it you ask?

A MadTV skit.

Lemme say that again.

A MadTV skit.

It was a parody of those Snuggle laundry commercials, you know where the little teddy bear named Snuggle starts whoring fabric softener to the smiling mom-type so that her family will love her...

Only in the parody the mom was a rabid, foaming at the mouth, demon-fearing shrew who obviously never watched television. She proceeded to beat the hell out of the bear.

First with a tennis racket she brained him while he pleaded that he was only there to help. Then she spray bleached him and finally stabbed him through the heart and electrocuted him when the clothes hanger wire contacted and electrical outlet.

In my 20's I'd have found this sort of wanton violence hilarious. I still did, but it was tinged with unmistakeable dread that I couldn't explain.

"Why is this disturbing me?" I asked my lovely wife.

"I don't know, but I'm sure glad BooBoo is asleep and didn't see this." BooBoo is our two year old daughter, who has never seemed to be scared of anything on TV. And she's seen a lot of Buffy and Angel. And then it hit me.

It's the daddy thing. It's changed me. I'm always looking over my shoulder to see how what we're watching is effecting her (and her 7-month old sister, who stands in her playpen to get a better look at Elmo on Sesame Street) and that's making me uncomfortable about what I'm seeing.

Good Lord. Next thing you know I'll start using that channel lockup thing-a-ma-doodle to lock out The Movie Networks selection of really bad and tacky late night hard-core porn (not that I've ever watched it, except as a concerned parent making a careful evaluation of...of...of whatever the hell it is I'm evaluating)

Oh and how does the skit end?

Well Snuggle demonically recovers from the electrocution and is about to get vengeance when the Sheila Copps-like housewife dismembers his left arm with the dryer door. Snuggle disappears, presumably to lie in wait until her clothes are again hard and uncomfortable enough to warrant more fabric softening...

It is an end, but for how long?

Is this what happens to ALL parents?

Posted by Ray at 12:21 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 22, 2004

Belinda

Daimnation! reports Belinda Stronach's website is up and running, but comments on how she needs to come out stronger on where she stands.

I'd like to know where she stands on the issues - and the fact that she has yet to release any policy platform isn't encouraging.

I agree.

And I also noticed that she has a link on the index to "Belinda's Blog" which is currently empty.

I hope that this will be better than our Prime Minister's lame attempt at keeping a weblog. Why even bother with this if you won't follow the forms? Blogging is a highly personal thing that can let you know the author very well. For a relative unknown in politics like Stronach, this could bridge the gap between her and her potential voters and really convey a message.

Or it could just fall flat and be totally boring.

Daimnation also echoes my other worries as well...

Eleven years ago, the PC party chose another little-known blonde as leader, and that mess is too depressing to discuss further.

UPDATE: Well that was fast.

She was asked for one single example of a "tough decision" she had made in her previous role as chief executive officer of Magna International, but she could not, or would not, provide one.

Ouch. That just reinforces the impression (unproved) that Daddy (Frank Stronach) was really running the show.

Posted by Ray at 08:57 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

January 21, 2004

Bread and Circuses

If there's an issue I really don't give a damn about it's same-sex marriage.

Yet this issue is now being trotted out as a distraction in the new Conservative party leadership race.

Sure, play ball on the Liberal Party's turf of secondary issues.

I'd much rather see them talk about the economy. What they would do about the effect a 77-cent dollar is having on Canada's exports. Taxes. Ya know, the boring stuff. How 'bout a grand vision or two?

What have the Liberals given us in the last two years:

a billion dollar debacle of a federal gun registry
proposed legal pot
strained relations with our biggest customer.

Honestly, I can't think of anything else the Liberals have done in over TEN YEARS in power.

The opposition can't stake out any better positions than this to attack the government? I'm looking for any credible excuse to vote against the Liberals.

Any excuse.

Before anyone accuses me of homophobia, I said that I really don't care about who marries who: I'm tired of this being considered the main issue confronting the country.

It isn't. It doesn't effect that many people and many other issues should take priority.

Posted by Ray at 06:03 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

January 18, 2004

Waiting for the Buyer

Well the sign's been up for 10 days now, our house has been visited about 10 times (including the open house when we were in Montreal last weekend) and I've been questioned outside while shovelling the snow by passerbys in SUV's...

Sell already, dammit!!!

Sorry, just getting impatient now. The more agents that visit the more likely it is that the evil monkey will awaken and give someone rabies and I'll have to knock 20K off the asking price to settle the lawsuits...

He wasn't always evil.

Posted by Ray at 11:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 16, 2004

Well, if you can't bomb Paris

...just send your businesses in to take over.

Some telling comments from the fray:

From Starbuck's CEO:

"Our success in other countries does not provide us with an entitlement to be successful in France," Schultz said.

Quite a refreshing attitude. But in private I'm sure they're already planning their next steps after crushing the competition.

From the competition:

"Starbucks is not going to compete with the French cafe," he said. "The cafe isn't just somewhere to drink coffee, it's a place where people go for social contact. In a big place with hundreds of customers that's more difficult."

And I thought that the two Starbucks on opposite corners of Burrard and Robson St in downtown Vancouver was a really stupid idea too. Until I found out those locations were the highest grossing for the chain.

I think the French are about to undergo yet another American marketing assault.

Some are realists though:

But he cheerfully accepts that the coming of the global coffee behemoth could spell the most serious threat so far to his company's decade-long existence.
"It's a bit like going into a nuclear war with a knife," he said of the competition.

Posted by Ray at 06:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 13, 2004

Movies

100 movies... bold the ones you've seen.

1. Godfather, The (1972)
2. Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)
3. Godfather: Part II, The (1974)
4. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003)
5. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002)
6. Casablanca (1942)
7. Schindler's List (1993)
8. Shichinin no samurai (1954)
9. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001)
10. Citizen Kane (1941)
11. Star Wars (1977)
12. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
13. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
14. Rear Window (1954)
15. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
16. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
17. Memento (2000)
18. Usual Suspects, The (1995)
19. Pulp Fiction (1994)
20. North by Northwest (1959)
21. Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain, Le (2001)
22. Psycho (1960)
23. 12 Angry Men (1957)
24. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
25. Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)
26. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)
27. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
28. Goodfellas (1990)
29. American Beauty (1999)
30. Vertigo (1958)
31. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
32. Pianist, The (2002)
33. Matrix, The (1999)
34. Apocalypse Now (1979)
35. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
36. Some Like It Hot (1959)
37. Taxi Driver (1976)
38. Paths of Glory (1957)
39. Third Man, The (1949)
40. C'era una volta il West (1968)
41. Fight Club (1999)
42. Boot, Das (1981)
43. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) (Spirited Away)
44. Double Indemnity (1944)
45. L.A. Confidential (1997)
46. Chinatown (1974)
47. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
48. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
49. Maltese Falcon, The (1941)
50. M (1931)
51. All About Eve (1950)
52. Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)
53. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
54. Se7en (1995)
55. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
56. Cidade de Deus (2002)
57. Raging Bull (1980)
58. Wizard of Oz, The (1939)
59. Rash?mon (1950)
60. Sting, The (1973)
61. American History X (1998)
62. Alien (1979)
63. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
64. Leon (The Professional) (1994)
65. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
66. Vita bella, La (1997) (Life Is Beautiful)
67. Touch of Evil (1958)
68. Manchurian Candidate, The (1962)
69. Wo hu cang long (2000) (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon)
70. Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)
71. Great Escape, The (1963)
72. Clockwork Orange, A (1971)
73. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
74. Annie Hall (1977)
75. Amadeus (1984)
76. Jaws (1975)
77. Ran (1985)
78. On the Waterfront (1954)
79. Modern Times (1936)
80. High Noon (1952)
81. Braveheart (1995)
82. Apartment, The (1960)
83. Sixth Sense, The (1999)
84. Fargo (1996)
85. Aliens (1986)
86. Shining, The (1980)
87. Blade Runner (1982)
88. Strangers on a Train (1951)
89. Duck Soup (1933)
90. Metropolis (1927)
91. Finding Nemo (2003)
92. Donnie Darko (2001)
93. Toy Story 2 (1999)
94. Princess Bride, The (1987)
95. General, The (1927)
96. City Lights (1931)
97. Lola rennt (1998) (Run Lola Run)
98. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
99. Notorious (1946)
100. Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)

66 out of a hundred. Not bad. And there are several like North by Northwest and Notorious that I might have seen but didn't think was fair to count.

via Rilana

Posted by Ray at 10:10 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 06, 2004

Stuff

I'm looking around the downstairs at the crappy collection of out of date software, cheap castoff office furniture and formerly middle to high-end computer equipment.

Geez did I waste a lot of money. I'll now have to decided what needs to be tossed out for the upcoming move...

Posted by Ray at 05:31 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 04, 2004

Momentum Building

Our house is going up for sale January 7.

It's actually happening. I don't know why, but it didn't seem real until today...

Woo-hoo!

Posted by Ray at 06:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Conundrum

If I check my lottery tickets now, before I go to sleep...and I win...I'll be too excited and I won't get any sleep.

If I lose, I'll be pissed at myself for wasting money...and I won't get any sleep.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Posted by Ray at 12:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lowlife

Which Typical Anti-Hero Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by Ray at 12:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 02, 2004

Maybe if he hadn't cheated on her...

Lonely Hawke Worries Pals

Recently-separated movie hunk Ethan Hawke has become so depressed and withdrawn since his split from wife Uma Thurman, pals are fearing for his health.

Maybe he shouldn't have cheated on her.

The Training Day actor split with the Kill Bill beauty in September after he was caught cheating on her with model Jen Perzow on the Canadian set of upcoming movie Taking Lives.

Poor Ethan. Married to Uma and he cheats on her and now he feels bad. Poor boy!

After unsuccessfully trying to woo back the mother of his two children

What? She didn't fall for the "I promise I'll never do that again" crap.

Ethan has had to rely on his pet dog for company - while Uma enjoys a romantic holiday with new love Andre Balzas. Spies in Hawke's native New York have spotted the lonely star dining out with his pet pooch and then pouring out his troubles to a pal while walking the mutt in the trendy Chelsea district, saying it was a "really painful breakup".

Waaaaaaahhhh! How long before he's out playing fetch with some young pretty dog, cheating on his old, faithful pooch?

Also, sources on Hawke's new film Billy Dead have told gossip website Page Six.com he is so down that he is failing to return phone calls and finding it difficult to concentrate. Hawke and Thurman married in 1998 after meeting on the set of sci-fi thriller Gattaca.

Sorry chump. You messed up. At least be a man about it instead of whining in public. looking for sympathy. And nice friends you got there, spilling all your stuff to the press.

I'm supposed to feel sorry for a loser who chooses to screw around on his wife and mother of his two children? Boo-fucking-Hoo!

I respect Uma a LOT more for not taking him back...

Posted by Ray at 08:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Too Far?

Uproar Over Disney Parade Float

The Walt Disney Co. was being taken to task Tuesday for its plan to present a float titled the "Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" during the Rose Parade in Pasadena Thursday. The float, which depicts a Disney theme park ride in which a hotel skyscraper is struck by lightning and an earthquake, resulting in an elevator falling from the top level, was particularly criticized by relatives of victims of the 9/11 tragedy, the Associated Press reported.

This was based on an amusement park ride and had nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism, crashing airliners, or the World Trade Center. Why would the 9/11 relatives have a problem with this? Well, I guess anything depicting danger in tall buildings could be disturbing to the survivors/relatives but at some point society has to say enough, we've done realistically enough to spare the feelings of the victims. Some censures just go too far.

From what I can tell "Tower of Terror" doesnt' have any kind of political message...It's not making light of 9/11 or saying that the U.S. got what it deserved like a lot of the crap that's been spewed onto the net...It's just a scary movie, kinda like The Towering Inferno. At what point did our society become too delicate to tolerate things that "kinda sorta" remind people of historic events.

Tall buildings scare a lot of people. My first real job gave me a window seat on the 23rd floor in downtown Vancouver. I was repelled and yet drawn to push my face up against the glass, scared and yet thrilled that the glass might break - must we ALL be forced to avert our eyes from the things that scare us because some have suffered great personal tragedies involving these everyday things?

Why was Die Hard so much better than Die Hard 2? Easy answer. The fact that action/suspense/horror played out in tall buildings is much scarier, because of that primal fear of not being able to escape; which is probably why the Airport series of movies did so well, also. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing but sympathy for the victims and their families of September 11th. I just don't see how every story about danger in a tall building is somehow being insensitive to them...

I'm sure that the survivors of the Titanic were sensitive about stories depicting the sinking of ships...However I doubt if there was a loud cry to stop sea stories on that basis. I think that they'd just choose not to see them.

I'm sure that someone out there is probably going to take offense at this post. If so, please know that this is not my intent; but at some point we have to stop taking offense at the most remote connection that some form of entertainment may have to the tragic events that happen all around us.

Posted by Ray at 03:20 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack