Im Leaving Blogspot

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The Rise and Fall of the Neander-Con

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we are all sitting front row for one of the shortest political movements in history. The neo-conservative movement really started in the early 90's with the creation of the Reform party, led by Preston Manning. They were a young group of right wing politicians who were very traditional in their political ideologies. They were seen as an alternative to the less right wing PC party of the time (led by Brian Mulroney). These neo-cons were eventually turned into the Canadian Alliance which were just the same party, re packaged to be more socially viable. This group is also where our current Prime Minister Stephen Harper got his political start. Anyways, this ultra conservative group of politicians believed in possibly the worst kind of economics in the history of the subject, supply side economics. It goes something like this; when the government cuts taxes, people have more money, people spend more money, the companies who's products are being purchased have to produce more, for this they need more workers, with more workers people pay more taxes, more people pay taxes the government gets more money. Now on the outside that is a great idea but when used practically, it fails every time. Reagan tried it, Mulroney tried it, Bush tried it, and now Harper is trying it and every time it just screws up the economy even more.



So that is the rise, now for the fall. These neo-cons (or neander-cons) are currently in power here in Canada and their Economic policy is the least of their troubles. The Conservative party has been screwing up with each of it's cabinet ministers since Bernier. All they care about is their election results. They should care about experiences and smarts in their cabinet ministers but for some reason they think that every young neo-con will be the next Barack Obama. There was Maxime Bernier who forgot a confidential document at his girlfriends house. There was Raitt who's assistant left a document at a televisions station and then talked about the Chalk River isotope problem as politically "sexy". Not caring about all the cancer patients who have to wait for tests, but caring about political gain. Then there was Baird who denied Toronto's application for street car funds because it "was not prepared properly" when it has been verified by experts. Then there was Flaherty and the big man himself, Harper. With their lies and denials of this economic crisis they have done more harm then good.

As I said at the beginning, we are sitting front row for history in the making. This political movement will not last long. The next election will show the end of this and Harper is going to have to find another way to try and get back in power again.

What Makes Us Human

Last night I was having a very good intelligent discussion with my friend Cole (he shares my music blog with me). We were talking about what happened 20 years ago, yesterday. Of course I am referring to the Tiananmen Square Protests, and their culmination on June fourth. This event is one of the most covered stories in history. The Chinese government has been covering it up for 20 years now even though the rest of world knows the history. I sent Cole a picture of "Tank Man" because it is (in my opinion) very inspirational. Well, Cole agreed and he made a comment that went something like this, "That guy fought every natural instinct we have as humans. Every instinct in his body." That made a click in my mind. It was as though a light bulb turned on in my head. To explain what the realization was I have to tell another story.

As many of you know I have a bit of a grudge against animal rights activists. Well because of this my animal rights friends and I have very good (if not heated) discussions about a variety of topics concerning animals. Well a place where the discussions get stuck is when we start to talk about how humans are animals. My stance on that is always that we may be part of the animal kingdom but we are not animals. My usual defense behind that is how humans are capable of rational thought and they always just return with how we are a barbaric race. Well, because of my discussion with Cole I found another point to back my defense. Other than rational thought, there is another human attribute that separates us from the animals, and it is shown perfectly in this picture...



Courage, in the face of certain death. The ability to stand up for something you believe in an instance when you know that you are going to die. Being able to fight off every survival instinct in your body to do something that might not even help your cause. This is what makes us human. Looking past the here and now, and looking to what will make a better future.

Strike Number (how many does this make now?)

Mr Harper, how could you be so foolish? You already have all the opposition parties scrutinizing you for various reasons (i.e. the budget, the spending of the budget, the prorogation of parliament). Why do you need to continue to give them fire. Obviously I am talking about the incident with cabinet minister Raitt. Her aide left a sensitive document at an Ottawa television station, and she is being called on to resign her cabinet post. Well it would seem that she offered her resignation but the Prime Minister refused it. I know I'm a liberal and should be rejoicing in Harper's stupidity but now it's just getting annoying. He should have just accepted the resignation then the political situation might be able to smooth out for just a few weeks. But no, he has to add more fuel to the fire and just keep a doomed minister on. Can he help creating controversy or does he have some ulterior motive. Alas we will probably never know.

My Problem with Mr Flaherty

I know I'm about a week late on this issue but this is my blog so ha ha. The Canadian federal deficit has been raised to 50 billion dollars. That is an extra 16 billion dollars from the budget announced in January. 16 billion dollars. Wow that seems like a lot, and it is. It is roughly (I'm not sure so don't quote me) 3.4% of the national GDP. When you look at it that way then it doesn't look as bad. It's still really huge, but it's not as big as it could be. So after saying that, I still have a problem with this whole budget hoopla. It is how the Prime Minister and the Federal Budget Minister handled the situation. Going back a bit over a year from now, Economists were predicting hard economic times coming soon (nothing compared to what actually happened, but hard times none the less). The party in charge of this country did nothing to try and prevent it. Then when the economic downturn hit us hard in September and October, they denied the almost certain recession and decided to call an election. During the whole election they continued to deny an oncoming recession. It wasn't until after the election that they acknowledged it and even then they decided to do nothing. The December fiscal update had no plans for economic stimulus. Eventually, from the threat of the new Liberal Party leader (Michael Ignatieff) they created a budget (a red one at that) with a 34 billion dollar deficit. Finally some truth, right? Not just last week Jim Flaherty came out and said that the deficit would be closer to 50 billion. That is my problem. He lied and denied and lied and denied. If he had had this number in the January budget then I would not be nearly as upset as I am. But he did not. He lied and deserves to pay with his job.

TORONTO Cyclists Inched Ahead

Another big discussion point on the news lately has been the new Bike Lanes being added to Jarvis St in Toronto. Many car drivers have been coming to the city council meetings expressing their dissatisfaction with the city's choice to create bike lanes due to the effect that it will have on traffic. Another of their arguments for their point has been how when they drive they never see cyclists on the road. Well no **** Sherlock I wouldn't want to ride a remote control bike in Toronto. The dangers totally outweigh the environmental pros. It's practically suicide.
One other thing that the anti bike lane people can not seem to realize is that oil and other fossil fuels are one of the main causes of the recession we are in. Sure everyone says that they want to save the environment in a survey but to get people to leave their cars at home and to start using public transit and bikes, you need to drag them kicking and screaming. We have the public transit, we have the workers but some people still wont go. The solution, raise parking taxes and gas prices. Add bike lanes to make the public transit system faster then cars. Make it a hell of a lot cheaper and faster to take public transit then to drive their cars. This is also one way of helping the crisis were in right now. Get rid of our dependency on oil and you get a lot of things falling into place. Less obesity because people get more exercise. More help for small family owned companies because they become more accessible to people who are walking and taking the TTC everywhere. These are only a few examples of what can happen when we get rid of our dependency on fossil fuels.

Good Job Governor General

A big topic on the international stage over the past couple of days has been Governor General Jean's actions on her trip to Nunavut. The action that has caused a huge hoopla across the world was... wait for it... participating in an Inuit ritual and eating a piece of seal heart. Wow, umm I don't get it. The liaison to the head of state participated in a cultural ritual and she is being criticized for it.

For god's sake animal rights people, UNCLENCH. For some unknown reason, the entire animal right community have been getting into a hissy fit because they think that the Governor General is sympathising with the commercial seal hunt. There was no secret agenda. She went up there because it's a part of her job. She was offered a piece of meat. She ate it and she liked it. I fail to see how this innocent act has any kind of secret agenda behind it, and I fail to see how boycotting Canadian Maple Syrup is going to help anything. I think that all the propaganda behind this issue is just that, propaganda.

Last night I sent in an E-mail to The National on CBC and I'd like to share it with you.

"I have a few things to say on this topic. I would love to ask some of these animal rights activists if they have something against Canada. These people seem to just bash and bash Inuit Canadians when there are people in other countries that eat Horse and Dog. How come these cultures aren't being criticized when the Inuit people of Canada's are. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against any culture. I'm sure there are people in other countries who think similarly about some of our eating habits. So I would just like to say that these activists should leave it alone and that Governor General Jean did a great thing eating that heart. She showed exactly what Canada's stance on this issue should be."

This basically sums up my views on this point so I just have one last thing to say to the animal rights people. I don't care what your views on right and wrong are, you have absolutely no right to interfere with cultural traditions.

The Picket Line

You've seen it in the movies. The picket line; in between Pro Life and Pro Choice, Pro LGBT and Pro Family, Pro Church and Pro State. It's everywhere. No matter how far away you try to look there is nowhere on earth where you can escape these types of debates, believe me I've tried. The one thing that I found odd, aside from all of them stemming from a religious perspective, is how moronic some of these debates can be. For instance, the Pro Life vs Pro Choice debate. You have one side that is saying that no woman should ever be allowed the choice of aborting they're pregnancy and another side that says all women should have the choice to abort. My question to the pro life side has always been, "Where did you get the nerve to intrude onto these women's personal lives?" They are independent and smart (there are always exceptions) people who have every right to do what ever they want to they're bodies. Another question to that side (especially in the U.S) is, "Have you read the bill of rights recently?" It is clearly stated in the first amendment to the constitution (and I quote) "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." If your not up on your liguistics and definitions of that time it means Congress will not make a law that takes a religion's point of view on a topic rather than doing what is best for the people of the country. QED the church has no buisness in the bedrooms or abortion clinics of people.

A little History Lesson

I've been doing some research on WW2 lately and I've made some astounding discoveries. First of all; Hitler was not an idiot, or at least not in the beginning. Before he became corrupt with power during the war Hitler did amazing things for Germany. He gave them a fairly stable economy and brought the people together in a way very few politicians have ever been able to do. The other thing I noticed was what his three crucial mistakes were during the war. The first was how he dealt with Great Britain. It can be argued that if Hitler had continued his bombing of British air fields he might have won the war. Instead he changed his tactics to bombing the major cities in England and gave the Brits time to regroup. The second was declaring way against Russia. He made the same mistake Napoleon made. He thought that he could handle the frigid winters and harsh conditions and take the largest piece of land the world had to offer. Obviously he couldn't and he had to retreat. His third mistake was probably his biggest. After Pearl Harbor and the Us declaration of war against Japan, Germany declared War on the United States. This put Nazi Germany against Britain, the US, Russia, Canada, and all of the underground rebellion movements in the countries they invaded. There was no chance at victory at that point. I think that most people can agree that those were the most crucial mistakes and that it is a great thing that he made them.

Why?

I was speaking to my dad about things in general and he told me two stories about exam questions that stumped people. One of these questions is a real thinker and that is the one I will tell you now.

A student going for his Masters Degree in Philosophy was writing his final exam one day. He got through all the questions with little trouble and turned to the last page. On the page was written one word. A one word question. Why? Without thinking he wrote down the answer "Why not?"

He received 100% on that answer.

Think about it and comment.

What is wrong with Us

As most informed people know, after WW2 there was a baby boom. All the soldiers were coming home and wanted to you know... with their wives and thus there was a spring in child production. That period somehow lasted until 1966 in the states an 67 in Canada. After the baby boomers, there was generation X which was basically where people stopped wanting to have tons of kids. That period lasted until 1980. After that there was a third demographic change, Generation Y. I'm what is called a Gen Y Echo because I was born in the Generation Y era (1980-1996) but my dad was a Boomer. Now my question is what the hell is wrong with "Gen Y"s. We are the trophy generation. That means two thing. One, for some reason our parents have put us up on a pedestal and are totally overprotective. The other is that there is no such thing as losing anymore. If you are a participant in house league sports than you know what I mean. No matter what happens you will always receive a trophy. Whether you win all your games or win none you'll always get a trophy saying that you are good.Also you can no longer receive and F in school because it "implies stupidity" and it makes kids "lose self esteem". What the hell is wrong with us. Our parents (no matter how geeky they may seem today) were tough. They would do things that were bad for them and somehow they survived. My dad has said on many occasions that he cant believe how people of his generation survived. He never wore a bike helmet, he climbed trees he was reckless and somehow he survived. If you can answer my question then your smarter then me because I just don't get why we let our parents coddle us like this.

Christianity (I know this is the third time)

I've been thinking quite a lot lately about how Christians of all denominations put their trust and faith into what the bible says. How the bible is the word of god and is 100% true in all ways. Well my problem with that is how no one can know what really happened in those days. We have to take the word of old priests and politicians who used Jesus Christ's teaching to control the people. I have made a choice in recent months when it comes to these things. I choose to put my faith in God not in the bible. The bible is obviously a tainted document because of how many different languages and people it has been passed down through. There are other documents such as the gnostic gospels that in my opinion show a more realistic view of how everything went down all those years ago. I think that if you put your faith into what makes as much sense as any of this can then god will be pleased.

Is ignorance really bliss?

I've done a lot of thinking over the past years sue to my enormous amounts of time alone. And as I have mentioned in my realization posts I realized that when parents describe the world to their children at younger ages it is made out to be a very happy place. Then around the time kids start becoming news conscious (13-15) they realize this to be a lie. Well, the question I've been asking myself lately is, is ignorance really bliss. Is it a good thing to let a child's first decade be as happy as possible.

On the plus side it gives kids a time to be kids. No pressure on their shoulders. They can be as happily ignorant as possible. But the problem with that is that it means that any big decisions (regarding religion, politics, or other matters of the sort) that are made during that time stay with them for the rest of their lives. That in turn means that any adult with any intentions (good or bad) could influence these kids to make bad decisions.

So to conclude I would say that it is not bliss. It can be a good thing so that stress begins when it should but the pro's of keeping kids informed out weigh the cons.

Why there will never be peace in the mideast

A question that has been on many minds over the past two decades is when will there be peace in the middle east. The answer in my eyes is never. The reason I say that has nothing to do with the fact that they are Muslims. The reason is that there is one fundamental difference in between the west/Europe/China/Russia and the middle east, escalation. The previously mentioned countries have all striven for escalation. They need more. The middle east found a way to live and no matter how barbaric we find it, it works for them. So when we came along with our very sophisticated way of living, they became incredibly xenophobic. That is the reason that there will never be peace in the mid east. There wont be a chance. We made such a fuss about them being barbaric that we invited people like Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (the president of Iran), Mohammed Omar (leader of the Taliban) and others like them to start a war that wont stop until one side blows the other into oblivion. I'm sorry if anyone is offended by this but it is true. We will never have true peace in the mid east.

Police's use of Tasers

As any Canadian has heard quite a lot of lately, people across the nation have been in a rut about police officers and their use of tasers to subdue criminals. There have been 26 reported deaths due to taser use from police officers in the past couple of years and now people are thinking that the police are out to get criminals without caring for their safety. What people cant realize is that after reports of taser deaths come in it could take months to get standards changed for their use. The police is a huge organization. First they would have to get the people and scientists at the company where they got the tasers from to find a safer way to use them. Then they have to ship out how ever many tasers to however many police forces across the country. Then the police forces have to have rules established for their use before any kind of standard can come to be.

Of course after any one hears that they will say "Oh then you need to change the system. Well if you have any ideas pass em along because the main problem with the type of country we live in is that it is slow and whenever the 'Human Element' gets put into a system there are bound to be mistakes. So If you have an idea that can take the human element out of our system of power and law then you're smarter than me because in my opinion this is the best we got.

I've made a decision

I've had some comments lately about how random my blog posts are, and although I can agree they are a bit sporadic I thought the name of the blog would have explained it. Well since it has not I've created a new blog for anything music related. It is at the address http://misclanous.blogspot.com/ and is purely about music. So I hope you will all enjoy it.

Just a little thing

Over the past couple of weeks I have been hearing that people think I'm not religious. I would like to clear something up. I believe in god. I am a christian and a soon to be member of the United Church of Canada. I also believe in evolution. My philosophy on life is that you need a balance in between faith and reason. If you have to much faith then you're just a blind rag doll who does what every one else tells them to. If you have to much reason then you do what I used to do (go around telling people they are wrong about everything). With a balance you have enough sense to know when people are "BSing" you but enough belief to know that this isn't it.

Power Ballads

As many of you have probably been able to deduce about me, I am a music lover. I listen to my favourite tunes whenever I get the chance. So obviously I was extatic when I found out my mother was getting a computer and I would be allowed to upload Frostwire. I've had it for 3 days and I've uploaded over 150 songs already. Well when I realized that I needed to make some mixed Cd's so I could listen to these wihout the computer I went searching for some way to divide my songs so I could have some order to my mix CD's (and yes I know that is somewhat Oxy-moronic). So I came up with the obvious ones; Metal, Alternative & Punk, and Prog Rock. Then I had like 14 songs left over that didn't really fit in the other categories. Songs like It's Hrad for Me to Say I'm Sorry by Chicago, I'll Remember You by Skid Row, and Every Rose has It's Thorn by Poison. So I decided to make a POWER BALLADS list.

One of the most popular forms of music in the 80's (now referred to has Hair Metal) was known for it's grungy, heavy sound. For about five years they ruled the charts. But around 1985 people started to want the softer side of music again. And the power ballad was born. Songs that had a softer more unplugged sound but still had that powerfull gut wrenching guitar solo. Bands from all over started spilling their guts out with deep and profound lyrics about love and heart break.
Although many music historians consider this to be the start of the breakdown of the 80's hair metal scene, they still acknowledge that these songs were some of the best.

So just for fun I've put together a list of my favourite power ballads including some that were not from the 80's.

15. 1979-The Smashing Pumpkins
Although it came out in the alternative rock scene it is one of the most mellow songs ever written. It talks about easier times when kids could be kids and didn't have a care in the world. Since it's realease t has always been considered one of the Smashing Pumpkins best tracks.

14. I Can't Stop Loving You-Van Halen
In my opinion the last great Van Halen tune was a major hit in 1995. With that beautiful guitar riff and pounding bass line it let people know that Van Halen was still around (even if not for long).

13.Hard to say I'm Sorry-Chicago
One of Chicago's greatest songs has been a wedding staple since it's release. Although it has been lost among the recent generation, parents will still sing along when it somes on the radio.

12.November Rain-Guns N' Roses
Axl and Slash's Masterpiece. This near nine minute epic has the longest and one of the greatest solos in history. Released on Use Your Illusion 1 in 1991 it has become a staple of the GNR catalogue.

11.Sister Christian-Night Ranger
Just like #13 this song hasa been lost upon the younger audience but if you go to any classic rock bar you will surely hear this track.

10.Hysteria-Def Leppard
The title track from their greatest album is one of the beloved songs among Leppard fans. It has that slow-but-not-to-slow speed that is perfect for slow dancing.

9.Love Rears It's Ugly Head-Living Colour
This song has all the necessary components to be a power ballad. The deep soulful voice, The guitar solo, and the gut wrenching chorus. The one thing that makes it an odd choice is the style of music it is. It is not the usual Metal style but a funk rock song.

8.I Wanna know what Love Is-Foreigner
This is a song that everyone knows. It is on every soft rock compilation out there and is still selling on Itunes today.

7. Dont Cry-Guns N' Roses
GNR's second entry on the list is an incredibly popular song that is still played on classic rock stations today.

6.Last Kiss-Pearl Jam
The most recent member of the list is a cover of an incredibly popular song. The reason that this stands tall among all the other covers is Eddie Vedder's voice. He just sings effortlessly but with emotion.

5.Every Rose has it's Thorn-Poison
Another song that everyone knows. This song has been the one song that has kept Poison popular through the decades.

4.I Remeber You-Skid Row
This song is another lesser known track on our list. There isn't alot more to be said. It's just a flat out amazing song.

3.Is This Love-Whitesnake
This song known more for it's video than anything else is still played at dances today. With Dave Coverdale's voice wailing through the speakers you just cant help but sing along.

2.Love Bites-Def Leppard
Their most populr song and the second one on this list is a template for every ballad that has come since.

1.Don't Stop Believing-Journy
Was anyone really suprised. This is the song that people sing when their drunk, sad, happy, in love, hell they sing it any time it comes over the radio. Everyone knows the lyrics and unlike the cococabana they aren't embaressed to show em. This is the power ballad.

Hello readers

Hello everyone. As you may have noticed, I have been on a bit of a dry spell lately. I've run out of things to talk about. Well I haven't run out. I'm just out of things to write a lot about. So instead of giving up something I really enjoy, I will start to blog about lighter, and smaller topics. I should start sometime after the break with my new posts. I won't completely give up my old 4 paragraph posts but until some more exciting stuff happens in the world I'll be on a bit of a sabbatical.

Update

Hello loyal readers. I'm sorry about my lack of posts recently, I've just been sick and haven't had the time. If anyone has any post ideas then please send them my way on the comment board.

I made a video and have uploaded it onto Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QgEiBz0w9E