HuffPost's Real Misery Index: Recalculating The Hard Times

It's an interesting metric Huffpo, but it's very middle-class centric. Your misery index doesn't take into account wages, income gaps, the working poor. It doesn't show the people who are working 60 hour weeks and bashing their head against the wall trying to make ends meet and actually succeeding, or workplace fatalities, postponed doctor visits, or any actual measure of waged income, just how tightly it's rationed. To borrow from RFK: The misery index measures all the terrible things happening in the economy except those that most frequently happen and hurt the most.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

To www.antimisandry.com Seriously guys, you're not helping.

After some general e-battling on Huffington Post and doing some research, I've begun to wonder: Where in the hell are the articulate, liberally educated and complex-minded anti-misandrysts out there. Where's the scotch swilling man's man of a masculist who'll be in favor of sexual freedoms, opposed to homophobia and transphobia and ready to point out the cold hatred that spews from the pens of tenured professors like Janice G. Raymond? Where are the actual egalitarians out there beyond Nathanson and Young? We need your help people. Male post-secondary enrollment is down to 42%, there's legitimate evidence in the latest US census, that among Single people of similar experience and education, that the wage gap is going the other way. There are significant legal, political, and social inequities that are being built as an edifice of empowerment and the tipping point is being reached, and nobody is around to intelligently build a coalition of the egalitarians, reform and classical liberals, classical conservatives, and counter-cultural modernists into opposing the entrenchment of these barriers.

To wit: Give me an articulate left-wing anti-misandryst! Give her tenure! Give him a lecture series, a seat in parliament, a chair opposite Keith Olbermann! Give her a fourth party presidential run! Give him a New York Times Best Seller! Give her cohorts and a whole intellectual tendency, please!

Anyway, so ends my complaining, but that's an issue that's always nagged at me, one that'd get me back into party politics, one that would bring me back to academia. Give me someone to follow in this regard with some actual credibility, who'll make a political career over this.

Kids recant abuse claims after dad jailed 20 years

The same reason some people plead guilty to murders they don't commit. And because having your children testify against you might be considered traumatic, you know, the same reason people want rape shield laws, basically to weaken the court system to prevent aggravating an already traumatic situation.



How about you watch this documentary on Frontline for some answers on why 90% of all cases don't get to trial?



http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/plea/view/



ShakeYourComplacency. I'm officially becoming your new best friend. You're not going to be able to spread this kind of circular, blame-the-victim misandry unchallenged. Quoth the president: Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Krugman/Limbaugh Nightmare: President Obama Might Succeed

"Nor does Krugman's ideas involve the War In Wherever, a possible

new Health System, the Auto Industry, Unemployment, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc."



Really? Because I got here from this page, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/29/geithnerkrugman-feud-come_n_180477.html where Paul Krugman says, in a roundtable discussion, that the healthcare plan is the key to balancing the budget in the medium term. Further, he talked about the differences between Iraq and Afganistan and the political consequences of withdrawal in either country. And also he talks about the increasing unemployment rate and the 600,000 jobs shed every month for the next few months. He explains how the US debt will not be left unmanageable by the stimulus, etc. etc... So yes, he views economics through the prism of human costs.



You know, though, everyone impugning the motives of someone who has said, quite accurately, that the bank reorganization plan is similar to the Japanese plan, which didn't fail, but didn't really succeed in the way everyone expected, and not that it is a poor plan but that better ones are available for which the president does not appear willing to summon the political will, should probably take a page from the Vice President who consistently mentions what a poor idea it is to question those motives which they cannot divine.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Oh, Rush... it's so delightful to watch you tempt fate like this.

324.6 lbs.

He's definitely not the first, or by any means the last, but most assuredly the quintessential willfully ignorant gourmand thug (I like the ring of it far more than Big Fat Idiot) of North American politics. Everyone else's motives are darker than his, to believe them, or perhaps, seeing as he wants the president to fail, hopes for rioting at political conventions, and general unrest, he attempts to make everyone's motives as dark as his. I think it is a uniquely interesting feature of hard right movement politicians. They are so effective because their ultimate goals are perpetually unsatisfied. In democratic politcs no group has ever succeeded in turning back social progress for any amount of time. Sure, economic progress has been turned back, and renewed and... ad infinitum, but you'll never get a solid, unimpeachable majority of Americans to again believe that the social, political, and economic benefits of marriage are exclusive to hetrosexual couples, or that abortions should be going on in back alleys instead of doctor's offices. I, on the other hand, am a left-wing, anti-post-modernist, statist, neo-Fordist/Kensian red tory. I will forever be warring with both sides of the spectrum... especially the center.

It's a good place to struggle, I think.

What Passes for Sovereignty In a Monoculture.

331.8 Pounds, a testament to what bloat can do to swing water-weight.

So, like me you probably have a McDonalds or a Taco Bell in your neighbourhood, drink carbonated beverages made by Coke or Pepsi, and generally don't have the energy to escape the subtle standard of imperialism as it pervades your life. And yet, advertisment supported media, available on that most global of mediums, the internet, is indifferently available to us. A small complaint, I suppose, save for the agressive defense of that media from other delivery sites means, that, for most people, some art must remain American, while we are still the wards of their commerce. It's the standard insensitivity of empire, and something truly minor I suppose, but it is the peculiar conceit of Americans that they are so commercially unique, when that is the true mark of what has made their empire's spread in the developed world so effective and remarkable. They believe in nation states that they dissolve. Just a strange thought for the day. Continue with your business.

A Whole Other Person

336.2 lbs.

Hello Blog. Been a long, long, time, hasn't it? I'd pretty much forgotten about you what with my new job dealing cards, and my spiral into complete complacency and depression. I'd best get my rear in gear then, I suppose, and start putting my life back together. After a series of battles with dieting, and really, dieting well, just losing the will to eat well, of all things, I tipped the scales this morning at 336.2 pounds. That's 137 pounds over weight and 153 over my ideal weight. That's a whole other person in there, and today, I gotta start killing him off. He shrugs and comes up with a thousand reasons why I shouldn't do what I'm good at. Well, fuck him. I'm going to get back to what I do best: Obscure, left-wing Al Hamiltory politics... also, expecting people to get obscure references like that.

I have found only one side of my life rolling along as it should: I don't struggle to make ends meet, by virtue of living cheap. No car, roommates, few bars, not too many gadgets. This is what makes me save money and lets me work four days a week. It's pretty easy when you can live on next to nothing, but then, not everyone has it so easy. Not everyone can split a two bedroom apartment three ways or has no dependents or the intelligence and wit to really be able to fall back on and know that they can keep working without too much difficulty... so I'm a little lucky that way... but then, most needs are really excuses at any rate. And what we most need is an absence of excuses. Lots of people make excuses, and their favorite one, simply because of its statistical significance, is their tax burden... hence why, when the government should be spending billions more on [wood] Planes [for building social housing], Trains, and [electric] Automobiles, we're once again blowing the money on tax cuts for the already making ends meet.

Dear, 'Middle Class:' You're poorer now because you've castrated government with your endless exemptions for the family with 2.1 kids, 1.2 dogs and 1.4 incomes. The weaker government had to pass on those tax cuts all the way up the ladder, leaving us with a still progressive, but more hobbled revenue stream. And now, it's happening again. Twenty more bucks on your paycheque is, well, 20 more bucks, but it pales in comparison to what that money would actually do for creating jobs, building infrastructure that might shorten your monthy commuting time by more than an hour or two, improving our universities, or avoiding public sector hiring freezes that will limit job opportunities for your children... you know, just incase the sports tax credit isn't the tipping point that makes them an NHL star.

And what's more, is that it pales in comparison to the slide in real wages over the last 35 years. If you're like me, you probably got a raise in pay that just falls short of inflation... maybe half a percent. Half a percent of 50K isn't much... but what about 17%? That's how short we've fallen since '73 That's the promise of generations passed being torn from your fingers and already ripped from your children's, and all because we haven't spent adequate public dollars to ensure that it's easy to keep the job you have without being abused by skinflint employers, that it's inexpensive to get to your job with good public transport and, to a diminishing extent, roads, because energy prices constantly rise, owing to our unwillingness to build the clean, and green, and long-term energy grid that we all know is the most logical solutuion... and because we've pulled a comprehensive university education further out of reach of working class Canadian children, causing them to aim low, and to misuse obvious talents. At any rate, these deficits will, as Diefenbaker's did in the late fifties, stauch the flow of jobs and incomes, but they fail to capture a perfect opportunity to not just save the economy in the short term, but build it for the long term, as that government, that toryism, so long forgotten, crumbles like our ambitions... not all at once, but, after a while, turn around and there you are... missing yourself.

Here's why you find the following so funny:

Strong citizenship builds tolerance.

Belief in duty promotes adherence to law.

Also, the Spaniards.

South of the Border:

After a month long absence, I thought I'd come back and explain Canada US relations to you, and I can think of no better way to do so than with this short, educational, film.



Enjoy.

I'd just like to give a shout out...*

No, make that a hearty fuck you, to all the misandristic classist ivy league white boy bashing dressed up as feminism over the trumped up charge that is/soon to be was the Duke Lacross rape case. I make it a point to be skeptical of charges, and that includes, in fact, is accentuated by, sexual assault charges, because of the ease of conviction that seems to stem from them due to the outrageous nature of the charges. People get really mad when they think of this stuff, and since Fatty Arbuckle, the overblown-trumped-up-high-profile-rape-case has been a fact of life. Anybody remember Kobe Bryant? I'm not saying that someone's accusations are to be derided and declaimed instantly, but whatever happened to the idea of innocent until proven guilty. On left wing forums, such as www.rabble.ca/babble , when it comes to causes celebre, such a position is considered anti-feminist and thus unacceptable. The discusssion ended six months ago, the forums have long been locked and closed, and so I take this opportunity to give a hearty 'fuck you' to these, still, innocent mens' detractors.

Fuck You.

That is all.

*warning: The previous post may not have been suitable for all audiences.

Ford on Iraq: 'I don't think I would have gone to war'

-2004 an embargoed interview (sadly the ex president was very good at keeping his mouth shut.)

I wish there were a barber open...

Gerald Ford died. The great constitutionalist has passed on. A truly good man, who kept a nation's sanity together for an additional twenty-seven years...

Poor, poor, America.

Nixon covered up a burglary that he never ordered and he gave 'the highest apology.'

Bush Jr. Started a war on false pretenses, bankrupted a national economy, prolonged a recession that Nixon precipitated, but wasn't responsible for, and brought to fruition the piecemeal dismantling of the consitiution that Clinton embarked upon. What an utter disaster that this is, and how horrible that there disappears from the landscape the last non-Bush Republican. At this time it hurts a little that Bush I could never manage to criticise his son. Something I don't think JFK and RFK would refrain from doing for each other. *sigh* "Living in America" just got harder, what with the "Long National Nightmare" and all...

I'll stop with the references now... "Wouldn't be Prudent."

... dammit.

Dammit.

Rocky Balboa:

I have never before gone to see a film on it's opening night, and fortunately, I haven't yet been disappointed. Forget the idea that Rocky is just some Walter Mitty fantasy, forget all the tired stereotypes about sequels and remakes being done to death. This movie needed to be made, it was beautiful, it was touching.

(Possible Spoilers, I'm not so sure)

The film opens in a modest house in Phili, Rocky still wakes early and in every little way, he gives the appearance of a man who, though decent, has shrunk down inside himself. From the turtles, to the cursory, half hearted jabs at his excercise equipment Rocky has been ruled by a sort of quiet fear. A desire to simply keep a few lodestones of his past. The sublte little touches that show that, for example, Rocky is an intensely lonely man, or that Paulie is consumed by regret, or the grief and dissappointment and frustration that sublimates into a tightly masked rage in Rocky... these things you might not otherwise understand, unless you had seen the first three, and the fifth. Rocky 4 is, to my mind, almost completely self-contained.

This is a story of fear, and will and self-respect, not about boxing, though the match itself is important, the emotions that inform both characters are far more important. That said the film needed about another half hour to develop Dixon better. The franchise presented an opponent with the most complexity seen yet, but he didn't get to present enough neuance. So instead the character was revealed almost through exposition, a shame, because Tarver did a fine job in the role.

So now my definitive rankings of the Rocky films:

Stand-Alone (As part of the series)

Rocky 3rd (4th)

- The almost sullen acceptance that he can't beat Apollo is what loses this movie for me, see next review.

3 of 5

Rocky II 2nd (2nd)

- I know I may take some flack for this, but Rocky II was great because it was the triumph of Rocky over his personal flaws, wherein he finds the will to actually win, instead of simply flying along side the angels, he challenges them. Also Weathers is finally developed as a real character instead of a one dimensional caracature of Ali, trying to play an entire country as a cross-section of rubes. It's Creed's own ego that defeats him.

4 0f 5

Rocky III 4th (3rd)

- "lol Mr. T" That's what makes this a sorely underrated film. In fact the greatest failing of this film is it's inability to develop and allow us to empathise with this ball of unadulterated rage in Mr. T who produces some great acting that, only now, has become a caracature of itself. Stallone had hoped to get Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" for the title track. It shows.

3 of 5

Rocky IV 5th (6th)

Completely self-contained Reagan era B.S. no real conflict, no great emotions, Adrian as Trixie (designated fretter) It's telling that Dolph Lundgren may have well produced the best moment of this film when he was cut in the final fight. 'War' from the soundtrack is on my mp3 player though...

2 out of 5, but irredeemably bad, unlike...

Rocky V 6th (5th)

-Though the story had some great potential, the desire to have the real villain of the movie (Duke) frustrated in his attempts to get Rocky in the ring, and yet still have Rocky fight with Tommy Gunn, manages to fail to connect with one of the main motivations of the series. Also, to rationalise Rocky Balboa, which I think is done well, Stallone himself says it's kind of odd that Rocky would never have gotten a second opinion about his injuries.

1.5 of 5, though with an additional hour of screen time to turn this into an actual fight movie, it could have been a great finale, or even a continuation.

Rocky Balboa 1st (1st)

-I did not ever think I would cry at a Rocky film. Stallone is a better actor today, or just easier to identify with, than he was in 1976. The film wouldn't work on it's own, though so much is dependent on the subleties and knowing these characters, identifying with them. Only other thing I wish they'd done is give us the character behind Duke. Dixon's also slightly underdeveloped and the film could have easily gone to two hours and had me wondering what they could have possibly cut out (perhaps the market scene though it's a nice contrast to his meeting with his white collar son)

4.75 of 5

In closing, if there are any members of the academy reading this blog, this film deserves an Oscar nomination, possibly for: Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Film, and Cinematography.

And now for something completely different, m'kay?

Saw it, it was true to the spirit of Python and should be shown to all.

By now, he should know, he's only encouraging me:

Rick Mercer had this to say about delegated conventions:

Go here and click on Rick's Rant for December 5th

I finally was spurred to briefly articulate why I'm in favour of delegated conventions:

-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Tisdall 
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 06:03:15
To:rick@rickmercer.com
Subject: Delegated Conventions

Rick:

As a delegate to the 2003 PC convention:

First off, every member gets to elect delegates who are sworn to
vote a candidate

Second: If it weren't for delegated conventions:

Claude Wagner would have been opposition leader and possibly prime
minister.

Trudeau would never have been prime minister (most of his core support
was from establishment Liberals)

Peter MacKay would have a shred of credibility left with the Canadian
public (No signed deal, no public humiliation.)

Third, we get the Prime Minister in pretty much the same way.

Last: Where else does a non-prominent citizen get this much opportunity
to practice at public mindedness and politics?

But then, I'm a 23 year old geezer, what do I know?

Thanks,

Sean Tisdall

Rick's verbose reply:

Sean
All good points geezer.
RM
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Cool... what do I win?

I know it's not remotely politics based but...


This wins

I don't really believe in hell...

But Augusto Pinochet is rotting there, finally. That is all.

Three quick suggestions as to how to effectively hit the ground running in your criticism of Ed Stelmach:

Daveberta writes:

After entering Ralph Klein's Cabinet, Stelmach served as Minister of Agriculture from 1997 to 1999,

And did nothing to solve the problem of contaminated feed that a mere 4 years later led to the BSE crisis.

Minister of Infrastructure from 1999 to 2004,

Infrastructure? You mean the nine-billion dollar infrastructure deficit that accumulated during the Klien years? Most of it during the boom?

and Minister of Intergovernment and International Affairs from 2004 to 2006.

Ah, yes, when he was invisible in negotiations on the childcare file, and essentialy, much like Michael Chong, was not the minister responsible, rather the Premier was.

Years of Cabinet experience aside, I seriously cannot name anything that Stelmach did while he was a Cabinet Minister. Can someone help me on this one?

I already named plenty of things he didn't do... I'm lost as well.

The Real Winner of the Liberal Leadership Race:

Formerly Great Comic Flips Out:

You guys might wanna see this... you'll never think of this guy the same ever again.

This isn't the clip you think it is either:

Robert McNamara Retires!!!

Oh... wait, it's Don Rumsfeld... and he's far less likely to criticise his own policy 30 years after the fact... *sigh* ah well.