Saturday, July 17, 2010

I like it like that!



"I like it like that" is a great Cha Cha in fact it's one of my wifes favorite. Latin dances are great dance for beginers to learn as the man's and woman's steps are a "mirror" of each other. So you can help each other learn.
For guys having trouble meeting the right lady I tell them; "Learn to dance" since there is no point fishing where there ain't no fish!

Green Party, reducing it’s carbon footprint one volunteer at a time.

When Elizabeth May attempted to make deals with the other parties I knew she was going to have problems with her base support. Going by this article it seems May is willing to kill the goose to get the egg, which in this case is a seat in Parliament. What people like May, Dion and Iggy forget is that they are given the reins of the party by the people who make it run (Well maybe not the Liberal party, more like two feudal lords scheming to take over the throne now that the king is gone)
A political party depends on a huge number of unseen volunteers who make the wheels go around. They get donations, make signs, wave them, bang on doors, answer phones or make coffee for those that do. When your leader fails to lead and makes bad decisions, then the volunteers lose hope and wither away. May, Dion and Iggy seem to fail to understand these basic fundamentals.
Now if you want to see a political machine at work look at the CPC and to a lesser extent the NDP. The CPC has an advantage, it’s voter base is older and mature, but also issue specific. They know exactly what they want to see from the politicians and aren’t shy at reminding the CPC politicians are there at their sufferance. The people who vote and volunteer for the CPC are also willing to open up their pocketbooks, something the other parties are not good at doing. This is why the Conservative attempt to end the subsidy for each vote was so bitterly fought by the other parties, without that money they are dead and they know it.
The NDP is better off than the Greens and Liberals. They have a stronger grassroots organization and the support of union organizers who know how to fill rooms. The problem that stifles Layton is that he only represents the elite portion of the party and seems disconnected to the less urban portions. He does have enough sense to allow his MP’s a free vote on the gun registry as he knows that would turn the gap into a un-repairable rift.
While I have no love for the Greens or Liberals I do feel sorry for the volunteers that feel forsaken. My free advice, never take volunteers for granted you will regret it.

A little update
This article says lot about Elizbeth May's contempt for process.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Yes but is it house trained?



Amazing tech, expect a toy version from China shortly that barks, wags it’s tail and demands “walkies” at 3:00am

Meanwhile a parody of it’s big brother

Monday, July 12, 2010

The devil is in the details

Why is everything so hard in Afghanistan? Here are two videos showing what it takes to perform pretty much the same construction, in this case a box culvert. Culvert are so common here and so mundane most of you never think about them. In Afghanistan a culvert is a rarity and to the Taliban represents governmental intrusion into what they consider their sphere of influence.

North America


Afghanistan

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Aishah singing Fever



Being a somewhat savay male who knows that a happy wife is a happy husband. I present you a video of my wife singing Fever in a gratuitous attempt to score brownie points with the “boss”. All joking aside I am very proud of my wife and her singing ability. I hope you enjoy the video, sorry for the shaky camera work.

Somalia, where soccer is a capital offence.

When you read stories like this you realize just how screwy radical Islamists are. Most Muslims I have met are big soccer nuts, but the very devout ones see it as a distraction from their submission to Allah. Therefore anyone who enjoys soccer (or pretty much anything else outside of the mosque) is deemed to be unworthy. I wish Somalia could get it’s act together, I suspect for that to happen it will have to break up into smaller bits such as Somaliland. Of course the UN and others don’t want that to happen, as the status quo suits them. Current polices are not working, let them divide up the land, some people will still suffer badly, but other parts might start getting their act together and have some sense of stability.