d_rawk

I'll bite ..

Stopped in there this evening for a bite (this thread put the idea in my head). It was a full house. Asked if they were prepared for the groupon flood .. dude took a deep breathe and said that he was as ready as he'll ever be.

Gotta love The Post for sticking their fingers directly in your eyes and unapologetic self-righteousness:

Barbara Kay in Montreal: I think the key words here are, in Kelly’s blunt words, “core Liberal values, whatever those are.†Values-wise, the Libs have been on automatic pilot for a long time. They’ve been politically correct in their deferral to certain interest groups – feminist women, aboriginals, immigrants, and any underdog du jour, but not out of conviction, as a strategy and people understood that — and the sponsorship scandal took the wind out of their self-righteous sails. They didn’t pay attention to the honest party lovers who got together and wrote a report on renewal, and I know a few of the people who worked hard on that in good faith. They were crushed when it got the back of the hand. I agree with Matt that a new broom would have been symbolically persuasive, while Bob (yeah yeah, very good guy and all that) was there sitting around letting the party slide into disaster. So not good optics.

But Bob could surprise us if he wants to, and the first thing he should do is take the purge survivors to the woodshed, spank them and tell them they’re worthless losers. Like they do in marine training. They have to feel truly humiliated. He should make them cry a little. Then he has to make them do the kind of exercises corporations are made to do when they have consultants in to turn their failing businesses around. The consultants set up a blackboard and go around the table and say stuff like, “Okay, imagine there is no such thing as the Liberal Party, but you have to create one. What would such a party look like in terms of its core values? Ex nihilo. Next, they have to disassociate themselves from the NDP big time. Like move rightwards in important ways for a start. And yes, Kelly is absolutely right. They have to prostrate themselves before the West and rural Canada and beg for forgiveness. That would be a good start.

Barbara Kay: So adding to these lugubrious scenarios, when we factor in the federally-funded cut to their war chest (should we start calling it a “protest chest†– “war†seems dissonant with their present situation), are we looking at the actual demise of the Libs and the beginning of an “American-style†two-party system? You wouldn’t find me bewailing such an outcome. In politics, more parties is definitely not merrier. If the Libs were absorbed into the NDP, and were able to soften up some of their extreme leftiness (union-worship, foreign policy infantilism), we would have two very strong parties and both with well-defined values. Frankly, even though I am really trying hard, I can’t figure out a middle ground between the NDP and the centrist niche the Conservatives now own that would be capable of whipping up much enthusiasm amongst a wide swathe of Canadians. So my vote is for the Libs to throw themselves on their swords and, hat in hand, petition the NDP for an eventual union. Sure, the NDP can afford to laugh them off now, but in four years, when this freak success dissipates, they will welcome the idea.

[edit to add: she is wrong about that last point, to be certain. She miscalculates just how deep the rift and the hatred - it is hatred - runs between the Liberal faithful and the NDP faithful. There may end up being a marriage of convenience, but it won't be particularly 'welcome' on either side.]

But then Rex:

Politics is not a generous game. Ambition almost, by definition, demands selfishness.

The career of Bob Rae, at least the latter day portion of it, inclines me to think neither of these observations apply to him.

Recall when Michael Ignatieff, or his backers, finessed the capture of the Liberal leadership, getting their guy past all challenges and past a real leadership race. Bob Rae, who alone could have kicked up a really justified storm over the matter, quietly and without public rancor put aside his own interest, and accepted Mr. Ignatieff as leader. Can’t think of very many who would have done the same.

And now – now that the Liberal party is no longer the sleek hip convertible that drives straight to 24 Sussex – now that it’s pretty close to the political equivalent of a write-off and a wreck, who volunteers for the job of taking it over, re-engineering it, and standing up for it in its worst days. Well, Bob Rae.

This is as much generosity as politics is likely to demonstrate.

Rae was twice – twice – turned down for the leadership of the Liberals. He was, in contrast to Stephane Dion or Mr. Ignatieff, the only one with real and tested political skills. Certainly he had more to offer that the latter in real world experience, and the former in political intuition and sheer mastery of communication. He’s one of the few natural Parliamentarians, knows Canadian politics from both the provincial and federal level, and has wandered through defeat to a larger view of the politics and the country.

But, Rae, having been turned down by the party, still agrees to take on the now unglamorous, largely thankless task of interim leadership. He could simply have walked off stage. Others have and would still.

It would have been interesting for Justin Trudeau, say, to have given it a whirl. If he really wanted to demonstrate how deep his commitment to the party is, and how it’s more than a mere inheritance. Picking up its leadership at the lowest point would have been — dare I say it — a challenge worthy of his father. But then, most of those Liberals who would have run for leader in a trice in happier times, are only too eager to hand over to the reins now that it’s shrunken, demoralized and on the ropes.

There are more ironies here than we can count. Rae would easily have done better than Ignatieff in the last election. If he’d been picked in the first post-Martin convention he might even have toppled Stephen Harper. The Liberals declined his skills when those skills would have been of maximum advantage. But he – with a sense of duty that almost seems old-fashioned – is here to pick things up again.

Such a rare thing in politics – I thought it worthwhile to underline it.

Don't expect too much .. it is a fine track, and typically Arcade Fire, but the David Byrne content is pretty minimal. He (almost inaudibly) woops and barks in the background. Shame, because they seem such a natural pairing that they could probably make something really beautiful if they genuinely collaborated together.

First link worked fine for me ...

Thanks Kanada Kev!

Speaking in tongues was the name of the album, not a song. is that track the entire album? or, a new song altogether?

It's the single

On 27 June, Arcade Fire will release a repackaged version of their Grammy award-winning album, The Suburbs (their Grammy win, for Album of the Year, was such a surprise in America that "Who Is Arcade Fire?" became an internet meme). Not only will the new version feature the Spike Jonze-directed short film, Scenes from the Suburbs, it also comes with two brand new songs – Speaking in Tongues and Culture War.

Loves me some Hintonburger. So, they are already up to almost 2000 sold .. can they accommodate this? They are usually frazzled when there is only one or two people in line.

I was shocked that you didn't follow up with a joke about Jaimoe's mom

As interim leader.

“The people of Canada gave the Liberal party a very clear and tough message in the last election,†Rae said. “We simply have to, if I can coin a phrase, pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again.â€

I am not at all sure how that amounts to 'coining a phrase', but this is no time to quibble. Congrats on your winning the position, and sorry about your (permanent) leadership ambitions which are now quelled.

“We’ve gone to 19 per cent of the vote. I don’t think that’s a floor. I think there’s a risk that if we’re not smart, if we don’t act well, we could go even lower,†McCallum said. “We have to put our strongest person on the ice, someone who can take on Layton and Harper in the House, someone who can give good sound bites to the media; somebody who can speak with passion and with humour and someone with experience and political instincts to respond to a fluid situation.â€

Indeed.

I'm interested to see Rae act in this capacity. I think he will do a fine job.

Rae’s big strength will be that he wants everyone to do well, says Bennett, and that he may be able to rein in the Liberals’ instincts to undermine each other.

If one could damper the temptation of one Liberal to eat the other Liberal's babies, one would be doing quite well for the Party. I wait with baited breath. Sincerely.

For the love of...Camping now says that May 21rst was a 'silent judgement day'

This was one of my thoughts on the day itself - hell, maybe the rapture did happen, but nobody was 'good' enough, so we just never noticed and it was business as usual. But I was kinda sorta hoping that Camping would never be seen from again .. after all his offices were closed and nobody could reach him on phone .. like, maybe, just maybe, only Camping ascended :laugh: Alas, he is stuck down here with the rest of us schmucks.

*facepalm*

You kids and your new-fangled technology.

i guess looting wasn't such a good idea afterall.

Heh, maybe not. But this one was:

Some of the ventures hawking post-rapture services don't pretend to be operated by believers. Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, which promises to care for pets left behind, is run by avowed atheists.

"Is this a joke?" That's question No. 1 on the site's list of frequently asked questions.

"No" is the answer. "This is a serious offer to our Christian friends who believe in the Second Coming and honestly care about the future of their pets after the Rapture occurs."

Bart Centre, the New Hampshire retiree who runs Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, said he simply wants to make a buck.

"I saw dollar signs, because no one has more pets per capita and more rapture-believing Christians than the good old U.S.A.," he said

[...]

Centre said inquiries picked up in recent months based on predictions by evangelical radio broadcaster Harold Camping that the rapture will take place Saturday, leading him to boost his basic rate from $110 to $135. For that fee, his crews will retrieve and care for one household pet post-rapture, if it occurs within 10 years of payment.

This, however, was not:

The end is nigh, insists Robert Fitzpatrick.

And he's put his money where his mouth is. If the world doesn't end on May 21, one week from tomorrow, he'll have wasted more than $140,000 on bus and subway advertising.

The 60-year-old Staten Island resident, a retired MTA employee, says he's spent at least that sum -- his life savings -- on 1,000 subway-car placards, and even more ads on bus kiosks and subway cars. They say: "Global Earthquake: The Greatest Ever! Judgment Day May 21, 2011."

The Epoch Times is not a bad one too for those too-much-work-to-do so only a few minutes to squeeze in a read days, the bus, etc..

If the Sun had the editorial heavy-handidness excised from it, I think it would be a handy little rag. It's not just a "if we agreed on everything, then I would like you" thing, more of a "dude, you should know that you're being a dick right now" thing.

Like Esau, I will most certainly read it if it is around in the lunchroom or equivalent, but wouldn't buy it. And don't like it. I'll also read a Cosmo or a celebrity tabloid, though, if that's all that is kicking around, so .. back to taste :laugh:

Can't believe that I blanked on the Ottawa Sun, although I don't see them in any of the stores anywhere around here (probably just the nature of this sea-of-orange neighbourhood, I imagine they don't move many copies) Thought I should pick one up, given that I've been criticizing something I haven't read since I left Toronto. But dirty secret - it is apparently my gf's paper of choice, so I am going to have her bring one home from work.

I have way more important things to worry about, like having a beer or getting laid.

Now this is something we can all relate to and agree with for sure

OAKLAND -- If the universe started with a big bang, Saturday's non-rapture qualifies as a big whimper -- or maybe just a big bust.

Though the tremendous earthquake and ascension into heaven of the faithful predicted by Doomsday prophet Harold Camping did not happen, there were lessons to be learned from the most-hyped non-event since Y2K.

"For those who were invested in this prediction, their world did end Saturday," said Rev. Jeremy Nickel, the minister at Fremont's Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation. "They thought they were going to heaven, and they didn't. They may have donated all their money. They're going to be in a world of hurt."

Billboards guaranteeing the end of the world Saturday were almost as ubiquitous as Starbucks outlets in the Bay Area and the world and just as galvanizing to followers, who donated more than $100 million over the past seven years and drove RVs all over the United States to alert people of the coming rapture. Oakland-based Family Radio, with 66 radio stations across the globe, was uncharacteristically quiet Saturday, its website down.

The Alameda home of Harold Camping, president of Family Radio, was deserted Saturday and he was not answering his phone.

The only pilgrims at the station's Hegenberger Road office Saturday morning were media and Keith Bauer -- who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the Rapture.

"I had some skepticism

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but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God," he said in the bright morning sun. "I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth."

Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver, began the voyage west last week, figuring that if he "worked last week, I wouldn't have gotten paid anyway, if the Rapture did happen." After seeing the nonprofit ministry's base of operations, Bauer planned to take a day trip to the Pacific Ocean, and then start the cross-country drive back home Sunday with his wife, young son and another family relative.

Meanwhile, in downtown Oakland about 200 atheists attended the American Atheists convention commemorating (mostly mocking) the rapture.

"Here's the takeaway," said Richard Hodill of San Mateo, who staffed the registration table at the atheist convention. "Learn to be a discriminating and critical thinker. Base your life on evidence-based reasoning. Religion exploits people to their detriment."

Indeed, the ever-irreverant Bay Area reacted to the non-Rapture in its own unique fashion, with End of the World garage sales, a Zombie crawl to raise money for Oakland libraries and a gathering at Family Radio headquarters that was a cross between a Raiders tailgate party and a Grateful Dead parking lot celebration.

"I came here because I am interested in cognitive dissonance, or how people react when their prophesies fail," said Peter Persoff, of Piedmont, as he stood in the Family Radio parking lot, where locked glass doors revealed only a darkened, silent interior. "I hoped to be around with these guys as the news came in and nothing was happening."

"What better place to observe the Rapture than in a bar with a drink in your hand?" said Rebecca Auerbach, who organized a party at Jerry's Cocktail Lounge in her Richmond neighborhood.

Less than a mile from Camping's Alameda home, a UC Berkeley anthropology graduate student held a rapture moving sale, advertising on Craigslist: "If you are not planning on getting raptured tomorrow, then you might need some stuff."

"I think people are still into private possessions," said Mather, who declined to give her last name. "The sale went great. I'm feeling lighter already, although I'm not levitating anywhere."

There was a happy resolution in Boyes Hot Springs, a town near Sonoma, where a Family Radio believer William Tinker relinquished his cockatoo, Senegal parrot and cat to a county animal control officer. Tinker had threatened to kill his pets in advance of Judgment Day, but with the help of the Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue, he turned his pets over to authorities, said Mickaboo volunteer Vincent Hrovat.

There was one thing Christians and Muslims, Unitarians and Catholics all seemed to agree upon with regard to Camping's prediction.

"In my view it just doesn't square with Biblical revelation, which clearly suggests that according to the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel we neither know the day nor the hour that the end times will begin," said Gregory Chisholm, pastor of St. Patrick's Catholic Church of Oakland.

"So if one were really trying to help people prepare for the end times, one would counsel people to minister to the sick and feed the hungry and visit those who are in prison, because that's exactly what the Lord says to do," Chisholm said.

A Muslim spiritual leader agreed.

"Our understanding is the same as the Christian understanding in the Bible. No man knows when the end will come," said Khurram Shah, president of the Contra Costa County chapter of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Bay Point.

Given that Camping already unsuccessfully predicted the end of the world in 1994, Shah's words seemed to ring true.

"I don't think people should live in fear. If I didn't think positive, I wouldn't be able to do what I do," said Lisa Chichard, who has been Camping's neighbor for more than 50 years and was standing at the gate of her home next door to Camping Saturday. Chichard is a special education teacher at Oakland High School, working with severely handicapped children.

"I grew up with the Campings. They are hardworking people and I respect his Biblical scholarship," said Chichard, standing at the gate of her home. "But I don't necessarily think in such apocalyptic terms."

"If you live every day to its fullest and do the right thing, when the world ends, you'll be all right."

Sue Espinoza was planted before the television, awaiting news of her father's now infamous prediction: cataclysmic earthquakes auguring the end of humanity.

God's wrath was supposed to begin in New Zealand and then race across the globe, leaving millions of bodies wherever the clock struck 6 p.m. But the hours ticked by, and New Zealand survived. Time zone by time zone, the apocalypse failed to materialize.

On Saturday morning, Espinoza, 60, received a phone call from her father, Harold Camping, the 89-year-old Oakland preacher who has spent some $100 million — and countless hours on his radio and TV show — announcing May 21 as Judgment Day. "He just said, 'I'm a little bewildered that it didn't happen, but it's still May 21 [in the United States],'" Espinoza said, standing in the doorway of her Alameda home. "It's going to be May 21 from now until midnight."

But to others who put stock in Camping's prophecy, disillusionment was already profound by late morning. To them, it was clear the world and its woes would make it through the weekend.

Keith Bauer, a 38-year-old tractor-trailer driver from Westminster, Md., took last week off from work, packed his wife, young son and a relative in their SUV and crossed the country.

If it was his last week on Earth, he wanted to see parts of it he'd always heard about but missed, such as the Grand Canyon and the Painted Forest. With maxed-out credit cards and a growing mountain of bills, he said, the rapture would have been a relief.

On Saturday morning, Bauer was parked in front of the Oakland headquarters of Camping's Family Radio empire, half expecting to see an angry mob of disenchanted believers howling for the preacher's head. The office was closed, and the street was mostly deserted save for journalists.

Bauer said he was not bitter. "Worst-case scenario for me, I got to see the country," he said. "If I should be angry at anybody, it should be me."

Tom Evans, who acted as Camping's PR aide in recent months, took his family to Ohio to await the rapture. Early next week, he said, he would be returning to California.

"You can imagine we're pretty disappointed, but the word of God is still true," he said. "We obviously went too far, and that's something we need to learn from."

Despite the failure of Camping's prediction, however, he said he might continue working for him.

"As bad as it appears—and there's no getting around it, it is bad, flat-out—I have not found anything close to the faithfulness of Family Radio," he said.

Others had risked a lot more on Camping's prediction, quitting jobs, abandoning relationships, volunteering months of their time to spread the word. Matt Tuter, the longtime producer of Camping's radio and television call-in show, said Saturday that he expected there to be "a lot of angry people" as reality proved Camping wrong.

Tuter said Family Radio's AM station in Sacramento had been "severely vandalized" Friday night or Saturday morning, with air conditioning units yanked out and $25,000 worth of copper stripped from the equipment. He thinks it must have been an angry listener. He was off Saturday but planned to drive past the headquarters "and make sure nothing's burning."

Camping himself, who has given innumerable interviews in recent months, was staying out of sight Saturday. No one answered the door at his Alameda home, though neighbors said he was there.

By late afternoon, a small crowd had gathered in front of Camping's Oakland headquarters. There were atheists blowing up balloons in human form, which were released into the sky just after 6 p.m. in a mockery of the rapture. Someone played a CD of "The End" by the Doors, amid much laughter.

There were also Christians, like James Bynum, a 45-year-old deacon at Calvary Baptist Church in Milpitas, holding signs that declared Harold Camping a false prophet. He said he was there to comfort disillusioned believers.

"Harold Camping will never hand out poisoned Kool-Aid," Bynum said. "It's not that kind of a cult. But he has set up a system that will destroy some people's lives."

If nothing else, guess you gotta give him credit for the balls on him. I'd be nervous to venture out so far out on a limb as to suggest that it may or may not rain on any given day.

5 Left Brackets + -6 left brackets is -1

Right .. and we found it in the same clause, so we must be on to something.

and I found that you could use regular expressions to match your brackets using wild cards for the interiors

Crap, that would be handy. I certainly wouldn't envy that guy that writes/wrote it, though. Regex = super-handiness of everything wonderful and great but also all that is painful in this world

WHERE (((['C].[PI- LastName])="Hanna")

ought this not be

WHERE (((['C].[PI- LastName])="Hanna"))

?

(although, honestly, that is such a mind-blowingly verbose SQL query that it was impossible to read through it all without bleeding eyes)

Anyone interested in holding one of the following letters when they take the stage at Bluesfest?

Sold.

Word, me too.

And of course, when he is old enough:

Thanks so much for this d_rawk. My 9 year old son has tourette's. He will enjoy this I'm sure.

Aww. What are the little dude's tics?

Another good one is "I Swear I Can't Help It" (that's a download link)

Also, Big Brother UK with Pete Bennett. Probably the thing that made me ok with the condition, Pete is so lovely and funny. But maybe a bit racey for a 9 year-old.

Either way, I get it, us working class aren't very intelligent.

I really don't mean to suggest that. The working class are the backbone of the everything.

Obviously we look at things in very different ways.

Exactly why I thought the article worth posting.

What I thought interesting about it was that it made me think about things in a different way, and challenged my usual assumptions. I thought it good food for thought.

I don't agree with it 100%, but I thought it made some really interesting points that needed to be considered.

Out of curiosity what constitutes lack of education here? No HS diploma, no grad school, no college degree, no university etc? Helps in understanding the viewpoints here.

My experience is that the Sun appeals to those with a lower level of language comprehension than do the other papers of note. As I said, that experience is largely based on working with people whose English was not yet developed - which isn't a criticism, it just takes time. I *suck* at second languages, I'm certainly not judging. The Sun intentionally makes use of an elementary school reading level, while, say, the Globe does not. Not a problem, and in fact, good on them .. somebody has got to. It doesn't change the fact that this then attracts those of a lower language comprehension. Again, that does not mean that if you read the Sun and like it that you have low language comprehension or are any less intelligent than anybody else. It *does* mean that if you have a low language comprehension, your only option is the Sun.

You do have access to it, it's called the Ottawa Sun

True enough. I still hate it.

Just to clarify though, what standard are we using to gauge this lack of taste

This 'lack of taste' line was just me being cheeky, because I happen to disagree strongly with the usual editorial position - and manner of presenting it - of that publication. I thought I was being funny.

I'm being immodest in a way of jest. I personally hate the Sun. So I took the opportunity to poke fun at them. I also think that their editorial staff (again, unless it has changed) is irresponsible, but it is my personal opinion. I shouldn't be so cavalier about such things, but I am.

:laugh:

Ah, haha .. well, d.rock was my initial nickname growing up, I just made it 'd-rawk' when I joined the board because it wouldn't let me use a period in my nickname and because I thought that 'rawk' was way more bad-ass than 'rock'.

So no harm, no foul

What looked strange? I missed it

So basically this whole topic boils down to the working class/low income are people who aren't intelligent enough to vote "properly"? I guess I'm one of those folks.

I hope not, but I thought it was a very interesting point that Big Wooly Mammoth made.

The initial topic didn't make mention of that at all, but I'm not sure that it is inaccurate.

and because I may read some meaningless rag like the Hamilton Spectator, Globe And Mail or Toronto Sun during one or both of my 15 minute breaks this deems a lack of education?

No, no. If you are reading the Sun it may indicate a lack of taste, but not necessarily a lack of education. If you did lack education, however, the Sun would likely be your go-to. And they do explicitly endorse the Conservatives, and arguably has as big of a hate-on for the Liberals as I (sometimes) do - unless they have changed their tune .. it has been years .. I'm in a different part of the country now.

That article reeks of "looking down the nose" at the working class/low income folks and/or pointing the finger at for Harper being re-elected.

That could be so, but I saw it exactly the other way. I saw it as being critical of the self-important-feeling 'Left' who presumed that they were doing the 'good work', but entirely misguaged the people they were trying to represent. And the Conservatives were more appealing, for all of the reasons mentioned. The intent wasn't to look down the nose at anyone, but rather to suggest that the anti-poverty folks are getting it a little bit wrong and should correct their course of action.

By the way, could someone explain what makes The Star a more valid upstanding rag over any of the other one-sided newspaper out there?

Couldn't make that argument even if my life depended on it. We don't get The Star out here, but as I remember it, their editorial section at least attempted to argue a point rather than just state it explicitly and presume that you would internalize it as fact, which is one of the problems that I always had with The Sun.

Shucks, thanks Wish. You helped me out more than you know back when I made the decision to just be myself and when I needed help getting the monkey off my back.

I hold you in high esteem. Very high esteem.