A Post Mid-Term Cram Session

As many of you either know last night was mid-term election night south of the border. The American people got to exercise their democratic rights, as all of the seats in the House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate were all up for grabs. Both the House and the Senate have been under Republican control since 1994, and since there has been a Republican President since that infamous night in 2000, then the US government has been under total Republican control for a while.

Darth Bushdar and his Evil Empire have been running the show for a long time. That was until last night, when the Democrats blew up the Death Star.

As of this writing the Democrats have won 228 of the 435 seats with 11 of the seats still being counted. While this is a great victory the real interesting things are happening in the Senate. Of the 32 confirmed seats (Virginia is still pending) the Democrats won an astonishing 23 of them. They knocked off Republican incumbents in Montana, Rhode Island, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Missouri. The Virginia seat that is still being counted is leaning towards the Democrats. If they get that one then the Democrats will end up with 51 of the 100 seats, enough for a majority. This is simply astonishing since they started 13 seats behind the Republicans, of the 67 seats that were not contested, 40 are Republican and 27 are Democrats.

Since I do not have any form of television here I kept checking cnn.com last night for results. While this was going on I kept msning super political nerd Ryan McNutt (Who has FAR more in depth coverage of the issues right HERE) and we went through every possible emotion rooting for the Democrats. First we were hopeful, then scared, then felt defeated and then finally elated. If felt like we were watching the nerdy playoffs.

I am simply amazed by all of this. It gives me a bit of hope in the American people, and subsequently the world. We have been living under the Bush tyranny for far too long, and now just maybe with a Democratic House and Senate things will change. Like I mentioned in my last issue, the biggest swing state was in fact, Iraq. The American people have spoken, they are sick of this war, they are sick of the lies, they are sick of the corruption, and it is time for a change.

That being said, this could all be wishful thinking due to that pesky state of Virginia. As I type, they have 99% of the voting precincts in and the Democrat is leading by less than 7000 votes. That's mighty tight. If the Republicans somehow take that state then it will be back to Republic rule, since a 50-50 split gives the tie breaking vote to the Vice-President, and I don't see Trigger Happy Cheney switching sides any time soon. According to the constitution of Virginia, if the difference is less than 1% then there will be a recount. Right now the difference is less than 0.3%, so expect this to take a couple of days. I guess this is the time for Luke to use the force to guide himself into the Death Star to deliver that one shot.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the breaking news going on down there. Donald Rumsfeld, the Defense Secretary is stepping down. Rumsfeld has been criticized very heavily for just about everything to do with the Iraq War. I am not all that shocked at the timing really. The American people just showed how little they approve the war and all of a sudden the figure head for the invasion steps down. Can we say scapegoating?

As a little retirement present for big D, here's a great picture of him from 1983 giving props to an old friend.

Well at least ol' Rummy now has something more in common with his best buddy Saddam. They are both taking the fall for Bush. It's a tough job, but someone has got to do it!!!

Until next time,


G

"And though the news was sad, I just had to laugh..."

Yesterday evening I was eating dinner at Pizza Hut with my buddy Josh, and the TV came on with breaking news. Saddam's trial was over and he was to be hung. I shook my head, 'they did it again', I thought. That's right, two days before the U.S. Midterm elections, there is some measure of 'success' in the Republican Party's greatest failure, the Iraq War and subsequent occupation.

A similar thing happened a mere three years ago. Let's flash back to December 2003, shall we? The Democratic Party was lining up its candidates for the 2004 Election. Such fine individuals as John Kerry, John Edwards, Al Sharpton, and of course Screamin' Howard Dean, were debating issues in preperation for the first primary in a mere months time. The focus of the country was on the Democratic Party, and the party's approval rating showed it. While the candidates were opponents with one another, their focus remained on ol' G-dub, with the top criticism being the War in Iraq. Then what should happen you ask? Well, the Republican Party gets sent a gift from the heavens in the form of a bearded, dishevelled captive. That's right, they captured Hussein and the attention went right back to the Republicans and how great their little war was all along. The worst part of all this, it worked.

So here we are yet again, they couldn't very well stretch the trial out until 2008, and the next stolen election, so this is the best that they can do. Finish the trial two days before Congress and some of the Senate get voted. Support for the Republican party has fallen drastically, so they realized that they needed work done in the number one swing state, Iraq.

Think that I'm a crazy, paranoid, cynic? You're probably right...but if Osama bin Laden, or some other high ranking Al-Qaeda members are captured or killed in the fall of 2008, then I'll be here to say I told you so.

Before I sign off, I would just like to point out that while most of the world is opposed to this sentence, there are two high profile figures who are expressing a huge amount of support. George W. Bush and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that's right the Iranian President agrees with the Great Satan on one thing! I guess maybe, just maybe there is some hope that they can solve the nuclear issue without going to war.

If I were him, I wouldn't be agreeing, he should realize that he's next.

Until next time,

G

Random Acts of Glenness, Version II

So, due to the large amount of comments I got on the first section of this (either on the blog, or in person) I decided to update this again. So here are Glen Facts #68 - 105

68. I am a vegan (like you didn't know that one!!!)
69. Favourite Food: Falafel
70. If I could go anywhere in the world it would be Angkor Wat, Cambodia
71. If I could go to a second place after that, it would be the Amazon Rain Forest
72. I worry a lot about Global Warming
73. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping and I don't know why
74. I recently got 126 lines in a game of Tetris
75. I still hate those Live Strong bracelets
76. I love my red fake Converse High Tops...a lot
77. I have a Homer Simpson comforter
78. I'm really afraid that the Conservatives will get rid of gay marriage
79. Every time I listen to the album Funeral by The Arcade Fire, I find something more that I like about it
80. I am really good at cribbage
81. I have been trying to learn how to play guitar for two years
82. I can do a one handed cartwheel
83. I have a Superman towel
84. Song I'm listening to right now: "Miss Alissa" by The Eagles of Death Metal...highly recommended
85. I share a birthday with Tiger Woods
86. I feel completely lost without my Nalgene bottle
87. I remember the day that my parents split up like it was yesterday
88. I use an Oral B, Crossaction, Vitalizer tooth brush
89. I think that "Lost Cause" by Beck is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard
90. I don't think that I made the most of my undergrad years
91. I think that John Mayer is a tool
92. Tool, on the other hand, I quite enjoy
93. I once saw Micheal Jordan play
94. My rank of the Star Wars movies: Return of the Jedi, Empire Strikes Back, Revenge of the Sith, New Hope, Attack of the Clones, Phantom Menace
95. Every time I watch Empire Strikes Back I like it a bit more
96. I've been told that I think about Star Wars way too much
97. I disagree
98. Song I'm listening to right now: "New Slang" by The Shins...highest possible recommendation
99. While the above song didn't quite change my life like Natalie Portman said it would, it's still pretty freakin' great
100. I almost took a Business Degree
101. I am so glad that I didn't
102. Favourite Spice: Cumin
103. I make awesome sweet potato fries
104. Best concert I ever went to: Franz Ferdinand
105. Boxers all the way

A Day that Should Never be Forgot...

Remember, remember, the 5th of November
Gunpowder Treason and plot ;
I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
'Twas his intent.
To blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below.
Poor old England to overthrow.
By God's providence he was catch'd,
With a dark lantern and burning match
Holloa boys, Holloa boys, let the bells ring
Holloa boys, Holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip Hoorah !
Hip hip Hoorah !
A penny loaf to feed ol'Pope,
A farthing cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down,
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar,'
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head,
Then we'll say: ol'Pope is dead.

-- British Nursery Rhyme

Hello everyone, glad that you lasted past that long introduction, and welcome to today's blog entry-apalooza. Tomorrow, November 5, is one of my other favourite holidays of the year, Guy Fawkes Night!!!!!!

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about (i.e. have yet to see V for Vendetta), allow me to explain. On November 5, 1605, a man by the name of Guy Fawkes (And his conspirators) were captured in an attempt to kill King James I and both branches of the British Parliament, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. They attempted this by hiding large amounts of gun powder in the cellar of the House of Parliament and planned on detonating it while the King made a joint address to both Houses.

Guy was of course found, convicted and killed. Since then, every 5th of November, has been an annual celebration in Britain. They celebrate the day by having massive bonfires, igniting fireworks and burning effigies of Mr. Fawkes. You can wiki the man HERE and the night HERE.

In the years that followed, the English public became increasingly anti-Catholic, worrying that it was all a huge plot by the Pope to eliminate Anglicanism (thus those last several lines of the poem, which do not tend to be repeated in recent years). The people of England entered a huge state of fear, dreading another strike by an invisible enemy. Sound familiar?

As many of you know, I spent last year living in Scotland, so I was in Britain last 5th of November for the festivities. This happened to be the weekend that myself, and four of my fellow Canadians rented a car to go and take a road trip up to Inverness.

As we are driving on this Saturday night we see a series of bonfires with crowds of people gathered around them. We look around and think that this is a pretty cool thing and admire their resilience for staying outside on a cold Highlands night. As the night drags on, the sky lights up with fireworks. Every July 1 I see fireworks, but nothing like this. It seemed as if every town, hamlet, and farmer's field purchased enough gunpowder to declare war on a small oil Emirate. There was even a point when we were driving past a small town (who for the life of me I can't even remember the name of) and we saw three separate fireworks displays competing to illuminate the sky. It was unbelievable.

After a while we decided that we should stop and enjoy the bonfire, fireworks, and culture. So we pull over in the small town of Baxter, and this is what we see:

This pictures does not even begin to do it justice. Now I was a good hundred feet away from this bonfire and it looked like that. I was warm facing this fire the size of a house. Of course, there was more than just this gigantic fire, as there were fireworks going off as men, women, and children gave their collective ooo's and ahhhh's. Of course, in typical Scottish fashion, there was a beer tent full of inebriated locals.

After the fireworks died down we got back into our rented car and continued driving towards Inverness. I decided to call my grandmother (who left England after WWII) to wish her a happy Guy Fawkes Day.

I assume many of you have seen the aforementioned V for Vendetta. If not, I sincerely hope that you do, it is simply brilliant. In that movie, the main character V is a Guy Fawkes inspired anarchist. We spend the movie not even seeing his face, but rather a mask of Guy himself. He leads a revolution against a future government that is almost Orwellian in its approach, by serving as a symbol for hope and change...oh and by using a ton of explosives and sweet martial arts moves that Hugo Weaving must have learned from his time as Agent Smith.

Four-hundred years ago Guy was a villain, accused of the vilest crime of treason, and the even more vile crime of Catholicism. Yet, now a character based on Fawkes is treated as a hero for his commitment to individual freedoms, and sticking it to the man. What a difference a few centuries make!!!

So I can't help but wonder just a little bit. If Guy Fawkes can go from villain to hero, even to the point of ranking #30 on the 2002 list of all time greatest Britons, what can happen to the villains of today? Is it so far out of question to imagine a day when Osama bin Laden is given the same amount of respect? Fawkes was considered a vile terrorist at the time, seeking to disrupt social order for his own purposes. Sounds a lot like what people say about bin Laden now doesn't it?

Just an interesting thought to ponder...

Hope you all celebrate Guy Fawkes Night somehow!!! If you can't have fireworks, please find some way to stick it to the man. Do it for ol' Guy.

Until next time,

G

Only me...

So the other day, I was sitting in my Curriculum Development and Evaluation class listening to a presentation on Behaviourism. They were talking about some of the key behaviourists, mainly Pavlov, Watson and Skinner.

Anyway, my buddy Josh is in the middle of a talk about Watson, and some people at my table pass a tiny little note over to me, it reads:

"Whenever someone says 'Watson' stand up and say 'Elementary my dear Watson!' and sit back down.

DO NOT SHOW THIS NOTE TO ANYBODY"

I ignored the fact that they disregarded the last line of the paper. I figured that they were just uncomfortable with standing up and shouting so they passed it off to the one person in class who has no inhibitions what so ever. I gladly took the paper, laughed a bit, and got ready. Since Josh was in the middle of his spiel about Watson I realized that he had said the name a good five times by that point. I felt really bad, I didn't want to let him down, so I figured I would make up for it by being extra enthusiastic in a way that only I can.

I wait for a bit and he finally says 'Watson', I take the opportunity to get up and say "ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON!!!!" at the top of my lungs to a chorus of laughter from the classroom. I sit back down, thinking I have somehow helped their presentation, although I wasn't sure as to how exactly. Josh came over and pretended to slap me on the head and said 'There, negative reinforcement' (something that they were talking about). I didn't quite get how that was relevant, but none the less, he was the expert here not me. He goes to repeat the line and mentions Watson once more, I stand up and bellow out my line once more. The group presenting gives me the old "What the hell are you doing?/Are you on drugs?" look that we as teachers are trying to perfect.

Then it hit me...the class that was in our room right before also did a presentation on Behaviourism, this note was from their class, not mine. The presenters really had no idea as to what I was doing. I thought that random outbursts didn't fit with their presentations.

So as usual I:
a) try to be helpful but end up making a jackass out of myself.
b) am completely incapable of sharing the spotlight.
c) am an absolute magnet for random ass things.

Only me...

Until next time,

G

Some Insights Into My Twisted Mind, Volume II

So here I am at school trying very hard not to do any work and I realize that there was still another non-serious personality test on Similar Minds that I haven't done. The classic movie test. So I sit down and give it a go, the questions are very similar to those on the Famous Leader Test, but yields less predictable results.

And the verdict is.....

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Hmmm...I always prefered The Last Crusade

Looking through the other options I would have much rather have been The Godfather or Apocalypse Now. Those would have been cool. I am a little surprised that I was A Hollywood Story, it says "You are all about fame and success and avoiding being seen as ordinary". And it's a good thing that Star Wars isn't an option, or that would have been me for sure. I solve all of my disputes with light sabers, I use the force to manipulate people, I do have droids follow me around and my arch enemy is my father.

Editorial note: That last one is a joke, I do get along great with both my step-dad and my bio-dad)

I don't mean to knock Raiders of the Lost Ark, I do look for fortume and danger at any chance I can. I'm rather thankful it's Raiders of the Lost Ark and not. The Temple of Doom, because vegans and mokey brains don't go so well together

Sorry I don't have any videos of Fox News reporters making asses of themselves to go along with this personality test, but here is the best scene of the movie told by lego characters:



Alright time for me to find some new way to slack....

Until next time,

G

Hallowe'en -- The Critical Analysis

First off let me start by wishing everyone a happy belated Hallowe'en to everyone. Whether you went trick or treating, stayed home and gave out candy, went to a costume party or watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I hope that you celebrated my favourite holiday of the year in style. Secondly, I was planning on posting this blog yesterday and was almost finished typing it all up and then the power went out and I lost it all. At first I was worried about the power going out on Hallowe'en of all days, I assumed foul play. I narrowed my list of suspects to: Jason Voorhees, Ichabod Crane, An American Werewolf in North Bay, or Tim Curry in drag. I was relieved when the power came back on and nobody in my house was found murdered or doing the Time Warp. Thirdly, I'd like to wish all Catholics out there a Happy All Saints Day!!! The religious holiday invented to counter yesterdays pagan activities. As a non-practicing Catholic, I pray to Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, often. So if you happen to be praying at all today, give me a shout out in your words to the big guys upstairs!!!

So after that long winded and non-sequitur introduction, I'd like to get into the topic that I was intending all along, my night out for Hallowe'en, which through the magic of hyper-linking by clicking right here if you haven't already given that a once over.

In that entry, I alluded to the fact that I had my ass grabbed a number of times throughout the evening. Most of the grabbers were women, and most of them complete strangers to me. Now, I'd be lying if I said that my more egotistical side completely loved the attention, but the more critical side of me got to be thinking. What if I were a woman? If a man grabs at a woman that he doesn't know then he is a complete creeper and would more than likely find himself on the receiving end of a beat down by some chivalrous goon. Yet when a woman is the groper instead of the gropee, it is somehow ok. How is this different?

About a year ago we were all treated to Debra Lafave saga. For those of you unfamiliar with her story, she was a teacher who had an affair with a 14 year old male student. She was sentenced to a mere three year house arrest and a seven year probation (You can read her Wikipedia entry by clicking right here). So I have to ask, what if she was a man having an affair with a 14 year old female student? Whenever a male teacher or person of authority has sexual relations with a student then there seems to be no charge harsh enough. How is this different?

I have to be honest with you on this one, when you first heard the Lafave story, I first thought "Good for him!!!" as I'm sure many of you did too. When I was a horny 14 year old I would have been thrilled to be:
a) Had a sexual partner other than a stack of magazines
b) Had one as attractive as Lafave
I can understand where the teen was coming from, hell I'd probably take either of those two opportunities as a horny 23 year old, but that's a story for a different entry. But I have to also ask, how many 14 year old girls have crushes on any of their teachers or other male authorities? Probably a lot. How is this different?

Somehow a woman grabbing a man is different than the man grabbing the woman. Somehow a woman abusing her authority to have sexual relations with a teenager is different than a man doing the very same thing. There is a clear double standard on the issue here. Many would say, it is against men, but I would turn it around and say it is in fact against women.

A man in a tutu getting randomly groped, and a teenage boy having sex with his teacher are seen as being willing participants. Consent is implied based on gender. Men are pigs after all, and want sex at any time. Where as a scantily clad woman getting randomly groped, and a teenage girl having sex with her teacher are seen as victims. They are seen as meek victims under the oppression of some predatory male. In all scenarios it is the man who is empowered, either as a free sexual being or a fulfiller of the fantasies. And the women, who are disempowered, preyed upon by a grabby man or manipulated by some tyrannical educator to perform their sexual whim. How does this view favour the woman?

I find it sad that in our so-called modern, advanced, equitable society that we can still have such a glaring double standard when it comes to the perception of women. Women are not just meek, tame creatures being preyed upon by men everywhere. There are some women out there who are just as capable of violating someone as a man is. However, in order to recognize this you need to give women the same amount of sexual empowerment that a man has.

I just looked back at how much I have written and it seems like this is getting long. I feel like I could go on about this topic for quite a bit more. So, in the interest of everyone I’ll just stop right here. If you want to talk more about this issue please hit me with a comment.

Until next time,

G