Bruce Lee mix by Melodysheep

I first saw this on   Boing Boing well done Melodysheep

But at the Melodysheep website you can still here the audio.

If they closed a consulate would anyone notice

Why Canada would have a consulate in Buffalo staggers the imagination. Principally it would help lazy Canadian companies transfer production to the USA without ever really leaving home. If you needed a passport or Visa could that not be handled at the Border, zero miles from downtown Buffalo?

No, lets rent two full floors of the most expensive building in Buffalo, and we need 8 upscale houses to house the workers. OMG

I have been on a handful of trade missions with the Canadian government, but really aside from handing out passports and visa’s what do they do? The expense based upon the Star article must be in the billions per year. We have five in Mexico alone. Take a look at the list, I think I found gravy.

You never heard of the Bang Bang Club, Join the club.

The Bang Bang Club was a 2010 joint Canadian South African production. If you never heard of it join the club, it was released in the US (2011) and made a staggering $124,000 before the plug was pulled.  Perhaps the key reason it was not a big success is that was extremely politically incorrect. Is there a more saintly figure in the world than Nelson Mandela? Well Bang Bang pukes all over his carefully constructed story. It was an excellent movie more documentary than drama. Two of the real life photographers upon whom the movie is based won Pulitzer prizes, and two of them died. If you like political intrigue movies you will like this. It is far better than Welcome to Sarajevo or The hunting party.

According to this movie the apartheid regime in South Africa and the ANC were on pretty good terms near the end.

Neil Armstrong

I watched live as Neil Armstrong was walking on the moon.  Like every 11 year old boy in the western world I was a part of the team that day.  That sense of wonder and confidence in government, science and human will peaked for humanity July 20, 1969. If aliens landed in Times Square this afternoon people would be excited, but most sophisticated consumers of popular culture, would react by saying “what took you guys so long”.  Most pundits look back at this accomplishment as proof we 21^st century humans are moving backwards. Why are we not on Mars? Why does the US have to hitchhike to the Flying outhouse.

NASA got lost in Marketing over Mission.  It made little scientific sense to continue boosting men into orbit, but from a propaganda side it was gold pure gold.  If the Saturn program had been continued launching robotic craft, and if with the left over change new propulsion and life support system had been researched, we might have arrived in the future by 2012.

The body politic mourns for the good old days of can do America. Well there was an unsustainable load of baggage being carried by the USA in 1969. Nixon was running the place and a crazy bleeder bleeding the country out in Vietnam.  Hard lessons were learned. Now what if JFK had not been assassinated? What if he stood up to the military industrial complex? What if he had put America on a Singaporean type benevolent capitalism glide path? Imagine, just imagine.

There may still exist people like Neil Armstrong and his breed, but I doubt it. Vietnam and Nixon destroyed that DNA. However we have gained far more than we lost, but the danger is we are losing everything we gained, and the backwards momentum does not promise us a force of Neil Armstrong’s. No we are getting a New Generation of Nixon’s or worse. RIP Neil Armstrong the last American hero with the gravitas and grace worthy of uncritical adoration.

Deathrace

A Jason Statham vehicle that traveled much better than I expected. While Rotten Tomatoes gave it a stinking 43% fresh, it deserved better. The reason I had not watched it until now is that it seemed impossible to build a good movie around the premise of convicts racing in a real life video game for their freedom.  If you like Jason Statham movies you’re going like this one as well. It was released in 2008 and way back then may have been seem as completely implausible, how times change.

Yamashita's Gold

 Yamashita’s Gold was the hook that made Neal Stephenson’s masterpiece Cryptonomicon such a unique delight.

Sam Israel heard the word and totally bought it. Proving once again the world we learn about in school, and the world we live in are parallel universes. As for Yamashita's gold the mystery remains. According to a US court Ferdinand Marcos got his hands on some $13 million, the question is did he find the rest? One thing for sure he did not become a billionaire on the pay of a President.

Rolling Stones Top 500 Albums 2012 view

Impressive achievement.. It hit me right between the ears that my Apple Lossless paltry 26 GB of music is in its own way my greatest Albums of all time, and I am missing a huge hard drive of music. The Rolling Stone lists has several huge omissions IMHO.  Supertramp, by far the biggest oversight, but the Moody Blues and ELO belong on this list. However, this is a great example of Rolling Stone being old time Rolling Stone. It is a future shopping list for my past.

Tony Scott Sad Shocking Suicide

RIP Tony Scott.

Tony Scott’s terrifying end take on life is a sobering vision. I am a bit ambivalent about movie directors. They must reach a certain threshold before I pay any attention. Despite his command of the seminal blockbuster Top Gun, Tony Scott ran under my radar until he teamed up with Denzel Washington. Crimson Tide cemented his name in my mental walk of fame.  It was not until this morning I realized he directed Beverly Hills Cop II, IMHO the best of the trilogy and the apogee of Eddie Murphy’s career.  Walter Hill’s 48 hours catapulted Murphy to superstardom and you see the influence it had on Scott in the critical success( RT 91%) but financial failure of True Romance.

 Made for $13 million in 1993,[citation needed] Scott directed True Romance from a script by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. The cast included Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper,Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Tom Sizemore, Chris Penn, Val Kilmer and in bit roles, James Gandolfini and Samuel L. Jackson. The movie received positive reviews from Janet Maslin and other critics, but took in less than $13 million and was considered a box office failure.[8]

Wow look at that cast, it would be hard to find a movie not deliberately fueled by star power with more contemporary bright lights. One of the most satisfactory devices employed by this movie and directed by Scott with perfection was the showdown  between forces antagonistic towards the protagonist. A great climax that propels the protagonist past otherwise certian destruction  . A tactic repeated in the prescient Enemy of the State. True Romance is one of my desert island movies, as intricate and finely crafted as a Faberge egg. My favoritism towards director is definably skewed towards more recent directors.  While I appreciate David Lean, Hitchcock, movies directed by contemporaries like Kubrick and George Roy Hill generate more favorite sentiment in my wiki. Of all the superb movies directed by his more critically and financially acclaimed Brother Ridley; only Gladiator would be found on my desert island databank.  Conventional wisdom dictates that the Aliens franchise and Blade Runner would top many lists.

Please take another look at True Romance, and likely you have not seen the masterpiece he co-produced with his brother Pillars of the Earth. This BBC version of the Ken Follett’s epic is a rare cinematic adaptation where the multimedia effort exceeds superb written words.

Nothing Happens by Accident

One of those questions that will never be asked by serious media, maybe they already know the answer. Why is the US non military arms of government buying massive amounts of ammo? Homeland security is buying 450 million rounds, that's enough for a 7 year serious conflict. If you look around the web there are other massive purchases, call it a billion rounds. Ammo can be stored for decades in a proper environment. However, the cost of purchase and the cost of storage make the idea of having such an inventory 
The most citizen friendly explanation I see is that the government has left over money and needs to spend it. Next that the government is basically buying up all the ammo in the USA to raise the price, and generally keep .40 cal ammo out of the hands of citizens. This really makes no sense even for a government. The third and most logical conclusion is someone very high up has given the order to be prepared, really really prepared.

Another curious fact the .40 cal is an oddball allegedly the result of a bad decision by the FBI. Therefore its mostly a pistol round. If DHS was going to fight a 7 year civil insurrection would they not use machine guns? It really seems like just routine government screwup.

http://www.naturalnews.com/035649_DHS_ammunition_domestic_war.html

http://theintelhub.com/2012/08/16/ammo-what-ammo-dhs-takes-unprecedented-step-of-redacting-mass-ammunition-purchase

Continuum

Name a great Canadian TV show thats not only based in Canada, Canada stands in as a location for Canada. Aside from Trailer Park Boys (Canada's greatest donation to the comedy culture pool to date) world class excellence is pretty rare, Street Legal, Littlest Hobo, Beachcombers and Corner Gas pretty well exhaust my top of mind. Continuum IMHO blows them all away, in fact it blows away everything passing as science fiction on  TV today except for Fringe. The Star was the green girl in the Star Trek reboot. In this show she is way more than eye candy. The show is even  legally available for viewing. The first few episodes are well done but standard fare, but by the end of season one there is a real complex web of time travel woven.

There are proven solutions

There is much debate at the moment about how to fix public housing in Toronto, and in particular is public housing responsible for crime. There is no doubt throughout the Anglo Saxon world and many parts of France public housing is a crime cluster. Inevitably the usual suspects see the only solution is to sell the property and give another voucher to the poor.  The poor are going to need a huge filing cabinet to store all the vouchers the rich want to give them.

This is especially false in the case of real estate; you know that stuff they are not making any more of. Property prices in Vancouver and Toronto have skyrocketed due to supply and demand.  Most of the demand side has been driven by Hong Kong. Look to that city for the end result of letting the free market operate unfettered. The people who gamed that postage stamp applied the same strategy to Vancouver but where stymied in Toronto. However when the absolutely necessary greenbelt legislation created an artificial land shortage the speculators pounced and despite the beneficial damping effect of higher land transfer taxes we arrived at our current destination.  Ceding all to the free market will only exacerbate the negative outcomes of letting the free market destroy the collective good.

A disenfranchised nihilistic underclass was not created by the last ten years of TCHC mis- management.  The proven solution is projects like Regent park, we need more money for these types of projects, not easy money for what inevitably become slumlords.

The Gold standard for sustainable shelter for all is Singapore. The Gold standard for many things is Singapore, but for our not invented here politicians and the special interests that live off the public largess its a non-starter to solve problems. The larger plan of the right is to destroy the credibility of government, so a Ayn Rand Potemkin village of the individual can rule the 99% collective who cannot possibly compete against the inherit advantages of those very few who rise or the more numerous whom are born at the top.

There is a very simple way to find billions of dollars to solve many of the social ills caused by poverty. Legalize Pot. This will create thousands of urban jobs in the agricultural and processing industry. This will eliminate most of the entrepreneurially attractive drug trafficking jobs that are the default opportunity for most TCHC youth. On the supply side the justice system becomes much more productive, so billions spent futilely pursuing Pot can be devoted to creating a culture of collective responsibly and respect for country and community.

There are no downsides to legalization. First where Pot is legal use amongst youths and the general population is lower than Canada. No one is going to recommend drug use. Nevertheless, if the goal is less drug use the pathway to this is legalization. Secondly the argument that the bad guys are just going to find some other crimes to commit is totally moronic. The war on drugs is 90% a war on pot, declare victory and move on.

I agree that single family homes should not be used for housing the poor working or not. However this base of affordable housing should be used to balance the market forces of speculation that create a city of two solitudes: a working class that commutes to service a privileged class that rules like feudal lords.

My solution is to sell these houses to teachers, policeman, firemen and nurses. The sale would be some combination of lease and partial ownership. So the owner has the incentive to repair the house, but when the property is sold the city has the ability to afford to keep it for this defined public good.  How many Toronto police live in Toronto, I am guessing less than 25%? What are the stats for the others? To create a sustainable healthy progressive society there should be no disagreement that the most valuable citizen employees of a community, should live in that community.

The right often throws up its and hands and shouts "bad parenting", "lack of responsibility" and blames the nanny state for prolonging the existence of poverty.

Its hard to be a good parent when you are working three minimum wage jobs, or you can barely read or write. Its hard to be a good parent when you can’t see a future where your daily life is constantly worse than the miserable existence that passed for yesterday. So it really is all about raising good citizens.

Therefore society must accept the fact that bad parents exist, always have an always will. Dalton McGinty has wisely championed a real solution, all day kindergarten. If all children starting at age 3 are provided with at least a few hours of a responsible nurturing environment, there will be dramatically less generational poverty. The cycle of bad parenting can be broken. Good citizens are made; they do not magically emerge as the self-made products of an opportunity vacuum.

So one of the solutions is already in place, the funds to invest in the second part of the solution are the lowest hanging fruit on the opportunity tree.

RIP Harry Harrison

Lately not much heavy enough to post. I figure I got it all pretty well covered in previous posts, and the news just repeats itself with just a hint more menace. So once again it’s the death of a cultural icon that pulls the effort out of me like Bill the Galactic Hero in a firefight. I nominate Woody Harrelson to play Bill in the movie.

I had forgotten that the Charlton Heston classic Soylent Green was based upon Harry’s book Make Room Make Room. Spolier alert “ Soylent Green, its people!” There are dozens of more great reads in his attic, including the epic Death World Trilogy.

HBO is really missing out not making a series based upon his Stainless Steel Rat Character. An anti-authoritarian hero who is a combination of Jim Rockford and James Bond would be irresistible, use CGI and let Cary Grant play the lead, how appropriate. Thanks for all the great memories Mr. Harrison.

Shower that saves the world

A shower
that not only  uses 70% less water, but also heats and de-chlorinatiates at the same time. Its brilliant inventions like this that make me confident, we will muddle through. 

and thanks to Bill Gates, soon an even better toliet

How did it all fit

If you fly north and wide
you will arrive at the capital
from the otherside.
In frozen canals we commute
on ice skates
like postcard picture of
a 20th century landscape
From here the power
was unique it was a
standard to seek.
But now were bumbed out
its redneck twist and shout science
while telling anyone who asks
they believe for Gods sake
Noah carried everyone that every existed
logically if Noah saved every animal
it would have to stand that man would
be in the same way. Or did the humans
change into dolphins and swim
those seas, having dolphin sex
and just generally doing as
they please.
Noah hit land a month later
but all the humans not on the arc
had to swim a little longer
just so they would not be left behind.
Now not 3000 years later
we live govered by some deliusions
even though they are more obiovs
we still cant recognize that the
job of goat herding is keeping
half of humankind from suffering
the problem as it exists is the man
he is like a Goldman Sachs trader
making a trade from some financial world
of the future wherer every transaction
has three sides
and its always Champage Charlie on the trading side
and if you look at every generation since the stimulus
of WWE and vietnamm died and feel satsisfied
then you better wake up, your zombifed
this time it was not caused by metories
no alien infection at all
just a modern expression of mens
need to dominate and by extention divide
Yeah its tough very every single person
no I mean man to win a majority to his side
but if he divides the number well enough
a brilliant leader like who?
I would take a look at them today
looking back most of the leadership
skill we admire was the abilty to
bring a nation of people
to the point of no return
to write a political decison
into a financial coffe pot.
Take the great War into
your mind, the men were mere
cannon fodder for some idiots
in charge some one in command
had any idea of not doubling
and tripling then quadrupling on
the same stupid plan, it was
 a dirty nasty rat infested mud
perfected war in every way.
So when Sir Neil Young sings
in his own perfect way that
Ommee made him sway to \
the hippie way say
four dead in OHIO
I understood the sorrow
cause I have walked
those streets alone and
with childreen you always
fear for the wose
but most people would
not schedule a hearse
when the national guard was
called upon to disperse
some innocent children
that had learned to believe
in the constituion even before birth.
In every rat hole of every sewer pipe
You can find a very familar stripe
its coypyrithed and trademarked proteted
Yes the big corporations that have made millions
of dollars feeding the public sugar water
as a thirstwhencher are always looking farther
aand that stock just sorces on that news
but what the fuck are they going to do when m
the public concludes that sugar water is the worst thing
to drink even if one was alone on a solar island
most of the most educuated people would think
that Jesus and dionsaures lived side by side.
Traviling at the speed of light will sap your soul
from any doubts about living like a GoD
But when you get inside
after a couple of thousand years
you will wish you had died.
Living a thousand years is not worth a crown
its been mostly 99921 years insteaqd
When did i stop inhaling life and giving on exhale
more carbon than I can pay the place to survieve
That war so long ago and the men they died
it seems so sad because in a spirtiutal way
they lived the last days that survied.
What is wrong when you have more people
employed watching, arressting, judgeing somebody
rather than getting down upon the fact
that a fucntioning society exists and
in such a place the public need not fear
The USA is number one so i can understand
how they got this way is a mugs book
but moslty ever writer got paid what to
believe and if that not work bleed.
It used to take alot of blood to succed'
and now we are indeed lucky indeed.
It only takes a hoohbang full of
trickery sutrafuge and surprise
We no longer seek people of noble aims
no we seek monkeys who do a monsters games.
Sp hike along if you lucky
But I feel that good ole boy feeling
is exactly what is sealng our fate
in a worldwide global misundertanding
about when your talking about the climate
fidling with the thermostate will cause them
for your class nine planet to fry in your own fat.
Down here on earth things could not be much worse
Bet on gold because the magic that held up the paper dollar
Its got Elboa and stong as it is, its getting much worse
so what can we do is such a fucked up world
no matte how powerful you are
nothing much it seems
Well I am now awake
I smell a Zombie an I would
kiss him before a snake
woud just follow Dna
AND CONSUME EVERTHING TASTY
ALLONG THE PATHWAY
some things seem so simple
but to explain them gets
all complicated in that
educated economist or masters of buissnesd
degrees, its to them we have morgated our future
they learned a lot from there degrees indeed.
Running a business should be a love
where when you see every customer
you thank heaven above
cause its your chance to shine
and tell a story one more time
that makes her want to come back
tp this place and spend every dime
Perfect in presentation and in example
what can we do to preent this score
Do you overeducated proteced GEEKS
realize they think your week.
We will all be picking corn for wall mart
while the Korean masters look down on us with
scoorn. I really hope than when that all
true senrio could impact my generation spawn.
Would little great great grandaughter working
the circut boards because her fingers where so nimber
and her IQ was off the scale because its such a
small privilige to let intelligent people work that way
so wher have I gone and where I have begun,
I am like the bible not secular son
I am the multicoloured one. Now that sounds
V\Gay to me but you may disagree, no
matter what you have to adimt ths
JFK he did not get hit by a 3 fire miss
no he .....died. Really if you play
You understand in a very big way
what when down in Dallas, has
forced us all to live this way.
That was the day when totally
we were assured no matter what
you call it, the game of poltics is
who is on the hill, and how many resource
do you have to stop it
and the fall from the hill
it pays many more millions you know

ThinkingAboot

If you fly north and wide
you will arrive at the capital
from the otherside.
In frozen canals we commute
on ice skates
like postcard picture of
a 20th century landscape
From here the power
was unique it was a
standard to seek.
But now were bumbed out
its redneck twist and shout science
while telling anyone who asks
they believe for Gods sake
Noah carried everyone that every existed
logically if Noah saved every animal
it would have to stand that man would
be in the same way. Or did the humans
change into dolphins and swim
those seas, having dolphin sex
and just generally doing as
they please.
Noah hit land a month later
but all the humans not on the arc
had to swim a little longer
just so they would not be left behind.
Now not 3000 years later
we live govered by some deliusions
even though they are more obiovs
we still cant recognize that the
job of goat herding is keeping
half of humankind from suffering
the problem as it exists is the man
he is like a Goldman Sachs trader
making a trade from some financial world
of the future wherer every transaction
has three sides
and its always Champage Charlie on the trading side
and if you look at every generation since the stimulus
of WWE and vietnamm died and feel satsisfied
then you better wake up, your zombifed
this time it was not caused by metories
no alien infection at all
just a modern expression of mens
need to dominate and by extention divide
Yeah its tough very every single person
no I mean man to win a majority to his side
but if he divides the number well enough
a brilliant leader like who?
I would take a look at them today
looking back most of the leadership
skill we admire was the abilty to
bring a nation of people
to the point of no return
to write a political decison
into a financial coffe pot.
Take the great War into
your mind, the men were mere
cannon fodder for some idiots
in charge some one in command
had any idea of not doubling
and tripling then quadrupling on
the same stupid plan, it was
 a dirty nasty rat infested mud
perfected war in every way.
So when Sir Neil Young sings
in his own perfect way that
Ommee made him sway to \
the hippie way say
four dead in OHIO
I understood the sorrow
cause I have walked
those streets alone and
with childreen you always
fear for the wose
but most people would
not schedule a hearse
when the national guard was
called upon to disperse
some innocent children
that had learned to believe
in the constituion even before birth.