Broley.org

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Broley.org is under construction. We are by no means world famous but it is definitely time to take this to the next basic level and at least have our own domain. More importantly our format will change improving things for you the reader.

Guns + religion + politics = fun

Please jump here then come right back.

This is one of the places where politics, guns, and religion love to congregate. These guys, for the most part, aren’t plain nuts – the genuinely believe America’s freedom is under siege from all sides. I haven’t read enough stories to be critical and doubt I will get there (ya I probably will) but what has really blown me away is the general…. “environment” this particular piece of web real estate has managed to construct.

There seems to be little debate yet there is tons of coverage with what some would see as valid points. Usually anything unchallenged remains unrefined. Some of the posts on this site go forever just bleeding passion. Intriguing.

Check out a few posts, it is really quite intriguing. If by chance you want to make Iran disappear you’ll love this place.

Parrot drops bomb

Just imagine you wipe down for prints, wash the sheets, hide the phone bill and tell all your neighbours you and your ‘brother’ like to have loud passionate discussions late into the night. You even start feeling a little cocky as if you yourself had not only invented cheating but perfected it. No one suspects a thing.

Damn that parrot.

In a story that would usually be attributed to the loyalties often associated with mans best friend, the hero in this story is an African grey parrot named Ziggy.

Chris Taylor was at home one day with his girlfriend Suzy Collins when his parrot Ziggy started up with an unfamiliar tune: “I love you Gary” – over and over again. Chris, being a computer programmer, had an eye for detail and noticed a look of embarrassment mixed with ass on his now former girlfriends face. Turns out she had been having an affair for over 4 months!

Cheaters beware there is a new sheriff in town!

There are left wing Christians - there always has been

This is just a quick reality check on the very loud, proud, dominating, RICH, oppressive and very right wing Christian movement in the United States and Canada. It didn’t start out this way in the very beginning.

A few quick points:

1. Jesus was the first socialist.


2. The first churches were houses of communism (big concern for Karl Marx).


3. God was originally a source of hope (later to become fear).


4. Christians were intimately linked to poverty.


5. Christians were intimately linked to the sick and disabled.


6. Christians were charitable.


7. Gay marriage was low on the priority list.

Christianity, believe it or not, was not based on abortion and gay marriage. Real world Christians, back in the day, spent their time helping people rather than trying to oppress them. Early Christians, like most left wing Christians, also had a couple of other wild and crazy beliefs: egalitarianism and peace!

What I love best about the left however is the consistency. While the modern left wing Christians differ on their beliefs surrounding gay marriage and abortion there is a very large group among them who subscribe to ‘consistent life’. Yes they are pro-life, but they are against war, capital punishment and poverty. They are consistent unlike their right wing counterparts who simply go along with what suits them best. I can respect that.

Right wing Christian movements? Wrong. It is THE right wing Christian movement here in North America. This is something we let happen. Something that is mostly a non-issue everywhere else except here.

Long story short there are a ton of left wing Christians out there doing a great job trying to save the world by concentrating on the real world issues affecting real world people who need help. They are not pushy, rude, or nearly as political as their counterparts.

Left wing Christians have credibility as a group while right wing Christians are a special interest group.

JUMPS

Wiki
Lerner
Turn-Left

Harper not getting approval from right wingers down south

It wouldn’t be a big surprise to see the religious right down south frothing at the mouth with the very likely prospect of a Harper led conservative government.

Not the case. Believe it or not they are fairly critical of Harper’s leadership because they think he is getting way too close to the centre on social policy issues. WTF?

Excerpts from the story:

“Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has successively come down more and more against even openness to social conservative causes within the party.  The original position of the Party was to allow for private members bills on moral issues including abortion and for free votes in the House of Commons on those measures.  However, in response to increased pressure from the Liberals and the media, Harper vowed to "use whatever influence I have in Parliament to be sure that such a matter doesn't come to a vote."

Even on the issue of traditional marriage Harper has backed away from social conservatives indicating that legislation on the matter is by no means a priority.

In the United States where such harsh politicking is commonplace, social conservatives have at least one mainstream political leader to speak up for them - the President - who, rather than being afraid, is proud and usually confident to affirm that he is pro-life, pro-family and pro-faith. This publicly projected confidence in his beliefs, totally lacking in many Canadian social conservative politicians, has had a powerful effect in disarming the influence of opponents on those issues.

Surveys have shown that television is where most Canadians receive their news. However, television is by far the most uniformly biased form of communications, with hardly any meaningful socially conservative Canadian presence represented on mainstream stations whatsoever.

So just in case you missed the above it says, in a nutshell, we are lacking a right wing Christian leader and we watch way too much TV. Immediately following the above however is my personal favorite:

“Fox News, in the United States, while not socially conservative, is at least usually 'fair and balanced', leaving openings for socially conservative views to be expressed and respected.” 

Fox News fair and balanced? Fuck right off you moron. Unbelievable. I’m not voting for the conservatives but I feel a lot better about them knowing the lunatic religious right down south doesn’t completely approve of him. The entire story is worth a read, they continue on to tell us that we need to do a better job searching for the truth on something called the “i-n-t-e-r-n-e-t”. By the way, per capita, the only nation in world that accesses the net more than us in those crazy Aussies.

I’m pissed, look for more religious stories to follow.
 

Best grilled cheese ever

There are a few things bachelors, former bachelors, students and former students pride themselves on cooking. The two most famous both involve cheese and neither would ever claim to be substantively valuable from a nutritional point of view. This time we will be paying homage to the all mighty ‘Grilled Cheese Sammich’. I’ll let you figure out what the other ‘cheese’ recipe is that I am referring to.

Recipes in no particular order:

George Foreman Mexican Grilled Cheese
Bread: Bolillo Roll (Torpedo shaped roll with crusty outside and moist inside)
Cheese: Monterey Jack
Spread/Filler: Tomato and Avocado

White Trash Special
Bread: Wonderbread
Cheese: Cheapest extra thick slices you can find
Spread/Filler: Bologna and Mayo
Once the outside of the sammich has been coated with butter lightly sprinkle brown sugar on both sides for caramelized effect.

Snobby Special
Bread: Olive Bread
Cheese: Herbed Goat Cheese
Spread/Filler: Pesto, tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste.

Jude Special
Bread: Nutty Multigrain
Cheese: Stilton infused with Guiness
Spread/Filler: Canadian Bacon with a hint of blackberry jam (just a hint)
This sammich needs to be cooked on cast iron in a very unhealthy amount of swine juice. The sandwich is done when it appears to be deep fried.

Best Ever Grand Prize Winner(s)

Way too complicated, make the jump here.

FREE SEX

Culture: the beliefs, traditions, religions and techne that form a society. The word culture was derived from cultivation, directly related to agriculture; farming, cultivating, growing and prospering. Fast forward to aristocratic Europe; to be cultured was to be rich and have time to pursue the arty extras.

Culture was and is whatever it is and was.

What can not be disputed (as if my last sentence is undisputable) is ‘culture’ is often used to segregate. Fast forward to modern times. My buddies and I decide to go to a hockey game. Oilers vs Flames. Great time, great people, great tradition.

As a Canadian I absolutely cannot deny that I was taking part in an event that has arguably been a part of Canadian culture since the early 1800’s when we combined the rules of Ricket, Rugby, Cricket, Grass Hockey and Hurley to invent the wonderful game of Hockey.

There are those that disagree. They would label the above as a mass or popular event so barbarous, so corporate, and so consumptive that on the scale of progression versus regression, regression comes out the victor.

This sort of idea is of course centuries old. It was made famous most recently by the Matrix movies. We are all just plugged in to the mass culture advertising machine to keep us (un)happy. All of the above is just the plain obvious rhetoric that gets repeated night after night after night at every left wing cocktail party in all the major metropolitan centers on the continent. These events are my favorite. Lets talk about mass culture so everyone knows we are conscious. God forbid we counter that culture. Better still we can tell everyone that we know everything is bullshit so they know that we know….and so it continues.

At this very moment I may appear to be segregating myself from the segregationists. Admittedly I would like to separate myself. I would like to think that the strange and mysterious thoughts that fly through my mindset are special. They are not special and neither am I. I am going through a very typical pre having kids interim before mid life crisis crisis. My crisis has been brought on by this very clear yellow brick road that is suddenly ahead of me clearer than day. As hard as I try I can’t stop my journey down the path towards the light.

I want to step out of the Matrix. I want to get off the real estate ladder and rent. I want to forget credit history and live in other lands. I want a small apartment big enough to sleep and eat. Fuck cable. I want to be cultured. I want to really understand and live in some of the various cultures around the world. I want to play not watch. I want to pick up Dante rather than SI. I want to eat enough to survive rather than live to gorge. I want out of suburbia where I am surrounded by hundreds of long lost twins. I want back into the urban jungle so I can come face to face with the demons of capitalism.

I want freedom and it is staring me in the face.
I am afraid of freedom because it is not compatible with security.

Merdedes down with Rap and Hip-Hop

Not only did they win but they straight-up kicked some damn ass. According to CNN (trustworthy non-partisan news source) Mercedes-Benz was mentioned 100 times in 2005’s top rap/hip-hop songs. Closest competitor was Nike at a pathetic and uninspiring 63.

I should however mention that very rarely was the full name Mercedes-Benz actually used. One urban white male rapper wanna be with a long history and association with the rap and hip-hop genre made it clear to this author that when referring to Mercedes-Benz most rappers use the common slang ‘Benzo’.

Eg: ‘Me and Lorenzo riding in my Benzo.’

Now you are all educated, my job is done.

Wifi will crush satellite radio

That is my bold prediction for 2006. I think it is pretty simple. You can get about 114 channels (currently) on satellite. Maybe it is 200 – who cares. Wifi is spreading like the avian flu right now and there is no stopping it. It won’t be long and your computer or computer peripheral will just be connected. As I am sure most of you are aware there are quite a few stations available on the net. My search for ‘internet radio’ returned 258 M hits.

If I’m wrong about any of the above it will be cost, not availability. Let’s say it costs $35 for Wifi anywhere (and I’m not talking about the shitty performance you currently get through your cell phone on networks that still ain’t pushin 3G) and $15 bucks for satellite radio. I’d pay more than double for millions of stations, not to mention access to the internet.

Check out this story from 2002. As it turns out our satellite friends have been trying to mess with our Wifi. No dice.

Vote Tory - why or why not?

Albertans are conservative. This is no big surprise. Recently my wife and I were discussing politics when she related a story to me that should not have shocked me but indeed it has. While at work, she is a nurse, a bunch of nurses, clerical staff and others were engaged in political conversation. Most were stating who they would vote for etc etc. My wife and I take this voting business quite seriously and like many Canadians are struggling with our unwillingness to vote conservative and our unwillingness to vote Liberal after the recent fiascos. Whatever we decide to do we will do so based on our own research. We will have some inkling as to what is involved in the various party platforms and what the national AND local track records of our respective candidates are.

Back to the shocker. The majority of the people my wife works with are voting conservative (not shocking) – but they don’t know why (shocking). The small minority of people who were not voting conservative asked the majority why they were voting Tory and they generally had no idea. It seems it was just the thing to do.

The conservatives are now seen as the likely victors. Below are excerpts from their campaign and platform. Not intended to be positive or negative. Whichever way you go at least the below should help you justify your position.

Things to expect from the conservatives:

• GST from 7% to 6% and eventually 5% over 5 years (already planning for the next election).


• National network of provincial/federal child care is gone (4.8 B gone). To be replaced by $1200 per year (which may be more or less I have no idea).


• Gun registry is gone.


• People in the lowest income bracket are now taxed at 15%, that will increase to 16%.


• Lower corporate tax (markets already responding).


• Basic personal exemption will be decreased by $400.


• 44.9 B in tax savings.


• 30 B in new spending.


• Bye bye Kyoto hello American style made in Canada pollution standards (some American standards are quite good).


• November meeting in Kelowna outlining various native treaties and land claims issues will be scrapped. No word yet on the 5.1 B promised to help out with brutal housing conditions, poor education, etc etc.


• Indian Act gone.


• 22.5 B in government cuts and spending.


• Government spending capped at inflation/ population growth rate.

There you have it. Stay informed.

PS: People who vote for NDP or Green etc are not wasting votes. Canadians who choose not to vote are wasting votes. The next person who tells me anyone who votes anything other that Tory or Grit is wasting votes is getting smacked in the mouth.

Strip malls are beautiful

Before you completely dismiss what I have to say please consider that I did spend a portion of my life in planning and economic development in two different countries (3 if you count the planning exchange I was part of in France). I spent the early part of my university education towing the party line and learning to hate ugly strip malls. Admittedly they are sometimes a little repulsive from the outside, although I would also argue they have a certain character that beautifully engineered spaces sometimes lack. Now that I am outside of the urban centre the only commerce centre in walking distance is not one, but two small strip malls.

At first I shunned them like Betamax. Eventually I was desperate for some small food item and was forced to visit the local ‘mall’. It was amazing. Inside these small shops, most of which were a little on the seedy side from an exterior point of view, was character, service, conversation and above all community. I soon realized there were two specific types of tenants. Starters and lifers.

Lifers are the small corner stores, pizza shops, and paint stores. The starters are those restaurants looking for a cheap place to start and test recipes, systems, staff and theory. I am referring to restaurants because that is the case in my particular demographic.

Anyway this article is getting too long as it is. Explore your local strip mall. Beauty is on the inside. Hidden treasures are waiting to be found. I will continue my strip mall coverage with regular articles covering strip malls across the country.

Stay tuned.

Vista to run on Macintels

Looks like things are getting even more weird in the Macintel world. Apparently you will be able to run Windows vista on Intel based Macs. Apple has said they have no plans to directly block this possibility. I’m not really seeing any wild consequences as PC people who want Windows are going to buy the piece of hardware that suits them and their budget best. Occasionally someone may decide to void their warranty and buy a Macintel just to put on Vista but I doubt it. The chances of a Mac user wiping out Tiger and replacing it with Windows? Never. I can however see Macintels running two operating systems for various reasons. Being able to run both natively could be advantageous. We’ll see.

Macintelworld 2006

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know about the Macworld Expo.

For full coverage check out Engadget.

The big news of course is the switch. They are rolling out the Macintels like crazy. They are no longer calling their laptops Powerbooks, they are now called MacBook Pro’s. Kinda catchy if you ask me. What I really like is their size and weight – something only possible if you really take advantage of the new Intel chipsets. It seems they are really taking advantage of the Intel Core Duo form factor. This has not been the case on the PC side for the most part.

The other aspect I am looking forward to, now that we are all running on the same hardware, is intensified competition in several areas. We will now be able to compare Apples to PC’s both from a hardware/form factor as well as software (how fast is CS2 on the Wintel vs Macintel). I don’t care who wins (as it will change weekly) but I look forward to the advantages it will provide the consumer.

It will also be interesting to see how the Macintel thing works. Apple is a hardware company, that is how they make their dough. They make hardware and they generally make it very, very, well. In the ‘old’ days Apple had their own hardware and their own software. Easy sell if you were onboard. Now you are going to walk into Best Buy look at a Vaio, then at the MacBook Pro. They will have the same specs and will look almost the same. Consumers who choose Apple (a hardware company) will be doing so strictly because of software – interesting and cool all the same. Also not a stretch considering how nice OSX is.

If the Ipod ever slows down, which it will once people figure out that being forced to marry yourself to one option like Itunes (and vice versa) sucks, it will be interesting to see what happens.

LCD's and plasma's now obsolete

The future of television is finally here. SED televisions have been around for quite some time but this is the first time we ever seen a demo of a model soon to be mass produced. Quite simply they take the best from the plasma/lcd world and mate it with the best from the CRT world. Slim, beautiful and huge while being able to display even the most subtle shades and contrasts in the darkest parts of the screen/display/movie/picture. One more thing to drive down the price of those old obsolete plasmas and LCD’s. Check it out here.

CES, cars and saving the world

Since we are knee deep in CES and the LA Auto show it makes sense that we should also think about saving the world rather than thinking of more gadgets none of us need but do, rest assured, consume massive amounts of money to replace and run. This flash animation is pretty damn funny and of course gets us in the mood to save the world.

If you are interested in saving the world this is a great place to start. It would also be wrong of me to not at least point to the place that molded me into a nice little left wing robot.

Another Ipod killer

(Photo courtesy of Engadget and their fantastic CES coverage)
The Toshiba ‘Gigabeat S’ isn’t the first Ipod killer it is just the latest and prettiest. I think the best thing about these devices is that they are running the latest version of Windows Mobile CE and are specifically designed to be extensions of your PC. Plug the thing in to your computer and whatever you have in your media folders (video, pics, audio) is now on your pocket size Gigabeat. It is also endowed with more video and audio options than the Ipod not to mention longer battery life. You can also use it with all the download services except Itunes rather than only Itunes if you own an Ipod. Check out Engadget for full coverage.

Google goes video

Google has made the big announcement. They are now a video store. Looks like they will be using Divx. They will also be releasing DRM free stuff so those poor folks with iPods may actually have another choice besides  iTunes. How far away can music be? Is Google smart enough to make the Rhapsody/Napster/Yahoo model work? IE buy our music we don’t care what MP3 player/audio device you use. Speaking of which HP has gotten Real and dumped Apple. Rhapsody will now be preinstalled in all HP machines complete with free trial. If Apple would just open the iTunes door to other Mp3 players they would rule the market.

Pat vs Ariel

I looked briefly in an attempt to find the exact quote but thankfully not too many people are wasting their time with Pat Robertson clips. Long story short Pat had some explanations for Ariel Sharon’s recent stroke and altogether bad luck with respect to his health. Pat goes on about what a great guy Ariel is but he says that Israel is God’s land, just like it says in the Bible, and anyone who tries to split that land up will be struck down one way or another.

As George Stroumboulopoulos said on his show it is ridiculous for an idiot like Pat to tell the people in the middle east how to run their affairs with respect to religion and politics. It’s messy, very very messy and the people over there know that better than anyone.

Check out these Robertson quotes and you too will know why they call Pat Robertson (who once ran for president) the most dangerous sexist homophobe bigot pig in America.

CES 2006

Big news at CES, there isn’t any so far. Sony said there would be no announcement at CES and mayhap they are not lying. They’ve done a couple of little speeches so far and breezed right over all the PS3 stuff. Interesting. Microsoft has had one of the more lively keynotes featuring Michael Dell and Justin Timberlake. Bill and his posse basically talked about there new viiv chip (rhymes with live), their new dual core, and of course how in the future everything will talk to everything and our lives will be easy.

I read the entire keynote and after having read it I actually felt stressed. Am I getting old or what? I would say the biggest news so far is the rumour that Google may be getting into the music and video business. Apparently deals have been reached with some major labels and networks. Furthermore HP has dumped the Ipod and there seems to be a general retreat from the PC side of things with respect to the Ipod for a variety of reasons.

“iTunes is exclusive. If you choose an iPod, then you also choose iTunes. Other services -- such as Napster -- are not compatible with the iPod. Through this proprietary arrangement, Apple has made filesharing nearly impossible. If you're hoping to share songs from one iPod to another (or to another computer), think again. Without some pretty complicated hacks or tricky file alterations, iPods are known to erase their contents if they perceive filesharing.”   -stuffguide

This whole deal of trying to make all this stuff proprietary is useless. It can’t and won’t last. Someone will figure it out soon and make a mint. Whoever doesn’t will go the way of Betamax.

LA Auto Show

Coolest car from the LA Auto Show? Why an RV of course. Made by the general and dubbed ‘The Pad’ this thing is the ultimate in futuristic style, function and adaptability. It just won the very prestigious ‘California Design Challenge’ and is apparently here to help Californians with their housing affordability issues. Check it out here for a couple more pics as well as some more info from GM.

New years rezzies!

So it is now 2006 and like most morons out there I have resigned myself to lose weight. I have some confidence in my ability as last time I had some stability in my life I was a svelte 175 lbs – down from 220lbs. Then I moved back to Canada underwent some serious change, dumped my routine and promptly gained 28.5lbs. Christmas of course is only good for one thing and that is pigging out – which I did.

Now that is all behind me and I am back to my old ways like never before. I decided if I was going to replicate my success I needed to replicate my environment. The stability part has been taken care of. I also purchased a couple of scales. One for us (weight, water content, body fat) and one for our food (weight, cals, fat, salt, protein, fibre, etc etc ). All stuff we had when we were in England.

My biggest hurdle as a road warrior is not stopping at A&W or whatever. To combat this phenomenon I buy Slim Fast Optima shakes and snack bars etc. I like them because they contain sugar as opposed to Aspartame and also taste great (generally speaking). So I was bored at the hotel tonight and started cruising slimfast.com .

Incredible. My boring old journal of old has now been replaced by an online meal log, meal planner, water log, etc. Everything is there including daily intake recommendations, recipes, etc. I can’t say enough about this website – ALL FREE! Complete with advertising of course but that is par for the course nowadays.

Anyway I’ll keep all of you posted on my successes and failures. On a side note I should also mention their vegetarian recipes kick some serious ass.

Letterman kicks O'reilly's ass

Bill O’reilly was on the Letterman show last night. Apparently Dave is not a big fan as he told O’reilly 60% of what he says is crap.

I’ve always been a fan of Dave, but after seeing him undress O’reilly in such O’reilly fashion I'm hooked. It is rare when you see Dave worked up and very prepared for an interview. One thing you don’t see in this clip is that prior to the interview Dave stirred O’reilly’s water with his pencil. Watch Dave smirk when he takes a drink.

Check it out here. You need Real Player.