Shakdown

Whether you are an avid reader, or you haven't picked up a book since high school....PLEASE make sure you read this book.



Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights by Ezra Levant

You can purchase the book on Amazon.ca right here. Also, be sure to read Ezra's blog for a pile of great information and insight.

Product Description (from Amazon.ca)

Part memoir, part investigative journalism, this is a shocking and controversial look at the corruption of Canada’s human rights commissions.

“On January 11, 2008, I was summoned to a 90-minute government interrogation. My crime? As the publisher of Western Standard magazine, I had reprinted the Danish cartoons of Mohammed to illustrate a news story. I was charged with the offence of “discrimination,” and made to appear before Alberta’s “human rights commission” for questioning. As crazy as it sounds, I became the only person in the world to face legal sanction for printing those cartoons.”

As a result of this highly publicized event, Ezra Levant began investigating other instances in which innocent people have had their freedoms compromised by bureaucrats presuming to protect Canadians’ human rights. He discovered some disturbing and even bizarre cases, such as the tribunal ruling that an employee at a McDonald’s restaurant in Vancouver did not have to wash her hands at work. And the human rights complaint filed by a Calgary hair stylist against the women at a salon school who called him a “loser.” In another case that seemed stranger than fiction, an emotionally unstable transvestite fought for — and won — the right to counsel female rape victims, despite the anguished pleas of those same traumatized victims. Human rights commissions now monitor political opinions, fine people for expressing politically incorrect viewpoints, censor websites, and even ban people, permanently, from saying certain things.

The book is a result of Levant’s ordeal and the research it inspired. It shows how our concept of human rights has morphed into something dangerous and drastically different from its original meaning. Shakedown is a convincing plea to Canadians to reclaim their basic liberties.

Cool Standings

There is a very cool website out there called Cool Standings. They track MLB Baseball, NFL Football and NBA Basketball standings throughout the year, and work out a percentage that any given team has of:

A. Making the Playoffs
B. Winning their Division
C. Winning the Wild Card

You can check out how they come up with these percentages here.

One section that I found the most interesting was the Biggest Comebacks section. Being an Astros fan, I remember in 2004 and 2005 the Astros were considered all but done.....only to make big second half comebacks which resulted in playoff appearances (and in 2005, their only World Series appearance). So where do these comebacks rank on the all-time comebacks list? Here's the Top 10:

Format: % as of date (% chance of making the playoffs as of date shown)

1. 1914 Boston Braves
<0.1% as of 7/4/1914

2. 2005 Houston Astros
0.2% as of 6/7/2005

3. 1964 St. Louis Cardinals
0.2% as of 7/24/1964

4. 1973 New York Mets
0.2% as of 8/5/1973

5. 1951 New York Giants
0.3% as of 8/12/1951

6. 2004 Houston Astros
0.6% as of 8/26/2004

7. 1978 New York Yankees
0.6% as of 7/18/1978

8. 1930 St. Louis Cardinals
0.7% as of 8/19/1930

9. 1934 St. Louis Cardinals
0.7% as of 9/6/1934

10. 1936 New York Giants
0.7% as of 7/14/1936

Also worth a read are the Top Collapses of all time.

So the moral of the story for us Astros fans? Never give up hope for our team. On that 2005 team (the year we went to the World Series), the Astros were 15-30 (15 games below .500) in late May. From then until the end of July, the Astros went 42-17. They ended up winning the NL Wild Card on the final day of the regular season.

And what are our 2009 post-season chances as of today (04/24/2009)?

7.3% to make the Playoffs
3.8% to win the Wild Card
3.5% to win the Division

Never say never!

Epic Fail

As if the pitiful 2-10 Washington Nationals needed more bad publicity. Click right here for the full story.

Wait....so you mean there is an "O" in Nationals?!"

Stupid Ump

Here's a picture of the play I talked about in my last post. The runner was ruled "tagged out".

Chris McQuid
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

*UPDATE* I sent this pic to James over at Astros County, and he has graciously decided to use it as his banner at the top of his blog. Head on over and check it out!

An Open Letter to Bud Selig

If any of you were watching the Astros / Reds game today, you will know exactly what I'm pissed off about. That phantom "tag out" call in the bottom of the 5th. As I was in a bit of a ranting mood today already, since I have more dog shit to clean up off our lawn (and we don't even own a fucking dog), I decided to e-mail Bud Selig (MLB Commissioner) to let him know my thoughts.

DATE:
April 19, 2009

TO:
fanfeedback@website.mlb.com

SUBJECT:
Astros vs Reds - 04/19

Bud Selig.....please review the tape of the bottom of the 5th inning in this game, where your second base umpire called Hunter Pence out on a tag - yet the attempted tag was about a good foot or more away from touching Pence.

I see crap like this in the MLB time and time again. In any other sport, the official would go under a review and be made aware of his mistake. Yet in the MLB, this will no doubt go unpunished. The call in question wasn't even close, and he blew it. These fat umpires are more concerned about collecting a paycheque than they are about maintaining the integrity of the game.

Between calls like this, and the poor decision to move some Astros home games to your very own "Wrigley North".......I have little to no respect for your "reign of terror" anymore.

Chris McQuid
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Michael Phelps, Kellogg's, & Joe Rogan

Everyone, i'm sure, has heard of Michael Phelps - the US swimmer who won an amazing 8 gold medals at the Olympic Games last summer.

After those games, Michael (obviously) became quite popular. Kellogg's even decided that they would put him on the front of their Corn Flakes cereal box. However, this all went to shit when Michael Phelps was photographed smoking pot.

Now, Kellogg's says they are going to stop having anything to do with Phelps.

Well, this did not sit well with Stand-up Comedian/former Fear Factor host/UFC Spokesperson Joe Rogan, who has a very entertaining blog of his own. In fact, he posted an open letter to Kellogg's on said blog........which is hilarious. In the name of hilarity, I have posted the entire thing below for you to read:

February 16, 2009

Dear, Kellogg’s.
I’m writing this letter to express my disappointment in your company in firing Michael Phelps as a spokesperson for your products because he was photographed while enjoying some marijuana.
I respectfully would like to communicate my opinion on this matter because I think it’s of great public interest.
First of all, although it is true that Mr. Phelps broke the law, I think any reasonably intelligent person would admit that it’s one of the most fucked up and corrupt laws that we have today in this country. Marijuana is relatively harmless and certainly far less dangerous than a host of other things that are not only legal but also readily available, like alcohol and prescription drugs. The only reason it remains illegal to this day is because it’s a plant and you can’t patent it and control it’s sale, and because if it were legal it would greatly affect the demand for a host of prescription drugs that rake in billions of dollars each year for pharmaceutical companies.
That’s it.
Marijuana has never killed anyone EVER in over 10,000 years of use. We’re not protecting people from themselves, we’re not saving the children - it’s just a horribly illogical law that is in place because of corruption and propaganda.
The fact that it’s against the law is just a disgusting reminder of how retarded our system is, not a reasonable reaction to a proven threat to society.

I have to say, this whole thing saddens me, because I personally would like to think that as Americans we’re better than this. These television news anchors will shake their heads at the thoughtless mistake Mr. Phelps had made by “smoking dope,” and then without even the tiniest sense of irony they will cut to a beer commercial.
This is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, right? We’re not supposed to be a nation of little bitches giving in to the whims of corrupt politicians and the pharmaceutical companies whose interests they’re representing.
It’s 2009, and in this day and age with the incredible access to information that we have available there’s no fucking way that we should be allowing human beings to tell other human beings that they can’t do something that they enjoy that hurts no one including themselves.
THAT is madness. THAT is ignorant, and THAT is completely fucking un-American.
I don’t want to hear any of that, “he’s setting a bad example with the children” nonsense either, because we all know if he had a gin and tonic in his hand instead of a bong this would never have been an issue, even though every single study ever done has shown that marijuana is FAR less dangerous than alcohol.
Marijuana laws are a horrible waste of resources and law enforcement, and especially in this day and age with our economy in such horrible shape I believe the last thing we need to be doing is wasting tax payers’ money on any of this victimless bullshit.

I find your reactions to Mr. Phelps situation both ignorant and short sighted.
I think what would have been a far better response from Kellogg’s would be to support Mr. Phelps, and perhaps point out that maybe we as a society should take a closer look at the evidence and possibly reconsider our position on this misunderstood plant that so many of our productive citizens find useful.
Now, I’m sure if you really were running Kellogg’s and you were still reading my bullshit all the way down to this, you must be thinking, “Why the hell would we stick our necks out like that for pot smokers?”

And of course the answer to that question would be, because we buy your shit, motherfucker.
Do you guys even know your consumer statistics? Well, let me fill you in on some of my own personal scientific research on the subject, because I have been closely studying my own purchases for over 20 years, and I can tell you that I’ve been high 100% of the time I’ve bought your shit.
I mean, do you guys ever think about what you sell?
Pop tarts? Are you kidding me? I would be willing to bet that 50% of the people buying pop tarts are stoned out of their fucking minds.
Just to be perfectly clear on my position, I would like you to know that I enjoy your products. I think many of them are quite tasty, but lets be honest; you guys sell sugar-drenched shit that’s horrible for your body - in fact, it’s actually way worse for your body than pot - and you market this shit specifically to children.
You assholes go as far as putting lovable cartoon characters on the boxes just so that kids will beg their parents for it.

Now, I don’t want you to misunderstand my point, because I in no way want anything bad to happen to your company. Like I said, I genuinely enjoy your products.
There’s nothing quite like being stoned out of your mind at 2am watching a Chuck Norris movie and eating a bowl of fruit loops. Your company and its products have been a part of some very pleasurable moments in guilty eating, and I’m glad you’re around.
All I’m saying is that it’s high time (no pun intended) that you motherfuckers respect the stoner dollar. There’s WAY more of us than you might think, and we tend to get upset about dumb shit like this. There are millions of us, and if we decide that we don’t like a company, they’re going to feel it.
I think if you looked into it carefully, you would be surprised at how many undercover potheads there are out there. Pot smokers don’t all fit into the obvious, negative stereotypes; we come in all shapes and forms - including by the way, the form of the greatest fucking swimmer who ever lived, EVER.
Think about THAT shit for a second..
So in closing, I would like to ask you nice folks to please smarten the fuck up.
I would request that you check the calendar and note that it’s 2000 and fucking 9, and next time you think about getting all uppity about pot you might want to do a quick google search on the facts.

It’s 4:40am here in LA, and I’m going to wrap up this blog and to celebrate its completion I’m going to enjoy one of my personal favorite Kellogg’s products: Eggo waffles.
I’m gonna pop 4 of them bitches into the toaster, and then I’m gonna stuff the bong with some fine, American grown “Train Wreck” and sacrifice the sacred plant to the fire gods in tribute to the unjustly persecuted 8 time Olympian hero. Then I’m gonna get some butter, and I’m gonna smear it on those Eggos, I’m gonna cover them with maple syrup, and I’m going to eat the ever loving fuck out of them.
Good day, sirs.

Yours truly,

Joe Rogan.

Nick Adenhart

An absolute tragedy. Just last night I was watching the Angels / A's game that Nick Adenhart started....and this morning I read that he was killed in a car accident after the game.

Link to the story is here. RIP Nick. My thoughts & prayers to his friends and family.

Obama & Immigration

What's the best way to boost your economy and get some of the many laid off people looking for work in your country back into the workforce? The people who built your country, worked in your country, and paid taxes in your country for years until the economic slowdown forced them out of work?

Well, the solution PROBABLY isn't to legalize illegal immigrants to your country, allowing them to steal the jobs of said people.

But that is exactly what Obama is trying to do now.

Back in November, I constantly wrote on my Facebook that Obama becoming President would be bad for the USA, and even worse for Canada. I believe maybe one person agreed with me. Has he really done ANYTHING since January to prove me wrong? Not that I can see.

Oilers v.s. Kings

Here is the approximate view that King Bond and I will be enjoying for the Edmonton Oilers v.s. Los Angeles Kings game at Rexall Place on Tuesday night (although we are Row 7, so we should be even lower than this). Thanks to Seat Data for the pic.

What's better than spending $150 a ticket on an Oilers game? Spending $150 a ticket on an Oilers game when the Oilers still have a chance to make the playoffs.......not looking so good this year. Ah well, Let's Go Oilers!!!!!!!!!!!!

Network Analysis

Anyone who has ever dealt with a network - especially a larger scale one - will appreciate this utility. It is called Angry IP Scanner, and it is a small program that allows you to scan your entire network to check out things such as which IP addresses are in use, and which ports are open.

It comes in handy if you are trying to assign an IP address or range of IP addresses, but don't know what is in use (previously, you would have to go to each computer and go to Start-->Run-->cmd-->ipconfig to figure out the IP address of each).

You can head right on over to Angry IP Scanner's Download Site to get your free copy today.

Ignatieff the Hypocrite

Liberals never change........I'm a bit late on this one, but check out this article from back on March 11, 2009.

Here is a direct quote from Michael Ignatieff, leader of the Librano (err...I mean Liberal) party. He is referring to the coalition between the Three Stooges back in December.

“I could be sitting here as your prime minister, but I turned it down because I didn’t think it was right for someone who believes in the national unity of my country to make a deal with people who want to split the country up.”

Wait, Ignatieff....what?! You signed your damned name at the bottom of the petition calling for a coalition, which was handed into the Governor-General (and was unsuccessful, lucky for Canada!). So Ignatieff is just the latest in a series of liars and flip-floppers to call himself the 'leader' of the Liberal party. What else is new. Ontario will still vote for him in the next election. Can we PLEASE seperate yet?

Omegle

If you have not yet heard of Omegle (I just did this morning), you must head over to check it out. It's a 1 on 1 chat with a complete random stranger - hilarious! I think James would enjoy this.

Don't like the conversation you are having? A couple button clicks, and you have someone else! It only identifies you as 'You' and the other person as 'Stranger'. Enjoy.