Lower Spine of a 90 Year Old

I took advantage of Halloween being on a Friday, and had a party here this past weekend. Everyone had great costumes, and presumably a good time, myself included.

You know the horny fundamentalist priest went over well with an 8 year old boy around.

Then I woke up Saturday unable to bend over far enough to tie my shoes, and have had the same lower back pain ever since. After some googling, it seems I must have a slipped disc from rearranging some furniture on Friday afternoon, though I didn't feel it at the time.

The same sources I found on Google say it can be 2 to 3 weeks of healing to get over a slipped disc...I'm frustrated after 2-3 days; though I have learned that alcohol is a far better painkiller than ibuprofen or oxycodone, and likely cheaper as well.

Apparently there are more important things happening in the world today than my lower back pain. I'll likely be sitting around medicating and watching polls and numbers and people singing the praises of McCain/Obama's campaigns all night. I like CNN's big touchscreen 'magic finger' technology so far, though I'd like to be able to access the breakdowns myself, without them picking and choosing. I haven't found it on the CNN site so far, but I'll keep looking.

17:41 EST - CNN Exit Poll update 72% of new voters so far voted Obama; the top state being California, which was guaranteed Dem anyways.

18:10 - 5+ hours in line to vote? We're no America, but in Canada you get in and out of the voting station in less than 20 minutes (including 5 minutes to stop at Tim Hortons)

18:17 - CNN is busting out all kinds of fancy graphics technology - pure filler.

18:33 - Exit polls are great and all that; except when you remember how the exit polls all had the Democrats ahead in the past two elections.

18:42 - White evangelical voters in favour of McCain, who knew? Numbers down from support from the same demo. of Bush. That's a plus. Wolf Blitzer "loves these numbers". Stay tuned closely going to and coming back from commercial breaks, he may be standing over at the 'voter analysis board' rubbing his beard against it sensually.

19:00 - CNN projects Obama and McCain get Vermont and Kentucky respectively. No alarms and no surprises.

19:15 - CNN busts out a hologram looking like the Emperor and Lord Vader talking in Star Wars.

19:48 - Flipping around a bit; NBC has McCain projected in South Carolina, CBS South Carolina and West Virgina, CNN is being more cautious.

19:56 - CNN all night has been showing some great breakdowns of the current votes by county, and comparing to the 2004 election. CNN now projects South Carolina as well.

20:00 - A slew of expected Democratic states have come in. Why aren't there more states like Maine and Nebraska that can split their electoral votes?

20:30 - Another northeastern state for Obama in New Hampshire. I like that CNN is actually waiting for a significant number of actual ballots, as opposed to exit polls which I have a hard time trusting.

20:44 - The latest versions of Firefox have become increasingly bloated, and prone to crashing. Software developers need to stop taking memory usage for granted. I think its time to switch to using the much more streamlined (though less customizable) Google Chrome on my laptop.

In the meantime; Obama has been projected to win Pennsylvania which is a nice pickup.

20:54 - I just came out of the bathroom and thought I heard Wolf Blitzer say Clay Aiken had won a seat in North Carolina. Turns out it was Kay Hagan, which is probably for the best. Clearly my 'medication' is starting to catch up with me.

21:01 - Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota all for Obama. NY was no surprise. Wyoming and Alabama to McCain. Race as an important factor or not a factor votes the same according to exit poll demographics, lending some credence to the suggestion that for every person voting for Obama because he is black there was someone voting against Obama because he was black.

21:34 - Ohio. As Ohio goes, so goes the White House. McCain is running out of seats quickly.

21:39 - The McCain HQ has turned off the news coverage of the election. Even Fox News apparently; I'm guessing there's no way to spin it in their favour at this point, even at Fox.

22:02 - Indecision 2008 is on CTV Live. I don't have to wait like most nights not having the Comedy network. Excellent.

22:28 - They're talking about concession speeches with more vigor now, I think I'm done posting updates for the night. Suffice it to say I'm pleased that its so clearcut at this point, with little chance for even vote fixing to save the Republicans this time around.

23:19 - I'm pretty sure that the intro music theme that was just played before McCain's concession speech was a slightly altered theme from Top Gun...Maverick to the end; hilarious. Lets hope he doesn't let Palin speak.

23:27 - John McCain remains a classy man, after cutting off hate mongering supporters at rallies in the past weeks, he has delivered a humble, and apparently honest concession. He suggests that he has no regrets about what might have been, but one still has to wonder how much closer it would have been if such a divisive candidate as Sarah Palin hadn't been chosen as the VP candidate.

Yea, I Wouldn't Do That Stem Cell Stuff Either!

I listened to a segment of the Howard Stern show the other day in which they walked around Harlem interviewing black people about who they would be voting for in next week's election. Obviously the clips played were selective, and the whole process non-scientific, but it was still surprising to hear how many people were voting for Obama when McCain's platform, policy, and even running mate were applied to the name 'Obama', making a case for the black community voting blindly for Obama on race.

But after thinking about it for a moment, and given things like the arrest of two people this week with intent to assassinate Obama based solely on the colour of his skin, I am convinced that for every person that votes for Obama because he is black, there will be at least one white person who votes for McCain because he isn't black.

The fact was broken down all too eerily again on the Daily Show, probably over a month back as I recall, when they did a bit on how stupid people will control the outcome of this election. Of course they intended it as a joke, but its not all that far from the truth when you think about it.

Every day you are confronted with something new and more unbelievable, whether its an unlicensed plumber discussing foreign policy with the McCain electorate, or people walking the streets of New York voting for Obama and his 'running mate' Sarah Palin. Obviously, hopefully, its a small minority of uneducated people being highlighted in the media, but my suspicion is that's not the case. The election next week will probably be decided by a few percentage points. A whim going into the election booth of a few 10s of thousands of people, some international event spun to play into a candidates hands between now and then, or blind fear of or faith in a black man could decide who presides over the most powerful country in the world next week, and that scares me.

The Results Are In: People Are Tired

According to Reuters, voter turnout was an all time low at 58%. Frequency of elections combined with the table I've created below pretty much explain all that away in my mind.


As of 08:52 15-Oct-2008.

Clearly its difficult to choose what 'Other' candidates would gain seats being as so many fringe parties are included in these numbers, perhaps the highest nationwide percentages could also be brought in to play here. All I'm saying is the representation needs to start better following the population, instead of arbitrary geographical lines. Yes, a majority government may never exist under that format, but maybe then the politicians will be forced to work together for the long term, instead of looking 18-24 months down the road at the next election opportunity.

Election Watching

I may or may not update this as the election results come in. Popular vote in the Atlantic region has the Liberals and Conservatives down, and NDP, Green and Independents up...go figure. I have a feeling this will be a popular theme, and yet, I don't think the seats will change accordingly. I suspect after this election there will be even more calls for a change to the voting system to reflect the popular vote.

Its particularly telling that Rick Mercer is part of the CBC official election coverage. I sure don't foresee the likes of Jonathan Stewart or Stephen Colbert being on call when the results come in on Obama v. McCain.

21:44 EDT
Elizabeth May paraphrase 'If voters aged 5 and up counted, I would have won in a landslide'. There are positives and negatives to take from this.

Northern Ontario swinging past Liberal to Green and NDP? Oh wait, basing these claims on 30-200 total votes...One comment though, that the region depends on diesel and so is opposed to the Liberal carbon tax plan? I'm pretty sure 3 of the 5 big positive movers on those shitty markets today were mining/metals companies, the little man working for those companies has nothing to worry about. Not to mention that many of those metals are integral to the new 'green' technologies.

22:11 EDT
Counting the Prairies now, no shocks out there. Liberals are in some tighter than expected races, particularly in Toronto, where I think I heard Conservatives haven't held a seat in 20 years. Getting a little scared that the Cons could actually make a majority.

22:44 EDT
Interesting discussion on the local cable outlet for Rogers on why this election is even taking place. It hasn't gone so far as to suggest the waste of money should it come out as the predicted Conservative minority, but they have touched on Harper's motivations in declaring parliament 'dysfunctional'.

23:25 EDT
Apparently blogger is overloaded right now. One last comment on the use of Twitter on not just CBC, but any network when it comes to election coverage: cut it out. I'll be the first to admit that just about anyone can go out and create a blog. But it at least requires some ability to piece together ideas and thoughts.

Twitter updates are about on par with the text messages scrolling across the bar on MuchMusic vote in music video segments. They work for status updates...not for informed commentary. Get rid of them.

Military Breeding Machine

I have caught a few minutes here and there of speeches and the like coming out of the Republican National Convention in the past few days. I tend to only be able to maintain my attention for those few minutes at a time before I become dumbfounded at how people so adamantly support such hypocrisy. I thought surely last time around there was no way they could possibly re-elect Bush, but then they did. And now despite all the negative response around the selection of Governor Palin for VP, I worry that the same thing could happen.

When it comes down to selling your campaign on grabbin' yer guns and upholding some notion of Christian law, apparently votes quickly swing your way. The Republicans have only managed to shift gears slightly since last time around, slightly fewer references to the dreaded 9/11 (except those by GW himself), and endless more references to McCain's POW experience. Sure the guy is a hero in that regard, but so are countless other vets slipping further into senility, and under-assisted by aid and health care programs. I don't see how this becomes such a strong selling point in marketing the President of the USA.

As usual these days, its basically been put on satire shows like The Daily Show and Colbert Report to reveal the hypocrisy of the actual halfway relevant talking points, and they've done a hilarious job. The speeches themselves would be funny, if it wasn't so scary, what people are willing to believe.

The two most prominent platforms in the speeches so far seem to be the 'protection of human life', and the 'resolve to get the job done in the war against terrorism'. In that juxtaposition, I've finally realized some of the 'logic' in Republican thinking. The life of children must be protected, until such age that they are fit to suit up in camo and carry an M16, no matter the costs to the mother bearing them, or the perhaps young father, who has nowhere to turn but to the military to earn money to support the child. Two birds with one stone right?

Sure we have our own imminent election coming up in Canada, and it has its implications for conflicts overseas as well, but it all seems to pale in comparison to the problems faced south of the border, and in reality, the world over, should the Republicans steal another 4 years.

Right to a Fair Trial, Whenever It Suits You

I suppose when you're an aging white woman who can cry on demand, you are afforded more privileges than an Arab-Canadian who has lived out his teenage years in captivity. Of course, like the schoolyard bully in gradeschool, Canada was in more of a position to throw its weight around, and move Brenda Martin out of the country where she was actually afforded a fair trial, bring her home, and bail her out. But when the other bully on the playground is bigger and older than you, you just sit back and do what they tell you so you can keep up your rep.

The U.S. is at the point now where they have to keep their war-criminals prisoners of war 'enemy combatants' (the first two terms would seem to have actually given those people rights on an international level) locked away just to keep those who used to in fact just go about their lives taking care of their families and livelihoods from going and perpetrating acts of revenge against a nation that has locked them away for years with no recourse of any kind. I know I'd lose some of my passivity if I were locked away for 6 years with no just cause, and no way of defending myself.

I'm not saying these people need to be handed get out of jail free cards, as some of them may have indeed had ties to terrorist organizations, but the President of the United States in January, whether it be Obama, Clinton, or even McCain need to stand behind some kind of policy to deal with the prisoners like those at Guantanamo to expedite the trial process, and come into line with signed international treaties on the treatment of prisoners of war, as well as the treatment of child soldiers, for argument's sake, like Omar Khadr.

An Inconvenient Freedom of Information

I was just going to leave well enough alone on the climate debate and An Inconvenient Truth's win at the Oscars, but after reading so many people praising the work, despite its flaws, and after hearing people run on in general conversation like experts, spawned by having seen the movie, I thought maybe I should say something. Then a buddy of mine sent me a link to this account of Al Gore's own energy consumption. True to political form, every coin has its flip side.

Now I really don't see much fault in the overall increase in consumption over a year, as 2006 was the warmest on record according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and even Mr. Gore needs some A/C in the summertime (although one has to wonder how often Tipper and Al are actually at ye old homestead). I do however find fault in that a figure like this has a consumption 20 times greater than the average household, and lets not forget all those other rich folk out there who similarly skew that average. Its been proven time and again that leading is best done from the front, not from behind, and yet there's still some hypocrisy to be found in someone who is self proclaimed as passionate about his work.

How could one forget those dramatic closeups and personal accounts of a concerned Al Gore interweaved within the actual documentary material. That said, its not even the not so subtle political commentary in those sequences that irked me most about the movie, but the fact that such a directed approach was presented in what has shown time and time again to be a much larger problem. The fact of the matter is that while carbon dioxide is infact an important greenhouse gas, so are a number of other things, including most dominantly water vapour. The media in general has a tendency to gloss over this fact.

In addition there are a number of feedback mechanisms that are not as well understood as they need be, and evidence exists for historical (that is in geologic context, not human) dramatic climate changes on the order of decades to a century that are entirely natural. The movie glosses over these ideas, and others in presenting our contribution of carbon dioxide in particular as the be all and end all in causing global warming. The warming concept in itself is shortsighted, as some evidence suggests that a small period of warming may infact lead to a strong subsequent cooling effect.

Now I don't fault Al Gore for getting the message out there. I do believe it is very important to stir common debate about the subject and for people to be more aware. I just wish it could have been done in a more level manner, and not glossed over, or outright misrepresented key concepts of the situation (for instance the claim that 'no scientist believes global warming isn't occurring') creating similar bias in the newfound experts.

I myself can't claim to be an expert in the matter either, just perhaps more familiar than most. And I'm certainly not saying that global warming or climate change definitively isn't occurring, and believe it is truly important to pursue alternative energies and improve efficiency, even if only from a health perspective, or a concern over global resource consumption (one need only begin to bitch about gas prices to see that much). Kyoto and similar agreements are important enough in those considerations alone, as well as somewhat leveling the global economic playing field. All I ask is for a less biased presentation to the general concerned public, before too many people are rushing around in a panic with their single perspective.