Politics, Canadian Politics, Technology, Social Issues
10
May

Unlucky in Love? No, it’s Probably your Fault.

By Cynapse 1 Comment
Categories: Society

There’s rarely such thing as being unlucky in love. Bad luck is much like good luck in that pure instances of such are exceedingly rare. Even winning the lottery is not 100% luck since one first has to make the conscious decision to play. So what to make of those who perpetually end up in bad situations and consider themselves “unlucky”?

Everyone knows at least one girl or woman who claims to be unlucky with the opposite sex. She can never seem to get a break as she muddles through relationships with jerk after jerk. None of her men are faithful. None of them treat her right. It’s as though cupid were shooting her with poison darts.

Mariah Carey's Touch my Body videoSimilarly, most people know at least one apparently “nice guy” who can’t seem to find a soul mate. His girls take his money, string him along, makes eyes at his friends, keep an unusual number of male friends of their own and eventually leave him for someone more exciting.

The obvious solution would be to pair these unlucky guys and gals together – surely their mutual sensitivity and desire not to break hearts would create a long and stable relationship?

Actually, it wouldn’t.

Western romance’s saddest irony is actually being quite good at delivering what we want – only later do we figure out that what we want is not what we need. This has little to do with the available population and much to do with our sampling, as humans are hard-wired to be initially superficial – if you want a thin blonde with a D-cup, chances are you’ll eventually find one. Can you complain when she turns out to be a bitch? No, because you asked for a thin blonde with a D-cup and left the rest to chance.

People who say “I want a nice guy” or “I need a regular nice girl” are willfully ignorant to the fact that they are probably surrounded by such individuals. They are at the post office checking their mail, walking their dogs and serving coffee after school. What they’re not doing is providing the requisite “excitement” or prestige to play to the fantasies of the opposite sex. They’re normal and boring – kind of like you.

From my observation, the average person selects a date to suit one of two visions –

  1. How she sees herself
  2. How she sees herself in the future

For #1, low self-esteem causes people to pick mates that will be at best inattentive and at worst abusive. Some fear being alone and will pick almost anyone for companionship - an even more dangerous position. Predators and narcissists thrive on weak-willed people and can usually turn on the charm just long enough to snag a new victim.

For #2, the unlucky one is typically choosing a mate to reflect her ambitions. This includes physical attributes of course but could also apply to financial wealth and status. Back when I was active on the dance music scene, women found great prestige in dating the DJ. Apparently it didn’t matter if he was a bony, 150lb recluse whose star profile was unknown outside Ontario – dating the DJ made you somebody! The same logic creates endless generations of “puck bunnies” (girls who chase emerging hockey players) and vapid club girls. So not to be sexist, the fellas can rarely ignore the pouty pin-up girl in the mini who looks like she just stepped out of a teen movie.

And what happens when the prestigious DJ turns out to be a total psychopath? His mate is pitied and she calls herself unlucky. But luck has little to do with the process – when people choose based on surface attributes, everything else is basically crap shoot and -more often than not- “crap” is what results.

08
May

Book Review: Twisted Triangle

By Cynapse 0 Comments
Categories: Book Reviews and Reviews

Title: Twisted Triangle: A Famous Crime Writer, a Lesbian Love Affair, and the FBI Husband’s Violent Revenge
Author: Caitlin Rother
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Release: April 2008
Genre: True Crime
Length: 304 Pages
Rating: 88%

Twisted Triangle details the real-life love triangle between crime novelist Patricia (Patsy) Cornwell and married FBI agents Gene and Margo Bennett. The majority of narratives are based on Margo’s recollections, typically verified by third party input and legal documents. The triangle is not the typical woman-scorned story, however, for it is Margo who had a lesbian affair with Patsy while Gene seethed on the sidelines.

At least, Margo may have wished that was the case. In reality, Gene –an eerily successful undercover agent used to playing roles convincingly- managed to terrorize and brutalize Margo for the better part of a decade, at one point kidnapping her for several days and at in another instance engaging in a shootout at a church.

Mind you, Margo is no saint – a point author Caitlin Rother conveys adequately despite having no direct participation from Patsy or Gene. Margo started down the wrong path early in life, highlighted by an abusive incident with her father and the dutiful nonchalance of her traditional southern mother. As a result, most of Margo’s adult life would be spent drifting in and out of short infatuations –heterosexual and homosexual- that she ritually mistook for love. Her marriage to Gene took a turn for the worse almost instantly when he decided to break FBI protocol by collaborating with various undercover contacts on money-making schemes (including defrauding an FBI program designed to prevent equity loss by agents selling their homes to relocate).

Patsy entered the picture hoping to get some pointers from real-life agents and her attraction to Margo was instantaneous. After some cat and mouse, the two blondes eventually came clean and choose to explore their feelings, causing Margo to drift obliviously away from both the social taboos of her Virginia surroundings and, more destructively, her duties at home. Being a seasoned FBI agent, Gene determined the nature of his wife’s relationship to her “new friend” in relatively short order and launched a campaign of psychological warfare fit for one of Patsy’s novels.

Rother touches on several recurring themes while sorting through the sordid details of the Bennetts’ marriage. Margo’s attractions were typiced short-sighted and screamed the need to fill a void from her childhood. Yet Patsy –despite being non-violent while showering both Margo and her two daughters with gifts- was barely more attentive than Gene. Both lovers tended to treat Margo as a possession rather than a person. Throughout the story, the Bennett children were used as pawns by Gene while being secondary on Margo’s mind (next to personal survival). Predictably, both girls eventually needed a lot of therapy - much of it administered in the form of drugs, sex and self-mutilation. To that end, the latter section of the book is bittersweet, reveling in the protagonist’s survival as much as it cautioned about the fallout.

Twisted Triangle is not my usual book but was a nice diversion from geo-political and financial literature. Caitlin Rother’s work is highly rated by Amazon.com readers and, based on this non-fictional account, the adulation is justified. I look forward to reading more of her work.

30
Apr

Excel Tutorial: Using Conditional Formats for Traffic Lighting

By Blink 7 0 Comments
Categories: Technology and Tutorials

Note: This will be the first in a series of downloadable tutorials. Each tutorial runs in a self-contained browser with all files and software embedded [where legal]. If you would like a specific topic covered, please leave a message here.

Download: Mirror#1

Traffic Lighting on Excel

Simplicity is key when presenting statistics to management or customers. Data analysts are often tempted to put as many details as possible on the standard “one sheet” template; however, too many numbers on a page can cause confusion about where to initially focus. When reducing the number of statistics on a page is not an option and summary stats are not appropriate, traffic-lighting is a quick and effective method to highlight trends or draw attention to information that need to be addressed.

Included:
-Example Excel File
-Full tutorial

28
Apr

Live: Tycho @ The Drake Hotel

By Blink 7 0 Comments
Categories: Life and Times and Video-Blogging

Quite often, the best music is discovered by accident. Local artist and longtime friend Aia asked me to videotape a concert he was promoting at the Drake Hotel. Aia was opening for Tycho, a California-based graphics artist and music producer well respected in IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) circles. IDM is a highly experimental genre that can be difficult on the untrained ear; however, Tycho’s audio-visual performance was both accessible and inspiring. The artist’s website describes his music as follows:

Tycho is the music project of San Francisco based artist and producer Scott Hansen. As Tycho, Hansen blends swirling melodies into vaguely triumphant arcs that crisscross between stuttering beats and vocal samples, creating rolling sonic landscapes that extend off into the horizon.

To my ear, Tycho manages an impressive feat in layering lush, hyper-melodic sounds capes over throttling beats without crowding the frequency spectrum. Often, the beats evolve along with the melodies and at times embrace the boom sound associated with early-90’s hip hop - yet the melodies remain intricate and soothing enough to be “chill-out” music. At times Tycho’s retro-warbling is reminiscent of Scottish outfit Boards of Canada, while other times resembling the Japanese electronica featured heavily in anime. The sum of the parts is nonetheless original.
Continue reading ‘Live: Tycho @ The Drake Hotel’

26
Apr

Minorities and Accommodation in Canada

By Emilia Liz 11 Comments
Categories: Politics and Society

Is Canada doing too much to accommodate visible minorities? According to a poll commissioned by the Globe and Mail and CTV News, 61% of Canadians as a whole, and 72% of Quebeckers, answer in the affirmative. This figure is higher among rural as opposed to urban dwellers, people over fifty, and those who earn less than $50,000 a year. Yet 88% of respondents believe their community is welcoming of visible minorities. Moreover, only 9% claim to be bothered by the fact that non-Whites now make up a sixth of the country’s population, while 48% see this situation as positive and the remaining 42% are unsure.

The findings seem contradictory at first glance. It appears the majority of Canadians are not disturbed by non-European immigrants per se but feel the government is bending over too far backwards to please them. Furthermore, 45% of those who took part in the survey say newcomers are holding onto traditions from their homelands for too long; most of the rest think immigrants are integrating at an acceptable pace.

Peter Donolo of the Strategic Council, the polling firm that actually carried out the survey, says recent controversies like the establishment of Islamic sharia law and funding of faith-based schools have contributed to Canadians’ ambivalence about immigration. The Globe and Mail provided a forum along with the article for readers to discuss the poll’s results. As often happens, the forum turned into a White versus non-White altercation, with some participants on one hand loudly decrying immigrants’ attempt to impose their customs on mainstream Canadian society and others condemning Canada’s hostility towards visible minorities. One reader in the former camp cites the acceptance of the Sikh turban in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the creation of Black-focused schools and the attempt to bring sharia law to Ontario as examples of non-White immigrants’ incessant demands. He attributes this situation to the failure of Canada ’s multicultural policy.
Continue reading ‘Minorities and Accommodation in Canada’

25
Apr

TTC = Take the Car (Strike Time!)

By Cynapse 1 Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

Just when you thought the latest Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) shakedown had passed without incident, the union rank and file have voted to reject a tentative deal and go on strike effective at midnight:

The TTC’s largest union has voted not to ratify a tentative agreement reached with management last weekend and the transit system will grind to a halt at midnight.

Sixty-five per cent of TTC union members voted to reject the tentative agreement, which required a 50-per-cent plus one vote to pass. Bob Kinnear, the union president, said he had no choice but to call an immediate strike for the safety of his members.

The deal, which critics of Mayor David Miller have criticized as being too generous, offers TTC workers improved health benefits and three years of 3-per-cent annual wage increases, that will make TTC drivers the best paid in the Greater Toronto Area.
..
But in a clause seized on by critics, the deal also offers bus drivers an additional raise in December of 2009 if their pay falls behind that of other Toronto-area drivers, something the union says it deserves because of the demands of driving a bus or a streetcar in the city.

If ever there were an argument for the abolition of unions for municipal workers, this is it. The TTC workers union overriding Kinnear’s promise of a 48-hour advance notice is disrespectful to both Kinnear and the city. To do it on a Friday night –when many Torontonians are already out and expecting a ride home- should be criminal. The cowardly maintenance workers who drove this rejection do not have to deal with the drunken public ire sure to keep TTC drivers and police busy for the first few hours of this strike (ironically, Kinnear claims to have pulled the services suddenly to prevent TTC workers from having to endure public backlash).

The lesson from this is simple – unions should only be allowed in industries and services where striking hurts the owning companies and possibly themselves. Calling a strike for an essential service is tantamount to holding the local economy hostage while doing so on short-notice is just plain dangerous. The union is acting irresponsibly and their complaints ring hollow in a city where a ticket collector earns phenomenally more than a retail clerk, despite doing less work. Darts for their lack of consideration.

Additional darts to Adam Giambrone for not taking charge when his presence was requested and to David Miller for refusing to forsake his China holiday / trade mission to fight this fire.

And finally, a dart to the city of Toronto. You wanted socialism, you got it.

22
Apr

Canaries in the Coal Mine

By Cynapse 5 Comments
Categories: Media, Politics and The Art of Blogging

Some of you may not know the name Richard Warman but he may cause you to delete your Blogger account:

Linking one blog to another and allowing comments on her blog postings has landed one prominent Saskatchewan blogger in a legal quandary.

Kate McMillan of Small Dead Animals is one of several named as defendants in a statement of claim filed by Richard Warman with the Ontario Superior Court on April 7. Others include Ezra Levant, the National Post and one of its journalists, Jonathon Kay.

In the statement of claim, Warman alleges he was defamed on a blog known as freedominion.ca. He alleges that those comments were linked to or commented upon on other blogs, including McMillan and the National Post’s.

This round of lawsuits stems from criticism of Warman’s earlier lawsuits via the Canada Human Rights Commission:

A complaint to police alleges that federal human-rights investigators used an unwitting woman’s wireless Internet connection to log on to white supremacist websites and make postings to chat groups.

The complaint to the RCMP and Ottawa police was made this week by Toronto resident Mark Lemire, who runs a website that has been the subject of a long-standing hate case before the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Among other things, Lemire’s complaint alleges that commission investigators breached sections of the Criminal Code by “wilfully and with malicious intent” using the woman’s connection without authorization and “committed theft of telecommunication service.”

…

Lemire’s freedomsite.org website, started in 1995, became the subject of a commission hearing in 2003 after Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman complained that postings on the site promoted hatred or could subject a group to contempt.

So far the following bloggers have been targeted:

  1. Ezra Levant
  2. Kate McMillan (Small Dead Animals)
  3. Free Dominion (two members)
  4. Kathy Shaidle (Five Feet of Fury)

Jack (Jack’s NewsWatch) has created a thread for those who want to contribute to the defense fund for bloggers targeted by Warman. Chances are most donations will come from supporters who agree with the bloggers’ views, which could be best described as anti-immigrant and extremely critical of Islam. Kathy has a strong penchant for attacking blacks while Ezra hawkishly stalks Muslim groups for even the slightest confrontational statement. The large percentage of Canadians, who tend to value tolerance, may not see a problem with suing a handful of bloggers who profit from whipping up nationalist sentiment.

However, one needs to look at the big picture before saying “good riddance” to a few extremists. Suppose Warman and the HRC successfully sue the current crop of bloggers. Who’s next? Any of us could be next, so long as we dare to say anything even slightly critical of an activist group that declares itself to speak for a demographic group. For instance, Emilia’s article on the Hijab was followed by a rather heated discussion between two of my long-term readers and a Muslim poster named Insha Marri. My readers disagreed with the use of the hijab, arguing it was oppressive to women. Insha sharply disagreed and the ensuing exchange wasn’t friendly. Do my readers’ opposition to a devout Muslim practice qualify as “hate speech” and, if so, am I on the hook for their comments?

So far the answer to both questions is no but there is a very limited number of open neo-nazis and cultural supremacists in Canada. To stay employed, full-time activists like Warman need to continuously find new enemies and launch lawsuits. This eventually will mean having to lower the bar on what constitutes “hate speech”. The current standard of open denigration will soon be lowered to principled opposition and eventually to failed compliance. When failed compliance with a special interest group’s agenda puts bloggers in danger of a lawsuit then independent thought itself is in danger. All of us will be potential targets, not just the far right. Equally hateful statements by the activist groups themselves could go unpunished, as they first aligned with the HRC.

Canada’s treatment of those who hold unpopular opinions must be monitored alongside its treatment of demographic minorities, as both are an indication of the actual freedoms we enjoy in this nation. Both groups represent the proverbial canaries in the coal mine when the government starts to overstep its bounds and use the charter as a sword against dissidence rather than a shield against abuse.

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