The Unreasonable Man

…you can’t hide. I see that my old comments on The Economist web site are here:

http://www.economist.com/user/mwillems/comments

Fortunately, I think I still stand behind them…!

The Economist reports that Pakistan is banning Facebook, or parts of it, becasue of some offensive Mohammed depictions.

Dalton McGuilty “admits” that the new 8% tax hike on all services and may goods (like gas) will affect people. Article here. But, he says, “businesses will eventually lower their prices which will offset the extra taxes”.

And if you believe that, I have a bridge for sale. But we live in an age where people still believe in fairies and homeopathy and fictitious space gods, so I see no reason why the hoi polloi will not believe his moronic logic.

And as someone with one home heated with propane and who drives 50,000km per year, this will cost me much more than the average.I can see a long period of never voting liberal coming up.

Toronto is debating (and on past record, will pass) a one-minute idling bylaw.

Since when does the board of health make law? This is a typical left-wing green nonsense measure. One minute at a traffic light on in a traffic jam and you get a $125 fine… in a city that goes from -25C to +35C. Madness. A car idling is just like an airconditioner - and you can be sure that the offices of these people have heating and airconditioning.

Cities wonder why people move out and go live in suburbs where space is available, parking is free, traffic actually moves, people say hello to each other, taxes are lower, prices are lower, streets are safe, and schools are good. It takes me 10 minutes to do anything in Oakville (like renewing a driving license); the same thing always takes three times longer in a city.

The new normal: no more depictions of the prophet Muhammad unless you want to be threatened with death.

BBC has the story here of how South Park’s makers are now being threatened, and had to remove Muhammad from their cartoon.

And why do we tolerate this? We should not give religion the time of day. Unfortunately, it seem we cave in too easily because we seem to give religion some special status. Like it’s true or something.

It’s perfectly OK to be religious. It is NOT ok for you to force that religion and its taboos and rules upon others.

New Rules for today:

* Indianapolis Airport is no longer allowed to have an exit of the safe area that is not indicated - so that the first you know about it is when you see the sign”you have now left the secure area” (and you have to go through security again). Yes I checked: there really IS nothing to indicate this.

* Indianapolis airport is also no longer allowed to have security people who say “Axe” when they mean “ask” - dozens of times. Working for the TSA means you need to be able to speak English.

* Henrys is not allowed to make me download a Java app three times to order a few images, and then to make it entirely unintuitive, and then to ask me for my address three times.

* No app is allowed anymore to ask me fo ra “daytime telephone number:” that is different from a “cell number”. My daytime telephone number and my evening telephone number ARE my cell number, dummies!

* The next time I hear “your call is important to us” (while of course the fact that I am hearing this means that it is entirely unimportant tho them) I will explode. Or at least hang up.

That’s it. For now.

Not many recent posts here. That is mainly because I am too busy doing photography, teaching photography, building those various businesses, and writing my daily photography teaching blog - one post a day, every day.

There will be more posts, of course. Working 24/7 (well, 18/7) is not sustainable.

LIke when our Ontario government grabs more of our money by creating a unified tax - meaning 8% more tax on many items, and meaning I need to add 8% to all my teaching invoices. Meaning my price goes up by 8%. Not theory: I will need to actually change all prices. As will everyone else.

The government has promised this tax grab will be revenue neutral. Believe that and you can buy a bridge I am selling in London and farmland in he desert, and oh, this homeopathic medicine will mend your broken leg.

Now for my taxes. They are due. Tomorrow I’ll do the work, Honest, I promise!

There will be man cheap cameras, homes, and pickups trucks for sale next year, if you are lucky enough to live in the Bible Belt in May 2011.

For that is when the rapture will happen. The proof:

http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/proof/proof.html

Get ready for them bargains!

Sounds Arabic?

The Saudis are about to execute a sorcerer, says the BBC here. This man practiced witchcraft, like predicting the future.

I predict the future too. Like that this kind of nonsense will eventually end, maybe in another 500 years, when theist religion finally fades into the past.

Of course the Islamic calendar is currently around the year 1500, so cut some slack: in 1500 we were burning witches at the stake.

In Schoonhoven, the town I grew up in, there’s a cobbled stone circle in the main square, in front of the twon hall, where on 4 oktober 1597 they kkburned the Netherlands’ last witch, Marrigje (Marrichgen) Ariens.

She was a 70-ish year old itinerant herb-seller who made people feel uncomfortable. One day, she told a young man to not bother her and go away - the young man’s hair instantly shrunk. Town people grabbed her and made her reverse the curse, and the young man’s hair returned to normal. Other stories have it that the people she failed to cure with her herbs complained.

In any case, she was arrested and convicted to be executed by suffocation, followed by burning. Interesting that even then they were humane enough to at least suffocate her first, before burning.

Marrigje had a magic bag: a stick with five leather bags where she kept her herbs. This was preserved, and it is available on request for viewing at Schoonhoven Town Hall to this day - a replica is on permanent display.

That means I have been too busy to blog here. Seven days a week!

Meanwhile a few items:

• Bought a new MacBook Pro since the old Air died (broken hinge).
• A damning indictment of the populist “tough on crime” agenda here (Post)
• Back from Phoenix, and getting ready for more courses.

Now off to do chores. And stuff.