I freakin’ love David Letterman sometimes and this is one of those times. The good stuff starts at about the 3:45 mark and he brings up a very interesting point. If a candidate running for president gets called away for a national crisis- you don’t suspend your campaign, you put it in the capable hands of your number 2. By not doing so, John McCain has just publicly admitted that Sarah Palin is in water way over her perfectly coiffed head. She simply can’t do the job and even he knows it.

North America has a lotta ballots to count in the near future being that we’re both going to the polls soon to decide our respective leaders. Across the border the economic crisis has taken center stage leaving the candidates scrambling to put forth reasonable plans for the future of the US while still managing to find the funds to make good on their campaign promises. Oh wait, Obama is doing that, McCain has scurried off to Washington and put a halt to his whole campaign. I think he figured it would make him look like a serious leader willing to shift his focus to the crisis even to the detriment of his campaign.

I don’t think that’s working out so well for him. Obama shot back with a resounding “No” on rescheduling the first debate. His point is that with the shit hitting the fan, the American people now more than ever, need to hear from their perspective leaders, and I tend to agree with him. There is a dancing maniacal clown President in place right now with an administration whose job it is to deal with this fiasco. The job of Obama & McCain right now is to run for President, not to act as though they are already there.

Over here in Canada, all seems so quiet on the front lines. (Though I would really like to know who the hell in the US thought it was a good idea to schedule your VP debate on the same night as our previously scheduled leaders debate.) There are issues being raised and campaigns plowing forward but with the shit scene going on to the south of us, it all seems mightily overshadowed. So much so that NDP leader Jack Layton is in Kamloops today. I live in Kamloops and yet I had no freaking idea until enjoying my morning coffee with the early news before work today.

I know, I know. The onus is on me to follow my countries race but it pisses me off that I have to dig for news of the Canadian election because it’s buried under Fannie Mae’s skirt at the end of Sarah Palin’s stupid fucking “bridge to nowhere.”

x's a mere 700 billion

I personally love when Bush hits the airwaves. It’s a rare opportunity to be present during the birth of additions to the English language and also to witness “fun and interesting” new meanings for existing words. His public addresses are always a linguists wet dream.

Soooo… he’s making said speech to sway the public into not storming the White House revolutionist style over the tax payer funded $700 billion bailout. I get what the aim is and I get why they would want to put a cap on executive salaries/bonuses (No shit. That should have been a given) the part that confuses me though is including cash strapped homeowners in the bails out. In the 10 years that I had a mortgage I don’t ever recall the government stepping in and saying “Hmmm… looks like you’re struggling with those payments. Let’s have your friends & neighbors & fellow taxpayers take care of that for you.”

Predatory lending or not, those homeowners were still the ones that made the decision to take on a mortgage that was beyond them. Sure, they could afford it at the time, but if your margin of safety between being a homeowner and being in foreclosure is a couple of hundred dollars a month, you clearly could not afford it. Sure, they made it ridiculously easy for you to sign on the dotted line; almost too good to turn down, but the point to remember is that you had the choice to turn it down. You just chose not to and therefore assumed the associated risk.

I’m having a hell of a time with my high interest MasterCard payments, think Harper’s gonna come calling, cheque in hand, anytime soon?

Dear Asshole,

You’re the droopy “shit my pants” jean wearing guy that threw his takeout wrappers, bag & empty drink cup on the sidewalk and then loudly ridiculed the teen a couple of paces behind you when he picked it up and put it in the garbage can that was a mere 5 fucking feet away.

I hope someone pisses in your shampoo bottle you embarrassing little wanna be gangster puke.

-k

Just today, one little stop in a 365 day cycle, there were two. There was a shooting by a former student at a school in Finland resulting in 11 deaths and an at gunpoint hostage situation by a former student at a school in Regina.

It’s almost become the norm. Still horrific and terrible and tragic, but maybe just a little less shocking. That fact alone scares me more than an armed guy walking into a class of his peers because what does that say about us as a whole? What happened to the good old days of gluing shit to the principals desk or secretly drawing grossly exaggerated genitals on the blackboard when you were disgruntled? Guns were a normal sight in my house (have you met my brother?) but I sure as shit wouldn’t have considered grabbing one and heading down to class with the intention to open fire. What is it these days that has these kids so angry, scared, lost, monstrous, etc? I think it’s because,  like everything else in our society, these kids are viewing humanity as disposable, and that is terrifying because it means that you can toss it away without a second thought.

The vast majority of these school shootings have been prefaced by a YouTube posting by the gunman, often days before the actual incident. Most are missed until too late, or as was the case in Finland, didn’t contain the threat or intention necessary to take further action. Are they a cry for help? An “I’m serious. Please stop me” alert to someone, anyone, who happens to hear them?

I like to think so because it means that there is hope. The ones that you can’t stop are the ones who never let you know it’s coming.

The Democrats want some provisions put in place prior to handing over the mountains of money needed for the bailout of the US financial system and considering the enormity of the problem, this doesn’t seem like a unreasonable request, however Bush is urging legislators to resist that “temptation.” Read as; “Get this damn thing through before I vacate the white house so I can ride it’s glorious coat tails via speaking engagements at Mid Western University for the next decade or so.”

Bush is screaming to get the 700 billion dollar bailout through the requite hoop jumping as quickly as possible. I think his sudden haste is because he’d like it to be his swan song as his past Presidential “accomplishments” are not likely to be heralded as victories by any stretch of the imagination.

“Oh, the war that you got half the damn globe into under false pretenses has killed how many soldiers and innocent people? Wow! Good for you old boy!”

The Globe & Mail has posted an on line article titled “Tobacco as Medicinal Plant?” and I have to admit that I wept with joy. The axis of the earth swayed just slightly to allow all of us dirty smokers to stand a little bit straighter and regain just a tiny bit of that “look how cool I am” sneer from the mid 80’s.

I then proceeded to actually read the article, at which point I slyly returned the ashtray to my desk drawer and put away the velvet smoking jacket that I was wearing with exaggerated pride. Basically, Philip Morris is teaming up with a Canadian company in hopes of finding new uses for tobacco beyond the good old death stick.

Damn them. I had nearly perfected that shitty supercilious jaw clenched accent and was so looking forward to being able to bust it out…..

“No Sir, I will not extinguish my cigarette. It’s medicinal you know.”

From a card written to me from Brenda T.

“You’re the nicest asshole I’ve ever met.”

Fucking LOVE that card.