Inconvenient Remote

It is an inconvenient movie in an inconvenient location. I can hear it, I can see the remote from where I am sitting, but I can’t get up the desire to go and turn Al Gore off. Sure, no one is watching the TV but I only have so much energy to deal with myself.

I guess I’ll just have to wait for the snow to start reeking havoc with our power grid to have the TV turn off itself.

Don’t worry, I’m not listening to him anymore. I turned up my music.

Now, to continue my letter to the CBC to complain about the influence of American politicians on our National broadcaster. What about the Canadian content? We need more HOCKEY!

Report from the Great White North.

Reporting from inside _________ Airport where thousands of angry and frustrated travelers are stranded, this is __________ with ______ news. They aren’t getting the answers they need from Air Canada. _______ is trying to get from Montreal to Newfoundland. He gets put on a flight… it is cancelled, repeat.

Every year, the same old news broadcasters send out the same old reporters to cover the same old story. Let me help with some advice.

  1. Don’t fly Air Canada. If another airline is too expensive, take the bus instead. You will probably arrive around the same time at your destination as the Air Canada flight will.
  2. Winter doesn’t start in December in Canada. If you aren’t from around here, assume that it will start in September and will end some time in June. Ignore the season listings on your Calendar.
  3. If you are wanting to travel during the Christmas season, give yourself an extra week to get there and an extra two weeks to get back.
  4. You are flying at one of the busiest times of the season, expect long lines. Bring a friend and a deck of cards. The house of cards you build together will be as stable as the weather.
  5. If you are interviewed by a news reporter, have fun with them. Pretend you are in the NHL and use some quality clichés about giving 110%. Repeat clichés regardless of the question asked.
  6. Wear a “Global Warming, Please Start Here!” shirt. You’ll find out who you can’t trust really quickly. They’ll be the ones arguing with you, telling you that the awful weather is actually climate change and not winter.
  7. If you are near the front of a line, invite someone near the back to go ahead of you. The thanks you get will be worth the whining from the other thousand people.

If you are in Canada, it isn’t unexpected to be stranded in an airport during a blizzard in December. It is also very normal for Air Canada to suck. Why in the world is that news?

Environmentalist Business Nonsense

Environmentalists are complaining about an American Airlines plane that crossed the Atlantic with only five passengers on it. Ignoring the fact that it was on the first leg of its journey, and that its fuel use would have been about the same if it was 2/3 full, they are showing their business knowledge can be summed up by one word, “non-existent.”

Environmentalists have been campaigning for the government to force airlines to pay for carbon offsetting rather than passing it on to passengers.

Mr Baker said: “This case shows the need for the aviation industry to pay its own tax on fuel rather than the passenger which would give companies the incentive to fill their planes.”

Idiots! The customer will always pay. If you don’t believe me, I have some carbon credits to sell you.

Mother Earth Drives a Honda

2. you americans only got what you deserved : you guys are the worst animals of the world, the first polluters the responsible for the environmental collapse of our world by striking mother earth with your “standarts of living”. Well mother Earth warns you with these fires : change your behaviour, respect our planet and the other peoples of the world otherwise you will feel the Earth wrath. But I doubt you guys will change your way of living, you love too much your gas guzzling SUVs and are too selfish to change
Submitted by: loveitorleaveit
2:40 AM PDT, Oct 29, 2007

From the comments on this article at the LA Times.

Key point from the articles.

Investigators have said that at least two of the huge wildfires, one in Orange County and the other in Temecula, were the work of arsonists.

and

Amid worries of new blazes adding to the firestorm already afflicting the region, a man in Hesperia has been arrested on suspicion of arson, and police reported shooting and killing another arson suspect after chasing him out of scrub behind Cal State San Bernardino.

This one is interesting too. I guess Mother Nature outsources its arsoning.

The woman called police, and Highway Patrol and sheriff’s deputies were soon looking for the suspect, who witnesses said took off on a Honda motorcycle, wearing a red-and-white-striped helmet.

The Dangers of Apocalyptic Thinking

In, of all places, the New York Times, I found this interesting interview.

An Early Environmentalist, Embracing New ‘Heresies’

“Any time that people are forced to acknowledge publicly that they’re wrong, it’s really good for the commonweal. I love to be busted for apocalyptic proclamations that turned out to be 180 degrees wrong. In 1973 I thought the energy crisis was so intolerable that we’d have police on the streets by Christmas. The times I’ve been wrong is when I assume there’s a brittleness in a complex system that turns out to be way more resilient than I thought.�