Big Fat Hairy Living

Every time I see this picture, I almost cry because it’s so beautiful.

In the comment section of a post on the idiotic rumours being spread at Texas Bear Roundup about the anti-Bear411 exodus comes word of one of the more hilarious rumours about BearCiti (emphasis mine):

Everytime someone has started to argue about how Bear411 isn’t doing any of this stuff and it is all a conspiracy, I point them to Bear411Sucks.com (which everyone immediately says is owned by BearCiti. Ugh.)

I’m owned by BearCiti!

So when am I getting my paycheque?

Have I ever mentioned that Cory Doctorow annoys me?

Today Cory Doctorow took a break from posting about how Digital Rights Management is the cause of sexism, racism, war, and starvation in Africa to post a link to a site selling a ripped off version of the mudflap bear. “The Mudflap Man sticker is a nice answer to the classic Mudflap Woman silhouette,” he says, assuming that it’s somehow an “answer” to the mudflap woman and unaware that the “Mudflap Man sticker” is a ripoff of an entire array of mudflap bear merchandise. Too bad Cory “Conversation is king” Doctorow doesn’t allow comments on his blog so that people can point that out.

He compounds the annoyingness by linking to an original poster who seems to think that the mud flap bear “shows the ridiculousness of the whole concept”. Because it has to be completely about showing ridiculousness, of couse. Fat bearded guys are gross and the idea of them as sexual objects is hilarious!

Update: Commenter Pastry Chef says that the sticker is a “legitimate, licensed, use of the design and is fully authorized by the guys who created it”.

I try hard, so hard, not to be cynical and distrustful. But the American and British governments make it so hard not to be. A case in point is My first reaction upon seeing the headline of a report that Iranians have captured British sailors was cynicism:

Iranian naval vessels on Friday seized 15 British sailors who had boarded a merchant ship in Iraqi waters of the Persian Gulf as part of efforts to protect the Iraqi coastline and its oil terminals, U.S. and British officials said.

The British government summoned the Iranian ambassador in London and demanded “the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment.” The U.S. Navy, which operates off the Iraqi coast along with British forces, said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard naval forces were responsible.

I really don’t have any reason to believe that the story as written isn’t true, but the first thing that springs into my mind is “Gulf of Tonkin incident.”

Update: Read the comments. If I weren’t a terrible writer, I’d be able to express my point clearly without needing half a dozen comments to do it.

There’s a quote, variously attributed to Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli, and George Bernard Shaw, that goes something like this:

Show me a young conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains.

My brain must be shrinking, because the older I get the more left wing I get.

I remember breathing a sigh of relief when the Liberals won the 2004 election because it meant that the evil Conservatives and their “hidden agenda” were kept out of power. After ten years of Jean Chrétien, two years of Paul Martin, and more than a year of Stephen Harper, I’ve finally come to realize that it makes no difference whatsoever whether the Liberals or Conservatives are in power. They’re pretty much exactly the same:

Liberal, Tory, same old story.

Garrison Keillor is not only an unfunny idiot, he’s also a homophobic pig. Not that anyone under the age of 90 listens to him anyway.

Update: Commenter Dom points out Garrison Keillor’s non-apology apology, complete with “Some of my best friends are gay.”

The quotes from Mandeep Sheena and family in the Toronto Star’s story on the most recent census population figures made me shudder:

Mandeep Sheena can’t stop smiling when she tries to describe what her little slice of suburban heaven means to her.

[ ... ]

“My parents love the fact that there’s Highway 403 and Highway 410 and Highway 401 so close by,” said Harpreet, pointing out that her father commutes to Scarborough daily to his furniture store.

[ ... ]

The family owns two older-model vans, a truck for their business and a Mercedes Benz that stays in the garage except for special occasions.

The nearby Heartland Centre, a sprawling big-box plaza at the intersection of Mavis Rd. and Britannia Rd. W., is “awesome,” says Harpreet.

A Price Chopper is a minute’s drive away on the other side of Mavis Rd.

Name the chain you want, big or medium, and it’s probably in the neighbourhood.

“There’s nothing that’s not there,” she said. “Anything I want to buy is within a two-minute drive.”

Let’s get this straight:

• “suburban heaven” is apparently not an oxymoron,
• Having three highways close by is a good thing,
• Having four vehicles is not insane,
• Big box plazas are “awesome”,
• Driving for groceries is OK because it’s only “a minute’s drive away”, and
• “Anything I want to buy is within a two-minute drive.”

If this world were not completely insane, that article would be a parody. But wait, it gets better:

It’s also a multicultural area, where no particular ethnicity dominates. Asked to describe the composition of the neighbourhood, the Sheenas point to “Indian, white, Chinese, Portuguese and Canadian” neighbours.

White, Portuguese, and Canadian!

The weather has been warm the past few days, so two months’ worth of accumulated ice and snow has been melting all at once.

This afternoon, the bus stop I wait at in the afternoon was flooded. So was the sidewalk next to it. Because the street is on a slight slope, the runoff had created a miniature river. While I was waiting for the bus, I play with it with my feet and with fallen branches and nearby chunks of ice. I was in the middle of building a dam out of nearby chunks of ice when the bus arrived. For a few minutes I felt like a kid again.

Five years ago on this day, I met Mark at a party I hadn’t planned on going to.