Excited Delirium

I saw a vanity license plate the other day on a particularly large SUV. It was “Escalady”.

My wife and I laughed about it for a moment or two, but somehow the term “Escalady” entered our vernacular very quickly. As a marketer, I’m now fascinated with the notion that this new breed of personality could become the next ‘minivan mom’ or ’soccer mom’.

With apologies to that certain manufacturer of large SUVs, I wanted to explore the personality traits of the ‘Escalady’ and what she might represent:

• The more mature, empty nest ‘mini-van mom’?
• A ‘get the f**k out of my way type of person? Male or female?
• Someone who’s intensely fearful and driven by media to protect themselves with outrageously over-sized vehicles?
• The ‘my other tank is a tank’ type that mows down all pedestrians and cyclists, calling them pussies as they drive by?
• The folks who swear that they buy organic, but who also refresh their lawns with bottled water?
• Or … is it the kind of person who has a bumper sticker that reads “Flexfuels: my truck just ate your dinner”?

In all seriousness, is this a category of folks that deserve ‘classification’?

Too funny … if it weren’t too true:

http://blip.tv/file/520347

My family doctor and I have a discussion about vaccines every time I visit. She’s for. I’m against. I keep bringing in stuff related to questions about vaccinations, she keeps bringing in research reports that prove I’m wrong. We’re at a stale-mate and I’d like to be proven wrong.

However, as long as there remains a grain of doubt, I will personally refuse any kind of vaccinations, as well as prevent my child from taking them.

Here are a couple of stories:
Story One.
Story Two.
Book One.
Book Two.
Religious Exemption.
Canada – Religious Exemption.
Disease History & Anaylsis of Vaccine Impact
Vaccine Recalled. (How do you recall a vaccine once it’s been dumped into your kid’s arm?)

Story Here.

What? Did we expect an air of civility with this kind of situation? Should we expect anything other than prostitutes, drugs, bribes and other graft being used to ensure a constant flow of lucrative contracts?

Federal prosecutors in Rock Island have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm that holds the contract, along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Rock Island sentenced the Army official, Chief Warrant Officer Peleti “Pete” Peleti Jr., to 28 months in prison for taking bribes. One Middle Eastern subcontractor treated him to a trip to the 2006 Super Bowl, a defense investigator said.

At the centre of this article lies KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the well known company that Vice President Dick Cheney ran for years before his current position and a company in which he may (or may not) continue to hold financial assets.

Somehow, I’m sure the Liberals and the Harpies will work their way around this demand of the Canadian public, but in the interim, this poll shows that almost the majority of Canadians want out of Afghanistan. Now, 54% would be happy to stay until 20011 or beyond, proving that the nation is divided and that we need unbiased information about why or why not we should be there.

Vote here to show your opposition to the war in Afghanistan.

Story Here.

Why is it that the RIAA will not treat consumers like people rather than animals or test subjects or criminals? Their ideas consistently so out there and yet, they have the ears of lawmakers and public officials, and may actually be successful with some of the their efforts.

Here’s a quote from the story:

… RIAA boss Cary Sherman suggested that Internet filtering was a super idea but that he saw no reason to mandate it. Turns out that was only part of the story, though; Sherman’s a sharp guy, and he’s fully aware that filtering will prompt an encryption arms race that is going to be impossible to win… unless users somehow install the filtering software on their home PCs or equipment.

Last night, Public Knowledge posted a video clip from the conference that drew attention to Sherman’s other remarks on the topic of filtering, and what he has to say is downright amazing: due to the encryption problem, filters may need to be put on end users’ PCs.

Just when people are starting to understand how to ‘unplug’ themselves from various controls on their media habits, online activities and preferences, these kind of proposals get tossed around. Let’s hope they don’t stick to anything.

Story Here.

I love it when tax dollars are used so efficiently to manipulate people into believing there’s any good to be gained from having our friends and family members killed in Afghanistan:

The Department of National Defence is intruding on academic financing, spending millions of dollars sponsoring think tanks and scholars to offer up agreeable commentary. When these intellectuals comment, they are not always quick to disclose that the military funds them.

Take the Conference of Defence Associations, a think tank that got $500,000 from DND last year. That money comes not with strings, but with an entire leash. A current DND policy reads that to receive money, CDA must “support activities that give evidence of contributing to Canada’s national policies.” Apparently, if CDA’s activities were neutral and unbiased, or even-handedly supported and questioned government policy, DND would refuse to pay!

…

Maclean’s (magazine) got CDA’s executive director, Colonel Alain Pellerin, to admit that the contract obliges it “to write a number of op-eds to the press” — propaganda paid for by you and me.

Story Here.

A applaud the province of BC for implementing a carbon tax, assuming all of the funds will be used to finance public transit, green buildings, etc. However, allowing a provincial piecemeal approach to this situation is going to result in provinces competing against each other, where the ‘good’ provinces have implemented unique strategies for responding to environmental issues, whereas ‘bad’ provinces will do nothing.

What’s more important is that provinces and cities are getting more creative in seeking out ways to tax individuals for their use of certain products (be they vehicles or roads or garbage disposal), but it doesn’t feel like anything is being done at the corporate level to address manufacturing standards and reductions at the source.

Story Here.

This is no way to run a federal government. Flaherty continues to throw insults at the government of Ontario and the provincial Liberals are being bullied into making archaic tax reforms that died with the Harries Tories.

This time, it’s Flaherty saying that the McGuinty government should reduce taxes in order to make Ontario’s manufacturing sector more competitive, but the reality is that this strategy just doesn’t work. We’ve seen it before (“Tax Breaks Don’t Work”) and we’ll see it again, but depleting your treasury of revenue simply so that the upper crust and foreigners can make more money is a quick way to destroy your economy. Look at what’s happening in the US.

What’s troubling with these petty jabs from the federal government is that it won’t be long before the people of Ontario say enough is enough and make a decision to do something rash like bow out of the Equalization Program. Ontario pays more than its fair share to keep things going in this country and the people of Ontario are tired of subsidizing ’short term’ resource programs in provinces like Alberta and Newfoundland.

The Ontario Liberals can’t control the US dollar, which is the primary reason our manufacturing sector is taking a hit. What the FEDERAL government can do is influence the Canadian dollar by lowering interest rates, which will put more money in the pockets of all Canadians. The FEDERAL government can also require minimum production requirements. The FEDERAL government can also implement export taxes on resources to ensure that all Canadians benefit from the high value of commodities and not just Albertans. The FEDERAL government can encourage international discussions with other trade partners to eliminate our dependence on the US for trade. The FEDERAL government can act like adults and stop using partisan politics to threaten non-Tories.

Instead, in the last budget, Flaherty implemented tax cuts that indirectly subsidize those industries that are doing well in today’s economic climate. Yesterday’s industries devoted to rocks, logs, oil and hogs.

Does anyone know more about this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vl3YnBEgkc

http://www.consciencecanada.ca/new/

I’m fascinated by the concept, but is it something that the Canadian Revenue Agency will actually recognize?

If you withhold your funds, are you going to have a bunch of blacked-booted thugs banging on your door demanding their money? I know it sounds paranoid, but if all of us start this, the Blackwaters and Taser Internationals will start getting hungry. And hungry dogs bite.