WesinVictoria

Well, I'm back. I never got around to posting whilst I was in BC, didn't really seem all that important. I'll recall my adventures over the next few entries. Friday consisted of chilling on a patio with some local brews and playing a little poker with Dave's buddies. The poker was not my finest hour, going bust twice to modest competetion really hurts. Ah well I'll blame it on the 5 G&T's that Dave made me drink. Dave was pretty gunned, but don't worry he didn't drive, well he didn't drive a car. Dave's pullin mad chicks with his new pimp ride....
I mean Dave gets what he needs driving the AirCav, this has really put him over the edge. We spent a year on the beach Saturday afternoon, wicked times.


I'll post some more later....

suffering from exhaustion...

I was reading this story about Kate Moss snorting coke through a road cone, it was the usual crap but at the end it mentioned her being admitted to some rehad facility earlier in her career 'suffering from exhaustion'. I'm sure modeling is hard work, changing clothes dozens of times, snorting all that blow etc. but is it really harder than, say working on a paving crew? Or planting trees? Or digging a ditch? I haven't heard of one ditch digger being admitted anywhere because he was "suffering from exhaustion". Does that even make any sense? Isn't the cure for exhaustion, sleep and relaxation? Can't you do that at home? If someone is 'suffering from hunger' just give them a sandwich, don't admit them to some bullshit clinic. If someone is suffering from exhaustion send them home to bed. "But they are under intense stress, they have so many obligations" People in Iraq and New Orleans are under intense stress, people in Darfur are under intense stress, models suffer from delusions of grandeur and that can be cured easily, a kick in the ass and a slap upside the head...

Are you mad because we are losing...

...or are you mad because we shouldn't be fighting?


This article highlights the major problem that exists in the US political system, the complete lack of meaningful opposition. While there are many democrats and moderate republicans who think that the war in Iraq was a mistake, their arguments have nothing to do with International Law or morality or unilateralism but rather on mistakes made while fighting / planning for the war. This is similar to the opposition to the war in Vietnam, popular discontent did not really begin to flourish until the flag draped coffins began arriving at Andrews on military transports. The tens of thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodian casualties only got under the skin of a few 'radical organizations' and academics. Little Johnny from next door coming home without any arms and little Bobby waking up screaming every night caused many Americans to question what the hell they were doing in a country few had heard of 5 years before. Iraq is becoming Vietnam. The number of casualties will never be as high, wars are fought differently now, but the hallmarks of a classic quagmire are all there. No clearly defined exist strategy; dedicated and capable guerilla resistance; and the fact that total withdrawal is no longer a viable option. We're fucked if we do and fucked if we don't.
The article does illustrate the colossal nature of the mistakes being made by this administration, the most telling being that when Baghdad was captured almost all of the intelligence capabilities of the ground forces were focused on the WMD Easter Egg hunt rather than on quickly crushing the inevitable insurgency that was still in it's infancy. If Saddam had WMD he would have used them the minute troops crossed the Iraqi border, the hunt for the WMD was not a tactical or strategic decision but rather a political one. Being that WMD were the justification for invading Iraq it was a political necessity that they be found quickly and paraded around for all to see. Political decisions trumping military reality, but the Republicans 'support the troops', what a crock of shit.
Go buy In a Coma, it rocks. I'll be blogging from Victoria this weekend so check back for pictures of me at Dave's bachelor pad, pictures of Dave passed out and possibly a Matt Good show. Late.

B.Sherm's new roommate...

As many of you know my brother, professional poker player / student Brad (shown left, holding sign)lives in the thriving metrolpolis of Lethbridge where the Pilsner flows like water into my basement and movies cost "2 bits" (a nickel on tuesdays) Brad is a homeowner and rides out the bad beats by renting out rooms in the house. (Kinda like Forrest Gumps mom, in fact Brad also had a guy who played the guitar 'real good' and Brad would dance while this guy played...never mind this story ends badly) Brad was trying to fill his last vacancy when he got this email.

Hello I'm NA.
how do you do?
i'm really sorry.....i didn't understand exactly....
so i send mail to you
I'll instroduce myself....
i'm 22 years old from KOREA. I came here to study english 3month ago. so i
cannot speak english well.....
uhm.....i living in downtown of calgary. I'm gonna leave at 10 am. i might
arrive 1 o'clock.
how can i get to your house? could you pick me up?
how can i pay for house fee? can i pay it this sunday?
and i heard to you. house fee is $350 included utilities.
there aren't a bed,a desk, and tv in my room...... right? so i need a
bed, a desk, a tv......right?
if there are ded, desk i like....but i don't care....(haha^^)
uhm.... i just want a pillow and bed clothes....
could you lend me these?
ok~~ my phone number is 403) 714-0574......
please send to me e-mail. i'll wait your answer...
thank you very much. thank you for listening my bad english.......

What should Brad do with NA?
	Tell him he can sleep in the yard if he mows the lawn and shovels snow.
	Tell him he can sleep on the couch like Steven Wright in "Half-Baked"
	Hire him as house chef.
	Tell he can stay but that the house has hundreds of cameras hidden and they are on TV in Korea
	Grill him about the slow pace of negoitions regarding North Korean nuclear disarmament.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Wing-nut Tar Heel

Holy shit is the chick racist! I guess the ends always justify the means hu chiky-poo?

Click Here to read this piece of crap.

There is opportunity in disater...

Haliburtan scores again.

I was right....

....see the next post for the relevance of this.

B.Sherm's take on the subject

Ok first things first, the shape radio is in is amazing when compared to TV. I don't have cable, cause I'm not P. Diddy so I'm stuck with 4 channels I can listen to, and 3 that I can actually see. The channel that works best is CBC, which is nice during the hockey season but every other time it blows. CBC through out the day shows a number of shows like the Red Green show, and This hour has 22 minutes all from the mid to late 90's, I'm so sick of Jean Chretien jokes that I'm almost tempted to stop watching TV and start reading, and that's sad. The evening is even worse, with Just for Laughs Gags, which is so welfare that it is filmed without sound. Then they show us BBC news how the hell is that Canadian? And I can't stand how they only show those Simpsons from the first 2 seasons. But the absolute worst thing CBC does is the channel goes off air at midnight which is just a low blow, your taking one third of my viewing options away and for that I say shame on you. Add in the odd 80's French movie and I'm ready to hang myself in the bathroom. Oh yeah and for anyone who says don't be such a cheap ass get cable, you could say the same thing about radio, cause you could just pay and get satellite radio, but I think its smarter to get things for free over paying for them, that's why I'm posting this with a borrowed internet signal. And for the record I'm not cheap, I waste money on other things. Well that's it for B.SHERM the little bro of the big blogger WES


Editor's notes - CBC is currently experiencing a labour disruption, hence the BBC news and lack of announcers at CFL games.

Just for Laughs Gags does have sound, they just don't have microphones that capture any speech. They do have about 6 sound effects that come standard on the Fisher Price "Baby's synthesizeroard and Synthsizer". I think I would rather hear those wooshing noises when they lift some dudes rug off his dome than to hear him curse in french.

As for 80's French movies, there is sometimes brief nudity buried somewhere in the middle butsittinghardly worth siting through the rest of the snooze fest.
Oh yeah, not to quibble but I'm pretty sure it's just Diddy now. He dropped the P. Why he thinks anyone cares is beyond me, and why I know that is also beyond me.

A defense of CANCON

My friend and fellow blogger Dwight has penned an interesting and humorous entry deriding the state of Calgary radio. I whole-heartily agree with most of what Dwight states. The FM dial is a disaster that seems to represent every demographic except "normal people who like good music not replayed ad-nausium with some intelligent humor mixed in". Good music not being defined as Celine Dion or Def Leopard, and intelligent humor being devoid of farting and throwing phones into a blender. I'm not asking for a Dave Chappelle / Noam Chomsky hybrid but how old is Gerry Forbes' schtick getting? (How old is Forbes anyway? Is farting still funny when you're 45+? We all know that the British refer to a cigarette as a fag, who many times can you replay that bit?)
Dwight throws in a casual critique of CANCON (Canadian Content) citing the overplay of Brain Adams and Celine Dion, and I agree with this sentiment 100%, to quote South Park the Movie "The Canadian government has apologized for Brian Adams on numerous occasions". However the idea of CANCON is a noble and valiant effort to subsidize the work of Canadian artists who would otherwise be overshadowed by American artists backed by huge media conglomerates. Canada and the United States are unique in the world in that they are two nations that speak the same language and have similar cultures but one is at least 10 times bigger than the other. This leads to a situation in which it is very hard for Canadian talent to get sufficient air time compared to their American counterparts. Market fundamentalists will argue that the cream will rise to the top regardless of country of origin and that if Canadians really wanted to hear other Canadians sing their would be no need to subsidize and regulate the radio industry. Bull Shit.
Now I'm no economist (ask Tara and Max)(Oh yeah Max isn't an economist either, but Blake reads the Economist so maybe I should ask him) but I think that markets accurately reflect consumer demand when there is a level playing field. The absence of a level playing field means that the weaker side must be given a leg up in order to compete. When Britney Spears is shown on every TV station and record stores have life size cut outs of her all over the store what chance does an artist like Fiest have? If you are a fan of American mass culture then CANCON does get in the way of hearing more Nelly songs and seeing Fear Factor: Porn Stars Edition, but if most of that crap is not up your alley then CANCON may be your friend.
What Dwight criticized was not the idea of CANCON but the reality of it, and I agree that things appear to have gone off the rails somewhere. I don't have any stats but it seems to me the majority of CANCON that is heard is not up and coming Canadian artists (Canadian Idol contestants aside) but rather aging "classic" rockers or artists who have no earthly need for any form of subsidization.But what is to be done? Can the government force stations to play unknown artists rather than ready-packages superstars? When ever a social problem in Canada emerges it seems we look to one place for possible solutions, Australia.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has a station called triple J that seems to answer many of the problems relating to CANCON. Rather than forcing regulation on independent industries the government has ventured into the industry and done remarkably well. Local artists are given precious air time, different types of music are featured nightly and DJ's have more flexibility than the usual playlist crap that is forced on DJ's by the omniscient and in Calgary's case wholly moronic Music Director. JJJ is not the most listened to station in most markets but it does well enough to allow Aussie acts to come to prominence in Australia. Can the CBC budget allow for a new FM station that will feature Canadian acts? Well probably not, it's a little late to be jumping into the FM radio gig but sprucing up my beloved CBC would be a good start.

Go Bill!

Hilarious!

Bill Maher

"[Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff] said, 'The critical thing was to get people out there before this disaster. Some people chose not to obey that order. That was a mistake on their part.' And this is what I call 'unintentional racism.' Because this guy - that's the whole thing with the Bush people. They just can't imagine, 'Why don't you just pack up your Range Rover, grab a case of Poland Spring water out of the garage, and go to your summer home? What is the problem?!' They just don't get it." – Bill Maher


too true....

12 Books that Changed the World...

Some fish wrap in the UK is listing what they believe to be the 12 books that most changed the world. I don't know where they got the number 12 but it's an interesting list.

The 12 books are:
Darwin - The Origin of Species (1859)
The First Rule Book of the Football Association (1863)
William Shakespeare's First Folio (1623)
Newton - Principia Mathematica (1687)
Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations (1776)
William Wilberforce - Speech to the House of Commons (May 12 1789)
The King James Bible (1611)
Patent Specification for Arkwright's Spinning Machine (1769)
Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
Michael Faraday - Experimental Research in Electricity (1855)
Marie Stopes - Married Love (1918)
Magna Carta (1215)

I consider myself a well read man, and I haven't read any of these books. But then I doubt that many people have read The first rule book of the football association. I would have thought the list would have been based on literature and not speeches or rule books or patent specifications. I thought this would make interesting copy for my blog but I am quickly realizing that it does not. Seacrest Out.

What's the special tonight?

Un-freakin- believable!

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16533580-13762,00.html

Giving in to despair...

Comments...

I know some of you like to leave comments about some of the articles that I write. Some people like to correct errors that I supposedly make, others like to call me a fag, both of which are fine with me. However I have been getting some unwanted comments 'comment spam' as it were and it must stop now. These sort of messages have no place on this great market place of ideas...


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1:04 AM

If these guys are making so much money that 'their heads are spinning' then why are they wasting time commenting on my humble piece of cyber-real estate? I know I know, they use some kind of software that spits this shit out by the millions but if that's true and you are sending this crap to at least thousands of websites viewed by millions of people (or tens of people in my case) then maybe you want to re-read what you've written. "It pretty much covers make easy money today to learn more. " uh yeah, well said. I pretty much think you and your retarded scheme are a few cards short of a hand. I checked out this guys website and it's the usual bull shit, me and Max might collaborate on a joint email requesting this guy's SIN number and his shoe size. He actually posts a phone number that works however since I called at 2:54 am there was nobody there. Anyway I'm not through with this douche bag so stay tuned for further info.

Like Mother Like Son....

I now know where George Dubya gets his sensitivty and compassion from.

Barbara Bush: Things Working Out 'Very Well' for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans

By E&P Staff

Published: September 05, 2005 7:25 PM ET updated 8:00 PM

NEW YORK Accompanying her husband, former President George
H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in
Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the
poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated,
"This is working very well for them."

The former First Lady's remarks were aired this
evening on National Public Radio's "Marketplace"
program.

She was part of a group in Houston today at the
Astrodome that included her husband and former
President Bill Clinton, who were chosen by her son,
the current president, to head fundraising efforts for
the recovery. Sen. Hilary Clinton and Sen. Barack
Obama were also present.

In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of
evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost
everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to
Houston."

Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of
scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is
so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you
know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she
chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."


Yes, it certaintly has worked out well fof them. Spending day after day in a stinking hell hole with no communication with the outside world, inadequate food and water, people dying all around you... Yeah it certainly did work out well for them. I think it worked out pretty well for your son too. Dad gets him out of the draft, dad gets him money for his half assed oil companies that he runs into the ground, dad's buddies on the supreme court get him elected in 2000, things have worked out pretty well for Dubya I'd say.

Crazy stories...

Anyone ever seen 28 Days Later? New Orleans is starting to sound exactly like that. The local paper, The 'Times-Picayune' has set up a blog / forum for people to post their own stories.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001053452
Now obviously there is no way to verify these stories but it would seem likely that they are true. I was watching some CNN footage and the scope of what has happened seems to have the reporters on full blown tilt. A CNN reporter was interviewing the Governor of Louisiana when he felt he'd heard enough of the bullshit spin job that he was witnessing.

"Anderson Cooper was even harsher, challenging Sen. Mary Landrieu for thanking President Bush for his efforts to aid her state. "Senator, I'm sorry for interrupting," he said. "For the last four days I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi ... You know, I gotta tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated. And when they hear politicians thanking one another, it kind of cuts them the wrong way right now. Because literally there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman had been laying in the street for 48 hours and there's not enough facilities to take her up. Do you get the anger that is out here?"

I would have liked to hear her answer. It's is frightening to think that this was a disaster that we saw coming, everyone knew it was coming days in advance and look at the pathetic response! 4 days after the levees broke there were only 1200 National Guardsmen in New Orleans, there should be 30,000 plus! They should have been on stand by waiting to move in. What would have happen if a terrorist had blown up the New Orleans levee system and there was no warning? How bad would things have been then? There are reports that up to 20% of the local police force has stopped showing up for work, can you blame them? Anyway I find this whole situation very frustrating and have very little faith left in the emergency preparedness of any government.

My kind of charity....

I encourage all poker players who read this blog to join. Instead of just donating your money why not have a little fun with it! I'll be in for sure, RedMileKid will be the guy who busts your sorry ass so watch out for the check-raise on the turn (my patented move). As an added bonus you can try and beat Wil Wheaton, the guy who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, if you happen to bust him out he'll give you a signed copy of his book ;) Anyway it's for a good cause and Pokerstars is matching all donations and I think they'll probably throw in some Pokerstars schwag as well. It's getting freakin crazy down there so lets shuffle up and deal and help out a little.

From Pokerstarsblog.com

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

PokerStars to host Hurricane Katrina relief tournaments
From the comfort of my dry home, I sat and watched the storm of the century roll through the Gulf of Mexico. I hoped, like everyone else, the hell storm would fall apart or drift back into the ocean. I thought of my friends on the coast, the good times I've had in the Big Easy, and the tens of thousands of people who couldn't find safe passage to places north. Then I woke up and saw the destruction. Such a familiar place suddenly looked so unfamiliar. Like many of you, I'm sure, I wondered what, if anything, I could do. Team PokerStars member Wil Wheaton was thinking the same thing.So, coming up on September 12th and 14th, PokerStars.com and Wil Wheaton will host two Hurricane Katrina Relief tournaments with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross. PokerStars will be matching every buy-in 100% and will be offering prizes to the winners. Wil will also be offering autographed copies of one of his books to every member of both final tables.The event on September 12th will be a $5+$0 No-Limit Hold'em freezeout at 9:30pm. The event on September 14th will be a $20+$0 No-Limit Hold'em freezeout tournament at 9:30pmWithin the next day or soAs of right now, you'll find the tournaments under the "Tourney" and "Special" tabs.I spoke with Wil a bit ago and he mentioned he often realizes that you can find the best in people during the worst of times. I couldn't agree more.Go give it your best.
posted by Brad "Otis" Willis at 10:20 AM

See you at the final table...

A friend in need.....

Hurricane Katrina is quickly being recognized as the worst natural disaster to ever hit the United States of America. Canada is America's closest ally. The ideological gap between our two countries has grown to levels unheard of historically but this does not reflect upon the relationship between the American people and the Canadian people. That being said like a true neighbor we are attempting to help the Americans in their time of need. But alas things are not that simple...

On tonight's news, CTV (Canadian TV) said that support was offered from Canada. Planes are ready to load with food and medical supplies and a system called "DART" which can provide fresh water and medical supplies is standing by. Department of Homeland Security as well as other U.S. agencies were contacted by the Canadian government requesting permission to provide help. Despite this contact, Canada has not been allowed to fly supplies and personnel to the areas hit by Katrina. So, everything here is grounded. Prime Minister Paul Martin is reportedly trying to speak to President Bush tonight or tomorrow to ask him why the U.S. federal government will not allow aid from Canada into Louisiana and Mississippi. That said, the Canadian Red Cross is reportedly allowed into the area. Canadian agencies are saying that foreign aid is probably not being permitted into Louisiana and Mississippi because of "mass confusion" at the U.S. federal level in the wake of the storm.

I won't attempt to score cheap political points by discussing how the war in Iraq has depleted the National Guard so much that it is unable to provide the service it is meant to provide, to 'Guard the Nation not to occupy foreign nations that possess WMD..I mean nations that participated in 9/11...I mean nations that pose a threat to America.. I mean nations that have large reserves of oil. I also won't mention this story that details the funding cuts to New Orleans flood control projects and the reason for the cuts. (cough cough IRAQ)