Apple MacBook Pro 2014 Review

It's been many months since I've blogged, I've been quite busy with a lot of cool things happening in my life, which have conspired to keep me away from the old BlogSpot.

Last week saw the launch of the refreshed 2014 Apple MacBook Pro, and I ordered one on the day of release.  As luck would have it I happened to be working in a state with a nice low sales tax, so I figured I could save some money too.

Specifically, I ordered the MacBook Pro 2.8GHz with 8Gb of RAM and 512Gb of HD space.  This is a bump over my 2012 MacBook Air of 1GHz of processor speed, twice the RAM and twice the HD space.

Back in 2012 when I ordered my first Mac computer I opted for the Air simply because I travel a lot with work, and was looking for lightweight.  Back then the MacBook Pro contained an optical drive and a mechanical hard drive, making for a heavier and arguably more delicate machine.  This, as well as the price, was the ultimate reason for the choice of the Air.

Fast forward two years and I am now a total Apple convert.  I now have my MacBook Air, an iPad Air, four Apple TVs (one for each TV!), and the iPhone 5S.  Apple really have won me over, big time.

The new MacBook Pro has thus far proven to be an excellent investment.  First off the Retina display is like going from DVD to Blu-Ray.  Everything is just smoother, faster, and more beautiful looking.  It really cannot be underestimated how gorgeous the display is.  Rich vibrant colors.  No pixelation.  Just beautiful.  Some reviewers whine about refections from the glossy display.  Not an issue unless you sit with a ton of light behind you when working (and why would you do that?).

Migration from the old Mac was perhaps one of the easiest I have ever encountered in the 32 years I've been using computers.  It was hampered by the fact that I am beta testing OS X Yosemite on the old Air, unfortunately making some of the migration tools throw a hissy fit due to backwards compatibility issues.  Had I been doing a more traditional upgrade from OS X to same OS X or newer, then the transfer would have been way easier.

Even with this little wrench in the works, the migration was still super easier.  I purchased a 3Tb external USB 3.0 HD for $129 (amazing how cheap those are now), and did the Time Machine back up.

From there I had to manually transfer folders over to get around the OS X incompatibility.  Many of the smaller apps just copied over.  I had to download the re-install Office, because it's not like Microsoft to make it easy to migrate anything ever.

Adobe were their typical evil money grabbing bastards.  I ran into issues downloading Dreamweaver CS6, when parts of their web site that happened not to be trying to sell me their stupid rip off subscription service mysteriously malfunctioned and then pointed me back to ads for their new products rather than allowing me to download software I already owned.

Adobe further annoyed me by ignoring my request for customer assistance via email.  Even when I did finally find part of their web site not returning error messages, and re-download my software it insisted that I track down my serial number for my older CS5.5 version, enter that, and then put in the serial for CS6.  I only purchased an upgrade last time, so they had to waste some of my time as punishment for not emptying my bank account in their general direction.

In fact, truth be told, installing three pieces of Adobe software was actually the most time consuming of all, even Microsoft beat them out.  Not because it was hard to do, but because Adobe was doing all they could to persuade me to ditch the software I have paid for in favor of simply sending them $30 every month FOREVER!

I have to say, I think this software subscription concept is bullshit.  I use Dreamweaver a handful of times a month for a few minutes; yet I am expected to pay $20 a month for it?  And if I refuse, I get stuck with old software that won't ever be updated?  Nice blackmail Adobe.

In fact if I bought into this whole subscription model nonsense it would cost me $30 a month for my Adobe products, another $10 for Microsoft.  So now I'm giving away $1440 every three years for the basic productivity tools I want, along with paying for a bundle of software I would absolutely never use.  Oh and Microsoft have not even bothered to update the Mac Office software since the 2011 release.  So much for the promise the subscription model has of always giving me access to the latest software.

The standout was Parallels 9.  I have some work software that will only run on a PC, so I run Windows 7 along with a couple of applications.  I remember it being a hassle to install originally, because I had to buy a DVD player since Microsoft insist on using old school optical discs.  After installing Windows, I had to configure it and install two applications and configure them.  It took a while to get it all working right, and I was dreading doing all that again.

Parallels saved me from all that work, it simply grabbed the Parallels datafile off my back up, wiggled around a bit, and before you know it, a fully working clone of my old machine.  Just incredible.  Windows 7 and the software I need for work runs fast and flawlessly.

In conclusion, I'm very pleased with the MacBook Pro with Retina display.  Just an outstanding machine, and weighing in at just a shade heavier than my old Air it's going to be great for travel, which I spend a lot of my life doing.

Apple have made it child's play to migrate a machine, and within a few hours I was reunited with all my apps and data, working just fine.  I've never had such a stress free experience with a PC ever.

Really my only beef is with Adobe being dicks about their software, which of course has nothing to do with Apple. 

Don't You Mean Christmas?

A former Facebook friend recently commented derisively that I had named a photo album 'holidays' instead of Christmas, and inquired as to why.  So I thought I'd address that question here.

1) My friends include a wide variety of people with different beliefs and viewpoints.  The term holiday for me includes at this time of the year Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year.  However, my Jewish friends may choose to celebrate Hanukkah.  My British friends won't be celebrating Thanksgiving with me.  And this is all okay.  It is the holiday season and you can celebrate or not celebrate whatever you want.

2) Jesus was not born at Christmas.  Sorry Christians, but he just wasn't.  Look at the Bible; when Mary and Joseph went to give birth to Jesus in Bethlehem the shepherds were sleeping in the fields with their flock.  That's how they saw the magic star in the sky.  Well in that part of the world it was too cold to be out in December, so shepherds would certainly not be outside at that time of year.  Also, the reason Joseph and Mary were going to Bethlehem was because of the census.  Because of the extreme weather at that time of year they would never call a census in December.  Weather conditions would again be too harsh.  So just those two pieces of evidence alone shows us that Jesus was definitely not born in December.  Not to mention the fact that the Bible does not at any point claim that Jesus was born in December.

3) Christians hijacked Christmas!  The pagan festival of winter included the tradition of bringing a tree inside for good luck.  That's why we have Christmas trees.  It has nothing to do with Christianity or Jesus.  Early Christians simply repurposed a popular holiday and labeled it Jesus' birthday.  So let's not get all indignant that people with different beliefs do not capitulate and accept the incorrect notion that Christmas is the birthday of Jesus.

While we're on the subject of the supposed war on Christmas, I also wanted to mention that it is NOT an affront to Christianity to write Xmas instead of Christmas.  Xmas in fact is a historic abbreviation 'mas' coming from the Latin derived Old English for mass.  The X is from the Greek Chi, the first letter of the word 'Χριστός' which translates as Christ.

So it is a Fox News type of lie that Xmas is disrespectful or part of the fictional 'war on Christmas.'  It was in fact a historical term for Christmas dating back to the 16th century.

The bottom line here is that the holiday season means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  But let's stop pretending that there is some kind of war on Christmas.  No one in the free world is prevented from putting up a tree, stuffing their face with food, and pretending that Jesus was born in a stable on December 25th.

Just enjoy the holidays, whatever they mean to you, and stop trying to heap your beliefs on others at this time of year.

The NRA and 3D Printed Guns?

In 2012 there were quite a few shootings in the United States, including several of the crazy guy goes on a killing spree type of situations.  In the wake of all this human suffering the NRA began putting out their usual message in their typically loud and obnoxious voice that no gun laws ever fixed a gun problem, and that the only solution is for more 'good guys' to have guns.

Of course the reality behind the NRA is that all they want to do is funnel massive amounts of cash into the hands of the gun industry.  They don't actually care about the Second Amendment, your rights, my rights, or anything else.  It's just about money and greed.  The fewer restrictions on guns, the more you can sell.  And if you happen to stir up some unprecedented fear you can create gun sales so high manufacturers literally cannot keep up with demand.

But a new technology is emerging fast, and that's the concept of the 3D printer.  A device capable of producing with incredible accuracy objects that have been designed on a computer.

In the future you will be able to produce a three dimensional object almost as easily as you can print out a letter today.  The technology has moved quickly and fast, and is already at a stage where people are producing usable weapons.

It is really only a matter of time before highly dangerous weapons can be produced by any person with a computer and a 3D printer, and that begs a very interesting question...

The year is 2016, I turn off the news after hearing with interest that President Hillary Clinton has just appointed President Bill Clinton to the Supreme Court.  I go online and order up a 3D printer from Amazon.com and the next day it arrives.

I set it up, and within a week, my printer has produced all the parts to create a fully working Glock replica.  I then proceed to print a dozen more over the coming weeks, and sell them to my friends for $200 a pop.

Now remember the NRA opposed background checks, restrictions on me selling my guns to my 'good guy' friends, and believe that when it comes to guns, the more the merrier.

So I wonder what position they will take when the source for those guns is no longer the gun industry who support them, but me and people like me, printing guns from a public domain design source.

This scenario isn't as unrealistic as it sounds.  Live testing has already taken place with real guns produced with a 3D printer.  As time goes on such printers will become more affordable, and have a wider variety of materials they can print with.

So the NRA have an interesting road ahead of them.  And I for one can't wait to see the self-serving arguments they make when we see that their true desires all along wasn't looking out for my rights, or pushing their second amendment interpretation as carte blanche for civilians to own whole gun arsenals.

My prediction is that when we can make our own guns cheaply and easily, and we no longer have to plonk down $600 to buy a Glock from a gun dealer, we might start to hear a different tune from the NRA.

Walmart Government?

When I woke up yesterday I was treated to the following post on Facebook, along with an endorsement of the sentiments contained in the post.  Needless to say my liberal head nearly exploded, leaving me no choice but to blog about it...


Wal-Mart vs. The Morons

1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.
2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!
3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.
4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.
5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English.
6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.
7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years.
8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.
9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.
10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago.
11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)
12. 90% of all Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart.  

You may think that I am complaining, but I am really laying the ground work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys 

who run Wal-Mart to fix the economy.

This should be read and understood by all Americans… Democrats, Republicans, EVERYONE!!

To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature, it is now official that the majority of you are corrupt morons:

a. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.
b. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.
c. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.
d. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.
e. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.
f. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.
g. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get
it right and it is an abysmal failure.

You have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars.

AND YOU WANT AMERICANS TO BELIEVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED WITH A GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM??

We're "broke" and can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless etc. and the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, and Turkey and now Pakistan ( the previous home of bin Laden). literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!

Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks.

AMERICA: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without needed medicines, and mentally ill without treatment, etc.

Imagine if the GOVERNMENT gave U. S. the same support they give to other countries. Sad isn't it?

*99% of the people receiving this message won't have the guts to forward this.

*I'm one of the 1% -- I Just Did BEING UNITED SAVES AMERICA!

My first issue was the Wal-Mart worship.  It doesn't take a lot of research to discover that Wal-Mart is pretty evil.  The documentary WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Prices is as good a place as any to start.

Wal-Mart have made their fortune on the backs of the poor.  Consider a pair of jeans as an example.  Someone had to create the denim, dye it, cut them to shape, sew them, rivet them, add buttons, quality control them, send them across the country to a port, send them half way around the world, offload them, drive them across America to a distribution center, drive them to the store, offload them, unpack them, add them into inventory and place them on a hanger in a Wal-Mart store near you.  And they have jeans for under $10!

Consider how many people got screwed in the process.  Don't believe me?  Go to a local taylor and ask them to make you some jeans.  Get back to me if anyone will do it for less than $200.

The savings didn't come from bulk purchase, buying power, or any other accounting magic.  The savings came from using slave labor in a sweat shop where they can get people to work for pennies an hour.  In fact at every point along the way people got screwed, right up to the staff at the Wal-Mart store.  Wal-Mart is famous for their militant efforts to ensure no unions are ever formed.  They exploit loopholes in the law that allow companies to treat part time workers like garbage.  Typically, they will hire people and give them the maximum hours needed to constitute a part time employee, but will then encourage them to work unpaid overtime, which the staff are willing to do in fear of losing their jobs.

By keeping their workers under the thumb in this way Wal-Mart saves a fortune in 'benefits,' that interesting American word for allowing people semi-reasonable access to health care.

In fact by paying poverty wages instead of a livable full time income Wal-Mart saddles the tax payer with around $2.66Bn a year in food stamps and more in other low income assistance programs.

Keep in mind as our original poster, and Wal-Mart fan, pointed out the company makes over $20K in profit every minute of every day, while expecting their workers to work an entire year to earn less than that.  Meanwhile the CEO makes more money in an hour than the average worker will earn in a year.

Our Wal-Mart fan wants us to apply this same logic to running our country!

We already live in a country where children go hungry, poverty is a rampant and serious problem, and our infant mortality figures are an embarrassment.  Yet we should apply some of this Wal-Mart logic to our government?

The most disturbing thing is that the people who post this kind of nonsense and agree to it, are very often low income people themselves.  This isn't the rich telling us this, but low information voters pass this kind of drivel around as if it was common sense.

They love to harp on about us giving 'aid' to other countries despite the fact that it is right around 1% of our Federal budget.  You never hear them whining about the 15% of our budget that is spend on defense.  But hey, what's a trillion dollars if it buys you an awesome big bomb?

Later this post starts banging on about how the government can't be trusted to run health care, even though that's not been proposed.  I guess it's the same logic as gun nuts equating a discussion about gun violence to Obama taking everyone's guns next week.

Ultimately the big problem that America has is that rather cunningly the Republicans have managed to use religion, guns and simplistic black and white wedge issues to garner support.  Then they get into office and shit on the 'little people' from a great height, slashing government assistance programs, investments in people, and leaving corporations to exploit their workers in any number of ways (your waitress still makes $2.13 an hour FYI).

Amazingly after all this abuse, the poor of America keep coming back for more and voting for Republicans, while distributing the kind of nonsense shown above among their friends, and calling it common sense.

I swear, if common sense were really that common, Republicans would have less votes than the Green Party.

The Death of Thatcher

I was standing in a gun shop, looking at ammunition, and a complete stranger from some random American town started asking me about what I thought about The Iron Lady.

I've seen various comments on the Internet over the past few days in the wake of her recent passing on April 8th, and some of the comments have been excessively vitriolic in my opinion.  I've also read of some pretty violent protests in England, and that some websites have had to close comments sections because of abuse.

I think anyone who has read my blog will agree that Thatcher and I share very few political values.  She was a staunch right winger, and certainly far too hard line in many areas.  However, she was an elected leader, the first elected female leader of Great Britain, and her popularity allowed her multiple reelections over the years.

For me, the time to protest her actions and policies was way back when she was in power.  Using the passing of a frail 87 year old woman to spout nasty opinions or protest in the streets is frankly just sick, and has no place in civilized society.

And for those who want to bitch about all the mistakes she made, let me remind you of Neil Kinnock.  Neil was a balding Welshman, who shouted, and ranted, and never once showed any kind of potential as a replacement for Thatcher.

To use a modern example, when George Bush was reelected in 2004, Democrats only had themselves to blame.  Bush was deeply unpopular and a moron, but John Kerry was boring, lacked charisma, and actually managed to get his record as a military hero who saved the lives of his comrades in battle called into question.  He ran a terrible campaign and never captured the imagination of the American people.  Surely if the Democrats had produced a viable candidate, Bush might have remained a one term President, like his father.

I was living in England during the Thatcher era, and even as a young boy I could see the lack of appeal of Neil Kinnock.  He spouted outmoded ideas, and just seemed like an angry white dude versus the cool and calm Thatcher.

It was only years later that a young Tony Blair was able to seize power over the Labour Party, rebrand it, and finally make it a winning party again.

So for those Thatcher detractors, I say cast your mind back, and tell me that in all seriousness, Neil Kinnock would have done a better job at running the country.  And I also say to the Thatcher detractors who chose to mark the passing of this strong leader with violence and hostility; give it a rest.  She has not held a position of power for two decades, and for the last decade has been too frail to even speak publicly.

It's very easy to look back and try and judge a leader from another era, but the 80s were very different times.  For me personally, I think that Lady Thatcher did what she thought was right.  She was a strong and principled leader, who commanded much respect both domestically and globally.  She gave many years of service to the country, and demonstrated that you don't have to be a man to run a country.

I choose to remember the woman who stood up and fought for the Falkland Islands.  The women who went toe to toe with the old white men and would not back down.  She was a visionary, and an inspirational leader of her time.  It is time to forgive her mistakes, celebrate her achievements, and show some respect and compassion in the wake of her death.

The Gun Debate

Before I offer up my opinion on the recent Newtown tragedy, I'd first like to offer my sincere and heartfelt condolences for the victims and their families.  It is impossible to imagine the kind of pain that such an event has caused.

A week after Newtown the NRA have broken their silence to tell us that the solution to the problem of gun violence in this country is to placed armed security guards in every school.  And the problem is access to video games and movies (as opposed to assault rifles with 100 round magazines).

It is really sad that this organization is so drunk on its own political power that they cannot say or do the responsible thing at a time like this.

We've heard all the lines before, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."  And all the other dross that they and the politicians they bought and paid for sing from the same hymn sheet.

Of course we all know that their lies are ridiculous right?  These evil video games and movies that we make here in America are shipped all over the world.  Other countries like Canada have plenty of guns, yet they don't have the same rate of gun homicide.  And countries like Australia and Great Britain laid down their arms and can count their gun homicide rate in the double digits while we'd feel like a miracle had happened if our rate fell into the four digit range.

But I don't believe that the gun violence problem in America is just about the guns; and I guess in that respect I agree with the NRA and Republicans who love to try and shift the focus away from talking about gun control.  I think the problem is far deeper than that.

In my experience living in the US, we have chosen to create a very divided society.  You have the haves, and the have nots.  And thanks to Bush wealth redistribution, the rich have gotten richer, and everyone else has remained stagnant or gotten poorer.  Sadly, we don't even seem to care.

Despite all the rhetoric about what a good Christian nation we have, and God has a special place in His heart for us, we are ironically very much ignoring the teachings of Christ.  Jesus it has to be said, was somewhat of a liberal hippie.  Take from the rich, give to the poor, love thy neighbor, turn the other cheek, don't persecute others, be tolerant of others, and so on and so forth.  Yet we don't do any of these things.

We have created a war-loving nation, we have troops stationed in over 150 nations, and while children in our country go hungry or lack the medicine they need if they are sick, we still maintain the biggest military budget anywhere on the planet.

When a person falls on hard times we begrudgingly given them food stamps (instead of money) and they are forced to shop in certain stores for certain food, and advertise the fact that they are poor in front of their fellow shoppers.  When you demean people in this manner it will erode their self esteem, thus making it even less likely they can nail a job interview.

If a poor person gets sick we take all the money off them we can and then ruin their credit, all while withholding from them the special health care that is reserved only for the well heeled.

My point is when you fail to educate the population well, when you dump on the poor, mentally ill, and vulnerable, you create resentment and the beginnings of dangerous people.

Once you give these disenfranchised people easy access to military grade assault weapons with 100 round magazines you are looking for trouble.

So as the NRA have told you, banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines won't ever stop every atrocity.  And maybe an armed guard at the school would give an extra layer of protection.  But fundamentally we have to become a more caring society, especially if we are going to use Jesus as the example for mankind.

If you walk up to a random person in Canada or England and ask them if they think that health care is a human right; they will probably reply "Of course."  They won't ask about whether the human being in the example is a good or bad person, rich or poor, or has a fancy insurance premium.  In other industrialized countries with universal healthcare a person gets sick and they are taken care of (and this would usually include mental health issues which are often associated with these massacres).

The debate about the effectiveness of various countries health care systems is a topic for another day.  Although it has to be said that America does spend about double what almost every other country per person on healthcare and yet leaves tens of millions out in the cold.

And to me this is what the problem is all about.  We have to get less selfish.  We have to accept that we need to pay taxes.  We have to insist that our politicians stop squandering the money on wars, guns, bombs, drones, and weapons of mass destruction.  We have to reach out to the poor, the mentally disadvantaged, the weak, the unemployed, the disabled, and extend a hand of kindness.

Until we start to show compassion for everyone, even the lazy meth addicts of this world, we cannot move forward.  The more we disenfranchise people and give them easy access to military grade weapons, the more we are going to see terrible acts of violence.

Four More Years

By sheer chance of schedule and a business meeting I got to watch the results come in at a country club surrounded by Republicans watching Fox News try to put a positive spin on the situation.  Was kind of weird.

All that said thank goodness that common sense prevailed and we can put this election behind us.  I think this country faced a serious test and as usual almost half of America (mostly old white dudes) did their best to kick out the black guy and 'restore' America.  These people were willing to ignore the flip flopping, the lack of substance or policy, the lack of tax returns, the bogus personal success narrative, and the false promises of 12 million jobs tax cuts for all; just by magically closing some unspecified 'loopholes.'  (I'm guessing these loopholes didn't include the ones where rich people hide their money in Swiss bank accounts and bogus foreign companies to avoid paying tax.)  Mitt Romney promised many things, and some people were taken in, others would have voted for a giant pig just as long as it wasn't black.

What I find interesting is that Republicans keep going back to the same watering hole that has worked so well for them in the past.  They go after the rich, the evangelical fringe, the old people (while oddly stating a desire to cut their benefits), the racists, and any other white redneck dudes they can find.

Sadly for Republicans (fortunately for the rest of us) this base is eroding at a speedy rate.  More and more people are turning away from extremist religion, homoprejudice, draconian social policies, gender discrimination, xenophobia and racism.  Admittedly these people tend to live in more enlightened parts of the country, but the movement is unmistakable, and I think unstoppable.  Because the fact is old whitey is dying off and being replaced by more progressive young people and people of color.  The draw to the silver haired white dude who is past retirement age is simply diminishing.

If there is one take away from this election for Republicans, it would be to take a cue from former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.  During the Thatcher era one of the reasons she spent 21 years in Number 10 is because her opposition was useless.  The British equivalent of the Democrats was the Labour Party, and they kept pushing further and further to the fringe of their party installing unelectable leaders and pandering to special interests.  In every election Thatcher trounced her opposition and went on to become the longest serving PM in British history.

In a move of political brilliance portrayed in the movie The Deal, Tony Blair secretly garnered support within his party and forced Gordon Brown not to step up to take the leadership of the Labour Party as everyone had expected him to.  With leadership now secured Blair went on to re-invent the Labour Party going so far as to call it New Labour, cutting ties with the extremist fringe and becoming more electable.  After leading his party to victory he led the country for about a decade, stepping down largely because the British public did not accept supporting the American wars in Afghanistan and more importantly Iraq.

I relay this story, because if I have one hope for America it is that Republicans take stock at this point and reset the direction of their party.  They must accept that their base of angry white men and old people are dying off or being superseded by people we once called minorities.  Women too are now less inclined to accept 77% of a man's pay for the same day of work, while being told what they are allowed to do with their vaginas.

I really believe that it will become increasingly hard to keep the applying same old strategies of warmongering, xenophobia, racism, and hard line stances on social policies, gender, reproductive and LGBTQ issues.  With a changing population they must find new less extreme leadership to be successful.  It is very hard to imagine that doubling down on such divisive issues and extremist positions can create a landslide victory for Republicans any time soon.

In watching this election it seemed like Democrats were occupying a centrist position, while the Republicans had left the building in order to see just how far to the right they could possibly move.  And I'm sure the most extreme of them all spouting about legitimate rape and similar can't have helped their case.

So in conclusion, America barely made the right decision, but the right decision was made nonetheless. Time will tell if Republicans learn from this and reinvent themselves as New Labour did, or will they simply keep peddling the same old same old.  I guess we'll find out in a year when the politicking and money squandering will begin all over again.

Facebook Fallacies

I read this incredibly ignorant post on Facebook, and felt the need to respond.  The original post is in blue.


A lot is being said in the media about Mitt Romney not being "likeable" or that he doesn't "relate well" to people. Here is the 'Top Ten List' that possibly explains Mitt's "unlikeablility".

1. Too handsome with a gracious, statesman-like aura. 

Or in other words he is an old white dude.  Since when is being ‘too handsome’ a handicap or a qualification to be President?

2. Been married to ONE woman his entire life, and has been faithful to her, including through her bouts with breast cancer and MS.

Okay.  Our current President has been married for 20 years today to the same woman.

3. No scandals or skeletons in his closet. (How boring is that?)

I’ve got one for you.  How about the fact that he hides his money in secret offshore bank accounts to avoid paying tax?  Or that he had the balls to picket anti war protestors, yet dodged the draft by spending three years in France on a ‘mission’ to recruit people into his cult.

4. Can't speak in a fake, southern, "black Preacher voice" when necessary.

I’m not quite sure what to make of that comment, although I assume it to be thinly veiled racism.

5. Highly intelligent. He graduated cum laude from both Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School ... which by the way, his academic records are NOT sealed.

He attended an elite private school that costs $300,000 to send a kid there in today’s money.  With the benefit of that foundation; an education completely out of reach to most normal kids, how could he fail to get into a good college?  It's a little hard to fail when you are born into such unimaginable privilege.

6. Doesn't smoke or drink alcohol, and has never done drugs, not even in the counter-culture age when he went to college. Too wierd (sic) for today's America?

That’s because he is a member of a weird cult that believes even caffeine is evil and magic underwear is good.

7.      Represents an America of "yesterday", where people believed in God, went to Church, didn't screw around, worked hard,
and became a SUCCESS!

You mean the America where women couldn’t vote and black people had to sit at the back of the bus?  Institutional racism and sexism abound.  And the same good old days where Romney’s cult banned black people and other minorities from joining because they were not as important in the eyes of god as white people.

8. Has a family of five great sons....and none of them have police records or are in drug rehab. But of course, they were raised by a stay-at-home mom, and that "choice" deserves America's criticism.

I’m really not sure that anyone has critized him for having a loving family.  But is that really a qualification for President, or are you just clutching at straws to make your top ten?

9. Oh yes.....he's a MORMON. We need to be afraid of that very strange religion that teaches its members to be clean-living, patriotic, fiscally conservative, charitable, self-reliant, and honest.

Perhaps if you did any research on this cult you would be far less forgiving.  Have a look at exmormon.org and find out what real Mormons who escaped have to say about their lives in the Mormon church.  Heart breaking stories of cult like control and manipulation.

10. And one more point.....pundits say because of his wealth, he can't relate to ordinary Americans. I guess that's because he made that money HIMSELF.....as opposed to marrying it or inheriting it from Dad. Apparently, he didn't understand that actually working a job and earning his own money made him unrelatable to many American voters.

Dreaming.  What more can I say.  As I mentioned in a previous blog article, the guy was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.  That’s how his father was able to afford the kind of elite private education for his kid in the first place.  And without that expensive education, financial support, and business and political connections of his father who knows where he’d be today.

Take Mitt Romney and raise him in a regular family with a state education, don’t give him the three year vacation in France that enabled him to dodge the draft, and you really think he would be as rich or running for President?

I completely reject the narrative that Romney is a self made man.  He got the money and power he has in life because of an accident of birth.  Now sure, he may have worked hard, but so does the baggage handler at the airport.

This election is the most surreal I have seen since I moved to America.  The right are painting this picture of an evil socialist dictator as President, while there guy worked his way from nothing to millionaire through his sheer business acumen and hard work.  Both stories are total bullshit.

Republican Balls

Say what you will about Republicans, but you kinda have to admire their balls.

As I listen to various Republicans in the media on the run up to the 2012 Presidential Election, the thing that astounds me is the lunacy of their arguments.

If we ignore the total dipshit stuff like the racism and birther shit, let's look at some of their other arguments:

1) Obama has not been able to wave a magic wand and fix the economy.

2) Obama's lack of foreign policy skills have left us vulnerable abroad as evidenced by the recent embassy killing.

3) Obama wants to punish rich people for success because he is an evil socialist who wants to redistribute wealth to welfare queens.

4) Obama is the food stamp president, because lots of people are currently on welfare.

I'd like to take a moment to address these bizarre accusations that I keep hearing.

First off, can we stop for a moment and discuss who the fuck destroyed the American economy in the first place?  That's right, the last REPUBLICAN president.  He led us into two wars that were not properly paid for, all while giving massive unfunded tax cuts to the richest people in America.  And despite ten years of Bush tax cuts, it seems as if the 'job creators' have not actually created enough jobs or trickled down their wealth as predicted.

Secondly, has every Republican forgotten 9/11?  While George Bush was on a six week vacation clearing brush on his ranch, intelligence memos were circulating in Washington talking about Osama Bin Laden trying to fly planes into the World Trade Center.  But apparently Bush wasn't paying attention, after all that pesky brush isn't going to clear itself is it?  So on his watch, while he was tasked with the role of Commander In Chief, we suffered the worst terrorist attack in the history of the world.  And then embarked on two unfunded wars in the Middle East which destabilized the region and provided propaganda for those who would wish to hate America.

If we are hated in the Middle East it is because our actions fuel that hate.  Terrorists are not going after Canadian embassies or Australians.  They come after us because we keep poking the hornets nest.  They are not mad at Obama, they are mad at America, and the actions of Bush in the Middle East cannot be downplayed.

As to point three, George Bush enacted two major tax cuts for the rich in 2001 and 2003.  Rich people made out like bandits and the rich poor divide has widened.  We are doing such a bad job of raising revenue to fund our infrastructure that some cities in America have just ripped up street lights because they can't afford the electric bill.  A bit of a third world solution don't you think?  Yet when Obama talks about ending these tax cuts we can no longer afford (and never could afford actually), he is accused of socialism and class warfare.  Republicans would have us believe that we can't afford to pay teachers what they deserve, but we can afford to give tax cuts to millionaires.

And finally they love to attack the President for the welfare problem.  But again, this was created by Republicans!  As George Bush was ending his second term, the economy was losing hundreds of thousands of jobs.  In fact the final Bush year saw our country put 2.6 million people out of a job.  The biggest job loss this country has seen since 1945.

So how is it President Obama's fault that in three years he has not been able to fix all the damage they caused?  He promised us change, and he has given us change.  It could have been a lot better if Republicans had not stonewalled and filibustered everything he tried to do.  Mitch McConnell famously stated that his number one priority was to see to it that Obama did not see a second term.  Notice no mention of the economy, jobs, or doing the right thing for America.  Just a partisan attack strategy that is not in the best interests of the country.

And now we have Mitt Romney, the classical rich douchebag born with a silver spoon in his greedy little mouth, who is peddling the same old Republican crap that put us in this mess in the first place.  Tax cuts for the rich and for corporations, trickle down economics, and an admission that he doesn't give a shit about 47% of Americans.

Quite how anyone with a brain can support a guy like Romney is a mystery to me.  And how so many people can choose to ignore very recent political history is also amazing.  Let us hope there are enough smart people out there to save us from Romney and his dangerous Tea Party Congress.

America: Love Thy (Poor) Neighbor

I don't know what's going wrong in America, but somewhere along the way it has become okay to shit on poor people.

Recently a woman in Georgia was trying to buy groceries at Kroger for her family using her food stamp debit card.  Some kind of error occurred on the cash register and she was told she owed $10 because some of her food items were not eligible for food stamps.

The woman, Cindy Nerger, stood her ground stating that the items were in fact legitimate food stamp purchases.  A manager came over and fixed the problem, but then hurled insults at the woman essentially calling her a freeloader and loser, while reminding her that real Americans work for a living. Cindy was horribly embarrassed in front of the other shoppers and began to cry.  When she later called the customer service hotline to complain, the company offered to send her a $15 gift card as an apology (albeit the most insincere and almost insulting apology one could imagine).

The manager in question was not fired, but was transferred to another location.

The thing is, this is a country that identifies as Christian perhaps more than most other democracies around the world.  We pledge allegiance to the flag and God, we put God on our money, the Ten Commandments in government buildings and bemoan the lack of prayer in schools.  Yet when it comes to actually following Christian values taught by Jesus, we fall a long way short.

Among many Americans there is a horrendous attitude towards the poor.  Instead of treating them with compassion as Jesus instructed, we keep them as the objects of hate and ridicule.  But unlike racism, it is considered acceptable by many because of the false assumption that a good dose of hard work and all of life's problems are instantly solved.

Of course this is a total fallacy.  Numerous studies have now shown that upward mobility in America is stalling and becoming less and less likely, and as with so many other issues we are falling behind many European countries and other countries around the world.

As as for Cindy Nerger, she has kidney failure and has to spend 12 hours a day on dialysis but dreams of one day getting a transplant so she can return to a normal life and rejoin the workforce.  Her husband is a carpenter (like Jesus), but his income can be low in months when he doesn't land enough contracts for work.  And this is why this family need government assistance.

They are not lazy freeloaders, they are not scum, they are not stupid, bad or wrong.  They are Americans and deserve to be treated with the same respect and dignity as anyone else.

Part of the problem here too is the broken system of welfare.  Giving people special cards and letting the government determine what poor people are allowed to eat is humiliating and outrageous.  It's bad enough that people end up in this horrible situation of poverty as it is, without shitting on them from a great height and forcing them to advertise in public that they are not like us.

I'm from one of those terrible socialist countries Republicans like to warn us about, and in my homeland, if you are on government assistance, they just deposit money into your bank account.  You are then free to use that money as you see fit, just like every other free citizen.  But sadly here in America we like to make people feel guilty about their financial situation and have some misguided  belief that humiliating the poor will make them determined to work hard to change their situation.  The problem is; we are starting with the false assumption that being poor is always the fault of the person who is poor, and that they deserve to be punished for it.  I disagree.

Ryan: America You're Too Stupid

Not long after Mitt Romney told us that 47% of Americans are freeloading scumbags that he doesn't care about, we have another astonishing statement come out of their campaign, this time from Paul Ryan.

In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Ryan told us that their wonderful new tax plan designed to fix the economy and make America beautiful again would "take too long" to explain.  We the 53% of America that Mitt Romney cares about are expected to accept some vague promises to lower taxes and close tax loopholes and leave them to handle the details after the election.

It's really hard to know what to even say about this.

We have a multi millionaire who expects us to trust him simply because he is rich, not to ask how he dodged the draft, or how he got so rich, not to look at any more than two of his tax returns, not ask about his shady tax dodging foreign investments, not ask questions about the cult he is a member of, and apparently now not ask for any details of any plans he has to run America.

His campaign has essentially degenerated to blaming President Obama for not fixing the Republican created recession quickly enough, and asking us to simply have faith that he has some kind of magic formula that he's too busy to explain to us.

However it's really no mystery what their game plan is.  Screw the poor and middle class, relax laws that protect consumers, and give a boatload more money to the 1%.  Thanks, but no thanks.

The Magic Bracelet

I have to hand it to the snake oil salesmen of this generation; it's pretty amazing that in today's society of people with access to Google and other Internet resources a con trick company can so easily exist and prosper.

Power Balance bands, and similar wristbands have been sold for several years now, and have become so popular that you see celebrities, sports people, and maybe even people you know wearing them.  However in 2011 they were forced into bankruptcy after a class action lawsuit was brought against them and any and all claims they had made to con people were proven to be false.  Moreover they were also found to have been lying and using deceptive practices to artificially add value to what at the of the day is a silicone band with a hologram sticker attached to it.

These days their website is a lot more conservative about their claims stating that, "The thin polyester film hologram is programmed through a proprietary process, which is designed to mimic Eastern philosophies that have been around for hundreds of years."  Okay then.

The way they convince people to buy their product is through a series of impressive looking tests taken right out of the books of the old time snake oil salesman.  The mark is asked to stand on one leg and hold out their arms to the side.  Then with one finger the grifter pushes down on the mark's elbow and they topple easily.  Then a Power Balance bracelet is placed in the victim's hand and the demonstration is repeated.  But this time the con man is able to push really hard with both hands on the elbow and the mark is able to remain balanced on one leg.  Amazing right?

The bit you don't see (and there's a video at the end of this article you can watch to see the demonstration), is that the first time the con man does the demo he is pushing down but slightly away from the person's body, which easily takes them off balance.  The second time he is pushing slightly towards the body, and thus towards the center of gravity.  To the spectators and the victim it looks like he is pushing a lot harder, but in reality he is helping the mark remain in position.

This weekend, I believe I got to see the same type of con, but this time they have doubled down on gullible.  What I saw this weekend at a conference was a company called Tuning Element selling metal bracelets for as much as $215.  These bracelets which one would normally expect to pay considerably less for as a fashion bracelet are special we are told; "Every Tuning Element bracelet is individually tuned to the Earth's natural frequency of 7.83 hz, and this unique tuning allows your body to tune itself to its own natural frequency of 7-9 hz by simply coming into contact with the skin.  For this reason, our bracelets are designed to be comfortable and durable enough to be worn continuously, and come with a lifetime imprinting guarantee, which means your bracelet will never lose its tune."

Wow.  Tuned to the Earth's frequency.  What a bunch of fucktarded bullshit.

This company has a whole range of designs, some as little as $55, but those are basically just a silicone strap with a small amount of metal tuned to the Earth's frequency.  Their collections range from 'casual' to 'executive.'  And coming soon, according to their web site, they are going to make some from precious metals; which I'm guessing will be a lot more expensive.

It's all just a bit depressing to be honest.  And it certainly isn't a 'dumb American' thing.  These con men have been busy selling this shit all over the world.  Australia prosecuted Power Balance big time for what they did.  Yet still these products exist, people are still buying them.  But worse, there are still people willing to get out of bed every morning and peddle this crap, knowing full well that they are taking advantage of people and lying to their faces.

I don't know how people can live with themselves doing that kind of work.  I guess some people will do anything for a pay check.  I think I'd rather work at McDonalds.  At least that's honest work.

Anyway, here's a nice YouTube video of how the con looks, and how it is performed:

iPhone 5 Lightning Connector Blues

I'm not sure what episode of Star Trek some critics were hoping would be re-enacted at the iPhone 5 launch yesterday, but ever since the launch I keep reading the baby-like whining from some techno journalists about how the phone doesn't have teleportation, or an invisibility cloak, a holographic keyboard, or the ability to render Siri into a real living person to feed your cat when you are at work.  In some areas it seems that some people were expecting a little much from Apple.

Another gripe I've been reading about this morning is the one about the new connector that Apple call Lightning.  It's smaller, faster, better etc, and yet people are whining about it.  "What am I going to do with my old cables and accessories?" they ask with a quiver in their lower lip.

I'll tell you what to do, throw them in fucking garbage along with your VCR, Razr, eight track, and CRT monitor.

Seriously, we really want Apple never to innovate again, because we've gotten used to a certain type of cable?  Should we still be using analog data cables because we didn't want to change to HDMI?  Should we demand that Apple never changes the screen size because our eyes have gotten used to the old one?

Technology is always about change.  It's like the people that always whine when Facebook gets refreshed, and some losers start a page demanding it be rolled back to the old version.  If you don't like new technology don't buy it.  Go get a nice book, and read it over and over.  It won't change shape or size or require some new connector that makes you mad.  The fonts won't get smaller or bigger, and the color will only change slightly over many years as the paper decays.

What I want to ask these so-called journalists though, is why they choose to write about technology if they get so angry when it evolves and improves.  Just seems strange.

Anyway, rant over, time to decide to stay with AT&T or move to Verizon for my iPhone 5 order.

GOP Overachievers

One of the themes we keep hearing from Republicans is how through their own greatness and hard work they have become rich.  The message is essentially if you are poor, it serves you right.  You should have worked harder.

The thing that seriously annoys me is how people like Mitt Romney seem to conveniently forget the insane level of privilege that they were accidentally born into.  The fact is you could take any average white kid and give them access to riches, incredible education, power, and a stable family and there is a very good chance that they would be successful too.

Willard Mitt Romney was named after J Willard Marriott (millionaire hotelier), a family friend, and his father's cousin who was a quarterback for the Chicago Bears.  Mitt's father was CEO of American Motors and became a millionaire from his stock options.

That kind of money would probably explain how a family of four kids could afford to send Mitt to an elite boarding school whose current fees range from $22K-38K a year.  Or to put it another way, if you wanted to send your first grader to the school until they graduated it would cost you about $300,000 and that's not including expenses, inflation or the extra $35K it would cost if the child boards from the ninth through twelfth grade.

Romney then spent a year at Stanford, graduated from BYU, and then took a four year Harvard degree in law.  Between Stamford and BYU he dodged the draft by spending three years in France unsuccessfully attempting to recruit French people into his Mormon cult.  In three years he averaged one new cult member every three months.  But in all fairness convincing French people to give up alcohol cannot be that easy.

I think it would be fair to say that the cost of raising Mitt Romney from birth until he graduated from Harvard would have exceeded a million dollars in today's money.  Can you imagine how few families of four in the United States have that kind of money to throw at their children?

And this really is my point.  If Mitt wants to talk about having a successful career, that's great.  But it delusional to believe that it was nothing more than being smart and working hard.

By comparison, let's talk about Joe Normal.  He's a fictional guy born on the same day as Mitt Romney.  Joe Normal had to skip on the $300K schooling, so he didn't get to go to Harvard.  Joe Normal didn't have a rich family to pay for the three year vacation in France, so instead he got sent to Vietnam.  He comes back and uses the GI Bill to pay for community college, but has a hard time focusing because he has post traumatic stress disorder.  So he drops out of college, and ends up working for Walmart stacking shelves, although later he gets promoted to department supervisor where he makes $36,000 a year.

I could give you a million more examples of Joe and Anne Normal's working all over this country, busting their asses for the kind of money that wouldn't even pay for a year of fancy private school; even if they had no other expenses.

These people are not lazy or stupid.  They are normal every day people.  But they will never have access to the kinds of opportunities afforded to the rich and well connected.  It is this truth that Republicans want us to forget.

Now I am aware that there are many Republicans out there who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth, and made it big, without a rich family.  That's great too.  But it does not mean that everyone else has the potential to achieve the same simply by working hard.  And this is why it is important to have social programs, quality education, and a safety net to protect the poor.  Sadly though Republican egomaniacs don't like that answer because it reminds them that they didn't "build that" alone.  In fact, they probably had help along the way that got them to the successful place they ended up.

And let us also not forget that Joe Normal working in Walmart for an average pay check is not a loser, or a failure.  He did what he could, and he worked hard.  He deserves health care, a reasonable standard of living, and to be respected.  And his taxes should not be paying for millionaires to get a tax break.

We Built It!

I have become so disillusioned with the state of American politics, I almost don't have the energy to blog about the election this year.

Republicans have been telling us for almost four years now how mad they are that Obama has not quickly fixed the economic catastrofuck that they created under eight years of George Bush, and so you would think that they would have a large cache of ammunition to use against President Obama.

But instead they chose to focus an entire rally around misquoting the President who merely remarked that everyone who has been successful in America owes a debt of gratitude to the infrastructure, roads, bridges, Internet, police, troops etc who created an environment in which these people could be successful.  It is a pretty simple concept, and is clearly true.  One finds it hard to imagine that Google would have enjoyed much success if its founders had been born and lived in China for example.  And I'm guessing Facebook would not have taken off if Mark Zuckerburg had been born in Iran.

America has long been famed as the land of opportunity, but now we are expected to believe that the 'job creators' are successful simply because they magically made it without any help from society or another human being.  That's a whole new level of arrogance right there, for sure.

Once again we face an election which is going to be tight.  An election where vote rigging in the name of 'preventing voter fraud' is rampant, as are the donations from the billionaires who can now use unlimited funds to buy an election, and presumably own the candidate if he is elected.

All over the country the racists, the poor, the sick, the under educated, and a slew of other people who stand to gain nothing from a Romney administration are lining up to vote for a man who represents the worst traits of a politician.  A smooth talking, old white dude, who will say anything to get what he wants.  This isn't a man of sound judgement (he is a cult member after all), with honest ethics and a clear vision for the future.   He is a shill for the Republican party.  A party that has moved to the extreme right of the political spectrum, is going after women's rights in an unprecedented way.  And in the wake of numerous killing sprees recently has reaffirmed their belief that the right to bear arms, authored in 1791 means open season for assault weapons with no limits on magazine size.

It is truly frightening that so many Americans are considering voting for a man who is promising to pursue the same failed economic polities of the Bush administration to include trickle down economics and tax cuts for the super rich, all while gutting important programs that protect the middle class.

Alex & Chloe

A year ago I purchased a necklace from Alex & Chloe.  I blogged about it at the time because I was shocked by the lack of customer service when the piece they sent me was defective.  After five unanswered emails of complaint I gave up and moved on with my life.

To my surprise last week I was contacted by a new customer service manager who apologized profusely.  Evidently the company had outsourced their customer service department, and that third party had been to blame for my issues.

I was really shocked and impressed to see that not only had they decided to fix this problem, but also go back retroactively and try to address past problems.  Sure enough the new customer service manager kept his word, shipped me a replacement for my defective necklace and even included a couple of small gift items too.

It may have been a little late, but the fact that they would decide to handle things that way is just really excellent.  It's one thing to address current or future issues, but quite another to go back and correct mistakes of the past.  So thank you to Alex & Chloe for caring!

Stealth Taxes in America

For a while the Republican talking point was that we as a nation needed to have an 'adult conversation' about the economy.  And ignoring for a moment the obvious and inherent patronizing tone to such as expression I do believe they were correct, at least in so far as a conversation needs to be had.  Clearly their idea of slashing taxes for rich people and corporations for a trickle down solution is a load of bollocks and has repeatedly been shown to be disastrous and ineffective, but I digress.

One of the byproducts of the ridiculous Grover Norquist tax pledge and Republican political cock blocking is that many cities are quite simply running out of money.  Some cities have taken drastic steps such as laying off cops or letting whole city areas go dark at night, devoid of street lights.

Then we have the evil traffic camera as another inventive way of raising revenue.  For years now the red light and speeding camera have been around.  And while I am not a fan I can see some logic to it, because motorists who repeatedly run red lights or drive too fast are increasing the risk of accident for themselves and other road users.

But a friend of mine recently got hit with something that was new to me.  It was a camera that took a video of someone who did not come to a perfect stop when performing a legal right on red turn.  And at this point, I have to call bullshit.  A recent study found that a typical motorist would have to drive ONE BILLION miles for a statistical likelihood of being involved in an accident that involved a non-perfect stop during a legal right on red turn.  In other words, this isn't a real issue of public safety, it is simply a money grab or stealth tax for no good reason other than to raise money.

There is a multi point reason why this is all so evil.  For one thing, it is very often a private company who runs these cameras.  So what you have is a legally enforced shakedown of the American people where both the government AND the private company have a vested interest in issuing as many tickets as they possibly can (with no interest in right or wrong, public safety, or making the world a better place.  Simply an interest in catching out as many people as possible to raise money.).  But unlike a tax, a significant portion of the money raised goes to the private company profiteering from this modern day shakedown.

Another reason this is such a bad idea is because it creates mistrust of the government and law enforcement.  Recipients of this bullshit scheme are likely to feel like their privacy has been violated, that they were issued an unjust ticket for a nonsense reason.  In short we are conditioning people to resent authority and believe that the local government is more interested in raising money, no matter how unreasonably, than protecting public safety

Sadly though, this is the byproduct of unending tax cuts and loopholes for the rich, coupled with spending government money on unnecessary nonsense like stealth battle ships, multi billion dollar planes, and a bloated trillion dollar a year military budget.

So getting back to our 'adult conversation' we need to make a choice to have everyone pay their fair share of tax, cut back on out of control spending in areas like defense, or we face the alternative of toll roads, random bullshit tickets, profiteering from raising government revenue, the laying off of police, fire fighters, teachers, and blackouts in our crumbling cities.

It is indeed unfortunate that the Republicans didn't really want a grown up conversation about tax and spending, but merely wanted to push their own agenda of big government handouts to the richest people who are doing just fine but are greedy for more.

VW GTI 2012 - Follow Up Review

It's been two months since I've been living with my new GTI, and I thought it was time to do a follow up to my earlier review.

So I still like the car a lot.  It has proven to be practical, fun, and still feels as well built as an Audi.  I have not had any issues or need to contact the dealership about it.  I've driven about 2500 miles so far.

I stand by all the positive first impressions I had of the vehicle, but living with a car for a few weeks has given me some time to reflect on the minor annoyances that any car will give you from time to time.

So the first annoying thing is the internal fan on the base model.  It has four on positions and often times I wish it had more.  I think a variable control would have been better, and I'm guessing that option comes if you spring for the climate control option.

Then there's the seats.  They are extremely comfortable, and supportive, and remind me how much I missed having cloth seats in a car.  My last three cars have been leather equipped, and I just don't really see the point.  With the BMW is was leather or pleather, and the latter blows chunks so I had to go with leather.  But I'd probably have been more happy with cloth.  All that said, I do think that the bucket portion of the seats is a little narrow, and suspect that a typically large American butt or a woman with wide hips might find it a little annoying.  Only marginally annoying, but annoying nonetheless.

I was watching Top Gear the other day, and Jeremy Clarkson was sarcastically commenting on the fact that one of the vehicles they were driving had a button that had to be depressed for ten seconds in order for it to function.  Similarly the GTI has a very annoying rocker switch that must be held for three seconds to do select the root menu on the multi function display.  And even when you hold it for three seconds, sometimes it goes to a different menu, in which case you have to exit and repeat the procedure.

After such meticulous attention to detail, and such a good design, I cannot for the life of me understand why this system was chosen.  So to switch the display from whatever your default is, to say fuel range, is a bit of a chore and a little annoying.

But really these are the only three issues I have with the car.  Other than that, driving experience, and overall fun factor remains high.  I still cannot think of another similarly priced car on the market today that I'd prefer at this time.  I'll do another follow up after some long term driving.

Herman Cain Mocked

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Inside the Political Curtain with John Oliver - Herman Cain
www.thedailyshow.com
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Wow, how they got Cain to do this is quite beyond me. Very funny though, love John Oliver.

The Ricky Gervais Diet

Today is day 64 of my diet, and I've lost 28lbs.  Since many people have asked me how I got to this point, I figured I'd blog it.

I've been stateside for 12 years now, and have sampled much of what passes for food in this country.  Sadly I sampled far too much and far too often, couple that with my love of red wine and I was starting to look like a stuffed pig.  Not good.

So 64 days ago I was inspired to open a new chapter in my life and get in shape, and here's how I did it.

First off, I guess I should mention that there are a tiny percentage of folks who are overweight due to a medical condition, so please know that the comments I make here are aimed at people who are just overweight because of lifestyle choices, not because of some underlying health problems.

I've seen various diets that seem to be quite clever.  Atkins got famous a few years ago, and later South Beach.  But the problem with all these fad diets is that you have to follow the rules no matter how easy they try and make the diet sound.  So if you're on Atkins eating all the lean meat you want, but then fancy a couple of glasses of wine, you just screwed your carb count and will likely fail.

The reason I call my diet the Ricky Gervais diet is because the idea came from a stand up comedy he performed where in his usual blunt style he laid down the following words of wisdom (and I'm paraphrasing here, not quoting):

It's a simple equation:  Anything you put in your mouth is fuel for your body.  If you consume too much fuel (calories) your body will store it as fat.  So you have a straightforward choice.  You can choose to consume less fuel or choose to burn more fuel by exercising.

And that really is it.  You can either put fewer calories in or burn more of them by exercising.  So you need to choose if you'd like to be a gym rat, in which case you can probably eat just about whatever you like.  You can choose to radically change how you eat.  Or you can do a little of both.

To be clear, I have not read anything that tells me exactly how Mr. Gervais personally lost the weight, it's not relevant, but I called it the Ricky Gervais Diet because he got me thinking the right way about losing weight.

Starting Out

In the first couple of weeks I downloaded an app called My Fitness Pal.  It's an amazing iPhone app that also works on most other smartphones, laptops, iPads and other tablets or computers.  Everything you eat, you tell the program.  It can be as simple as scanning the barcode on the thing you are eating, or doing a text search in their massive database.  It 'knows' over a million food items, so most of the time anything you eat is already in the system.  Super easy.  If you can Facebook you can do this.

My Fitness Pal will also track your weight, give you a calorie goal based on your BMI and gender and give you other pointers too.  If you exercise you can tell it, and it will show you how many extra calories you 'earned' to 'spend' that day.

The first couple of weeks suck.  I'm not going to lie.  If you over eat your stomach is going to be growling and complaining about not being full with pizza and chocolate.  But tough luck, you just have to suck it up.

For me though, the cool outcome of the first fortnight is that my stomach appears to have shrunk.  In days gone by I could eat huge meals.  Half a stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut.  No problem.  Perhaps even with some bread sticks as an appetizer.  That's all the calories you should eat in a day, right there in one meal.  Oh, and did I mention two days worth of sodium intake?  And that's not even including the appetizer, drinks or dessert items.

But after a couple of weeks, a small and sensible 250-350 calorie meal would satisfy me for hours.  With a bit of patience it's amazing how quickly you can retrain your body and mind.  If you also had the willpower to work out for an hour each day (which I don't), I could only imagine what could be achieved.

Moving On

Once you have passed through the first couple of weeks, your body has stopped being mad at you, and the scales are giving you good news.

I began to enjoy the My Fitness Pal app as a game.  If I eat this, then I can eat that later etc.  The app also helps you avoid hidden traps that exist all over America.

For example, Buffalo Wild Wings clearly doesn't sound like diet food.  But their naked tenders are basically grilled chicken with only 43 calories in each one.  Eight of them isn't an unhealthy meal from a calorie standpoint at 344 calories, even if you have some dip it's under 400.  Sadly though that same meal is your entire safe sodium intake for the day, right there in one meal.  Don't even get me started on why American food is so completely overloaded with sodium, it's unreal.  But the app helps you spot things like that and adjust accordingly.

Simple Food

When I'm at home I do like a simple meal I can eat in the kitchen that's easy to prepare.  Without much imagination you can recreate seemingly unhealthy food in a relatively healthy (or at least diet friendly way).  You can buy wraps that are tasty and have only 50 calories in.  If you shop wisely you can buy lean hot dogs with only 40 calories in that taste great.  Add a little light pimento cheese or spicy hummus or mustard, and you have a hot dog that's well under 150 calories.

Many grocery stores sell cooked chicken, you just have to peel off the meat and shovel it into your face.  Filling, full of protein, and tasty.  Got to watch the sodium on some of them, but still, you could do worse.

Then there are all those healthy or ethnic frozen meals you can buy.  If you shop around there are a ton of tasty meals that weigh in at well under 360 calories.  And once you have gotten your stomach out of the habit of bad food, one of those meals and a large glass of water will fill you up very nicely.

When I'm travelling for my job, I try to limit restaurant meals to chains where they have easy access to their nutritional information.  I'll often buy meal in a grocery store and eat it in my hotel room.  Or I'll buy a sandwich from a place like Subway that has clear nutritional information available.  If you avoid their stupid sandwiches you can easily have a decent and filling six inch sub for well under 400 calories.

Supplements

I'm not really an expert in this area, but I have found that Tonalin CLA consumed with a meal, while on a diet is really effective.  I detected no side effects, and the product is stimulant free.  The one week of my diet that I ran out of these pills was the one week that I lost the least amount of weight.

I also take a men's multi vitamin just in case I am missing some key nutrients with my diet.

Exercise

When you're overweight the thought of exercise is about as appealing as taking a cold shower, at least for me.  I remember a time when exercise was effortless.  I'd cycle miles to school in full uniform and not even be sweaty or out of breath!  I don't think I could do that today!

So if you're not in to the whole gym thing, you can still lose weight controlling the calories and watching the sodium intake.  But you can make simple life changes that all add up to making a difference.

When I'm in an airport, I'll walk to the gate, and if I have time, I'll take a nice long walk to the other end of the terminal and back, briskly.  The other day I was in a 14 story hotel, on the top floor.  On two occasions I walked the stairs to the room, rather than taking the elevator.

When I park, I'll deliberately pick a parking space further away from where I am going, so I can walk just a little bit more.  These are all just little things, but they add up, and keep you in a losing weight mindset.

Danger

You have to watch out for dangerous hidden calories too.  Like those naked tenders from BWW with the hidden evil sodium.  But non-diet drinks, alcohol, it all adds up.  So make sure you keep using the tracker to gain some perspective of what is going into your body.

Portion Size

Here in America a typical appetizer could feed a small non-American family for a day.  So it's really important to get your mind around eating sensibly.  Sadly we are often taught as children the absurd lession that finishing an entire plate of food is such a good idea (even when we're full), that the reward is a yummy desert item!  So not only are we teaching our kids to eat way beyond the point of sensible consumption, but we are then using a grossly unhealthy sugary sweet containing a bunch more calories as reward for the aforementioned gluttony!

It's so easy to carry this behavior on into adulthood; finishing every bite of food on the plate and then squeezing in an unhealthy desert.

For me personally, even after just 64 days, my stomach is content with much smaller portions, and if I start to feel full, I simply stop eating and notate in My Fitness Pal app that I did in fact not eat the whole thing, thus saving me calories I can use later if I get hungry or fancy a beer!  Why waste calories stuffing your stomach, making your stomach expect and demand larger portions in future, when you could eat a tasty snack or drink a nice glass of wine later on instead?

This mindset is really hard to get used to, because we are taught this behavior in many different ways as a kid, and some of that bleeds through into adulthood.

Day Off

I think it's okay to have a cheat day from time to time.  Maybe once a week.  Just don't go crazy with it.

Water

I think water is very important to a diet, especially in America where our food is dripping with sodium.  I try to consume at least one very large glass with every meal, one in the evening, and other smaller amounts throughout the day.  These days I just use a filter in the fridge, but some people prefer bottled or flavored.  The key is to force yourself to drink plenty, as I believe a lack of hydration will not help the diet one bit.

Stick To It

Even if you have a bad day, a cheat day, someone forces you to eat a cake.  Keep going back to the program, and don't give up.

Visualize

You have to keep reminding yourself why you are doing it.  You have to accept that you deserve to look your best, deserve to be healthy, and you owe it not only to yourself but to your partner, family and friends.  Being fat is a personal choice (for the vast majority of people who are fat), and personally I just made the decision that enough was enough.  I am not going back to that life.  Getting old sucks anyway, without being fat as well!

Weighing In

I believe the app I use suggests weekly weigh ins.  It's a great idea I think, because too often fluctuations in your weight, time of day etc can be discouraging.  But for me, as long as I stick to the program, I've found a steady and progressive weight loss that has been fairly consistent.

That's It

So that's how I've done it so far. I've quite a few more pounds and pant sizes to go before I am done.  With this diet you can simply tell the app you are just looking to maintain and it will up your daily calorie allocation accordingly.  Now you have more calories to 'spend' on the things you like to eat.

I hope you have found this article somewhat interesting or useful.  I'll be sure to blog again in a few weeks and let you know my further progress.