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[Mongrel]

Yeah, it pretty much runs "We suck assholes, but don't have any money to fix things". It's a long list of helpful, sensible suggestions, and then a pile of pages of waffling on how to pay for it (tl;dr version: they have no clue).

Soooo.... nothing new at the TTC! I hear that when you're broke, things suck!

[Mongrel]

Oh hey, I'd just like to take this moment to officially call the Toronto election for Rob Ford.

Now don't get me wrong, I think he's an absolute idiot who's going to fuck things up even worse than they already are, BUT barring something ridiculous, he's going to win.

Why?

Well, in the first place he's not just an idiot, he's that very special political creature; the idiot-savant. Ford has mastered that magical art of telling absolutely everybody exactly what they want to hear.

Now that sounds stupid at first. Politicians tell everybody what they want to hear all the time, right? Well, yes, but they normally wrap it up in a lot of language that makes them seem more intelligent than they are, as well as being weaselly enough with the wording that they can back out of their 'promises' later. We're just so used to the phenomenon, we don't even bother to think about it anymore, let alone dissect it.

Ford simply has no such safeguards. He just parrots any requests he hears, only as a proclamation. People want subways? Rob says "We're gonna build subways!". Some journalistic wit points out that - as badly as new lines are needed - Toronto has no money for new subways. No matter! Rob simply replies "Well the people of Toronto have said they want subways!". There's no varnish, no spin; hell, the statements are so blitheringly stupid you can't even call them lies!

Out of the mouths of babes, one might say. 

Second, all Rob's opponent's seem only able to do one thing: talk endlessly about Rob Ford. Seriously. They are doing their ever-loving best to turn their entire campaigns into finely tuned get out the vote machines... for Ford.

Hell, the only person who's even articulated a coherent policy platform of ANY kind is Sarah Thompson. And she's in like seventh place with almost no press besides "the only woman in the running". Go on. Tell me what Smitherman's platform is, besides "I'm Gay!" and "I'm gonna get mad at people!"

You might think that I'm not giving the residents of this cretinous town their due. That enough stolid voters will see through this ruse. To which I reply that I am giving the voters of this town the EXACT amount of credit they deserve.

God. Mel Lastman's going to look like David-fucking-Crombie before the next mayoral term ends.

[SCD]

There's also another side to it as well.  Looking at your candidates, the lot seem to be liberal leftists which I'm certain a lot of people are sick and tired of, given the coddling and funding of the types that promoted the G-20 backlash that went in your parts when compared to the G-8 in Calgary sometime back (right after Genoa).  There's of course all the other reasons as well, the concept of social programmes over infrastructure, and the transit woes to boot.  While this image may not be true, the feeling is getting pretty strong at this point in conservative circles and having MacGuinty in Queen's Park doesn't do the notion any harm, now that our fucking electricity bills have effectively doubled under that liberal twat so that the grasshoppers can get CFLs, defunct wind turbine subsidies and other crap(not that I'm bitter).

Ford looks like the closest thing to a conservative candidate, which is not surprising considering that all the competent ones are likely busy running or working or raising a family to get involved in "that" city they live in.  Ford will win.  He gets all the media attention, all the attacks, and comes from a normal working-class background.  I would vote for Ford over anyone else.  Who knows, he might even have a nice puppetmaster pulling his strings!

[Mongrel]

Don't get me started on CFLs.. YEAH! LET'S LOAD UP OUR LANDFILLS WITH A SHIT-TON OF MERCURY!

[SCD]

The NP and polls agrees with my hunch, and expands on it.

Essentially what is going on is that the property owners are bankrolling all of Toronto's services to a significantly higher degree (apartment renters don't pay property taxes), while receiving a significantly reduced share of the services and for the big two Ontario cities, the gut reaction to any budget shortfall is not to cut the fat and incompetence, but to raise spending and taxes. 

Rob Ford will win because he represents the disgust with the state of affairs of the city, and will continue to win until the city decides to go full circle gentrification to ensure that condos and taxpayers in the city core are the rule and not the exception.  It isn't scandal or personality that will win this election, but a core issue.  You may not realize this, but I envy the vote you are about to be given.  It's another thing to say I'll envy you for having the man who comes in to office.

[Mongrel]

The problem isn't one of left vs. right. That's the nonsense that's been sold in this town for years to justify the endless ridiculous ballyhoo in city council that's wasted YEARS of this city's life. It's a problem of smart vs. stupid, only anybody intelligent has been thoroughly terrified away from trying to run this ossified town.

Ford will be a disaster, not because he is a right-wing budget chopper, but because he's an idiot who will start hundreds of needless fights, have morons for subordinates (a sure recipe for endless corruption and graft, not to mention project failures and cost overruns even worse than they are now), generally embarass the city, and frighten away useful people who might otherwise move here.

I mean, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you're left-wing or right wing, so long as your plans are clear, sensible, achievable, honest, and well-implemented. I wouldn't trust Rob to be able to get any of that right.

That doesn't mean I trust Rossi or Smitherman either, but they're more likely to simply continue the status quo of across-the-board failure out of inertia.

[Mongrel]

More silliness about the new jet fighters Harpo has a hard-on for.

Really the only reason for me to mention this is that every time the "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE RUSSIANS?!?" slapstick repeats itself, the most dark and cynically comedic parts of my brain keep suggesting that Putin is actually continuing these overflights (they're nothing new) as a some kind of perverse favour to Harper that amuses only himself.

It may fly in the face of good sense, but people have done sillier things.

[James Edward Smith]

Unmanned drones are gonna be all the rage soon anyway.

Electronic warfare could already disable a plane that has a pilot in it now anyway, so why risk a valuable pilot's life every time he takes off and limit his maneuver options to the fragility of his body rather than of his plane when he can instead just fly the thing by proxy and eliminate all those risks?

[Mongrel]

Yeah, the whole fighter thing seems silly. I agree that air-to-air superiority will be drone-based soon, with maybe some electronic warfare. The romantic nostalgia for Top Gun dudes is cute, but it's rapidly becoming akin to the love for battleships prior to WWII.

Like, I am absolutely okay with a program that says "Canada should have trained fighter pilots". Because while you can buy tech if you really need it, you can't reconsitute a body of skill and tradition once you destroy it. I expect that it will still be a long time before pilots are WHOLLY obsolete and having at least some planes that can go fast and pull high G's is important to keeping a core of skills intact for any future needs.

So sure, I don't mind us getting new planes of some kind. But let's be realistic about this. Forget about fighters designed for air-to-air combat between realtive technological equals and give them planes that are suited to the roles Canada finds itself in (i.e. planes that are good at close infantry support, or long-range/long-haul patrol/recovery).

Buying planes whose primary role is to be an airborne Porsche for jet jockeys who want to GOES FASTER is maybe worth a few macho points, but I'd rather they didn't do it on my dime.

[Büge]

The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space! ...Or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: to build and maintain those robots.

[Mongrel]

In the grim future of this world, there are only tiny robots.

[James Edward Smith]

Yeah, exactly, we still need fighter pilots, it's just they won't be in the planes anymore soon, they will be in a base in Trenton with a flight stick in their hand and 8 monitors around them getting ready to get the weapons hot command from a guy standing right next to them so they can drop bombs from a million dollar "RC plane".

I was just saying, we are quickly getting to the point where his connection to the plane from that base in trenton is less and less interruptable to the point that it's just as easy to take it away if he was still in the plane anyway so might as well just not have him in it anymore and sitting in an office chair instead.

So sure, I don't mind us getting new planes of some kind. But let's be realistic about this. Forget about fighters designed for air-to-air combat between realtive technological equals and give them planes that are suited to the roles Canada finds itself in (i.e. planes that are good at close infantry support, or long-range/long-haul patrol/recovery).

Buying planes whose primary role is to be an airborne Porsche for jet jockeys who want to GOES FASTER is maybe worth a few macho points, but I'd rather they didn't do it on my dime.

Mmmm, hold on now, Matt. They aren't getting F-22s they are getting f-35s. The performance of both these new generation aircraft in any role seems still very untested to me, but the F-35 is supposed to be the new ground support aircraft. Well as I understand it, it's supposed to be the multirole, does everything in one package aircraft. This generation's f-16 basically with the same ton of variants. The F-22 is the air superiority Porsche.

[Mongrel]

Huh, I thought it was the other way around? Oh well.

[SCD]

James is correct. 

Big thing about it is that as the old 18's go faster than the 35's.  Too fast to be that much use for ground support and tank busting, which is about the same as bunker-busting but with different ordinance.  Another big thing is interoperability.  As much as aircraft cost, part and maintenance really cost as the things go out of style.  The 35's are joint by not just the Americans and Britons, but by a whole whack of other nations.  Parts suppliers can come from a larger array of nations now, and if our private sector gets it right, we can be the country giving lowest-bid/highest quality widgets to the brits so long as the EU's economic nationalism and sense of "righteousness" doesn't get in the way, not that I'm bitter about their anit-seal bit. 

 Oh wait.

Also when it comes to UAV's, it really plays more like an RTS with XBOX 360 controllers, at least on the US side.  No, I am not making this up.  And I'm happy to say that you guys are currently off to left field about EW and fighter planes, but I will not add more to that.

[Mongrel]

Ontario Superior court ruling will decriminalize prostitution in Ontario in 30 days unless the government appeals to the Supreme Court

Now, I'm not exactly planning to run down the the nearest street corner myself, and I fully expect the Federal Government to appeal, but it's an interesting news item all the same.

Last time a similar issue came up (gay marriage), the Supreme Court struck down the old laws as unconstitutional, but sent the matter back to Parliament to be legislated rather than simply striking down the old laws outright. The Court knew that their decision would have immense and far-reaching consequences. For something so important, Parliament needed to make the call so that instead of having a new law imposed through Judicial Activism, we would get a new law (within the bounds of the Constitution), that was fully deliberated by Parliament and carried the weight and credibility of any other major legislation.

It was one of the most startlingly intelligent decisions I've ever seen out of a high court, frankly. It'll be interesting to see if this becomes a two-for.

[Büge]

I sure hope it happens. I'm not advocating prostitution as a legitimate career choice, but if that is how you earn your money, you should have the right to do it as safely as possible. As it stands right now, prostitutes have to put themselves at significant risk to do business.

[TA]

So, you know that whole "right to an attorney thing" you used to have?

[Shinra]

Oh, canada!

[Mongrel]

That's never been a clear-cut right here, so this isn't a great change. All that existed before was a "right to counsel", without full clarification of exactly what that entails. So while dumb Canadians might assume the law was the same as it is in the US, that's never really been the case here.

Which isn't to say that the ruling isn't embarrassing.

[Mongrel]

Walp, they went and did it, just as I predicted. Rob Ford - a man dumber than the average paramecium - is now Mayor of Toronto.

Of course, to add insult to injury, Calgary elected a cool, young, and frighteningly intelligent mayor (I think god is trying to tell me something. Too bad I don't have relatives in Calgary or $3000 to just pack up and move there).

Hell, even the city councillor elections are a wash. My ward elected the idiot with the biggest lawn signs, rather than the one with the best platform.

Oh boy! Can't wait to ride the train to hell!