If you've ever watched the Lang & O'Leary Exchange on CBC it is obvious that Kevin O'Leary is a zealous right wing capitalist.
First as an aside, hats off to the CBC which is accused of being left wing of having such a staunch right wing character on an insightful program.
Now on to business.
Kevin O'Leary is living in a half fictitious world predicated on an ideology that needs to be very closely scrutinized and examined.
Capitalism has failed to live up to it's expectations.
The extreme capitalists would have us believe that unfettered free markets guided by the invisible hand of greed is good will provide everyone with a nice sized house in the suburbs with a white picket fence and two SUVs in the drive way.
OK, so I'm stretching it a bit right? After all, why would a janitor get paid as much as a neurosurgeon?
That has to do with how the free market, and by extension 'we', value labour. But that's another blog post entirely.
Capitalism has failed because it treats everything and everyone like private property.
Enclosing resources like water or wood in a free market vein is lunacy because we are slowly but surely eating ourselves out of house and home. The market only values short term profits with no foresight into how we will survive in the future.
This mentality is on top of corporations desire to pursue profits relentlessly and has led to a shrinking of wages/salaries for the middle class and poor. Yeah, I'm looking at you Caterpillar! We ought to wring those corporate tax cuts from the CEO of Caterpillar's neck!
I'm calling out Kevin O'Leary specifically because in a very recent episode of the Lang & O'Leary Exchange, O'Leary more or less stated that human activity isn't having ANY impact on the environment.
At least three times he asserted that we shouldn't mess with mother nature while contending as a species we are not having an impact on the very environment that sustains us.
O'Leary directly contradicted himself in respect to an episode of the Lang & O'Leary exchange from a year or so ago where he was in a tiff with Amanda Lang about the future of the electrical car and asserted that putting more electrical cars on the road would cause more carbon and 'that's just dumb' to paraphrase.
Well O'Leary, given your recent assertions about us having NO impact on the environment what does it matter if we go electrical in the car route and release more carbon?
Cuz the carbon ain't causing any problems right?
A word to wise O'Leary, be aware of what you say one day because you are rife with little contradictions and I and others will call you on it.
I'm not done with this by a long shot.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Lazy Politicians ...
Omnibus Budget Bill = Lazy Politicians
It's lazy because Bill C-45 is not all about the budget and has 60 different changes to legislation in it.
I don't know where the Conservatives get off thinking this is acceptable.
It should be noted that if the Liberals were in power we might very well be seeing the same thing happening. When a party is majority territory, it can basically pass anything it wants without much of a fight unless there is something really amiss, while the official opposition clamors you can't do that and would most likely do more of the same if they are in control.
So methinks that when the next federal election is held I will press every candidate that comes to my door or I run into if they are willing to pass legislation banning omnibus bills.
Canadians need to send a clear message to Ottawa that politicians are elected to preserve democracy by having open debates on reasonable pieces of legislation rather than a ramshackle all-in-one approach.
Democracy and our taxpayer dollars demand it!
It's lazy because Bill C-45 is not all about the budget and has 60 different changes to legislation in it.
I don't know where the Conservatives get off thinking this is acceptable.
It should be noted that if the Liberals were in power we might very well be seeing the same thing happening. When a party is majority territory, it can basically pass anything it wants without much of a fight unless there is something really amiss, while the official opposition clamors you can't do that and would most likely do more of the same if they are in control.
So methinks that when the next federal election is held I will press every candidate that comes to my door or I run into if they are willing to pass legislation banning omnibus bills.
Canadians need to send a clear message to Ottawa that politicians are elected to preserve democracy by having open debates on reasonable pieces of legislation rather than a ramshackle all-in-one approach.
Democracy and our taxpayer dollars demand it!
Friday, November 30, 2012
Notes on a Human Rights Museum Scandal
McDonald's got a credential in the article 10 epic marketing fails of 2012 on LinkedIn penned by freelance writer Michael Estrin.
It involved a twitter hashtag #McDStories.
It was supposed to garner good feelings about the farmers that McDonald's buys potatoes and beef from but was quickly hijacked by people with not so pleasant gastronomical stories related to eating at McDonald's to animal rights groups and activists lashing out at McDonald's business practices.
Most people proceed with good intentions but in the online world if there is ever any doubt about how something might be construed or interpreted, then you should stop right there.
What does this have to do with the human rights museum slated to open in a couple of years in Winnipeg?
It has to do with the Canadian Museum for Human Rghts posting communications job positions asking for seven years worth of experience and the fact that whoever was in charge of communications and/or management thought it was a good idea to source a garment producer in a country with a poor human rights record.
The country in question is Vietnam and the blowback got national coverage.
I think are you serious?
I don't have several years of communications experience and even I know that if you are constructing a human rights museum which in of itself is subjectively subject to controversy and interpretation that your choice of a vendor for swag is going to be put under a microscope.
Again, nobody was trying to be slave driver, but come on!
It will be a cloud over the museums head if they don't make a PR opportunity of ensuring that all the swag made for the museum is produced in an ethical and even environmentally responsible way regardless of public opinion because it is the smart thing to do.
It involved a twitter hashtag #McDStories.
It was supposed to garner good feelings about the farmers that McDonald's buys potatoes and beef from but was quickly hijacked by people with not so pleasant gastronomical stories related to eating at McDonald's to animal rights groups and activists lashing out at McDonald's business practices.
Most people proceed with good intentions but in the online world if there is ever any doubt about how something might be construed or interpreted, then you should stop right there.
What does this have to do with the human rights museum slated to open in a couple of years in Winnipeg?
It has to do with the Canadian Museum for Human Rghts posting communications job positions asking for seven years worth of experience and the fact that whoever was in charge of communications and/or management thought it was a good idea to source a garment producer in a country with a poor human rights record.
The country in question is Vietnam and the blowback got national coverage.
I think are you serious?
I don't have several years of communications experience and even I know that if you are constructing a human rights museum which in of itself is subjectively subject to controversy and interpretation that your choice of a vendor for swag is going to be put under a microscope.
Again, nobody was trying to be slave driver, but come on!
It will be a cloud over the museums head if they don't make a PR opportunity of ensuring that all the swag made for the museum is produced in an ethical and even environmentally responsible way regardless of public opinion because it is the smart thing to do.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Startup Winnipeg
I went to Startup Winnipeg Weekend which ran from Friday evening to Sunday evening.
After attending the first Startup Winnipeg, and getting reamed out by the judges, I was a little older and wiser about boiling down 54 frantic hours of work to vet and present an idea in five minutes to judges who are just as ferocious as the investors on Dragons Den.
The team I was on worked well together and I was on the business model side of things trying to make sure the presentation was top notch, and while we didn't make it into the top three, the app idea our team presented is still worth pursuing and who knows where it will go.
In some respects the educational and networking potential of Startup Winnipeg is more important to me then winning any of the top three prizes aside from bragging rights.
Oh, a couple of groups really did get reamed out this time still.
The next Startup Winnipeg might be happening in April.
Time to think of some new biz ideas!
After attending the first Startup Winnipeg, and getting reamed out by the judges, I was a little older and wiser about boiling down 54 frantic hours of work to vet and present an idea in five minutes to judges who are just as ferocious as the investors on Dragons Den.
The team I was on worked well together and I was on the business model side of things trying to make sure the presentation was top notch, and while we didn't make it into the top three, the app idea our team presented is still worth pursuing and who knows where it will go.
In some respects the educational and networking potential of Startup Winnipeg is more important to me then winning any of the top three prizes aside from bragging rights.
Oh, a couple of groups really did get reamed out this time still.
The next Startup Winnipeg might be happening in April.
Time to think of some new biz ideas!
Monday, October 8, 2012
Negotiations ...
Here is my rendition of talks between the NHL players and owners:
Players Union: Give us more of the revenue.
Owners: No.
Players Union: I guess will talk next week then.
Owners: Sure.
End of Act I
Players Union: Give us more of the revenue.
Owners: No.
Players Union: I guess will talk next week then.
Owners: Sure.
End of Act I
Friday, October 5, 2012
Flying Cars Part Deux
I was playing Mass Effect 2 which takes place a couple hundred years from now or so and flying cars are everywhere and much to my horror in relation to my last blog post, flying cars get shot at and nearly crash land!
I realized though that there is a way around the problem of policing the sky.
So, let's say there's a check stop in the sky where police are checking for drunk drivers, or pilots.
If someone freaks out and decides to b-line it any direction because it's the open sky we are talking about, the only way to prevent that is if there is a system in place that keeps the vehicle on the same 'path' and does not allow any deviation.
This would mean that the driver would actually have limited control, and rightly so, because we don't need maniacs doing donuts in the sky and flying cars falling out of the sky in random spots.
Imagine the infrastructure required for that kind of air way system.
In the movie Minority Report, vehicles are extremely slender and go up and down buildings and can be taken over by the police.
Perhaps that scenario is more realistic as a junction between cars on the road and cars in the air.
That's enough for this rant.
I realized though that there is a way around the problem of policing the sky.
So, let's say there's a check stop in the sky where police are checking for drunk drivers, or pilots.
If someone freaks out and decides to b-line it any direction because it's the open sky we are talking about, the only way to prevent that is if there is a system in place that keeps the vehicle on the same 'path' and does not allow any deviation.
This would mean that the driver would actually have limited control, and rightly so, because we don't need maniacs doing donuts in the sky and flying cars falling out of the sky in random spots.
Imagine the infrastructure required for that kind of air way system.
In the movie Minority Report, vehicles are extremely slender and go up and down buildings and can be taken over by the police.
Perhaps that scenario is more realistic as a junction between cars on the road and cars in the air.
That's enough for this rant.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
What's that in the sky? A flying car!
I realized driving home today that it would be so cool to be able to push a big red button and see my car sprout wings and cold fusion powered rockets to propel me home ...
Then I realized everyone else would want the same thing as me and the sheer logistics of flying cars sobers you up real quick.
It is a chore to manage traffic on the ground, just imagine all the cars on the road flying.
How do you police the air?
Not to mention that gravity makes things fall ... fast.
The flying car has been featured in movies like Bladerunner and the Fifth Element, and I read years ago that the flying car had been tested and works.
Perhaps I shouldn't be so cynical, but I think that the movies is the only place we will be seeing mass use of flying cars until technology has really advanced, road rage doesn't convert into air road rage, and the internal combustion engine finally goes the way of the dinosaur on a large scale, no pun intended.
That's all this for rant.
Then I realized everyone else would want the same thing as me and the sheer logistics of flying cars sobers you up real quick.
It is a chore to manage traffic on the ground, just imagine all the cars on the road flying.
How do you police the air?
Not to mention that gravity makes things fall ... fast.
The flying car has been featured in movies like Bladerunner and the Fifth Element, and I read years ago that the flying car had been tested and works.
Perhaps I shouldn't be so cynical, but I think that the movies is the only place we will be seeing mass use of flying cars until technology has really advanced, road rage doesn't convert into air road rage, and the internal combustion engine finally goes the way of the dinosaur on a large scale, no pun intended.
That's all this for rant.
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