Kay's Law: Updated

I just realized that I had made reference to what I call "Kay's Law" in a previous post, but never actually explicitly enunciated it. Here goes

Kay's Law, a corollary to Godwin's Law: "The longer a political debate goes, the more likely it is that one side will ascribe irrational behaviour on the other's to a shadowy cabal.  Any proof offered to counter the existence of this conspiracy will merely serve as evidence of the conspiracy's depth and nefarious pervasiveness."

Rule 5: Spectacularly Poor Life Decisions Edition

Lindsey, NOOOOOOOOO!

And now, obligatory cheesecake. SFW.

Justin Trudeau: I almost feel bad for him now

Less esoteric and academic this round, I promise.

In case you missed it, Justin Trudeau is effectively the new leader of the Federal Liberal Party of Canada.  Some congratulations would be in order firstly.  Love or hate le Dauphin, he works hard and from a certain perspective intelligently.  He has effectively leveraged the nascent social media landscape (nascent in the sense that Canadian politics is behind the curve), and proved he has the endurance to outlast some serious heavyweights.

Unfortunately, his campaign echoes Mitt Romney's in some respects.

Heinlein's Razor as Applied to Voter Culture

Yes, I know. It has been a while, and I apologize.  I've been having an up-and-down kind of year, and I'm trying to get back on track.  Bear with me on this one.

I know that sometimes Heinlein's Razor is referred to as Hanlon's Razor, but since I'm a Heinlein fan, I prefer his phraseology. It goes as such:

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don't rule out malice.

I am also aware that Napoleon said something similar. Moving on. The point I am trying to make is that we have entered an age of hysteria.

Political Communication is Massively Important

This post was provoked by my brother's girlfriend's facebook.  She's apparently on the executive committee for the Oklahoma City Slut Walk.  I think the Slut Walk is a stupid idea, and I will explain why.  WARNING: if you are not interested in a deeply intellectual exercise, do not read on.  If you accuse me of being regressive, or having mala fides, or hating women, I will ignore you.  I live and breathe politics.  Mastery of communication is a job requirement for me.  I know what I'm talking about.  Engage this discussion seriously, or not at all.

I'm back, for now.

Giant h/t to Stacy McCain, who some day may throw me some rule 2 love.  Probably not. I should write more.

So, let's talk about the disastrous Republican Primary, because honestly Canadian politics is never less exciting than when we have a majority government (with a strong mandate, so the MTV voters can shut up).  I had a conversation with my father about how Mitt Romney would be smart to pick Santorum as VP, and another conversation with my buddy Cezary over what the Republican party needs to do to regain some of the momentum they have squandered.

Occupy Wall Street is the Problem, not the Solution

So. Occupy Wall Street. #OWS.  The 99 Percent (which is totally untrue, by the way).  It's a farce, and an offensive one at that.  Despite repeated assurances that it's a broadly representative cross-section of society, the Occupiers remain mainly young university student types.  Why? Because everyone else is too busy working for a living.


Think of it this way- even if Wall Street and the Super-Rich were to blame for all of life's problems, how is camping out going to fix it?  What are the policy objectives? Who specifically will benefit? How will we transition from an unpleasant now to a successful future? No clue, obviously.  But there are drum circles and call-and-response chants.  Great. That will solve everything.  Ironically, while mainly white over-privileged university protestors waste time demanding something, eventually, the children of immigrants are working hard and getting jobs.  Sure, they are entry-level jobs at 20k a year, but that's life.  In 5 years, while their whiny OWS peers are still suffering from student debts, companies are going to be managed by large numbers of people with names like Prabhakaran and Chen.  Which, frankly, is how it should be.

What's my beef with all of this? It's easy.  Nothing in life is free. Nothing.  Somewhere, someone has to pay for whatever it is.  "Free university tuition?" Ask the middle class in Québec how much they like subsidizing student fees province-wide.  "Free health care"? Sure.  Which is why Canada's highest tax bracket begins at 140k, with anyone making over 60k paying at least 40% income tax.  And a 15% VAT.  And gas taxes. And municipal taxes. Nothing. Is. Free.

And I'm tired of paying for the consequences of other people's poor decisions.  You racked up 50k in student debt because you couldn't decide on which program you wanted to do? I hope you like paper hats kid.  Start flipping some burgers, cause that interest on your loan won't pay itself.