16-12-2015: finally arriving at a solution.

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inriclaimed 

i know it's a little early.

and i may regret it...

but, i'm officially declaring that winter is cancelled in the detroit-windsor region.

this announcement does not apply to the rest of canada.

there's basically zero ice cover on the great lakes, and above freezing temperatures forecast well into january. winter is a thing that builds on itself. the snow cover, the ice cover, the absence of sunlight, etc. but, the solstice is next week. at this point, it seems essentially impossible.

even if we get a dip in the jet stream, if the lakes are wide open it won't be very intense. and, the fact that the days start getting longer again next week means there's not much that winter can do to assert itself.

it's not crystal ball shit. there's a point on the calendar where an absence of winter buildup means it can't happen at all. we're really just about there.

like, we might get a week where it hovers around zero or something. but, that's not winter.

it's not that i dispute the broad statistical realities, or see anything offensive about calling out muslims. it's just that i have a problem with singling them out as somehow worse than other religions.

i don't really have the time to make this argument. but, a quick google search tells me that 73% of born-again christians think that homosexuality is a sin. i can't find numbers, but i would expect well over 26% of christians would argue that abortion clinic bombings are "sometimes" justified.

i think we need to have this debate; i think we need to get rid of religion. but, i don't think we should be singling out muslims when we do it.

BigBadJuju
+jessica The big difference is in the amount of power these two religions have. Look at the body count. You can't equivocate these two crazies. One is marginal and barely has the power to protest loud enough, the other has the world on its guard.

jessica
+BigBadJuju i really think you need to take a closer look at the body count. christianity has the near extermination of the western hemisphere in it's list of accomplishments. 

BigBadJuju
Umm, no. Ancient holy wars are irrelevant. Christians today don't kill in the name of Christianity even a fraction of how much Islamists kill in the name of Islam. Don't get me wrong, all religions do some crazy shit, but the body count is incomparable.

jessica
+BigBadJuju i think you're mistaking what is no doubt a brief historical pause for some kind of permanent progress. if you take a broader historical perspective, you'll see that this pause is not unprecedented - and that it is in fact a consequence of christian hegemony rather than christian social evolution.

the kkk was not burning crosses very long ago, and hitler couldn't have succeeded to the extent that he did without support from the catholic church. the peace agreements in ireland are barely a few decades old. and, christians have no problem slaughtering people indiscriminately in africa.

mass christian violence has never been more than an inch under the surface; it's always been ready to erupt with the proper catalyst, which has always been economic.

BigBadJuju
+jessica I am not trying here to apologize for Christianity, or for any religion in that matter. Your argument may well have merit in the broader perspective. But I argue that, given the current circumstances, radical Islam is posing a more imminent threat and demands a more urgent action than any other religion today.

jessica
+BigBadJuju i don't agree. but, if i did, i'd still point out that what you do when you do that is deflect the argument away from an epistemological basis and towards an ethnic one, thereby creating a larger problem.

BigBadJuju
My argument has nothing to do with ethnicity. It has to do with the reality of radicals killing innocent civilians across the world in the name of religion. White European terrorist are just as bad as Middle-Eastern terrorists. You seem to argue from an idealistic perspective of how things should be and what we would like our problems to be. The reality is we have a distinct group that is making a lot of the troubles we have. And until you acknowledge this fact, this indisputable fact supported by every day events all over the world, your argument will remain detached from reality.

jessica
+BigBadJuju your argument has everything to do with ethnicity, whether you realize it or not. that's the faultline you're creating.

it seems to be getting targeted from every direction...

there's perspectives you wish were true, that fit some ideological bent or perhaps are even constructed entirely out of one. fantasies. projections.

then there's perspectives that actually exist.

i think the reason that almost everybody is upset about this is because it's pretty real.

the liberals are using the planes as leverage in a nation-to-nation dialogue, rather than as gifts to wow their imperial overlords, as harper did. it's the better approach. but, they need to walk a fine line on it, too - more than one liberal prime minister has not-so-mysteriously resigned after clearly ruffling feathers.

this is very delicate. there will no doubt be errors. and, don't be surprised if it trudeau's undoing in the end. but, it's the right approach, anyways - as dangerous as it is.

www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-isis-mission-us-letter-carter-1.3366185

liquor stores close too early. i want to be able to buy pot at 4:20 am. corner stores are a better idea.

but, i've pointed this out before: you will no doubt see high-end pot applications, because it's not just a smokable. in fact, in the long run, i'd expect to see higher market share from beverages and eatables.

in the medium term, expect to see very nice restaurants show up that offer marijuana deserts and wines. and, expect something like the "marijuana marguerita" to be a big hit on the bourgeois patios.

pot has never been about lurking around alleyways. and, a big part of legalization needs to be in abolishing that utterly ridiculous social stigma. it has a place in our culture, and that should be recognized.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/weed-in-every-liquor-store-what-could-happen-when-trudeau-legalizes-marijuana/article27755045/


Naomi moscoe
Restaurants serving edibles...brilliant!

deathtokoalas
count on it.

....and marijuana coolers will no doubt become the dominant means of consumption.

Keith p.
Weed has a stigma that is richly deserved. It stinks, it is usually consumed by smoking, which has a sub-stigma all of its own, and it tends to be used by those who are shiftless and act dumb, likely because they are. No "nice" restaurant will want to add weed to their plates if they wish to continue to exist. Hopefully after the initial teenager rush of business is over, the marijuana business will die a natural death because legalization will make it unappealing to the perpetually disaffected, and its use will again be limited only to aging hippies and layabouts.

deathtokoalas
see, that's a bunch of lunatic fringe nonsense.

i'm actually hoping that legalization reduces alcohol use - because, unlike pot, alcohol actually really does make you stupid when you're under it's influence.

the liquor store closes too early. i believe i should have the right to purchase marijuana at all times of night - and especially at 4:20 am.

if they can make it as hard to find pot as it is to find cigarettes, they'll have done the best that they realistically can. unless they want to move cigarettes to the liquor store, too?

i think that corner stores are a better idea. i mean, they just allowed supermarkets to sell beer, let's be consistent here...

this is what nobody wants to say: if you're really concerned about crime (and the actual reality is that the shadiest thing i've seen in over twenty years of smoking is a confederate flag on a baggie...i don't get the impression that the gangs push much pot.), you want to have that bit of space - so that the kids that really want it can get it from the state. you want to put up hurdles, make it annoying - but not make it impossible.

you can't stop kids from smoking pot any more than you can stop them from having sex. and, given that, i'd rather have them get it from the store through some convoluted process than have them get it from the bikers.

that's how things work today with cigs and booze. it's how things will work with pot, too. there's not a choice here, really. so, it doesn't make sense to me for them to get stricter on pot while they're loosening up on alcohol; alcohol is far more destructive. i'd rather see it at corner stores, at supermarkets, etc.

anywhere that can sell beer or cigarettes should be able to sell marijuana, too.

www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/12/15/liquor-stores-not-the-place-to-sell-pot-says-rona-ambrose_n_8809934.html

it's not clear that you're better off buying a house. you just said you don't have kids, so you don't care about school districts. then, why do you need the extra space?

the reality is that this youtube thing is not likely to be permanent as a source of income, and i'm sure you realize that. fast forward a year or two from now, when you've sunk everything into a house.

on the one hand, your property taxes are based on your income, not the price of your property. so, if you see your income crash, you could end up paying less in taxes than you'd pay in rent. my parents had friends that won millions on the stock market, bought a house and then paid no taxes on it because they had no income. it's not exactly fair, but you're in a position to take advantage of that.

on the other hand, a big house requires a lot of maintenance. you can get out of that by buying a condo, but then you're paying condo fees. balancing act. further, housing is really not the safest investment, despite what your elders may claim. look at what happened in 2008. it will happen again.

you're probably best off buying a cheap, new house for two reasons. the first is so you're not sinking everything you have into it. the second is to minimize maintenance costs. if you're buying an older house, renovations could very well offset inflation - if you even get inflation. housing will crash again when the boomers start dying off.

renting will give you a point of stability. it might seem like you're wasting money, but if you really crunch the numbers you'll find out you're probably not. you'll have more disposable income, which you will soon realize the importance of. and, you won't have to move when you have to actually get an actual job.