immediate reaction on first listen is that i'd like to listen to it some more.

they seem to have created a bit of a split fanbase, with some people interested solely in their singles and others wishing those singles would be split off the records altogether.

i'm kind of in the middle: i find the singles eventually grow on me. but, they're still always the weak points on the discs.

about that kiwi, btw...

i think this is successful. so, i'm going to be adjusting my daily smoothies to the following creation, when i do not have fresh strawberries:

- 1 banana
- 5 frozen strawberries (thawed)
- 1 kiwi
- two scoops of cherry ice cream
- vanilla soy (it's around 400 ml)

what the kiwi adds is a lot of tangy punch, plus a lot of minerals. it's actually so tangy that it almost makes it taste more like yogurt.

i am still experimenting with whether the kiwi should or should not be peeled. the peel is both edible and nutritious, and it actually blends perfectly - to my surprise. but it's a little woody. like rhubarb. i'm not sure yet.

frozen strawberries tend to be sweeter in the smoothie, so i'll have to do a further experiment the next time that fresh berries come in. i fear that the combination of kiwi and fresh berry may go beyond tang and into bitter, and that it may not be pleasant. yet, i may also be projecting. we'll have to find out.

i'll admit i'm a little surprised by just how nutritious a kiwi is, though. that's a nice little bomb of goodness to drop in the smoothie, and i may get used to it.

i just want to be clear about what's happening, though.

the liberal party of canada was absolutely dead last to the party of neo-liberalism, and they fought it kicking and screaming the whole way. the neo-liberals were not truly ascendant in the party until 2003 - and they then promptly lost power to the conservatives, who just carried through with a lot of what the neo-liberal wing wanted to do, anyways. in the wake of defeat and abandonment for the conservatives, the neo-liberals actually lost power again from 2006 to 2008. michael ignatieff was not able to win an election, but he was able to more firmly cement the neo-liberal wing before he lost his own seat in the 2011 election. having never really done anything of any importance in life, it wasn't really clear where trudeau stood; there were plenty of signs that he was firmly on the neo-liberal wing of the party, but just as many that he represented a kind of synthesis of neo-liberalism with social liberalism, and the latter is probably closer to the truth. since he won the election, however, the neo-liberal wing has both been in firm control and taken steps to remove the social liberal wing from power. at this point, the socially liberal wing is mostly aging and largely out of the loop.

given that it took forty years for the neo-liberals to take over the party, and the generation that is coming into power has consequently spent their entire lives fighting social liberals for control, it is easy to understand why they might be a little resistant to react to events on the ground. the reality is that the liberal party of canada is stuck in the 80s. it is only now, in 2017, seeing the world with a reaganite vision. and, it doesn't want to hear that history has come back - not now that they've finally done away with it.

somehow, this needs to be smashed. the party has to realize that it's been doing the wrong thing all of these years. but, it's easier stated than accomplished.

i just...

when did the liberal party embrace nafta? point me to the moment. don't say 1993; that's dishonest. it was always a brutal cost-benefit analysis, and borne out of necessity.

so, what do you expect the liberal party to say to the millions of people that have been voting liberal since the 80s? are they going to pull the clintonian "our views have evolved"? good luck with that one. do you hear that giant sucking sound? it's your poll numbers crashing.

i think that, perhaps, a part of the disconnect is that trudeau has surrounded himself with these obama sycophants that think that canadian liberals are just northern democrats. if obama supported nafta, then the liberals should too, right? but, these people are completely out of touch with reality. canadian liberals are not democrats, have never been democrats and do not want to be democrats - and trudeau may very well find himself with a caucus revolt if he tries to drag the party in that direction. the liberal party of canada has it's own history and it's own traditions. one would not think it necessary to explain that to justin trudeau.

the right way for the government to think about this issue is to pick it up where they left it off in 1993. the reality is that nothing has changed - views have not evolved, concerns have not dwindled, correct analyses have not become incorrect. the end of history did not fundamentally alter the laws of arithmetic. but, if the party is insistent on this realignment, it is going to need to do the following things:

1) it will need to explain to liberal voters when it embraced nafta.
2) it will need to explain to liberal voters why it embraced nafta.
3) it will need to convince liberal voters that they are correct to embrace nafta.

if the party fails at any one of these tasks, a political realignment will take hold in canada, with the liberals shifting to the right of the conservatives. given that canada leans left 3-1 or 4-1, this is going to flip the conservatives and liberals: the conservatives will become the new governing party.

so, about an hour ago i hear all kinds of smashing and drilling and sawing upstairs. a few minutes ago, i finally went up to see what the commotion is..

"what are you guys doing?"
"tearing the ceiling down."
"can i ask why you're tearing the ceiling down?"
"there's a leak upstairs."
"can i..."
"there's a leak upstairs. it needs to be fixed. would you like to help?"
"i'm not going to be of much help to you...."

it's not my fault. i was born with this.

you know who was right about nafta?

pierre trudeau, jean chretien, john turner, ed broadbent....

it's scandalous how the contemporary canadian left has completely swallowed itself on this issue. they were right in the 80s and the 90s. history has proven this, clearly. they should be gloating about how right they were, and jumping at the opportunity to fix the errors of the mulroney government. instead, they've both embraced the legacy of the progressive conservative party.

if the conservatives are able to realign on this, justin trudeau and the liberals (and mulcair and the ndp) will have nobody to blame but themselves. they were right all along. all they have to do is remind people of it, and start acting like it.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nafta-ambrose-renegotiation-caucus-friday-1.3955714

actually, i think that the media should take note of this. in it's perpetual drive to frame the narrative in terms friendly to fiscal conservatives, it continually misses what is actually important to canadians. then, they scratch their head and wonder why nobody buys their papers.

"People at the town halls seemed unconcerned about two recent controversies involving the prime minister, namely accusations around cash-for-access fundraisers and his Christmas vacation to the Aga Khan's private island in the Bahamas.

Only one question, from a woman in London, Ont., touched on the subject of ethics."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-town-halls-analysis-1.3954970

i just want to clarify that i'm waiting this guy out.

he's dangerously obese, and in his 60s. he should die any day, now. heart attack. diabetes. he could fall and be unable to get up.

i'd kind of like to sit the new property owner down and explain this to him. i'm not sure what the exact relationship is, now. the previous owner was the guy's brother; i think that the new one is an in-law. he may be a little unclear about the reality of the situation, which is that i'm his long term tenant. the fat moron upstairs has five years, max. the heavy smokers two flights up are no doubt going to leave when their son moves out, which should be in a year or two; otherwise, they've had health issues, themselves. there's another tenant upstairs that is also old and in visibly poor health.

i am thirty years younger, and in excellent health. i won't just be here longer than any of the other tenants, i'll probably be here longer than the existing property owner owns the building for.

so, i'd kind of like to sit him down and level with him. he should be concerned about what i want, first and foremost - because i'm the one he's going to have to be dealing with, years down the road.

so, that's two saturday mornings in a row that this smell has wafted downstairs and started to affect my head.

here's another thought: i don't have the slightest clue what crack-cocaine smells like. could somebody in the building be smoking crack? i wouldn't be able to identify it - i'd just notice something smells bad and complain about a headache.

windows are open until it passes....

i got up until the end of october done yesterday, which is much less than i'd like. but, hopefully, i can get that extra push today.