minded youths in the heartland to want to run screaming from a world view that's so very different fromt heir own

I know *I* did.

Maybe it's living on the water. Not so much for the New Age-ness of that, but for the simple economic reason that connie pointed out. If you lose your conservatism, you gain custom. If you keep it, you lose custom.

Another blow for Adam Smith! Economics drives politics! Huzzah!

OK, I'm a little punchy tonight.

How does Canada shake out? Australia? China?

So, like, what kind of raises are folks in the IT industry getting?

None, but I haven't had a permajob in four years. My contract rate varies, depending on the budget, and the bitterness tag never closes.

However, I don't think my friends at the EE are reporting any large raises, either.

Canada sort of fits for the big city thing. And B.C., of course. But Canada's east coast is less uniform. The prairies are pretty red though, except for Redmonton, which is a different kind of red.

I'm going to break in here and have a shark rant.

Yahoo is reporting another teenager got bit. Only on the ankle, it's minor, he's fine. They didn't say what he was doing just in chest deep murky water.

Now, the girl who died. I feel bad about that, I really do. However, she was swimming amongst bait fish, which sharks also know as food.

The teenager who lost his leg was 60 ft out from the shore, in chest deep water, fishing with live bait and stringer of fish. That's stupid right there.

Plus then you hear about these attacks and how sharks are out of control, etc. Which means people will decide to kill and maim sharks and I hate that. The sea is a dangerous place, it's not some nice chlorinated wave pool. I wish people would think of the ocean as a wilderness rather than a safe swimming pool.

Villaraigosa just gave a great speech. It's nice to hear a stirring political speech that sounds genuine, for a change.

Sean, bless you for some happy-making politics today.

Go askye with the rant!

Villaraigosa just gave a great speech

I liked him saying "Angelinos, there will be civility." Kinda charming.

Plus then you hear about these attacks and how sharks are out of control, etc. Which means people will decide to kill and maim sharks and I hate that.

I think violent videogames and the sexually permissive media has lead to a generation of sharks mired in an anything-goes, relativistic morality.

If only public shark-schools were allowed to post the Ten Commandments, none of this would be happening.

Plus then you hear about these attacks and how sharks are out of control, etc. Which means people will decide to kill and maim sharks and I hate that.

There's two things that bug me deeply about shark attack stories -- one, they are sensationlistic as hell because shark attacks are holding steady, or are in slight decline, so it's really trying to manufacture story where none exists.

Two, shark attacks were all the media could talk about during the summer of 2001, despite the fact that Isreal and the Middle East were boiling over with tension and violence that, while probably not readable as a warning for the wake up call we got, were still alarming enough to warrant news coverage over fucking shark attacks.

So basically shark attack stories will now always be read by me as manufactured news meant to distract us from the far more alarming real news that we should be paying attention to.

How does Canada shake out? Australia? China?

In Canada, it is pretty much an East (liberal/old style conservative) v West (jesusland) thing, with the middle being most liberal, generally, driven by the big urban centres of Toronto and Montreal. Our west coast is odd, politically, not to put too fine a point on it. In spite of the very cosmopolitan (read: stoner-friendly) presence of Vancouver, BC politics tend to lean towards whatever is the most nutbar option. Sometimes, that's sort-of lefty, and sometimes it is freak-ass religious-righty (see Bill VanderZalm, etc.) Because most of the votes live in the middle of the country, the religious extremists have so far been held back, but only by the narrowest of margins in the last election, due to a corruption scandal dogging the centrists.