Sarah Palin : Future Paths

Time will tell what kind of role she will fill in the future and to what level. She has a black or white [neither of which are actually colors, by the way] appeal to people, either you like her or you don’t, it’s not something that can be an acquired taste, personally speaking.

She is bright, learns reasonably quickly and can adapt to meet challenges. She did her job for John McCain and the Republican Party by re-energizing the base. It was trial by fire in a lot of ways for her and she toughed it out, full kudos.

As always… time will tell.

Senator John McCain : Duty, Honor and Courage

Here are some excerpts from his concession speech.

My friends, we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans, who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president, is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

It is natural tonight to feel some disappointment, but tomorrow we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again. We fought — we fought as hard as we could. And though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours.

Tonight — tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Sen. Obama, I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president.

He showed both class and tact when a hand full of people started to boo and he shooshed them. Later many applauded what they would of booed only minutes earlier. A huge amount of stress is now gone, John McCain can relax at his leisure now. Barack Obama will most likely reach out to him in some way, What John does will be up to him.

Being Aware of the Aging Process

In six months I'm going to be 50 years old, which is cool, glad I made it this far. There were couple of situations that could of changed that.

Despite some bad habits between the ages of 18 to 35 I was generally very healthy and in good enough shape to participate in individual and team sports. One of my friends was superior in all racket sports including table tennis whereas I was better than most everyone I played golf with. I made some decent money playing skins and other side bets.

Few things are more satisfying than the verbage a friend has to tolerate while in the process of losing and then finally when they pay up. Reneging was not an acceptable practice.

In the near future there will be some ping pong playing, I'm hoping that a rank such as 'Captain' means squat and I will be able to brag a little. But reality is that we are all out of shape to and in varying degrees, just finishing a game without a heart attack or fucking up a knee will be good enough for me, anything more is gravy.

Normally I follow hockey very closely, thanks to CNN and Barack Obama announcing his intent to run for President of the US, my attention has been consumed [ in a healthy way ] in watching the whole thing unfold.
I've won money on this election and I'm not the only one.

I will be spending more time reading stuff at T.O.Sports, there's gotta be something posted that I can dispute.

Anyone can say anything, within reason, about what I write, thats fair game.

I did play a round of golf this year, I plan to play more than once next year.

PRESIDENT ELECT ~ BARACK OBAMA

From his speech, last night, addressing the world;

" Our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand "

True, and it sounds good to me.

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN

The sun will rise with the dawning of a new era.

THE ELECTION COULD END UP IN A TIE

While watching CNN recently; on the interactive electoral map “Magic Map”, John King indicated that a tie was a possible outcome mathematically.

If that did happen, would the popular vote be used?

Will the courts be involved?

An easy way to settle this matter is; schedule a revote for the following Monday, most votes wins.

On Nov. 6th all four candidates are required to take three IQ tests each, the average will determine the individual IQ’s. This information will be made available to the public immediately so that they are informed and can make a more clear choice in the revote.

What is the current President’s IQ?

KARMA

The Reality and Rules Of Lottery Gambling “ 649 “

If one does not buy a ticket, one can not win, it is impossible. If one buys a single ticket, one has a 1 in 14m chance to win. If one buys 1m tickets, the odds are 13 to 1 that he or she will not win. This person will be out of $2m minus the sum of all winning secondary prizes. It would take 1k people at 1k locations with $2k to perform this task, using quick-picks.

If the Jackpot was $50m, one can have the “ winning numbers “ for sure if she or he spent $28m for every combination that there is. This person would win $22m plus the sum of all secondary prizes, maybe another $2m or so.

For the sake of simplicity; all residual amounts from all Free Tickets won can not be known and are therefore considered moot. How much would it cost to have 25k printouts of 560 different six number combinations given to 25k people with $1.12k at 25k locations to perform this task, let‘s say $9m, each person will get $300.00, and one would need $1.5m for paid staff, supplies, distribution, logistics, etc.

It is doable and worth it. But this person would have to trust each and every one of the 25k people, as beforehand not one error can be made and afterwards all tickets must be sent to the single location for verifying.

But here is the catch, if one other person also has the “ winning numbers “ then instead of netting $15m it becomes a loss of $10m which is bad news and bad Karma.

Karma is not impressed or influenced by how many tickets one buys.

Karma is; that one will have an equal chance to win among all those who bought tickets, relatively speaking.

Karma likes to play mind games with everyone, when nobody wins and the Jackpot is increased.

Karma is amused by and amazed, at the amount of fantasy tax that is collected on a weekly basis.

Karma is impressed by those who become more physically fit by practicing their “ Happy Dance “ a lot.

Karma is Karma.

Fox News predicts McCain will win by a Landslide

Okay maybe that isn't exactly true, in fact I have no clue because I'm not going to pay for very biased news and views. I watch CNN, with no complaint of bias that I'm aware of.

But, his picking of Gov. Palin was a risky political gamble which has proven to be a detriment generally, other than energizing the Republican base. Whoopee!! I can only laugh when conservative diehards state with what appears to be sincere conviction that she is able and qualified to serve as President and Commander in Chief in the very improbable event that Johh McCain wins the election and then sometime early in his term suffered a stroke which would render him incapable of properly functioning.

Let's go back in time 4 weeks for a hypothetical situation where Sen. McCain suffers the debilitating stroke which renders him incapable of campaigning thus nuking his being the head of the Republic Ticket. So what happens... would Gov. Palin become the head of the ticket and a scamble effort begun to fill the now vacant VP slot?

Or is there some criteria, rules or whatever that is mandated by the RNC or the Republican Party should such a situation occur, that dictates that someone else be selected by whatever process to replace McCain and Palin remains as the VP candidate.

As I see it, the conumdrum is, if Palin does not become the head of the ticket in this hypothetical; 4 weeks prior to the election, then logically how can anyone state that she is ready, able and qualified to sit in the big chair in the event that something unfortunate happed to McCain after being inaugerated, given that some even more unfortunate happed earlier... he won the election.

Don't get me wrong, I respect John McCain as a person and how he served his country as Pilot in Good Rank when within the Navy, but he is not what the USA needs right now. Recent polls and tactics by his campaign have clearly illuminated his and the campaign's desperation and frustration.

I hope he and his staff spend quality time and thought on the speech he will give to his party and supporters, it could and most likely will redeem a lot of what was not very tactful and outright bullshit during the the last 2 months of the campaign. A man who has served with honour in the past can do so in the future, it just won't be as President.

Will things " change " on November 5th

Without a doubt, McCain has little to no chance of winning. Since I don't like typing all that much I won't list any reasons.

Obama will win, it may even be by a significant margin. All the better. But just the win on it's own is enough.

We will all benefit by osmosis.

And if I happen to be wrong, which is rare, then the majority of Amercians are much more ignorant than I would have ever thought.

Traffic ~ Driving ~ People

Over the many years of reading newspapers I have always; with interest read the articles that are in any way, related to driving incidents. I then enjoy, for lack of a better word, all letters to the editor afterwards where people from all walks of life offer their two cents on why something happened or a particular situation exists and their proposed and rationalized solution(s).

I, on purpose, did not use the word ‘accident’ above, with respect to Impaired Driving and Street Racing any negative result from either is not an accident. By definition an accident is; 1) an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss; casualty; mishap. 2) any event that happens unexpectedly, without a deliberate plan or cause.

Anyone who has a driver’s licence, which is a privilege not a right, can not be unaware or unknowing that driving after drinking is; 1) unlawful 2) stupid 3) irresponsible to the highest degree; knowing that deadly and serious damage to life and property can occur. The same applies to road racing but, in my opinion, has to be viewed differently because the individuals who participate, with major preponderance, will not be impaired.

Anyone who chooses to drink and drive or participate in street racing, is doing so knowingly and deliberately. If such action results in an incident, however tragic; it is not an accident. Therefore the consequence(s) and penalties of such deliberate acts should be applied and enforced accordingly. Not too long ago a breadwinner was erased from life and the immediate family instantly had to endure all burdens, created by this event, indefinitely. Another burden was added when it became known that the two young men who received punishment equivalent to being ‘grounded’ were unfairly treated favourably. What is true remorse? ‘oops’, ‘my bad’ and ‘sorry’ just does not, nor should it ever, make the cut. How can one forgive and try to achieve closure when excuses are offered instead of reasons given.

The following is an excerpt from a Web Page article posted by “The Association of British Drivers”

Unlimited Safety — our aim!Our motorways are our safest roads. However, a significant minority of motorists do not drive properly on motorways. Bad motorway drivers have poor lane discipline, do not use their mirrors, undertake, hog overtaking lanes, follow too closely and fail to adjust their speed to take account of poor weather conditions, road works and heavy traffic. Other countries have addressed these problems. In the former West Germany proper motorway driving behaviour is strictly enforced (safe following distances, correct lane discipline and adherence to speed limits applied only when and where they are needed). International evidence shows there is no correlation between maximum motorway speed limits and accident and casualty rates. Consequently, some stretches of the West German Autobahn network have an excellent traffic signalling system which supports a variable speed limit regime with no upper limit.

With this in mind; anyone, who on their own, loses control of their vehicle due to the speed chosen to drive at; essentially becomes subject to and a victim of the laws and the ‘Balance of Nature’ as it applies to motorists.

Drivers who, in rush hour or heavy traffic, wait until the last possible moment to make their way from the left lane to the right lane in order to catch their exit (and find it difficult because the spacing between the vehicles, regardless of speed, is very tight) are just as much to blame as those who follow too closely in the following example. But who or what is truly responsible for and deserving of blame?

In order to avoid a collision a driver brakes to let another determined driver in ahead, this creates a ripple in traffic that cascades it’s way backwards to where after 2 kilometres another driver does not brake quickly enough and, at low speed, collides with the vehicle in front. This creates a bottleneck and another ripple which this time evolves into a tsunami, causing a serious pileup 5 kilometres behind the bottleneck. Several people were injured and one person was killed.

Because one individual wanted to try and save a few minutes in his/her commute, he/she becomes unintentionally and unknowingly responsible for that pileup and the results of it.

Many of the major vehicle arteries through and around Toronto, which were not designed to handle the current and increasing volumes, are to blame foundationally. Complacency and people perpetually in a hurry according to their individual schedules and lifestyles; in relation to how the current driving environment manifests itself, are then also to blame.

Guns do not kill people, people kill people. Photo radar and playing with the speed limit will not change anything. It would be analogous to trying to treat cancer with aspirin.

There are no magic solutions, but I believe that increased, efficient and affordable public transit will be, and needs to be, a major component. Another important component should be zero tolerance, if one is convicted of either Impaired Driving causing Death or Street Racing causing Death then that person should spend some significant time in Jail and upon release their Licence is suspended for a minimum of 10 years. No more slaps on the wrist and/or being told to sit in the corner of the room for the rest the day.

The people in charge of the GTA and the planners know what the current situation is and, to a reasonable and perhaps frightening degree, the projections. Mathematically and physically the number of solutions are finite. Any and all quibbling has to stop and some real proactive measures need to be instituted like yesterday.

Please, no more consultants to study the conclusions of the previous study; done only a year beforehand.

McCain ~ Hero becomes Coward

I guess the programming of Sarah Palin is not complete yet, when it is [ even more scary ] she might be able to answer questions for and from the general press. I don't get it, McCain wants to avoid the debate because of his wanting to be involved in the voting on the prposed cure-all bailout package associated with the current economic crisis in the States, but, over the last year he is Number 1 in being absent for votes [ over 400 times ] for the record Obama is 4th on that list. [ around 297 times, I think ] The guy in 3rd suffered a stroke.

McCain deserve some credit though, he is not stupid. He knows that given the current environment, he'll get blown outta da water in/during the debate. People want to see that.

I'm an Independant by the way ;-)

Traffic in Toronto

It really pisses me off. So much that I need to take a day or so to calm down. Then I can properly lay it on you.