Opinion

Dear NBC Executives,

My name is Travis Harder and I am writing to express my disagreement with your recent decisions regarding your late night schedule. I feel that moving Jay Leno back to 11:35, pushing Conan O’Brien back to 12:05 and Jimmy Fallon to 1:05 is not only a mistake, but simply wrong. The fact of the matter is, Jay Leno is past his prime and isn’t funny anymore, to anyone except old people. True, Conan has not done as well as David Letterman recently, but that is because you have failed to give Conan a good lead in. Obviously, it makes sense to get rid of Leno, however, moving him to 11:35, screwing Conan and Jimmy Fallon over in the process makes no sense. If people aren’t watching Leno now, what makes you think they’ll watch him when he goes back to 11:35? Sure, he had viewers before he “retired”, but he’s not going back to a hour long comedy/talk show, like he had before. People watched Leno because he had the big name guests. Putting him in a 30 minute show, relying solely on his comedy will fail. Pushing Conan and Fallon back half an hour will give David Letterman and Craig Ferguson a major advantage, and people aren’t going to watch half an hour of Letterman and switch to NBC for Conan. Furthermore, Conan has now said that he will not host The Tonight Show at 12:05. If you are going to lose a host either way, lose Leno. At best, you’ll get another 5-10 years of bad comedy and low ratings with him, whereas with Conan, you will get many years of a genuinely funny show. It was bad enough when you lost David Letterman because of Leno, don’t lost Conan as well. Fox has already said that they would be willing to do a show with Conan, and I will follow Conan to Fox if he takes them up on that offer. Think about this: if Fox decides to go into the late night game, they will logically want a later show to follow Conan O’Brien’s. Jimmy Fallon can’t be happy about his treatment, either. It’s not unreasonable to think that he may follow Conan to Fox, leaving you with, what, Carson Daly to host Late Night? Where is the upside to this? How do you benefit by pissing off the host of your flagship late night show? How does causing more splintering benefit NBC? Let me end this by saying that if you do not cancel your current plans to move Leno back to 11:35, I cannot continue to support the network by watching. Furthermore, I will contact any company that advertises on Leno’s show and let them know that as long as they are advertising with Leno, I will not purchase their products and/or services.

Travis Harder

While watching the latest episode of Diggnation yesterday, one of the hosts, Alex Albrecht, made an interesting point about Google becoming a monopoly by entering other industries. He said that because Google has so much money, they can go into another industry (in this example: turn-by-turn navigation) and do it for free without having to make money. This, he said, will push out the other competitors in the market (you can’t beat free), thus establishing Google as the sole company providing a service, which would lead to a degradation of quality of service. Part of his argument used the examples of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3. The two leaders in the industry, he said, didn’t need to many money from video gaming, since they had other products that provided their cash (Microsoft’s OS and Office suite, Sony’s computers, TVs, etc.), so they could sell their consoles at a loss. While he made some interesting points (far more interesting than anything I’ve ever said after a few beers), and I agree that monopolies must always be avoided, Google currently is not the enemy. (more…)

Last night, Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator John McCain (R-AZ), made a posted on her Twitter account a picture of her sitting around in a tank-top holding a book (“Andy Warhol” by Arthur C. Danto ). Being the daughter of a prominent Republican (as well as a self-described Republican herself), it’s no surprise that most of her followers are also Republicans. What is, however, surprising, is the backlash that the picture gathered. While she did appear to be going for sex appeal or something when she took this picture, it’s still tame compared to what we see every day on television, celebrity gossip sites, or your local newspaper. So, that begs the question: why the fuss?
Twitter user LDG1981 posted:

Is @McCainBlogette vying to be the prostitute in the next undercover ACORN video? What is she thinking? Hope her kids never see that.

Really? You’re comparing Meghan McCain sitting at home in a tank-top, showing some cleavage to prostitution (SFW)? Note that the woman the camera is focused on for most of the video is not the one pretending to be a hooker. Also, you really think her future children (keep in mind Meghan currently does not have any children) will be traumatized if they saw this picture? She’s showing off a book to her Twitter followers, not parading around on stage in a swim suit (maybe not the best example, considering Bristol). (more…)

Human trafficking is the euphemism used for slavery used during the 21st century. Earning a total annual income of roughly $9 billion a year, human trafficking is the most profitable criminal industry in the world. A friend of mine first told me about the issue of human trafficking about a year ago or so, but it wasn’t until a classmate in my International Relations class did a presentation for the rest of the class did I realize how big this problem is. Between 2 million and 4 million people are trafficked across international borders every single year, the majority of which are women and children who are forced into the sex trade where they may be forced to have sex up to 20 times a day. According to the CIA, one woman alone will result in profits of around $250,000/year. (more…)

The Grant MacEwan College Board of Governors announced a while ago that the facility would maximize the tution increase for next year. Being a student at Grant MacEwan, this obviously resonates with me very strongly. Seeing as MacEwan is going to provide the Bachelor of Science degree and needs money for that, and the majority of the increase will go towards staff wages, I do not hold any ill will towards the college for the increase. Who I do blame for the massive increase, however, is the provincial government. The amount of funding that Alberta provides for post-secondary institutions is so miniscule that it is embarassing. There is no excuse for it.

Obviously, some will argue that with the economic recession starting to hit Alberta, we cannot afford to increase spending. Quite frankly, this is wrong. In a recession, we must have manageable deficits to minimize the effect of a recession, and pay it off when the economy picks up again. What should have happened was when we were in a boom, the government should have put the surplus into a savings account, so we could retroactively pay off the deficits that we would be forced to go into during the inevitable recession. Instead, our idiot former Premier Ralph Klein and his moronic successor Ed Stelmach decided to do nothing and let the province run on “autopilot*”. Only an eighth-grade dropout could come up with an idea so mind numbingly stupid. The second he came up with the idea of a government that does nothing, he should have forfeited his salary. He was never elected to do nothing. Where I work, if you do nothing, you get fired. In the next election, did we fire Klein? No, we re-elected him. This is a man who once insulted handicapped recipients of Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), claiming that “…they didn’t look severely handicapped to me…”. No, Ralph, they didn’t. You know why? Because we don’t give M.D.’s to people who can’t even finish grade 9, never mind grade 12 or university.

When Ralph Klein finally retired, many thought that the era of doing nothing (other than slash-and-burn spending) was finally over. Oh how wrong we were. Instead, we got more inaction (if you don’t count giving himself and his cabinet a massive pay raise). To put that raise into perspective: the increase alone is almost as much as my mom makes in a year. It is over double what I make in a year. Stelmach justified this increase by saying that it would attract brighter people to politics. Ignoring the obvious jokes about him implying that his own cabinet (including himself) are not adequate for this province (they’re not), keep in mind what they get. $184,000/year for cabinet ministers and $213,450/year for the Premier. Think about that. Chances are very good that you did not make anywhere close to that. How can this man claim to represent you, and have any idea on the economic challenges that you face when he makes four times what you make? His bright idea for dealing with the recession is to have Ralph Klein era budget cuts. This begs the question: what is there left to cut? Rather than cut anything you can see, Stelmach, why not give yourself a pay cut? If the economy is so dire, give yourself a 50% pay cut. You’ll still make more than double what the rest of us make.

One has to wonder, how does this party keep getting elected? How is it possible that a party full of nothing but imbeciles and dunces can hold onto power for 38 years? Is this province really so collectively stupid that they are incapable of having any thought process other than “I’ve always voted conservative, so I’ll keep voting conservative”?  In 2011, when we go to the polls again, I urge everyone to remember this history of mental retardation when it comes to governing and strategically vote A.B.C. (Anything But Conservative). If we ever want to have a government that understands the people, we need to get involved and put this current on on the street. Until the next election, write both your current MLA and Ed Stelmach, and let them know about your displeasure with the current path of the government.

*It should be noted that, despite our common last name, I am not related to Dr. Lois Harder

According to a report by Ars Technica, four major Canadian ISPs, including Bell, Shaw and Rogers throttle P2P traffic via Deep Packet Inspection (DPI). According to a report done by University of Victoria grad student Christopher Parsons, most of the filings for submitted by the ISPs were submitted in confidence, thus hiding traffic numbers to the public.

This is just shameful. There is no reason for ISPs to throttle internet access and is simply counter-productive. Many Canadians wonder why we are always behind the rest of the world, technologically speaking, and this is out answer. The CRTC refuses to regulate our ISPs and enforce net neutrality, thus letting the companies do whatever they want. TV is dying, and new media is the future. Unfortuantly, new media access in Canada will be stunted due to the fact that P2P traffic, such as bit torrent will be restricted and bit torrent is a cheap way for people to distribute files, such as podcasts, Linux image files and WoW updates. Yes, it sucks that it’s going to cost the ISPs more money for upload, but so what? It’s a cost of business. If you never want to embrace changing technology, get out of the technology industry. It’s shameful that not only can these companies rule in a virtual monopoly, they can take advantage of that situation and screw over their customers, knowing that they will not be able to take their business elsewhere, unless they want to go back to dial up.

38: the percentage of the popular vote the Conservative Party of Canada recieved in the last election.

47: the percentage of seats won by the Conservative Party of Canada.

54: the percentage of the popular vote the members of the Progressive Coalition: the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party of Canada and the Bloc Quebecois recieved.

53: the percentage of seats won by members of the Progressive Coalition.

Do you see anything wrong here?

59: the percentage of eligible voters who voted.

49: the percentage of Canadians who know that the Prime Minister is not directly elected.

24: the percentage of Canadians who know that the Queen if our Head of State.

41: the percentage of Canadians who know that our political system is a “Constitutional Monarchy”

Now do you see a problem?

These numbers come from the official Elections Canada website and the Dominion Institute, which conducted an Ipsos Reid poll on our understanding of our own political system.

The results are downright embarassing. How is it possible that 3/4 Canadians don’t even know who our Head of State is? How is it possible that a majority of Canadians don’t even realize what the hell they’re doing when they go to the voting station? Three months ago, we went to the polls and yet we’ve somehow already forgotten that Stephen Harper’s name wasn’t on the ballot? (Unless you lived in Calgary-Southwest, but even then, the lack of Stephane Dion and Jack Layton should’ve tipped you off). I used to think that this was evidence that something, somewhere has gone terribly wrong, but I now realize that it means the exact opposite. Our ignorance is pure gold to politicians. Stephen Harper has learned that he can minipulate us with lies, and we’ll fall for it time and time again. We have become a nation of sheep, falling for whatever we’re told. We blindly trust whatever our polticians tell us, instead of researching things for ourselves.

If we are to ever get a government worth having, we need to start thinking for ourselves and doing our own research, since we can’t trust our politicans.

Earlier today, Stephen Harper went to Rideau Hall asking Governer General Michaëlle Jean to progue, or suspend, parliment. To my suprise, she actually did. This is the first time in Canadian history where a sitting Prime Minister has suspended Parliament in order to avoid a non-confidence vote. By doing so, Stephen Harper has ignored the will of the majority of the democratically elected Parliament. And his media blitz has gone too far. He’s undoing all the good will he gathered from Quebec in his past few years by attempting to turn Canadians against the Bloc Quebecois, refusing to admit that the Frencophobia that he is pushing is nothing more than pure racism. On top of that, he’s also trying to revert Canada back to the 60s with Red Scare tactics such as refering the the NDP as socialists, as though it were a negative thing, calling this a “seperatist” coalition (refering to the Bloc) and so on to scare Canadians is simply unacceptable. I found out while writing this that pro-coalition protesters got attacked at the rally at Churchill Square. Good job, Mr. Harper, you managed to turn the citizens of this nation against each other. In any other country that would be called terrorism. I thought we were in Afghanistan to remove terrorists from power, not to install one in our own Parliment. Harper has shown that he is not fit to run the local McDonalds, nevermind this country. Stephen Harper, if you truly love Canada and democracy as much as you claim, do what’s right, nay, what’s nessecary to save this country: resign. Resign before you can do anymore damage, turn any more Canadians against eachother and scare more Canadians into blindly hating Quebec and anything left of centre. Resign because we do not let terrorists run Canada.

Goodnight and good luck

I decided that I’ll comment on the cover of the November 2, 2008 edition of the Edmonton Sun. The editorial section has always been notoriously right-wing. That’s ok, it’s expected for an editorial section to have a bias one way or another. In fact, that’s why I focus on getting letters published there, rather than elsewhere. I want to give the readers of the Edmonton Sun comments page a liberal persepctive. That being said, on November 2, the Edmonton Sun went too far and showed that it did not value what little journalistic integrity it had. The front page had a picture of the news confrence with Dion, Layton and Duceppe, with the words “NO, NO, NO” superimposed on it. How can you claim to be a news organization when you blatently interject your personal opinions and biases into a news story? This is absolutely shameful and I urge anyone who currently has a subscription to the Edmonton Sun to cancel their subscription. News organizations have a duty, especially during a time of political tumoil to present the facts in an unbiased manner, presenting all points of view, while passing judgement on none of them. If the editor has an opinion they want to share, they can do so in an editorial or start a blog. This shameless, partisan, reminicint of Fox News bias is unacceptable and we must send a clear message to the Edmonton Sun: we will not accept anything other than balanced stories and real headlines, rather than the sensationalist drivel we’re being fed. Cancel your subscriptions and boycott the paper and send them your letters to the editor letting them know that you’re sick of this garbage and that they will no longer get your money.

This is a letter to the editor I sent in to a couple of news papers. You can see an abridged version in the print and online November 4 editions of the Edmonton Sun and the full version on the Edmonton Journal website.

I fully support this Liberal-NDP coalition. It is important to remember a few things that Albertans seem to be forgetting. Stephen Harper was appointed Prime Minster, not elected. He only became Prime Minister based on the number of seats his party got and the majority of Canadians still voted for someone other than Harper. On top of that, we need to quit throwing around the Bloc as a reason to fear the coalition. The Bloc is not a member and has no cabinet seats. It will be no different than any other minority government where the Bloc holds the balance of power. On top of that, by referring to them only as separatists, we risk reigniting mostly extinguished calls for Quebec separatism and alienating an entire province. Stephen Harper brought this upon himself by acting as though he had a majority. This pompous, sad excuse for a leader needs to be removed before he can destroy our country.

I do find it interesting that the portions that got trimmed from the Edmonton Sun version were the section that deals with the Bloc and the second adjective describing Harper.