March 24, 2009
Red Eye show on Fox
Two idiots made very disgusting jokes about Canadian military. We are rightfully outraged.
But I think that Bill O'Reilly and other Fox hosts are outraged even more as these two idiots gave black eye to Fox News. I am afraid even to think what these big guys and gals are doing right now to these two poor bastards.
Posted by Victor at 04:58 PM
March 22, 2009
Galow-way
In 1946 British sent Lord Haw Haw to gallows (should I say gallow-way?) , in 2005 they elected his modern day equivalent to Parliament. What next? KBE? House of Lords? 10 Dawning Street? O tempora o mores!
BTW, the analogy between Mr Galloway and Mr Wilders is false: the former has socialized with the groups listed by Canadian Government as terrorist groups (and border officials here follow ths list, not one compiled by Mr Galloway, British Government or someone else) while the latter has no terrorist connection.
Freedom of speech: nobody denies Mr Galloway the right to say any crap he wants but he can do it from his office. Mr. Levant was denied the right to speak freely in his own country.
Posted by Victor at 11:49 AM
July 22, 2008
Good guys in Vancouver and Ben Gurion
In new Vancouver International Terminal (I am flying to Osaka) there is a free wireless internet and electrical sockets. Good guys!
In Ben Gurion (Israel) there is also free Internet but not power.
These two airports score the best in my roster!
Posted by Victor at 02:51 PM
July 17, 2008
Khadr
He should not be at Guantanamo Bay. He should face justice where he committed his crimes - in Afghanistan.
Another youngster (at the time of crime) came to media hot spot - Samir Kantar, who at age of 16 committed unspeakable crime. Now the beast was released from his cage. I don't want neither of them on my backyard or in my country.
Posted by Victor at 05:09 AM
If I was Kantar
I would be scared, really scared. Because if Nasrallah decides that Kantar became too popular, and gets too big portion of love and admiration (well, he deserves them, not everyone, not even Nasrallah managed to smash the scull of a child), a little kaboom would send too beloved Kantar to his 72 virgins (taking probably many of his relatives with them).
Remember the guy who were released last time? He was smart and took pose of submission claiming that the was raped (so he is not a great hero and a challenger).
Posted by Victor at 04:56 AM
July 16, 2008
Child's blood is sticky
Right-dishonorable president and prime minister of lebanon shook hands of child-murderer and some part of the child's blood got transferred to their hands. I hope that no Western leader and Prime Minister of Canada will ever shake their bloody hands!
Posted by Victor at 04:36 PM
May 05, 2008
Ken gone, his buddy Miller to go
Red Ken gone! Londoners became tired of his loony left rhetorics, anti-Zionism (which many, me including, consider as a thinly weiled anti-Semitism) and probably support he got from some of radical (extremist) Moslem preacher caused more harm to him.
Now, hopefully his buddy David Miller, the Mayor of Toronto, pink David as I call him, will go in the next election too. He is just Canadian version of version of Ken, the loony left positions diluted, distilled but equally stupid.
Posted by Victor at 09:58 PM
October 23, 2007
Double windoloser
We see a Windo²loser²
Windo²: Behind a window, using a windoze junkputer
loser²: because he uses windoze, because he is a political loser
Posted by Victor at 08:32 AM
October 09, 2007
School funding. IV
One could argue that the public should pay only for non-religious portion of education leaving religious education funding to community, church or parents. But those who believe that non-religious part of education in faith-based (or private, or charter) schools should not be funded, are bigots.
Further, if the religious part of education is not funded, then such religions as Global Warming Theory should not be funded as well. Actually, this is not even a legitimate religion but malicious and harmful sect because the supporters of this theory demand to waste public money while supporters of say creationism do not harm anyone (creationism does not have practical implications).
Posted by Victor at 05:50 AM
October 07, 2007
School funding. III
Mr McGuinty justifies his opposition to public funding faith based schools by the fact that they are not inclusive and produce narrow minded people (aka bigots).
He is right: at least one of faith based school system (Catholic) produced at least one bigot (Mr McGuinty). But this system is publicly funded!
People who oppose public funding of all faith based schools are at least honest. But it is not the case with people who support public funding of just one faith based school system.
Posted by Victor at 09:22 PM
Message from my MacBookPro
Listen All, I'm glad to tell
That I'm feeling so well,
That I am not junk from Dell,
And my Owner and User,
Is not stupid Windoloser!
Posted by Victor at 08:13 AM
Internet Crimes
Some poor lady got fined over $200,000 US for sharing music over Internet. RIAA got her. I am not sure she did it (may be her Windoze PC got zombied). Anyway, whatever RIAA claims this is the victimless crime (unless one counts what profit they would get if everyone who downloaded this music bought it).
Let us talk about real Internet crimes. Everyday I am getting hundreds of "my" email messages bounced back; in almost the cases the original message is attached and in each and every such case I can trace that this original message was sent from Windows PC (and it is secure to assume that it was an infected zombie).
This is a crime with a lot of victims. First of all me: despite my powerful filters sending 95-99% of such emails to /dev/null, spam.gz gets around ten per day (none of them goes to mailbox). Looking through spam wastes my time. Sorting these messages out overloads mail system. Using low threshold for defining message a a spam endangers some legitimate albeit spam looking messages. Second, it is me again: my email address gets blacklisted at some servers. This is an identity theft.
Second, Department of Mathematics and University of Toronto: domain becomes suspect in sending spam and messages originated from math.toronto.edu, toronto.edu become suspect in being spam.
Finally, there are all recipients of these spam messages, whose filters did not sort it as a spam. Also those of them, who could get email from me (definitely negligible minority), or from math.toronto.edu, toronto.edu (less negligible minority) but whose mailserver rejected them.
And we are talking only about email spam (and there is bulletin board spam, blog spam, wiki spam, spoofing and fishing). It is difficult to get immediate perpetrators of these crimes (those who actually wrote those viruses and Trojans) unless justice is going after Windiots whose computers got infected.
But there is a common denominator of all these crimes: the accessory always is Windoze and almost always Outlook Express.
Posted by Victor at 07:46 AM
October 01, 2007
Blank cheque
Today I found in my mailbox the leaflet from the incumbent MPP from Willowdale riding Mr David Zimmer. "Are you going to write to John Tory the blank cheque for undisclosed amount to pay for faith based schools? I don't". Nice. We know the number of children enrolled in such schools and we know how much is given for 1 child. But Mr Zimmer is not going to give this cheque to pay for kids of our neighbors who BTW supported education of our children paying their taxes.
I do not remember to write the blank cheque to Mr McGuilty to cover medical expenses of people living in far country who were fleeing from the war their country started by an unprovoked attack; these people happened to be Canadian citizens but they were not paying taxes and they were evacuated for free by Government of Canada (and the majority thanked Canadian government by bitching about the conditions which were less luxurious than they expected). To have medical coverage under OHIP people should meet 3 months residence requirement. This is the case for all Canadians coming from abroad or even other provinces, like my son came from Graduate studies in Stanford. But for Lebanese this requirement was waived. This courtesy was not extended to Canadian citizens who were in the country which was the victim of aggression.
And Mr Zimmer is talking about "blank cheque"! What a schmuck!
Posted by Victor at 06:55 PM
September 28, 2007
School funding. II
Opponents accuse J.Tory in his intention to starve public school system. They (Liberals and NDP) promise to give much more money to public schools, and Liberals actually even mention math and science schools. Good guys?
Not so fast. The last thing mathematical education in Canada needs is more money given to schoolboards to hire new BE graduates - with marginal knowledge of math and poor problem skills - which would stick around and prolonging the misery for another 40-45 years. They and they older colleagues would occupy teaching positions in math schools if they are created. No, we need such schools affiliated with universities and having lecture and tutorial system like in universities. Then professors, grads and senior undergrads from universities would giving lectures and tutorials. This way worked famous Russian physics-mathematics schools.
Posted by Victor at 07:46 AM
School funding
Mr. Tory, PC leader (Ontario) promises to fund all faith schools as long as they follow the standard curriculum. Green Party and some organizations oppose to this and propose to eliminate funding of all faith schools, including Catholic ones.
Meanwhile Liberals and NDP want the current system to stay: Catholic schools get full funding, others get zilch. This is completely hypocritical and discriminatory position, especially from Mr McGuinty, who was educated in Catholic system, has his children educated and his spouse working in this system. If Right Dishonorable Mr. McGuilty does not understand that he has a conflict of interest and should keep his mouth shut, he does not deserve to lead anything, leave alone the largest Canadian province.
I strongly believe that all Ontario children should get equal funding, as long as they study in the curriculum compliant school. This would include all private schools as well. WTH province funds sport and arts schools but no science schools (tiny TOPs program is too small and AFAIK no one from admitted kids has shown excellence in math. competitions). So, while I consider Mr. Tory proposal a step in the right direction, it does not go far enough.
The previous PC government began to introduce tax credit for parents of kids enrolled in private schools. The had introduced the really small $500 credit but the petty Mr McGuilty cancelled it, and cancelled it retroactively, which shows how mean-spirited this person is. What would he say if the next government cancels the funding of Catholic schools, and does it retroactively, forcing him to repay the funding for his children education and his spouse to return her salary? He is not afraid, and rightly so, because no one but him is capable for such nasty things.
Posted by Victor at 06:50 AM
August 02, 2007
Gift packages
in Soviet Union shops used "gift packages" in which high demand items were bundled with low demand ones. In the case of grocery stores the former were fresh and quality products while the latter were expired ones.
We see that Rogers Cable TV uses the same method to sell distasteful CNN and rotten BBC.
Posted by Victor at 02:55 PM
July 29, 2007
Web Evils
These are WebEvils:
Yahoo, Microsoft
Yahoo sends spam,
Yahoo sends scam,
Yahoo is used by filthy scum!
Microsoft crapware user,
Don't sent me you stupid spam,
Every spammer is a loser,
Every spammer is a scum!
Posted by Victor at 01:37 PM
July 27, 2007
Rogers Cable TV
I find it very unfair that in order to get Fox News I need to subscribe for "News Pack" which includes BBC World, CNN, DW and EuroNews.
Meanwhile those who want to watch BullshitBC and CrappyNN are not forced to subscribe to Fox News.
Is it a corporate welfare for loony left BBC and CNN? Or subsidy for those who prefer these channels? Fox IMHO is way superior. I never watch BBC World, CNN, DW and EuroNews. Especially biased unfair non-professional BullshitBC.
And this in addition to our own CBC. Every time I fly Air Canada I am forced to watch Mansfield who looks as clever and wise as only a complete moron can. Fortunately now with new entertainment system installed on AC planes with new interior design I can avoid this cruel and unusual punishment. For many years I have subsidized this person through both my taxes and TV subscription, and I subsidized his too.
Why the hell German language channel is bundled with News? And why not Russian or Hebrew or Polish language channel got such treatment?
Posted by Victor at 02:56 PM
July 04, 2007
Doctor's plot (hypocritic oath)
Few medical professionals were arrested in UK in the plot to commit terrorists acts (bombings). In contrast to notorious Doctors' plot in USSR this one is real. Surprising however is the fact that these guys did not use biological agents or poison, or mistreatment of patients but selected area of their incompetence.
On the other hand, there are two many examples of physicians involved in terror: Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi from Hamas, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri from Al-Qaeda, Dr. Bashar al-Assad from Syria are/were terrorists and trained physicians. Dr. Ahmad Tibi was confident of ober-terrorist Arafat. Now this gang. All of them definitely do not live up to Hippocratic Oath, may by hypocritic one. Should all of them get Dr. Mengele Prize?
Posted by Victor at 01:39 AM
June 30, 2007
Spammed! - Again
After certain break in the bouncing back emails with my spoofed address, there flow started again. And again this crap originated from Windoze crapputers using M$ Outluck of different brands!
Posted by Victor at 10:48 AM
Script Junkies!
(Open Letter to GreenShields, Canada)
Dear Sir/Madam,
your new website is extremely buggy. More precisely: buggy is javascript. It works with Microcrap Internet Exploder and with Opera, it does not work with Firefox and Safari and it is slow.
It means that javascript is very proprietary and platform specific which shows that your web programmers are bloody amateurs who graduated from some crappy community college and should not be hired by (should be fired from) any reputable company.
Should I say, these script junkies fit only to develop pornosites?
Posted by Victor at 10:41 AM
June 27, 2007
Great Job, Google!
This is not the first time when I am getting phishing email to my gmail account. Every time it is not just going to spam folder but displays an alert
|
Warning: This message may not be from whom it claims to be. Beware of following any links in it or of providing the sender with any personal information. Learn more. |
This is superb privacy protection, way better than any other free (or paid) email provider offer.
Posted by Victor at 10:00 PM
Spammed!
Today I am getting enormous number of messages (well, all of them go to spam.gz automatically) from mailer-daemons and postmasters as "Undelivered messages".
They are coming from completely different networks but all of them (as analysis shows) are "my" bounced back messages.
More precisely, these "my" messages are usual spam crap with spoofed my return address:
Apparently this someone actually is a widely distributed in the space villain: all the original messages are coming from very different computers/networks, names vary too (but as far as I noticed all have numerical component) and they are different in content.
The is only one common denominator: all this crap originates from Windoze computers using either
M$ Outluck Excess or (rarely) Bat:
From: "Socorro Crowder16450" <ivrii@math.toronto.edu>
To: <pjk11@scasd.k12.pa.us>
Subject: Socorro, We know what the women want.
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:04:10 -0200
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0006_01C7B920.3C8500F0"
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.5510
Thread-Index: Aca6Q375OMXIDHESU23ZTTTTT739IB==
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1158
Message-ID: <01c7b907$1737c8f0$ad01cac4@ivrii>
Probably the good network policy would be that Messages from windoze computers sent to wrong address should not bounce to the sender but just discarded and no notification should be sent unless the declared return address matches to the real domain in 'Receiced' field
Posted by Victor at 05:56 PM
June 21, 2007
Darwin theory
Recently City Council of Toronto discussed garbage and recycling in Toronto. Basically these decisions were just cash grab from Toronto residents. However one of the decisions was different: "A motion to improve green bins so that they can “no longer be opened by raccoons,” passed by a vote of 43 to 2".
What the hell? These bins were supposed to be raccoon proof but racoons are much smarter than the city engineers and they (raccoons, not city engineers) quickly discovered methods to open these bins. There is a little doubt that raccoons will upgrade their skills to open improved bins as well.
Evolution theory predicts us the outcome of this competition: raccoons burglers easily breaking the most advanced safes. Such raccoons could be employed by criminals.
Posted by Victor at 04:05 PM
June 14, 2007
Allied Bombing Campaign in WWII
Canadian War Museum exhibition suggest that allied bombing campain failed to reduce significantly military production in Germany. This is a fallacy: at this period military production in allied countries grew significantly and there is no indication that without bombing military production in Germany and Japan would not grow as well.
So, Allied Bombing not only prevented the significant growth of the military production in Germany and Japan but also reduced it.
Posted by Victor at 10:13 PM
May 29, 2007
Yahoo II
Actually sometimes Yahoo cancels accounts of con artists - after few emails sent to them and few days. Not good enough!
Posted by Victor at 06:45 AM
May 25, 2007
Yahoo
I already wrote that Yahoo is a favorite shelter for Scam 419 types because their abuse team does nothing. I received email sent from natachaallou222@yahoo.com and also asking to respond to this address. I complained to abuse@yahoo.com.
Then I bounced this mail to my experimental yahoo account. My bogofilter detected this messages (and its ilk) as a spam, gmail even explains that it is not just a spam but a scam, yahoo filters detected nothing!
Then I responded from my yahoo account to this person (actually hailing from deep in Africa, the traceable route to his/her computer stopped in CI.
This person responded today. That means that yahoo has not revoked her account.
Yahoo sends spam,
Yahoo send scam,
Yahoo is used by filthy scum!
На емайлы с Яхуя
Не отвечу ничего я!
Posted by Victor at 10:21 AM
May 24, 2007
Scumnesty International and Microsoft
What is common between these two organizations?
Recently Micro$oft accused Linux and Open Software Foundation in violation of hundreds of M$ patents failing however to specify which of them and how are violated.
Recently Scumnesty International accused Israel Defence Forces in gross human rights violations during Lebanon 2006 campaign failing however to list specific cases.
Both are high on retorics and low on substance.
Posted by Victor at 04:32 AM
May 18, 2007
Dell
I purchased from Dell ... well, not the computer, but Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo 1GB because they provided the best price. Few days ago after they acknowledged my order and charged my credit card I received no shipping info. After long email exchange I finally reached my wife by phone (I am in Stanford now) and she checked the mail and confirmed that the order had been received.
My last email to Dell Customer care (the meaningful part of it):
> Dear Victor,
>
> Thank you for contacting Dell Customer Care.
>
> I have been unable to locate a customer number created for you, or any new orders placed with
the information you have provided. Please contact the Online Sales Department for this. Their
> number is 1-800-387-5752 using extension 8056.
>
Actually I reached my wife today (I am in the long business trip) and she checked the mail
and found a memorystick here.
Still I find it rather surprizing the bizarre way Dell tracks the customer' orders or
the customer' history given that I provided all the available information.
On the other hand, It may be not that surprizing or not surprizing at all if Dell
actually uses the Micro$oft crapware it recomments to the customers.
This story definitely is worth of my blog :-)
What can I add:
Buying from Dell: they will lose your order. This is certain. The only uncertainty is if they lose your order before filling it or after. So far I was lucky.
Posted by Victor at 10:27 AM
May 15, 2007
Vulture Shop
I had asked my wife to buy 750GB USB2 Seagate drive for $329 and she did it. What I had not asked her(but she did it anyway) was to purchase 3 years warranty for $70. Keeping in mind that the manufacturer warranty is for 5 years, this is absolutely ridiculous.
Definitely salesman in the Future Shop who persuaded her to buy this warranty is kind of a vulture. However 5+3=8 and if in 2014 this drive breaks, I will come to the Vulture Shop and request a replacement. No, pliz, exactly of this size. What, you do not have 750 GB hard disks? The smallest you have is 10TB? And it is not USB2 compatible?! What do you have of this size? Memory sticks? Flash cards? or something like this? No, guys, I want my vintage USB2 750GB HD!!!! .... And this will be my revenge... in the end I would agree to 750TB USB5 hard drive in the pure platinum enclosure :-)
Posted by Victor at 10:08 PM
Spam meets Scam. II
Complains to abuse@microsoft.com and abuse@yahoo.com were rejected (bounced back) because the message contained a spam. Great! How the hell one can complain to them about spam? Or one should only complain about non-spam messages? Or do the owners of these (dis)services believe that the outgoing spam is fine but incoming is not? But then the hotmail and yahoo users (losers) should not be offended (or surprized) if all the messages from them are treated as a spam (actually my Bayesin [self learning] bogofilter got to the same conclusion).
Decent people should use gmail, neither of hotmail (hotmeal, hotmale) or yahoo (hoho)
Posted by Victor at 09:57 AM
Spam meets Scam
I find it symbolic that this con artist uses hotmail and yahoo respectively to send and receive his/her messages.
The con artist is engaged in "scam 419". On the other hand, yahoo and hotmail inserting their commercials in the end of their "free" messages are probably the largest spammers in the world.
So Spam meets Scam. And everyone practicing any of these activities is a scum.
From jp_kouma7@hotmail.com Tue May 15 08:37:53 2007
Received: from bay0-omc2-s35.bay0.hotmail.com (bay0-omc2-s35.bay0.hotmail.com [65.54.246.171]) by coxeter.math.toronto.edu (AIX5.2/8.11.6p2/8.11.0/UTMath 1.0) with ESMTP id l4FCbqF159702 for
Received: from BLU106-W28 ([10.6.57.63]) by bay0-omc2-s35.bay0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.2668);
Tue, 15 May 2007 05:37:52 -0700
Message-ID:
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="_6aa8fae0-c75e-4606-9b35-8babecab073e_"
X-Originating-IP: [198.54.202.234]
From: Jean Paul Kouma
Subject: ATTENTION! DIRECTOR/MANAGER.
Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 12:37:47 +0000
Importance: Normal
MIME-Version: 1.0
Bcc:
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 15 May 2007 12:37:52.0169 (UTC) FILETIME=[DA90D990:01C796ED]
X-Bogosity: Yes, tests=bogofilter, spamicity=0.999747, version=0.13.7
Status: RO
Content-Length: 5205
Lines: 127
--_6aa8fae0-c75e-4606-9b35-8babecab073e_
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Jean Paul and Pauline Kouma
jp_kouma1979@yahoo.com =20
Good Day Sir,I am Jean Paul Kouma from Sierra Leone but residing in Ivory C=
oast in Africa with my sister Pauline. It is my desire to contact you in ho=
nesty and sincerity to assist us in transferring the sum of $13,000,000M {T=
hirteen Million United States Dollars) Our late father has deposited this m=
oney with a Security and finance company here in Johannesburg.South Africa =
on my name {Jean Paul} before he was killed during the war.
=20
We got your contact information from your country trade and business databa=
se here in South Africa. We are seeking your assistance on the transfer of =
$13,000,000.00Million I and my sister have inherited from our father late M=
ajor Paul Kouma into your personal or company's account in your country for=
our investments .I am motivated in contacting you after going through your=
business profile and i hope to gradually build trust, relationship and con=
fidence in you as we arrange further on this mutual transaction that i have=
solicited for your honest assistance.So please I want to know if you will =
be of assistance but first I want to get to know you better. I am willing t=
o offer you $2,600,000(Two Million Six Hundred Thousand United States Dolla=
rs) for your assistance after the successful transfer of this money and inv=
estment. Indicate your interest towards assisting us by sending your person=
al phone/fax numbers and address so that I can communicate with you at any =
time.=20
=20
We are waiting for your acceptance mail through our personal e-mail: jp_ko=
uma1979@yahoo.com=20
=20
Thanks
Jean Paul and Pauline Kouma
For the family.
Above is scam; below is spam
_________________________________________________________________
Explore the seven wonders of the world
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=3D7+wonders+world&mkt=3Den-US&form=3DQ=
BRE=
Posted by Victor at 08:51 AM
May 12, 2007
Mr. Chao. II
More about "Mr Chao"
Разъяренный "Мистер Чао"
Пишет новый дадзыбао:
Кто сказал что Чао плох?
Тот, конечно, просто лох!
Сам Профессор Виктор Иврий
"Мистер Чао" посетил,
Съел чего-то он с Чо Мейном,
И задумчиво сказал:
Нет, конечно, "Мистер Чао"
Не шикарный ресторан.
Но я тоже, скажем честно,
Не эстет и не гурман.
Пусть Мелроуз вместе с Зворским
Посещают "Гранд Хосе"
Сотню долларов там тратят
На какой-to фрикассе.
В "Чао" я иду пожрать,
Не эстетство показать!
Posted by Victor at 11:03 PM
April 30, 2007
Mr Chao
Mr Chao is a Chinese Fast Foood restaurant in Palo Alto.
Разъяренный Мистер Чао
Пишет грозный дадзыбао:
Кто сказал что Чао плох?
Тот бездельник или лох!
Сам великий Доктор Яо,
Посетил наш Мистер Чао,
Всю коробочку сожрал,
"Лучший Чайниз Фуд" сказал.
Posted by Victor at 09:51 AM
April 21, 2007
Aeroplan II
I resubmitted my letter because what I got was not a human answer:
| Thank you for your e-mail. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are currently unable to respond to your request electronically. Please visit the Help section of the Aeroplan Website or contact the Aeroplan Centre at 1-800-361-5373 (from Canada and U.S.A.), 7 days a week from 07:00 to 23:00 (ET). For all other areas, please use 1-514-395-0300. One of our representatives will be pleased to help you with your request. |
[Incident: 070420-000596] Dear Sir/Madam, I hope that the uman reads it rather than a poorly written bot. As I wrote Web Help Desk which I contacted twice and which Number is different than you indicated and Operator could not resolve the problem; Web Help looked neither knowledgeable nor helpful. All I ask is either to advise me how to contact ombudsperson or forward my
Posted by Victor at 05:49 AM
April 20, 2007
Aeroplan (an open letter)
I wasted the whole morning trying to book for my son flight (see attached pdf output).
Starting from 9 am to 12 am the following bookings were shown as available.
Recently I had the similar experience with booking for my wife flight but at least then the help desk was able to help me. Now I experienced the least helpful and knowledgeable support in 10 years in any company I was dealing with.
I have been Aeroplan customer on the span of 13 years. It used to be the best frequent flyer program. However service began deteriorate: with more and more status miles needed to reach prestige level, with reducing airmiles earned for many booking, increasing surcharges for booking, introducing 12 month inactivity limit. Aeroplan webpages became more and more fancy, less and less compatible and functional. Nobody needs stupid javascripts anymations, but the real time search (rather than system update delay) must be.
It became more and more difficult to get credits for flights.
I am beginning to think that it is not worth the trouble anymore. It is a real shame that Aeroplan does not match the quality of AirCanada which is one the best airlines in the world.
I could not find on website the address of ombudsperson, so I kindly ask you to forward this to him/her.
Posted by Victor at 01:07 PM
April 10, 2007
Pig ethics
One journalist of Toronto Star bought on eBay old laptop and discovered on its HD files containing personal information of many Reform Party members. In hands of criminals this information could cause a lot of harm. May be. Luckily as TS writes, this journalist was an honest man and he did not use this info in the criminal purposes. He just looked into files, published the names of high profile Reform Party members whoes data was there and described what kind of information was here.
Well, it does not make this journalist a felon but does not make him a decent person either. He had no business to open these files, leave alone to publish anything. If due to someone sloppiness he got in his posession a computer with files which are definitely neither system files nor executables but just documents, which could contain confidential information, this person should erase them without opening.
Resume: this journalist is an honest nosy swine.
Posted by Victor at 11:43 AM
April 06, 2007
Garbage Trouble
Toronto Mayor Mr. Miller, who already gave to every Toronto house raccoon-friendly containers for food left-overs now has another grand idea: every house will get a container for `other' garbage, and will pay for garbage collection according to the size of the container. Exactly as we pay for electricity or water depending on usage.
However the better comparison would be phone plan: the person subscribing to it pays the flat amount even if the actual usage is smaller. So the choice is between prepaying the normal usage amount and run into problems when one needs more extensive usage in certain month or to prepay a larger amount and regularly underuse it.
If some family orders a small bin and regularly fills just it, sometime this family would need a much larger bin due to large purchase, Spring cleaning, etc. What then? Dumping on the neighbors front yard? Storing the excess untill next garbage removal?
Or to avoid such problems one needs to order a large bin and be regularly overcharged?
Finally, what to do with a bunch of teens going through the street (to/from the school) and littering on your front yard? I hade to pick after them, am I expected to pay for their garbage? Or should I charge their school?
No, this Miller' idea about garbage fits only into garbage bin. Exactly as all his ideas.
Posted by Victor at 03:06 AM
April 01, 2007
Bonfires
I am spending some time in Paris. In the enclosed green space somebody burns old leaves and twigs.
The smell is awfull! And it continues the second day! In Toronto such behavior would be considered as a felony, even in suburbs. Not the case in Paris, near Pantheon. Look at map:
See a green arrow on the bottom of the map (where I stay) and a green space to the left (where bonfire burns)? An Pantheon on the top of this map?
Posted by Victor at 07:16 AM
Script Junkies
On the web we cannot browse some pages, since as we are told, we need a special plug-in which is not available on our platform. Pretty often however it is not the lack of the plug-in but the lack of programming skills of the M$-oriented script junkies using M$ specific Javascripts. This is the case with pdf files embedded into web pages (see example below). Meanwhile on rogers.com "see you bill" webpage this does not work due to bunch of M$BSJS.
Posted by Victor at 06:30 AM
March 31, 2007
Monsters rights watch
When Canadian Hillel Neuer, the head of UN Watch made a presentation to "UN Human Rights Council" the president of this council, Mexican Alfonso De Alba was outraged because he could not tolerate the truth that this council protects the rights of murderers, despots, rapists and other monsters.
Posted by Victor at 07:39 AM
March 22, 2007
Global Worming IV
I already wrote few times about this topic, but there is a new development:
See it on Google Video or You Tube
Suzuki and Gore and their ilk are just swindlers, interested in the personal (financial or political) gain at the great cost to the society.
Posted by Victor at 11:11 AM
March 21, 2007
Cultural Tax
In Canada CPCC (Canadian Private Copying Collective) is pushing for levi on blank CDs and DVDs and on iPods, MP3 players under pretext that these things are used to illegaly copy music.
In France the "cultural tax" is imposed even on Xerox copying under pretext that it could be a copying of the novels.
Well, since there are much more chances that the given Windoze computer is cracked and M$ Outlook is used to send spam, it would be completely resonable then to impose on this crapware antispam tax.
Posted by Victor at 07:50 AM
March 14, 2007
Punishment for computer Piracy
“If they’re going to pirate somebody, we want it to be us rather than somebody else,” Raikes (a senior Microsoft exec) told…
Yeah, right! Using M$ crapware is itself a punishment for a piracy.
May I add, however, it is a cruel and unusual punishment.
Posted by Victor at 12:06 PM
March 03, 2007
Joost Rocks
Posted by Victor at 02:03 PM
February 28, 2007
Liberals and 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act. II
I already wrote about LP sacrifying national security for partisan reasons. They did it! Together with NDP and BQ they defeated the government.
Only two Liberals came and voted again. And one abstained.
Only these two people prevent the analogue following 60 y.o. joke from being absolutely true:
"Germans are smart, honest and members of NSDAP. But those who are honest and Nazies are not smart, those who are smart and Nazies are not honest, and those who are both smart and honest are not Nazies".
Posted by Victor at 09:43 PM
Gimme your spare change
Mr. Miller, the Mayor of Toronto, lost all the shame (I am not sure if he had one) with his onecentnow campaign demanding 1 cent of GST (out of 6). [Why not from 8 cents of PST?] Meanwhile he plans expensive and unnecessary renovations of the City Hall. And promoting of his campain des not come cheap.
I think that he should be arrested according to Toronto bylaw which bans an aggressive panhandling.
Posted by Victor at 07:43 AM
February 26, 2007
Wireless
I am in France now and every Sunday the wireless connection in my residence breaks. The fault is with FranceTelecom. This is the bad news.
Still hiking with my palm 50 m away enables me to join some unprotected network and to get and sent my email.
One of my French colleagues told me that he has no Internet connection at home. However his computer joins the wireless network of one of his neighbours, so actually he has a connection. But he never even bothered to check who is his benefactor.
Few months ago a new iMac of my wife also used my neghbor's wireless (it was not admitted neither to my Ethernet nor Wireless networks due to sctrict ways these networks are ran).
Posted by Victor at 03:56 AM
February 23, 2007
Immediate Occupancy
City of Toronto named two streets after two Liberal politicians which contraticts to bylaw that streets should be named after living persons only in the exceptional circumstances. Now, when one of the city councilors suggested to cancel this shameful decision, Мr. Mammoliti (a city councilor (who actually pushed this deal) asked "Who gonna pay for this?"
It reminds me a very old joke about some person who lobbied for the burial plot on the cementary reserved only for people of an exceptional merit. Finally he got the call from the office that the plot is his to take. But "Occupancy should be immediate!"
I think that Mr. Mammoliti should cover expenses to rename those streets unless t he manages to persuade these two persons to commit suicide or hires a hitman if they refuse.
Posted by Victor at 06:28 AM
Liberals and 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act
Liberal Party who introduced this legislation in 2001 are opposing as a party it now. They also look offended by remarks of PM S.Harper suggesting that partly their position could be explained by the certain personal connections: the father in law of one Liberal MPs was once a spokesman for Babbar Khalsa, a group officially recognized by the Canadian government as a terrorist organization.
I am not sure about this precise reason but Liberals had a lot of connections to different ethnic groups some of which were crossing the line between abroad-oriented political activism and support for terrorism. While leaders of LP probably are unaware about these links they cannot stop feeling that such links exist and will be emphasized by investigative hearings provioned by this legislation.
It is definitely shame that the majority of liberals are endangering the safety of Canadians to get some politica advantages.
Posted by Victor at 06:02 AM
February 20, 2007
Do you do Yahoo?
During lastf week my spam folder is gets daily messages like below (only numbers are changing). Well, I had not complained to them so far. However considering Yahoo to be the worst spammer I am starting to resend back every such message to network-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com.
From mail-advocacy@cc.yahoo-inc.com Tue Feb 20 01:09:48 2007 Received: from mail-relay1.yahoo.com (mail-relay1.yahoo.com [216.145.48.34]) by +coxeter.math.toronto.edu (AIX5.2/8.11.6p2/8.11.0/UTMath 1.0) with ESMTP id l1K69lC315576 for +ivrii@math.toronto.edu; Tue, 20 Feb 2007 01:09:47 -0500 Received: from speedster.cc.kana.corp.yahoo.com (speedster.cc.kana.corp.yahoo.com +[207.126.228.28]) by mail-relay1.yahoo.com (8.13.8/8.13.8/mr1) with SMTP id l1K69akp028769 for ivrii@math.toronto.edu; Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:09:46 -0800 (PST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; s=serpent; d=yahoo-inc.com; c=nofws; q=dns; h=precedence:auto-submitted:date:to:subject:from:reply-to: mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:x-mailer; b=DvPN/dKjNeQdsnfhGlxiY5LKHML99xZDvD7scIlCD69JkpbjIMVkhkwNoajzOPQX Message-Id: 200702200609.l1K69akp028769@mail-relay1.yahoo.com Precedence: bulk Auto-Submitted: auto-replied Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:09:46 -0800 To: Victor Ivrii ivrii@math.toronto.edu Subject: A message from Yahoo! Customer Care (KMM45246994V51549L0KM) From: Yahoo! Mail mail-advocacy@cc.yahoo-inc.com Reply-To: Yahoo! Mail mail-advocacy@cc.yahoo-inc.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset = “us-ascii” Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: KANA Response 7.0.1.142 X-Bogosity: Yes, tests=bogofilter, spamicity=0.998241, version=0.13.7
Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care to answer your question. A support representative will get back to you within 48 hours regarding your issue. Until then, feel free to visit our online help center at http://help.yahoo.com/ for answers if you have not already done so.
Do you do Yahoo?
Posted by Victor at 02:36 AM
February 18, 2007
Холода (Global Worming III)
Замерзла вся природа,
Морозы так и прут,
А энвиро-уроды
Про Global Warming врут!
Сузуки нас стращает
Что катаклизм придет,
Что нахрен льды растают,
Все этот крендель врет!
Своею лженаукой
Запутал он народ,
За гранты и за славу
Сузуки нагло врет!
Заставить бы Сузуку
В мороз снег расчищать!
Замерзла б нархрен сука,
Не стала бы вещать!
Posted by Victor at 10:09 AM
Global Worming II
Following to
Part I.
We can see that Goa'uld infected folks in the Liberal Party, NDP and BQ are trying to derail the government by Global Warming resolution. They should not suceed. The Minor Goa'uld (Montreal MP Pablo Rodriguez) private bill passed.
Government should suggest the following measures: revoke drivers licenses of all MPs voting for this bill. This measure should be imposed on their spouses too.
Posted by Victor at 09:55 AM
February 17, 2007
CBC
I don’t watch this channel with moron Mansfield and his cohorts. However I must pay for it first through my taxes and second with my Basic TV subscription. Fine, so I pay for it but I do not watch it. To add an insult to injury actually I am forced to watch it because in the economy class in Air Canada it is shown on all the screens and the same in airport lounges. At that time usually passanges in the business and first classes can watch something different. And those in the business class lounges. What the hell?! Why I must not only pay for this loony-left channel but also watch it?
It would be only fair if this channel was shut down and all its anchors will be thrown out of the job.
Posted by Victor at 04:22 AM
November 28, 2006
Victor wrote
The flow of spam into my spam folders continues. Mainly it is not "Hi it's Bill" (or Joe or Jane)
s it was few days ago but rather "Bill wrote" (or Joe, or Jane).
Now Victor (me) wrote:
Dear Bill (or Joe, or Jane or other Windoze idiot who cannot clean the piece of crap he/she has instead of computer from viruses):
Don't send me your stupid spam,
Your a lamer, you are loser,
You are moron, you are scum!
Posted by Victor at 01:30 PM
November 23, 2006
Income splitting
The very modest proposal by the Finance Minister to allow income splitting for pensions with the hint that it could follow by the general income splitting for the tax purposes.
Instantly Liberals, NDPs and other critics began to claim that this is bad. Their arguments are of three types:
1." It is not fair because singles/pairs with equal incomes/people with little income do not benefit from it."
These arguments are based on the assumption that the current sstem is absolutely fair, which is not the case. Further, taking these arguments to their logical end one would conclude that any change in the policy is not fair. No money to school and preschool education (those who do not have children would not benefit), for cancer research, for universities, for TTC... No money for anything I do not benefit from.
2. "It is not fair because only richest would benefit from it". This is BS. Benefits would be mainly in the mid-class. If one spouse gets $1,000,000 per annum, the other spouse has a lot of money to invest and report investment income, thus actually splitting income for tax purposes. But this is meaningful for the richest ones only.
3. "It is bad because tax reduction is bad". I agree. Let us increase tax burden by imposing a new tax: for economists who are against tax reduction. $10,000 per annum per person (let's call it "Stupidity Tax"). And according to 1. it should never be cancelled.
Posted by Victor at 06:15 AM
November 22, 2006
Niqab vs. barely covered
National Post published two pictures: one of the lady in niqab, with only small area around eyes open (2% of the body?) and of the lady with 60% of the body exposed, with a question "Which Is More Offensive?"
ROTFL! Look, the first of them had 2% of the body exposed; for the symmetry the second one should 2% of the body covered :-) which would be achieved if she was just wearing strings. In which case I doubt this lady would be allowed in the lecture room or movie theater.
Seriously, covering face should be prohibited unless due to medical reasons:
1) Security: the person should be reliably identifiable
2) Fairness: Deaf people often are able to read lips, denying them reading lips would be a discrimination.
3) Mutual respect: if the person does not allow me to see her/his face, I can deny this person right to see my. Sorry, get out of my office and use the phone!
Posted by Victor at 05:10 AM
November 09, 2006
It's Bill :)
Recently my spam folders a full of messages with the subject: It's Don :)' orIt’s Jim :)’ etc but as the absolute majority of the spam I receive containing lines
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.5510 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4807.1700
(versions vary).
So, it’s the same old Bill Gates, who made a company, which makes a crapware, which sends all these spam.
For each M$ user I have greetings:
Microsoft crapware User,
You a lamer, you are loser!
Posted by Victor at 02:52 PM
November 06, 2006
Miller for a Green Bin!
Mayor elections are coming to Toronto. Current mayor David Miller against Jane Pitfield (and a bunch of miniscule candidates).
Mrs. Pitfield seems to be a reasonably good candidate. In contrast to Mr. Miller who is completely unappropriate. The flour from his mill is only for very partisan consumption.
- He is the member of NDP. No matter that he was elected on non-party platform, he and his buddies J.Layton and O.Chow remain the remain the same lef-wing loons.
- He is heavily biased in favor of Toronto Downtown. Wasting $ 35 millions to break the Island Airport bridge and his crusade against an Island Airport to please few residents while ignoring much heavier air traffic over north-west of Toronto shows his true colors. Also his opposition to the PowerPlant construction again show that he cares only about Downtown. Reduction of the garbage collection hurts mainly to the suburban areas. The suburban raccoons (who are much smarter than most of the downtown residents) open raccoon proof green bins introduced by Miller just fo a sport. I bet, neither Mr. Miller nor his buddies are able to open these green bind :)
- His unhealthy passion to different mega-projects (Expo, Waterfront, Olympics etc) which would bring only big troubles and huge taxes to the majority of Toronto residents demonstrate his complete incompetence.
- After London’s terrorists attacks he send the official condolences letter to the mayor of London, notorious `Red Ken Livingstone’, while ignoring other similar attacks (Spain, Turkey, Israel etc), including those with the higher casualties. Is this because he is an Englishman? Or because Red Ken is his buddy?
According to the instructions, put in the green bin any garbage which stinks.
Posted by Victor at 04:17 AM
What is fair?
The Finance minister of Canada announced the plan to allow the tax-splitting for pensions which would be benefitial for families with one high income (pension) earner. Immediately this measure was condemned as not fair' because only pairs where one spouse has much higher pension than other would benefit from this and gives nothing tothe most vulnerable’. Among accusers is some Professor of
Economics, teaching tax law.
This is ridiculous!
1) These people do not distinguish between fairness' andcompassion’. Fairness means that for the same services everyone pays the same amount. And since all Canadians receive approximately the same services from the government, the fair tax would be even not flat rate' but justflat’. Surely, this is impossible. Tax is based mainly on the ability to pay. However this is not a fairness, this is a compassion. The system should strike a fine balance between the fairness and compassion.
2) If single-earners families were treated unfairly for many years it is not fair to continue this practice. Any step in the correct direction is fair.
At this moment income-splitting is announced only for pensions. This is not fair! It should cover all incomes of all the families. If there are no money in the budget, the fair share levy should be introduced.
Posted by Victor at 04:00 AM
August 24, 2006
Scumnesty (Scamnesty) International
Self-proclaimed "human rights organization" accuses IDF in committing war crimes. This and the similar organizations completely ignore the fact that IDF exercised the utmost caution trying to avoid civilian casualties, paying for these efforts by lives of officers and soldiers; moreover, many lives of Israeli civilians were lost because IDF was not able to destroy many launchers hidden in residential areas.
Meanwhile these organizations pay much less attention to deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians by Hezballah, Hamas etc, much less attention is paid to genocides committed by Arabs against black Africans, Copts, Assyrians, Kurds.
Persecution of dissidents in modern Russia is mainly ignored too. And this is a "human rights organization"? Their claims are scam, and these people are scum!
Posted by Victor at 12:31 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
August 21, 2006
Good job
Canadian and Afghan Government Forces killed 72 Taliban fighters. Good job! I am really proud to be Canadian.
In contrast to Hezballah Taliban is much less sophisticated and much more honest: Taliban does not announce that the killed Taliban militants were mainly just civilians.
Meanwhile almost all killed Hezballah terrorists were instantly demobilized and became civilians.
Posted by Victor at 03:01 PM
Ostriches
Few Canadian MPs from Liberal Party, NDP and Bloc Québécois suggested to take Hezballah from terror groups list. Bright idea! The number of terrorists organizations then would decrease as well as the number of acts of terror committed by these groups (the act of terror then would probably be reclassified as the legitimate resistance acts or as accidents).
But why to stop then? Lets empty this list completely... No list, no terror groups, no acts of terror. Bravo! Terror free world.
But wait, there is more: removing rape from the list of crimes will lead to rape-free world, removing AIDS from the list of diseases will lead to AIDS free world! Bravissimo!!!
Sticking the head into the sand solves all the problems... but only for ostriches.
Posted by Victor at 09:08 AM
New trains for TTC
TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) decided to buy new trains from Bombardier because they will be built in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada). Main competitor, Siemens, would offer a better deal but money will go out of the country,
The decision is misguided:
- Mr Miller is a Mayor f Toronto, not of Thunder Bay and he is responsible to the his constituency. Mr. Moscoe works for Toronto either. Do these people always buy Canadian for themselves even if the better deal is available for foreign produced goodies?
- This decision should be left to TTC financial management.
- Breaking normal tendering practice is absolutely wrong. If today it is done to reach a noble political goal, tomorrow it will lead to enrich friends or relatives of councilors. Guaranteed!
Posted by Victor at 07:52 AM
August 18, 2006
UNHPF
Most of the European countries refusing contribute troops for Lebanon mission while SE Asian Moslem countriesare very eager to contribute. Meanwhile their leaders claim that Israel objections against them should be ignored.
Fine but
- UN should change the name of UNIFL to UNHPF (UN Hezballah Protection Force).
- In case of Hezballah acting from their midst IDF should ignore their presence and just wipe out the whole area
Posted by Victor at 06:18 PM
August 15, 2006
Marshall plan for Lebanon
The donor conference for Lebanon is planned. Excuse me?
- Israel suffered too and agression came from Lebanon
- There are plenty of people who suffer much more than Lebanese (f.e. people of Darfur) without any fault of them;
- Lebanese government already sends signals that it is not going to keep their part of the bargain.
Does it mean that I am absolutely against any money for Lebanon? No, Marshall plan for Germany was a good deal. But as Marshall plan came after denazification of Germany, aid to Lebanon should come only after dehezballazation of Lebanon, with the first installation of it paying for gallows for Mr. Nasrallah and his top henchmen.
Posted by Victor at 08:25 AM
August 13, 2006
AIDS Conference
A very important AIDS conference starts in Toronto. One of the guests of honor is Mr. Bill Gates who definitely deserves this honor: he and his spouse gave a lot of money (many billions of dollars) to fight against AIDS.
What is AIDS? It is a disease causing affected person to be very vulnerable to viruses. Such disease is known for computers too. Affected computers are very vulnerable to viruses. Such computer disease is called Windows.
Yes, that is right! Some part of the enormous wealth Mr. Gates made, developing and spreadsing Computer AIDS, is now given to fight Human Windows.
Another guest of honor is Mr. Bill Clinton. He deserves this honor too for practicing rather safe sex with: Ms. Lewinsky.
Posted by Victor at 08:43 PM
August 09, 2006
Double game of Chirac
So French renegaded their deal with US and are now insisting on immediate withdrawal of IDF as a part of ceasefire. They double crosssed USA and they blame USA for delay of ceasefire.
But IMHO it is not all. Chirac seems to be sure that USA will never accept such deal, thus ceasefire will be delayed, IDF will kill more Hezballah troops, clean more area and make a deployment of French troops less dangerous.
Or, if something falls through cracks, there will be no deployment of French troops at all, and he will blame USA and Israel for this.
While I am not sure that all Arab governments understand that putting impossible demands they give more freedom to IDF, some of these governments definitely understand this and want to harm Hezballah.
Bad thing is that for achieving this goal more Israeli soldiers and civillians will pay by their lifes and Israel will be even more vilified.
Posted by Victor at 12:37 PM
August 08, 2006
Complimentary crap II
Events started from Complimentary Delivery of "newspaper" Toronto $!@&. No other newspaper has an indecency to pimp itself in this way: make a "Complimentary delivery" (without even thinking to ask permission; complete arrogance), aggressive phone-marketing, door-to-door solicitation (at least this was their practice few years ago) and dumping a lot of free copies at University of Toronto (I think even at $0 it is overpriced; when we arranged to high-schoolers events at Sundays and are required to leave rooms clean, we spent a lot of time removing this garbage scattered around; it was in Sidney Smith Hall. This stopped when we moved to Bahen Centre for Information Technology where these guys are not allowed to keep their garbage distribution station) .
This is a Complimentary Log (milestone days are marked by red)
- Monday, August 1. Day 1 of getting litter on my porch.
- Tuesday, August 2. Day 2 of getting litter on my porch.
- Wednesday, August 3. Day 3 of getting litter on my porch. Thinking about countermeasure.
- Thursday, August 4. Day 4 of getting litter on my porch. Sent the fax to one of T-Star fax numbers asking them to stop.
- Saturday, August 5. Day 5 of getting litter on my porch. My fax was ignored: poor morons failed to grasp consequences. Faxed to editors one of my articles with watermark Complimentary Copy across each of 21 pages (Sample page on the left).
- Sunday, August 6. Day 6 of getting litter on my porch. My fax was ignored: poor morons failed to grasp consequences. Faxed to editors another article with watermark Complimentary Copy across each of 93 pages.
- Sunday, August 6. Realized my mistake: these guys confuse right and wrong, black and white and thus have difficulties reading black-on-white. Will send them tomorrow everything in inverted colors (Sample page on the right)
- Sunday, August 6.
Placed a sign at my house:
- Monday, August 7. No junk.
- Tuesday, August 8. No junk. Victory? Have David (me) beaten Goliath? What move brought down the juggernaut (faxes or a sign)? May be some resuorceful person begins to make such signs and sell them? Should I take a patent? Let's wait for the next day to see if the victory is full and final.
- Tuesday, August 8. Victory! I got a call from (416) 367-2000 and I was told that from Toronto Star, that they got my faxes and will look at this matter and asked not to fax my articles. As long as there are no more newspapers there will be no articles said I. But added that I asked not to call me and I am not interested in their explanations.
- I am feeling that I own them few articles more but hopefully they will not be too disappointed not getting them.
Posted by Victor at 05:52 PM
This site is best viewed with the browser...
| $ wget http://www.thestar.com >> /dev/null |
Posted by Victor at 01:44 PM
Ratios
| Fox News | : | CNN = |
| Firefox | : | Micro$oft Internet Exploder = |
| Gmail | : | Hotmail = |
| National Post | : | Toronto Star = |
| Mac OS | : | Windoze = |
| Rules | : | Sucks |
Posted by Victor at 12:04 PM
August 06, 2006
Mad Mel
I am really puzzled with all this fuzz around Mel Gibson? Overpriced celebrity, bad actor, worse director, deunk driving. He should be dealt as any other drunked is dealt with; probably given 10 miles of the same road to clean the litter dropped by his fellows Holywood stars. I bet, other celebrities driving along this road would make it Sisyphus task.
Posted by Victor at 11:01 AM
August 04, 2006
Complimentary crap
This is a fax I sent to Torontische Stürmer (also known as T-Star, Torstar):
Thanks, but no thanks
Dear Sir/Madam,
Few days ago I found your newspaper (as you call it) on my porch. I took it (through plastic bag) and placed where it belongs: recycling box. I thought it was a honest mistake from your delivery person. However it continued and I investigated. Oh, it was not a mistake. It was a “complimentary delivery”.
What is this, kind of postal spam? I did not ask for it. I do not need this. And I neither want to take care of the garbage you put on my porch nor leave it here. So, please stop littering there!
Or I can decide to send you in return a full collection of my research papers or lectures by fax or email. With my “best compliments”.
My address is … BTW, some poor people you hired for this dirty job sometimes are calling me soliciting your newspaper. When I ask them not to call agail, they say “OK” but few month after someone else calls. Please, stop this as well. My phone …. Please, do not call.
Thank you in advance.
V.Ivrii
Posted by Victor at 07:50 AM
Bad news, good news
Every day now we are getting bad news: 4 Canadian soldiers killed, 4 Israeli soldiers killed, 8 Israeli civilians killed... Toll grows.
The good news is that our countries are fighting the same war, against the same islamofascist enemy and hopefully winning.
Posted by Victor at 07:25 AM
August 03, 2006
My Acronyms
HRW = Hezballah' Rights Watch
Posted by Victor at 12:30 PM
August 02, 2006
Honest Broker
Some people claim that the current stance of Canadian government caused Canada to abandon its neutrality and Canada cannot play the role of honest broker. Well, I heard this before, when Canada included Hezballah and Hamas in its list of terrorist organizations (and it was under Liberal government) and even earlier when Canadian representative abstained in the vote in some obscure UN Committee (resolution was blatantly anti-Israel and biased). Some people believe that honest broker is the one who support their cause.
In their opinion Canada was neutral and played a role of honest broker when her representatives voted for less blatant but still very blatant resolutions...
I have very bad news for them: now we have a government which is principled and honest. Too principled and too honest to fit to the role of "honest broker" as you understand it. Try to find another one: Russia, Syria, North Korea, Iran.
Posted by Victor at 10:22 PM
July 31, 2006
UN military observers killed. IIIbalizer
Some people (included a ret. Lt.-Colonel) suggest that abandoning post would mean losing a honor. Sure, abandoning position without an order means losing a honor. However, we are not talking about UN observers: Maj. von Kruedener lived and died with the honor. We are talking about their superiors who were supposed to give such an order: there is no honor in putting needlessly your subordinates in the harm way.
Needlessly is a key word here: the commanding officer often sends his troops into dangerous combat, sometimes to a certain death. It could be for a greater good. However there was absolutely no need to keep unarmed UN observers in that position. Doing so their commanders behaved as many Soviet generals and marshals sending their troops in the suicidal frontal attack knowing that outflanking enemy would achieve the goal faster and with far less casualties albeit more keen to gain reputations of the ruthless and tough commanders.
Posted by Victor at 07:27 AM
July 30, 2006
Evacuation of citizens: some thoughts
When hostilities started it became known that there were about 40,000 Canadian citizens in Lebanon, almost all of them held also Lebanese citizenship and a majority were residents of Lebanon. Around 8,000 of them (I can be mistaken) were evacuated. Many canadians began to ask: “Who should pay the bill: Canadian taxpayers or evacuees?” and suggested that only Canadian residents should be evacuated for free. Their opponents countered claiming that all the Canadian citizens are equal and thus should be treated equally.
This argument holds no water: there are residency specific duties and benefits: non-residents do not report foreighn income and not eligible for provincial health plans. Some duties like serving in jury fall only on those who are citizens and residents while many jobs are open only to those who are citizens or residents.
Posted by Victor at 02:52 PM
July 27, 2006
UN military observers killed. II
UNIFL officials claim that there was no Hezballah in the area... but IDF shelled it for weeks. This is unlikely. What could be then the target? If UNIFL base it would be hit by the first or the second shot.
It follows from emails of slain Canadian observer that Hezballah was using the area as a shelter. IDF spokeswoman asserted the same. And as I said, the simple logic implies this too. Hitting UNIFL compound was the last thing IDF wanted to do.
So, why UN is denying this? The answer is simple: UNIFL commanders are whitewashing their decision not to evacuate this post and keep observers in the harm way. Was this just a plain stupidity and recklessness?
May be. But also it is possible that the decision-makers were bribed by Hezballah. Or by Chinese who wanted their man spying on IDF to learn a tactic of the modern army... Their reaction, blaming IDF rather than UNIFL commanders seems to confirm this.
Anyway, it is apparent that UN is covering up something. And apparently my understanding of the word "apparent" differs from the one of Mr.Annan.
Posted by Victor at 11:09 PM
UN military observers killed
It is very sad that 4 UN military observers were killed in Lebanon. Canadian, Maj. von Kruedener was a great soldier. The question is: whom to blame?
Mr.Annan was quick to blame IDF, saying that the hit was "apparently deliberate". Later he backed off, and explained that he said "apparently deliberate" rather than "deliberate". Well, Mr.Annan is "apparently incompetent".
According to UN oficials they called 6 times to IDF liason officers demanding them to stop shelling. Bad, bad IDF! Instead of shelling Hezballah, they were shelling UNIFL observation post. Or may be they were shelling Hezballah? According to email sent by Maj. von Kruedener prior his death, some projectiles were falling very close to the post but he believed that "this was a tactical neccessity" which means that Hezballah was operating in the very proximity.
It is very likely: Hezballah MO is to use human shields, civilians or UNIFL personal. Let's remember Qana when they were operating from the vicinity of UNIFL compound and IDF shell killed 106 civilians who took refuge there.
In this case demands of UNIFL to stop shelling were completely of no merits. IDF had right to attack enemy even if there was Mr. Annan himself. Instead they were supposed to demand that Hezballah moved away. Since it was not likely that Hezballah would comply, and since they have no firepower to enforce this request, UNIFL was supposed to evacuate the outpost moving observers out of the harm way.
This is an opinion of Canadian PM S.Harper: he rightly does not believe that the hit was deliberate and questioned why observers were not removed. Let us notice that the area is a responsibility of the Indian unit. Let us remind that the previous assault of Hezballah to IDF took place when the soldiers of this or another Indian unit were watching but they had not interfered (Hezballah was using UNIFL marked or may be even genuine UNIFL jeep) and were extremely uncooperative in investigation; the soldiers involved were promptly sent back to India.
My opinion is that the parties guilty in this incident are Hezballah and the commanders of UNIFL. I hope that the investigation will be able to uncover the truth despite the usual UN cover-up. Then Canadian government should request court-marshalling those who are guilty with all the legal consequences.
Posted by Victor at 08:02 AM
July 22, 2006
Government of Lebanon and Taliban
The similarity is that both of them sheltered terrorists: Hezballah and Al Qaeda respectively.
The main difference is that Taliban government did not include members of the protected terrorist organization.
Posted by Victor at 10:09 AM
July 21, 2006
Ms Justice Louise Arbour
Ms Louise Arbour, former member of Sureme Court of Canada and now UN Human Rights Tsar, said "indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians. Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians, is unjustifiable." She also warned that "international law demands accountability ... The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control." Ms. Arbour criticized both Israel and Hezballah.
This is an example of activist-judge. Instead of following the law, she tries to make the law. Geneva convention makes it a criminal offence to deliberately target civilians but does not mention the scale. Deliberately killing one civilian is a war crime. Killing 1000 of civilians because 100 militants blended among them and use them as human shields is a collateral damage. Ms. Arbor should read
Additional Protocol I, Article 44: If enemy combatants are indistinguishable from enemy civilians, then military forces are entitled to engage them. This entitlement extends to engaging enemy forces who are deliberately hiding among civilians.
I am very glad that Ms. Arbour became UN Human Rights Commissioner. More precisely I am glad that because of this she is no more Supreme Court Judge. I believe that on her current position she could cause far less damage than before: no one takes UN Human Rights branches seriously.
Posted by Victor at 05:46 AM
July 20, 2006
Canadians in the war zone
There are Canadians in Lebanon and their plight is the subject of many news. However not all 50,000 canadians there are in the Shia zones, probably majority is in the Christian and other zones and they are not in any danger as long as they stay there.
Even those who are in Shia/Hezballah zone are not targetted by IDF. The death of 8 Canadians was a regrettable accident.
On the other hand, there are plenty of Canadians (including my son) in Israel and all of them are targets of Hezballah/Hamas. Fortunately no one of them was killed and even probably no one was injured so far, but we must remember that all of them are targets.
Posted by Victor at 08:56 PM
The war
More than 300 Lebanese were killed. Many of them were members of Hezballah but most were not. Also a lot of civilian infrastrusture in Lebanon was destryed. What for?
The answer is not as some hate-mongers claim is that IDF attacks civilians indiscriminatory (if it was the case, there would be 100 times more victims) but that this is the nature of the modern warfare when the enemies are blended with the general population. Israel attacks headquarters, launching pads, weapon storages, training camps and other legitimate objects. But headquarters are in residential quarters, Katyusha launch pads inside of residential houses etc. So victims among civilians are inevitable. IDF does everything to avoid them, much more than any other army in the world did in the similar circumstances.
Lebanese army should not be considered as the neutral force: its radars provided information to Hezballah and attack on Hanit used them. Their are shooting on Israeli jets. Lebanese security forces arrested alleged Israeli spies (working against Hezballah) were acting against IAF and civilian population of Lebanon: with more precise targetting the civilian casualties would be less.
Finally, IDF is not attacking Lebanese infrastructure but shared infrastructure: roads and bridges, airport and sea ports which were used by Hezballah to bring weapons and reinforcements, fuel depots and power stations providing the need of Hezballah. Maintaining these installations Lebanese government was working in-facto as Hezballah proxy, as the junior partner in coalition.
On the other hand, Hezballah targets civilians. All these missile strikes inside of Israel killed no military personnel and damaged no military installation. All these H. missiles are the weapons of terror, especially loaded by ball bearings. But being too crude weapons to have any military value, the majority of these projectiles hit the fields rather than towns.
The death of the large number of Lebanese civilians is regrettable but it is not a result of any war crimes - unless using the civil population by Hezballah as human shields is considered as a war crime. But all Israeli civilian casualties are results of military crimes committed by Hezballah, because the civilians were specifically targetted.
Posted by Victor at 08:22 PM
July 19, 2006
Hezballah' guardian angels
Some European leaders (most notably Mr. Chirac) and Canadian politicians (Mr. Layton and Mr.Graham from NDP and Liberal Party) request immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. True, ceasefire would save some human lifes but also Hezballah and after it rebounds, there will be a new and even more violant fight in the future, causing much more lost lifes than would be saved now.
I strongly suspect that the lack of the strong response to the previous Hezballah agression is the reason for today bloodshed.
Posted by Victor at 06:59 PM
July 18, 2006
Peacekeepers and peacemakers
President Bush and Prime Minister Harper were absolutely right to reject the idea of the immediate ceasefire. Finishing current bloodshed would have a price to pay: Hezballah would be rebuilt, rearmed and ready for the next assault. There will be no permanent peace as long as there is armed Hezballah and there peace will come instantly after Hezballah is destroyed or at least disarmed.
And as long as there no peace there is need not in peacekeepers but in peacemakers. However there is a peacemaking force in the region, much more powerful than anything NATO (without USA) can scramble and deploy. This force is IDF and it is already deploed.
Sure if France, UK, Germany or Russia want to send their ground troops to erradicate Hezballah launch sites and weapon stockpiles, it would be welcome. However if they have a goal to stop IDF assault and thus to protect Hezballah from IDF, they will be terrorist rescuers.
Better to deploy them in Chechnya then.
Posted by Victor at 09:04 AM
Double citizenship, tripple loyalty
There are plenty of Canadians in Lebanon. Majority of them seem to have a double citizenship. Some of them were killed - tragic and unfortunate event, by no means intended by IAF which attacked the radar on the rooftop.
Now we hear accusations that Canadian government "let them down". Sorry, it was not Canadian but Lebanese government which let them down because this inept government allowed not only existence of the terrorist organization but its free reign. And placed the military radar in the residential area, on the rooftop.
We also hear claims that "Hezballah is our protector" from their relatives. Sorry guys, Hezballah is a terrorist organization. This is the Law of Canada. Support of Hezballah is a felony. Now the good question to those Canadians who have double Canadian/Lebanese citizenship and also support Hezballah, where is you loayalty? With Canada - fine! With Lebanon - also not bad as long as it does not contradict interests of Canada. With Hezballah - it is bad, very bad: then you are loyal neither to Canada nor to Lebanon, but to terrorist organization which brought the current disaster upon Lebanon.
I know few Lebanese Canadians. They are nice people, rightly hating Hezballah. And I strongly believe that the majority of Lebanese Canadians are loyal to Canada. My question is not to them but to the minority of Hezballah supporters and aplogists.
Posted by Victor at 07:47 AM
July 17, 2006
Palestinean and lebanese prisoners
Those who suggest that palestinean or lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails should be released should remember that they are terrorists, murderers (like this seductress which lured a teen over internet or that lebanese who killed 4-years old child smashing his head by the rifle butt; both of them should rot in jail).
There are some palestinean women and teens caught with explosive belts. The latter should be actually thankful to Israelis who saved their lives and allowed to get some education while in prison.
Also, let's imagine that some armed group killed some Lebanese diplomats and kidnapped some others and demanded in exchange the release of captured Israeli soldiers while RCMP declined to do anything because of the just cause. Looks ridiculous, does not it?
Posted by Victor at 07:19 PM
July 16, 2006
My advise to Mr Fuad Saniora
Stop screaming like a baby, act like a man!
Declare marshall law. Move against Hezballah.
Arrest and execute Nasralla and other top Heballa leaders including MPs.
Arrest and execute Mr. Lahoud.
Then ask for a ceasefire.
Posted by Victor at 08:12 AM
Solidarity
I am expressing my solidarity with my colleagues in Technion and University of Haifa, with all my colleagues in Israel and with all Israeli people.
I am proud that I was a Lady Davies Fellow at Technion, Haifa, Spring of 2000.
I hope that this ordeal will be over soon and the threat from the North will be permanently eliminated.
Posted by Victor at 05:47 AM
July 15, 2006
Afghanistan - Gaza - Lebanon
Canadian troops in Afghanistan and Israeli troops in Gaza and Lebanon fight the same islamofascists enemies
Posted by Victor at 10:12 PM
Lebanon's soverenity
Those who call to preserve Lebanon' soverenity, are either non-sincere or confused. Lebanon's soverenity was given away by the Lebanon's government, which allowed the creation of the terrorist statelet on its territory. The other problem is that some part of Hezballastan in intertwinned with the rest of Lebanon. Capital of Hezballastan is in the Sothern Beirut. Leaders of Hezballa sit in the Parlament and in the Government.
Clearly there is the way to stop the war: L. government should arrest leaders of Hezballa, disarm its army, destroy all missiles and force Hizballa to release captured Israeli soldiers including Ron Arad. In the case if H. refuses, the government should force it, by the book or by the hook. If they are already in Syria or Iran, L. government should arrest agents of these countries and threaten to execute them if Syria or Iran fail to comply.
We are told that it can start the civil war in L. Well, it is their problem, of their own making. We should not care if they live in peace or cut one to another throats. The only important thing: they should leave theit Sothern neighbors alone. And L. government so far is giving a free reign to Hizballa, considering IDF reprisals as the lesser evil, IDF should strike Lebanon so hard that the civil war would become the better choice for the government.
Posted by Victor at 03:55 PM
Kosher pork
One Rabbi was asked: "If some Rabbai says that the pork is kosher, would it become kosher?"
Rabbi answered "No, but also this Rabbi would cease to be kosher".
Similarly, if some terrorist is elected to Parlament, becomes a Minister or even Prime Minister, this terrorist does not become legitimate, but the Parlament or Government loses its legitimity.
Palestineans and Lebanese have a right to elect anyone into their Parlament, including terrorists. However IDF has right to select any terrorist as the target, including MPs and Ministers.
Posted by Victor at 02:51 PM
June 04, 2006
CUPEd
The infamous CUPE’ Ontario branch (or is it family or chapter) is wrong.
The main reason has nothing to do with Israel (and nobody should pay any attention to one more small pooch joining the pack of barking dogs or CUPE’ petty cash they want to withdraw (not sure that they actually invested something) to make a better investment (oil in Sudan? Human organs harvesting in China? Drug trafficking in Colombia?).
The main reason is that CUPE is a trade union with the mandatory membership. I strongly believe that the mere existence of such organizations is a violation of the freedom of associations because it does not allow to the dissatisfied members leave this organization or to organize their own.
However in this case CUPE involving itself in politics becomes also a political party, like NDP, Communist Party or Heritage Front of Canada or at least a lobby group - like PETA or Islamic Congress and membership in political parties or lobby groups in democratic countries should not be mandatory. So CUPE Ontario status as trade union should be challenged: no more mandatory membership, negotiation with the administration power and no more tax deductable duties.
At least it should be done with respect to our TAs or PostDoctoral Fellows. Nobody should force decent people (and the most of them are) to join the gang lead by the bunch of bigots.
Posted by Victor at 06:55 AM | TrackBack
May 12, 2006
Afghanistan, Darfur and Gaza
Canadian trops are now in Afghanistan. Even if government decided to redirect them to Darfur it would take a long time to prepare them for a new operational theater. The parties who neglected our troops for years should blame only themselves that there are no spare troops.
Canadian foreign aid should go to Darfur. Including those funds which were supposed to go to Gaza. No matter how bad could be humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Darfur is much worse. This is the crisis of the completely different magnitude. The money should not be assigned for Gaza in the first place: this is much better place to live than many other places. Further there are so many oil rich Arab states which claimed to take the wellbeing of their Palestinian breathen very seriously.
Posted by Victor at 05:55 AM
May 09, 2006
Darfur and Afghanistan
Some opposition parties and political commentators demand Canada pulled troops from Afghanistan and send them for peacekeeping mission in Darfur. While I believe that saving people of Darfur is the very high priority I am not sure that Mr. Annan is a proper man for the job (he was the Chief of Peacekeeping of UN and his inaction contributed to Rwanda' tragedy). But more important: ground troops should be supplied by African countries. Western countries should provide an airpower - B52s to force Sudanese government agree to let black people of Darfur and Sudan South have their own countries and AC130s to keep janjaweed thugs away from these areas.
If some Arab countries woold not be happy... ...one should pay no attention.
Posted by Victor at 07:46 PM
May 01, 2006
Taxes and families
In my previous post 15% I argued that tax system in Canada is biased against families with one earner. Except families with a filthy rich husband and socialite (former model) wife or a filthy rich wife and playboy husband, all others are average families: one spouse works and another is either a full-time student, or tenders young kids, or is infirm, or often works as a volunteer. However such families pay much more in taxes than the families with the same total income equally distributed among spouses.
Clearly this fits Liberal agenda: both spouses should work and young kids should attend subsidized day-care. But it does not fit Conservative agenda to provide a choice.
The best way would be to go the French model: first the number of family-parts is calculated:
husband=wife=1, child=1/2, so family of two with two kids has 3 parts (some adjacements for a single-parent family should be made with a first child counted as 1). Then income per-part is calculated and the tax rate is defined according to it.
However, if this is too sharp turn, the first approximation would be: convergence of tax rates in all brackets (so the reduction in the lower tax bracket is bad), making spouse tax exemption equal to one of the husband and introducing per-child tax exemption, increasing the limit of education/tuition amount which can be transferred from the child/spouse.
We need not forget about the poorest members of society, but they should be served not by decrease of the lower bracket tax rate but by increase of the personal exemption. The person who earns 15,000 per year gains very little from the former and much more from the latter.
Posted by Victor at 05:07 AM
April 17, 2006
Proud to be Canadian
Finally, I am proud to be Canadian. After years of unprincipled foreighn policy, our country has a decent Foreign Affairs minister, part of the decent government. Canada no more gives money to terrorists, no more votes in UN etc in their favors. Terrorist organizations are banned in Canada. Canadian ground troops are fighting terrorists.
Clearly, islamofashists and loony lefties like Mr. L. Axe-worthy (disastrous liberal Foreign Affairs and Human Resources minister) cry that "Canada stopped to be a honest broker". Some people have really funny ideas what does it mean to be a honest broker (or just simply honest).
Some even scream that they are no more proud to be Canadians. Guess what? I am proud not to be with this scum.
Posted by Victor at 06:25 AM
April 02, 2006
Strength does not make you right
but neither does a weakness. Histerical screams from the usual suspects that Canada sided with the strong Israel against weak Palestineans have no merit. Canada sided with right against wrong, with law and democracy against crimes and terror. This stance was long overdue.
SWAT team is usually stronger than the hostage takers, Police is stronger than the criminals. But no sane person would pick up the latter agains the former. As A.Solzhenitsyn wrote "The wolfhound is right; the cannibal is wrong".
And if one wants to side with weak against strong, why not to select someone who is weak and right? With black people of Sudan (Christians, animists of the South and Moslems of Darfur) against murderous Arab thugs? With Assyrians of Iraq, Copts of Egypt and other Christians of Mideast against their prosecutors? With Bahais or Jews of Iran? Why not to support people of Tibet against Chinese occupiers? With Kanaks of French Polynesia?
Or any smaller (and better) newspapers against stupid Begemoth called "Toronto S%&#"?
Posted by Victor at 07:50 AM
March 31, 2006
Spelling Bee
National Post publishes pictures of Canadian spelling bee champs.
To know the spelling of 17-letter word is neither more difficult nor
more useful than the ability to multiply 17-digit numbers. Surely, preparation
to Spelling Bee is less harmful and more useful than alcohol, stupid TV
or demonstrations against seal hunting. But studying math on higher level
is much more useful. Any high-school student who mastered any 2-nd year
University Math. Class is way smarter than all Spelling Bees together.
Posted by Victor at 12:23 PM
March 10, 2006
Subway
Definitely expansion of Toronto subway to York University is long overdue and I welcome the provincial decision to support it, may be even 1-2 stops beyound. However, let us note that Steels/Yonge is even more congested and very important junction and extension of subway here and beyond is at least as important.
I believe that Scarborough subway-lite should be replaced by the proper extension of Bloor subway. Bloor subway should be extended also westward,
Also note that the stupid and egoistic opposition of then small-Toronto clique to North-York mayor Mel Lastman plans to build a proper Sheppard line resulted in the line which is too short. This line should be extended eastward to Scarborough where it should meet the extended Bloor line and westward to Downsview station and may be beyound, to Pearson International.
I think that Eglington line should be built as well.
Money for this definitely could be found if some of pet-projects of M2 (the current mayour of Toronto and premier of Ontario are abandoned).
Posted by Victor at 06:54 AM
March 05, 2006
15%
Recently former Liberal government reduced income tax rate in the lower tax bracket (< $35,595) from 16% to 15%. Now Conservative government thinks about restoring 16% and Liberals and their chherleaders suggest that taking back what gave to an average Canadian family ~$500 would be a bad blow against the most vulnerable. Really?
Actually it is even more : $540 per year but
only to the families where there are two earners with $35,595 and more. One earner got only $270 extra, and if there was an unworking spouse, it was less by $73 and each kid who was the full-time student at post-secondary institution reduced this by $50 because non-refundable tax credit rate was also reduced.
So, Mr Johns who had a non-working wife and a kid at University got a meager amount $150. And Ms Smith who is the loner with $15,000 income got only $70. These people are more vulnerable than those who were considered by Liberals as the most vulnerable. On the other hand, increase of the personal and sposal exemption by $1000 would give to Mr Johns $320 and to Ms Smith $160. And a larger increase of the personal/spousal exemptions would be a better deal even for the extreme case of two earners with no kids at the University.
I am not even mention the planned planned GST reduction, textbook tax credit and other things.
The other problem with the current 15% lower bracket tax rate is that it is very biased against families with one big earner. Due to the difference between the personal and spousal exemptions and between 15% in the lower bracket and 22% in the next (35,595-71,190) the family of two of $35,595 earners pays by $1,400 less than the family of two earning $71,190 + $0. The difference between 15% and 22% is two large. Even between 16% and 22% was too large in comparison between 22% and 26% in the next bracket.
So, my advice: go back to 16% and increase personal/spousal exemptions and the $5,000 limit of the educational amount which could be transferred from a child, each by $1,000. Or even better by $2,000 increasing lower tax brackets rate to 17% which would be more consistent with other rates.
And good people of Regina-Wascana: it was Mr. Ralph Goodale who aired $500 BS. So next time send him not to Parlament but rather to school (no, I do not mean the University, but Junior High where he will learn how to count properly).
Posted by Victor at 04:54 PM
February 26, 2006
To the spammer (again)
Microsoft crapware user
Don't send me your stupid spam
Every spammer is a loser
Every spammer is a scum!
Probably the first and the second places among spammers occupy Micro$oft and Yahoo with their
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger:
http://messenger.msn.com
Do you do yahoo?
and other spam inserting with their outgoing messages. One can argue that the poor moron who sent this message gave his/her consent - but the problem is that this person can do it on his/her own behalf, not on behalf of the recepients.
I suspect it could be a felony in some countries - and the persons responsible for this will be prosecuted.
Posted by Victor at 06:05 PM
February 23, 2006
Logical Analysis
The entry below is the logical analysis of the article published in Toronto Star.
I have my own opinion about events, but I will express separately.
The notorious columnist wrote in Toronto Star:
Gary Younge, the New York-based black British columnist, has written this about the Danish cartoon controversy in The Nation magazine:
Muslims have, in effect, been vilified twice: once through the original cartoons and then again for having the gall to protest them. Such logic recalls the words of the late South African black nationalist Steve Biko: `Not only are whites kicking us, they are telling us how to react to being kicked
BS. Cartoons were stupid but not extremely offensive. Reaction was clearly undeadequate. Playing the race card ("whites") is the sign of complete moral dishonesty
Confusion continues to mark the Western response to the issue. Some of this is because we are in uncharted waters. But something else is at work — double standards and insidious attempts at delegitimizing the Muslim protests.
Notorious British historian David Irving has just been sentenced in Vienna to three years for denying the Holocaust. Radical British Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al Masri has been jailed, among other things, for inciting hatred. About time.
Yet there's silence from freedom of speech advocates who were on their pulpits just days ago.
Irving was denying the Holocaust during many years and got 3 years in prison only because he was stupid enough to go to Austria despite the fact that he was barred from entering that country. In UK, USA, Canada, even in France (like Garaudy) he would be completely safe (if allowed to enter). Zundel was completely safe in Canada, but lost his Landed Immigrant status due to prolonged stay in USA.
One of Waterloo professors spoke freely that everyone in Israel older than 18 is a valid target ["So everyone in Israel and anyone and everyone in Israel, irrespective of gender, over the age of 18 is a valid target?" - "Yes, I would say"]. This learned ... definitely understood that it included pregnant women and elderly people. Was he disciplined? I
What would happen with Danish cartoonists if they went to, say, Morocco? Leave alone Saudi Arabia or Iran.
Denying the Holocaust is not the same as poking fun at a prophet, some might say. Muslims might respond that the cartoons contravened the historical fact that Muhammad was not a terrorist with a bomb in his turban.
Well, this was so many centuries ago... And the person in question was also a political leader, conqueror like Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Tengiz Khan or Tamerlan.
Should be these figures also forbidden to touch? The obscene pictures of Sharon published in English newspapers also contravened the historical facts. What about TorStar lies about 500 killed in Jenin? Had TorStar apologied?
Masri's case offers a better parallel. Besides terrorism-related charges, he was convicted of fomenting hate against Britons. Muslims said the Danish cartoons did exactly that to them. How does a democracy decide which hate is worse?
British court decided this. It has a jurisdiction over UK. There was no legal authority which decided that the Danish cartoons are fomenting hate.
In France, the Catholic Church last year won a lawsuit against a fashion designer depicting The Last Supper with semi-nude women instead of the apostles. Where were the noisy advocates of freedom of speech then? Or, do they pop up only to claim the right to bash Muslims?
Where were the noisy advocates of the rights of Moslems when genocide of people of Darfur was discussed. When was the author of the article when posters with equalization of the Star of David and Nazi swastika were published?
Note that the court decision in Girbauld's affair caused the public outcry in France. Also note the difference: Catholic bishops asked for billboards with the offending poster were removed. They did not request apologies from the author or French authorities. There is a difference: a newspaper which is of very little interest to anyone next morning and the billboard in the public place where catholic were forced to see it. And the court gave to Mr and Mlle Girbauld 3 days to remove billboards.
Also may be the Danish court would side with Danish imams and request the offended issue should not be distributed anymore, if they decided to go to the court. Catholic Church started lawsuit against a fashion designer, the imams preferred to go to foreign countries. No parallels.
Intermediate conclusion The author juggles European countries as if all these countries had exactly the same laws. This is a fallacy.
The cartoon episode has little or nothing to do with blasphemy. Some Muslims invoke it but that's a tangent democracies need no longer take.
But then why all the fuss about? If political cartoons are allowed, if historical truth is not protected anymore the blasphemy is the only explanation. And the rioters clearly speak about blasphemy.
The real issue is that freedom of speech has limits, by law and by social dictates (self-censorship).
Newspapers do not publish cartoons that may be hurtful, hateful, xenophobic or racist.
Do thinking people want to make the case for resurrecting the old caricatures of fat-lipped blacks, hook-nosed Jews or cross-eyed Chinese?
Because this would be a racial/ethnic slurs. Faith is the part of the ideology - like ideas of the Democracy, communism or Darwinism. And actually every faith is the denial of all other faithes.
"I don't find the cartoons offensive," some people say. That's not the point. Nor is it that some Muslims think so. That's like invoking a lapsed Catholic to tell most Catholics what to think.
It's best in a democracy "to let each group decide what it finds most offensive, so long as the implied taboo is not too onerous," writes Robert Wright in a thoughtful opinion page article in The New York Times. He is the author of The Moral Animal.
I find many articles in TorStar offensive. So what?
"Look, here's an old depiction of Muhammad," some others say, to discredit the assertion that Islam forbids depiction of the Prophet.
There's no denying such depictions exist. Miniatures featured Muhammad in various scenes but only a few showed his face, while others blanked out the space. Some centuries ago, Muslims came to a consensus against such depictions.
We risk breaking the democratic balance when we poke people in the eye about their beliefs. Doing so to Muslims in these tense times is especially reprehensible.
Yeah, right. All animals are equal but some of them are more equal than others. And the author is especially more equal.
The worldwide protests are being portrayed as the work of radicals or of such governments as Iran and Syria. Some no doubt are. But manipulating the public is not the exclusive preserve of Muslim radicals or Muslim governments.
If the manipulating of the public opinion results in the shifted votes - this is a Democracy; if it results in the murder and arson - this is an incitement.
Suggesting that only the fanatics are upset is to minimize the offence caused by what the United Church has called an "incitement to racial and religious hatred."
Nobody says that only fanatics were upset; however only fanatics used murder and arson to express their frustration. I am upset by anti-Israel stance of this bunch of bigots called United Church. And by
Mr Elmasry or by some of TorStar publications. But I am not urging to kill anybody or burn anything. I just say "$%&#!".
Those defending the Danish newspaper keep saying it did not mean to offend Muslims. Really?
Here's Flemming Rose, the editor who commissioned the drawings, talking about Danish Muslims: "This is about the question of integration and how compatible is the religion of Islam with modern secular society — how much does an immigrant have to give up and how much does the receiving culture have to compromise." And: "People are no longer willing to pay taxes to help support someone called Ali who comes from a country with a different language and culture that's 5,000 miles away."
I do not remember TorStar protecting belief of Stockwell Dell in the humans coexisting with the Dino's. Surely this was ridiculous, but should not be it also protected?
Sympathy is also shown poor little liberal Denmark that can't quite believe its portrayal abroad.
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is in a coalition with the People's party, which has called Danish Muslims "cancer cells" and "seeds of weeds." It is pondering a total ban on Muslim immigration. Just think: Keeping people out because of their religion, in western Europe, in 2006.
Was this a party or some of its members? Names and complete citation, please. How about Liberals being in coalitions with New Democrats listing Hezballah cheerleaders as MPs?
And also: ideology (including religion) is a valid reason to keep people away. Clearly one must be more selective here: while Islam (as any major religion) is not a valid reason to prevent people from entering, certain brands of it surely are.
Conclusion
If these arguments is all their author is capable to present, I am trully sorry for him. His logic follows the deduction rule Anything implies anything including its own negation But why TorStar publish all this crap?
Posted by Victor at 10:35 AM
To the memory of Vas'ka
Vas'ka is my cat. Has been. He died three weeks ago. He was a great cat - large in size, kind in soul, adventureous outdoor street-wise cat, successful hunter.
He died young - as a result of rutine immunization causing complete organ failure. I don't know what gone wrong, vets do not know either.
Vas'ka died on my hands. He knew that he is dying. There was no reproach in his eyes, only а sadness.
I know he is in the cat's paradise now. And all birds, mice, squirrels and rabits he hunted down are there too - so he can hunt them again and again. And there are many other critters who would be his prey if not his untimely death.
Looking through the window or French door I am still trying to find Vas'ka, returning home after outdoor adventures or crossing the street or stalking his prey. I am still leaving the light at night on the back of the house - for him. Returning home I am still expecting him to come to meet me...
I wrote this entry almost immediately after Vas'ka's death, but kept it 20 days for myself.
Still the same
Posted by Victor at 07:34 AM
February 19, 2006
Wolfhound is right
Long ago in one of A.Solzhenitsyn books a GULAG inmate Spiridon said:
Волкодав прав, а Людоед нет
(Wolfhound is right and Cannibal is not).
This is a rule of the thumb to distinguish the right from the wrong:
Police is right, and criminals are not.
Allies were right and Germany-Italy-Japan and their allies were not.
USA Army is right and Al Qu'aida is wrong.
Canadian Forces are right and Taliban is wrong.
IDF is right, and Hamas/Hizballah/Al Aksa/... are wrong
Supporters of Israel are right and Hamas cheerleaders are not.
Cannibals should be eliminated, their advocates should be scorned.
Posted by Victor at 05:32 AM
February 16, 2006
OEM
From Webopedia:
(pronounced as separate letters) Short for original equipment manufacturer, which is a misleading term for a company that has a special relationship with computer producers. OEMs buy computers in bulk and customize them for a particular application. They then sell the customized computer under their own name. The term is really a misnomer because OEMs are not the original manufacturers -- they are the customizers
In reality:
Software produced for stupid Windoze Junkputers sold by semi-legal or completely illegal companies located usually overseas and promoted by spam sent mainly from windoze junkputer, taken over by hackers due to ultimate stupidity of their owners and manufacturers of the thing they call "Windows OS".
Posted by Victor at 10:47 AM
February 11, 2006
Legitemacy and honor
Some people (including at least one of TorStar journalist) believe that the victory in recent elections made Hamas a legitimate political party.
They are wroing as usual. The participation of the terrorist organization (Hamas) in the elections deligitemized elections rather than legitimized this organization.
Exactly as making this journalist by Dr Honoris Causa dishonored Governing Council of University of Toronto rather than made this journalist a honorable person.
Hamas remains a terrorist organization and this journalist remains a filthy liar.
Posted by Victor at 12:01 PM
December 15, 2005
Global Worming
Global Worming is the threat to humanity.
That's right. Looking at the unusually cold December in Toronto, one can wonder how some "scientists" came to warning about global warming and politicians came to Kyoto accord. The only plausible explanation is that all these guys have worms (aka Goa'uld) in their heads.
Posted by Victor at 11:46 AM
December 04, 2005
Economists from another planet?
Many (or some?) economists believe that cutting GST is a bad idea since GST stimulates saving versus spending. While it is true to the certain extend, spending stimulates economy; if nobody spends nobody will be paid. Also GST stimulates spending in other countries. So, an affluent person will be tempted to go for a trip to US, bring electronics for up to CAD 750 legal limit and spend a significant amount in the hotels and restaurants. So, to this extend GST also stimulates economy, but in USA.
So, the mantra "GST stimulates saving versus spending" is really applicable only in countries where travel abroad is not an option. Like North Korea... or on another planet?
Posted by Victor at 04:30 AM | Comments (1)
November 28, 2005
What they should expect?
Sony is now under atgtack due to the outrageous violation of the consumers right (spyware installation).
On the other hand, these consumers are windows users and they probably should not expect any better treatment. I suggest that Sony should pay damages but these payment should be directed only towards rehabilitation of windows users and their migration to more respected platform.
Posted by Victor at 06:16 AM
November 06, 2005
To the spammer
Looking through my spam folder I find usually just a spam and looking in headers I find in absolute majority of the cases that it was sent using M$ software: Microsoft MimeOLE or Outluck Excess. And often I am suggested to buy Windoze s/w. So, my poem to the senders of these emails and owners of the site, using their services:
Microsoft software user,
You are lamer, you are loser,
We don't need your stupid spam,
You are spammer - you are scum!
Posted by Victor at 04:12 AM | Comments (1)
October 28, 2005
Garbage removal
According to decision of Toronto City Concil
- garbage which smells is removed once a week
- garbage that does not smell is removed once in two weeks
Hopefully
- garbage which stinks and is called "David Muller" will be removed in November 2006
Posted by Victor at 03:51 PM
September 06, 2005
Why I should see this stupid commercial?
More often then not going to my personalized rogers-yahoo page (which is the benefit of my paid subscription) I am directed first to the strupid commercial. All my attempts to contact Rogers and Yahoo were not successful. Look at my artistic vision of it:
Help |
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 No thanks, I am not a Windoze loser. |
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We recommend that you take advantage of this powerful security suite now to provide robust online protection for your PC, your files, and your family.
Please note: No security program is 100% effective, and not all viruses and spyware can be detected and/or removed. Please remember that there are risks associated with activities such as downloading and sending attachments through email, using external computer disks and drives, and installing programs from questionable sources on your computer and using brain-dead junkware which is called Windoze OS. As provided in the Yahoo! Terms of Service, neither Yahoo! nor its licensors are responsible for your decision to undertake any of these activities.
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Posted by Victor at 05:23 PM
August 17, 2005
Worth fighting for
The sale of few years old Apple iBooks for $50 ended by a good fight.
Posted by Victor at 11:25 AM | Comments (1)
August 11, 2005
Evolution ...
This is Micro$oft commercial:
One wonders: how many hundreds of millions of years is required for Micro$oft Office to become a software for humans? And how soon M$O users will become extinct freeing the way for more intelligent species?
Posted by Victor at 04:26 PM
August 04, 2005
Teaspoon freedom of religion
In this article you can read about persecution of a religion which selected the huge teapot as the object of devotion.
My comment: Teapot seems to be a decent object of devotion but Russian samovar like this one woud be even better:
This article was originally posted July 21. After a while the reference expired, so I made a new one. And here you can see the teapot before and after pogrom, made by the followers of the religion dominant there:
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Posted by Victor at 08:05 PM
July 24, 2005
Ken Livingstone is no Neville Chamberlain
Some people compare London Mayor Ken Livingstone with former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, because the former practices the same appeasement with respect to Islamist as the latter practiced with respect to Nazi Germany.
However I beg to differ: with all ills Mr. Chamberlain caused, he had a decency to stop this policy after Hitler' invasion in Poland and to resign later while Mr. Livinstone continues his bizarre behavior. Looks more like Lord Haw-Haw for me. Will the end be the same?
Posted by Victor at 06:39 AM | Comments (2)
July 20, 2005
Stragate Atlantis
Series/Sci-Fi/Fantasy, 60 Mins.
"The Intruder", Episode #202.
McKay fears that a computer virus found on Colonel Caldwell's ship might be the work of the Wraith.
My Comment: It is really strange that with Stargate Atlantis expedition equipped by Dell computers, it had not happened in Episode #101.
Posted by Victor at 08:05 PM