Tonight I was going to talk about Infrastructure and how little progress we have made in the past 30 years in that area, but after reading this Time interview with John McCain, a man who potentially could become the next President of the United States, I had to change my plans. Take a few moments to read the interview (the excerpt in question is short - believe me, and the answers are very repetitive, so it’s a quick read).
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1836909,00.html
As an election in the US looms, and the direction of North America’s economy with it (I won’t kid myself into thinking that Canada is fully independent), it is important to keep track of what is going to happen. Right now in the polls, this man basically has a 50% chance of being the next President, so his policies and decisions could realistically govern the course of our economy for the next 4 years. Also, with an election almost certainly looming in Canada (the press expects an announcement within a month at their best guesses), watching how political maneuvering south of the border is working is wise – our politicians tend to be more moderate, mini-versions of their US counterparts.
In his interview with Time, McCain repeatedly told the reporter to refer to his books, that the campaign was acting as it had planned to all along, and that words were taken out of context. The short story is he stops answering questions, and starts quoting party lines. How he follows in the footsteps of Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan, and how his current condemnation of Russia is similar to Reagan’s policies from the early 80’s (which I have discussed before). It’s as if he’s aware that the press is the “enemy”, and is not to be spoken with.
Falling back on party lines is hardly unexpected as the ballot day nears, but one thing McCain is right about. There hasn’t been this much “I don’t recall” going on in American leadership since Reagan was being questioned on Iran-Contra. His foreign policy will also no doubt be something any Reaganite could be proud of. But this press “lockdown” that he seems to be exhibiting now, after an earlier bid at claiming candidness, going so far as to naming his campaign bus the “Straight Talk Express”, is disturbing indeed.
If the people are not allowed to know the true positions of the politicians running for office, how can they cast an educated vote? Shall we expect the same here in Canada in the months to come? It has been said that politicians at the upper echelon, left and right, have nearly the same agenda, just different ways of sugarcoating the pill that middle and lower class citizens will have to swallow. A move AWAY from transparency is the last thing needed in a time when our leaders should be proving that adage wrong. While our parties tend to be a little to the left of American politics, I would hate to have to decipher who the best candidate is through a shroud like the one being raised in this interview.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Demise of Radio Two
On September 2nd of this year, CBC will undertake a massive remodelling of Radio Two, probably changing the name of the station to “The New Two” in the process. They are going to drastically cut back on classical content, and try to market themselves to younger listeners with more pop and cross-cultural music. I like many people, think this is a drastic mistake.
CBC does not have a history, on Radio Two or Radio One, of having a knowledge of pop music. Their current segments are filled with dren that I wouldn’t want to listen to, and I listen to almost anything. Radio Two’s forays in electronic and techno music were interesting, but not very well marketed at all. I’m not sure CBC has a company culture that will work for this proposed format shift.
Secondly, in my travels across Ontario and Quebec, I’ve noticed that Radio Two only has decent reception in areas that are saturated with pop radio stations – Ottawa, Peterborough, Toronto. CBC will face still competition in those markets, with many stations that not only have an established listening base, but know how to market pop and hip hop better. I honestly doubt that the CBC is going to hire scantily clad young women to make appearances at local clubs and bars to market the station, like Hot 89.9.
Not saying they don’t know what they’re doing, but I wish that CBC would concentrate on what they know how to do. The loss of Radio Two is the loss of a classical music market, which may be a niche in this modern age, but is a niche that I was glad to see filled by someone.
CBC does not have a history, on Radio Two or Radio One, of having a knowledge of pop music. Their current segments are filled with dren that I wouldn’t want to listen to, and I listen to almost anything. Radio Two’s forays in electronic and techno music were interesting, but not very well marketed at all. I’m not sure CBC has a company culture that will work for this proposed format shift.
Secondly, in my travels across Ontario and Quebec, I’ve noticed that Radio Two only has decent reception in areas that are saturated with pop radio stations – Ottawa, Peterborough, Toronto. CBC will face still competition in those markets, with many stations that not only have an established listening base, but know how to market pop and hip hop better. I honestly doubt that the CBC is going to hire scantily clad young women to make appearances at local clubs and bars to market the station, like Hot 89.9.
Not saying they don’t know what they’re doing, but I wish that CBC would concentrate on what they know how to do. The loss of Radio Two is the loss of a classical music market, which may be a niche in this modern age, but is a niche that I was glad to see filled by someone.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Still a long way to go
Well this is it, tomorrow when I wake up, I’ll be 25 years old, an age that has been a personal marker for me for the longest time, all the way back to the 9th grade when I started joking that I was going to live fast and dangerously, and die by 25. A quarter century is a long time, and I’ve done a lot.
Looking back, I’ve learned how to fly gliders, then airplanes. I’ve gone through three cars in seven years, and three jobs lasting at least two years each, on my fourth, the second in what is proving to be a career. I finished writing two novels, and while they may never get published, the satisfaction of writing a story that spans almost a thousand pages is immense. On a whim, I went out and learned how to drive a motorcycle. I’ve now had two apartments, and moved out more than two and a half years ago. Lastly, I’ve kept in touch with many good friends, turning the whole province into one big town as we spread out. Through parties and BBQs, things have been fun.
Did I live fast and dangerously and die out? I guess not. You could argue that he planes and motorcycle are riskier than most, in fact I have friends that scared of the entire concept, and others that I suspect are and are unwilling to admit it. But those hobbies are hardly jumping through rings of fire or anything like that.
I still have an awful lot to do though. I feel that my next priority should be my relationships, both with my circle of friends now, and new people. I’ve spent too much of my time in the last 7 years building up my career and material possessions, it’s time for to work on social interaction. I also want to advance up the pike in my field, maybe even get to a management level someday. Do I feel a little older? Yes, I suppose. 25 is not 18, and it’s amazing how quickly life has been moving by since the end of high school. Do I feel old? Not yet, I’m glad to say.
But perhaps there’s some truth to my statement back in high school after all. Am I the same kid that looked in the mirror every morning back in 1998? Not really – it would be hard pressed to say that anyone is the same after that much time has passed. Maybe that’s part of getting older, constantly reinventing oneself as life changes.
Looking back, I’ve learned how to fly gliders, then airplanes. I’ve gone through three cars in seven years, and three jobs lasting at least two years each, on my fourth, the second in what is proving to be a career. I finished writing two novels, and while they may never get published, the satisfaction of writing a story that spans almost a thousand pages is immense. On a whim, I went out and learned how to drive a motorcycle. I’ve now had two apartments, and moved out more than two and a half years ago. Lastly, I’ve kept in touch with many good friends, turning the whole province into one big town as we spread out. Through parties and BBQs, things have been fun.
Did I live fast and dangerously and die out? I guess not. You could argue that he planes and motorcycle are riskier than most, in fact I have friends that scared of the entire concept, and others that I suspect are and are unwilling to admit it. But those hobbies are hardly jumping through rings of fire or anything like that.
I still have an awful lot to do though. I feel that my next priority should be my relationships, both with my circle of friends now, and new people. I’ve spent too much of my time in the last 7 years building up my career and material possessions, it’s time for to work on social interaction. I also want to advance up the pike in my field, maybe even get to a management level someday. Do I feel a little older? Yes, I suppose. 25 is not 18, and it’s amazing how quickly life has been moving by since the end of high school. Do I feel old? Not yet, I’m glad to say.
But perhaps there’s some truth to my statement back in high school after all. Am I the same kid that looked in the mirror every morning back in 1998? Not really – it would be hard pressed to say that anyone is the same after that much time has passed. Maybe that’s part of getting older, constantly reinventing oneself as life changes.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Poland Missile Deal - Déjà vu
Russia is mad about the US’ missile deal with Poland, signed today. For good reason, and one that fires up my déjà vu gland, as history has a nearly parallel example of this setup. The US has signed a deal with Poland to base 10 interceptor missiles in their country. The missiles are designed to shoot down nuclear-armed ICBMs, essentially bringing Reagan’s Star Wars dreams to life, except based on land. When completed, missiles and radar sites around the world will create a defensive missile shield for the United States, with the intent of shooting down a nuclear attack. The missile system is slated to come online in 2012. Russia has said Poland has left itself fair game for an attack with this deal.
The United States has claimed that these missiles are purely defensive, and are intended to guard the US from a nuclear attack from terrorists or a rogue nation. This is a transparent, bald faced lie. At best, it is yet another example of the Military Industrial complex sucking money from US citizens. At worst, it is a move towards more global control and empire building. Rogue nations don’t have ICBM arsenals, they have IRBMs and smaller scud-type systems. To build an ICBM that works at all requires a great level of technical sophistication, ICBM research was the basis for starting the space program, and any missile advanced enough to accurately target someone on the other side of the world could easily launch satellites and people into space. The US has already proven that they’re more than willing to blast a nation back into the Stone Age if they perceive them to even be remotely a threat, or have weapons capable of harming their interests.
Terrorists simply wouldn’t bother attacking that way. It would be far easier to exploit a hole in the current US security setup to get a WMD in. Of course, such an action would require acquiring a WMD in the first place, and despite what they show in James Bond films, one doesn’t simply hijack a jet bomber and crash it, then steal the weapons. Austin Powers demonstrated how ridiculous that motif is.
Lastly, most of the planned missile sites are pointed at Russia…erm, sorry, the official line is the Middle East. They must be talking about the upper Middle East though, because last I checked, Poland was a little far from Iran, but very close to Russia.
There are two historical precedents for this type of behaviour, one very well known by our parents’ and grandparents’ generation, and one that was brushed over in the media.
In 1962, the Soviet Union deployed nuclear armed IRBMs in Cuba, a mere 90 miles of the US coastline. This brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, tensions escalated, the US Navy blockaded the country, and Russian forces shot down a U2 spy plane. People thought we were about done as a society, and if it hadn’t have been for some common sense on the part of Kennedy and Khrushchev, realizing that both sides would be obliterated, we almost were. Uncle Sam promised never to invade Cuba, and the bears graciously removed the missile sites. Kennedy also secretly assured the USSR that they would remove their Jupiter missiles sites from Turkey, a quid pro quo deal. Arguably all nuclear missiles are defensive in nature, as the use of one in actual combat heralds the apocalypse with in hours. The United States didn’t take too kindly to the threat.
In the 1980s, a more complex situation existed. The US was preparing a new model of missile, the Pershing II, for deployment in West Germany to counter Soviet SS-20 missiles. These weapons would be close enough to Russia to strike their targets in 4 to 6 minutes, or barely any time at all. Reagan was also trumpeting his 600 ship Navy plan, which involved modernizing and re-commissioning all 4 Iowa class battleships, and building the US Navy to levels that would overwhelm the Soviet counterpart. Finally, Reagan’s greatest military boondoggle, the Strategic Defense Initiative, known as Star Wars, was in full R & D. SDI was the direct ancestor of today’s Missile Defense Shield. The idea was to shield the US from nuclear attack with a network of ground to air missiles, lasers, and space based systems. Sound familiar? The Soviets were scared of these things combined, and for good reason. One of the most obvious reasons for there still not have been a nuclear war since the 1950s is that both sides would be mutually annihilated in the battle. Mutually Assured Destruction, known for the past 30 or 40 years as MAD, was the common stance policy in the 1980s when Reagan kicked off his military buildup. If one side could successfully defend themselves from nuclear attack, much like a kid hopped up on too much caffeine could in the 1980s at the arcade playing Missile Defense, then nuclear war came one step closer to a reality, because in theory, you could “win”.
That is why the Russian supposedly panicked in November of 1983, when the Able Archer exercise simulated the lead up to nuclear war, involving western political leaders and the military. They thought it could be real, or a ruse that would lead to a sneak strike – with the latest American bluster, it was believed the Americans thought they could win a limited nuclear war.
The missile signing deal today brings us one step closer to the brink. What if the Russians decide to strike before 2012, in order not to lose their nuclear advantage? No one will be left to complain that it wasn’t the right choice. With the ongoing conflict in Georgia, in which Russia announced that they are withdrawing, but tanks have been seen still rolling deeper into the country, and Bush’s continuing war in Iraq, it almost seems like the intro to Fallout was bang on the money – World War III will be fought over oil and uranium, as we squabble over who gets the last bit. Funny to think that more that roughly 18 years after the end of the Cold War, tensions between East and West are beginning to build again, although this time we aren’t in a conflict of ideologies, we’re in a race to see who can build the biggest, baddest sphere of influence with the most resources. Détente indeed.
The United States has claimed that these missiles are purely defensive, and are intended to guard the US from a nuclear attack from terrorists or a rogue nation. This is a transparent, bald faced lie. At best, it is yet another example of the Military Industrial complex sucking money from US citizens. At worst, it is a move towards more global control and empire building. Rogue nations don’t have ICBM arsenals, they have IRBMs and smaller scud-type systems. To build an ICBM that works at all requires a great level of technical sophistication, ICBM research was the basis for starting the space program, and any missile advanced enough to accurately target someone on the other side of the world could easily launch satellites and people into space. The US has already proven that they’re more than willing to blast a nation back into the Stone Age if they perceive them to even be remotely a threat, or have weapons capable of harming their interests.
Terrorists simply wouldn’t bother attacking that way. It would be far easier to exploit a hole in the current US security setup to get a WMD in. Of course, such an action would require acquiring a WMD in the first place, and despite what they show in James Bond films, one doesn’t simply hijack a jet bomber and crash it, then steal the weapons. Austin Powers demonstrated how ridiculous that motif is.
Lastly, most of the planned missile sites are pointed at Russia…erm, sorry, the official line is the Middle East. They must be talking about the upper Middle East though, because last I checked, Poland was a little far from Iran, but very close to Russia.
There are two historical precedents for this type of behaviour, one very well known by our parents’ and grandparents’ generation, and one that was brushed over in the media.
In 1962, the Soviet Union deployed nuclear armed IRBMs in Cuba, a mere 90 miles of the US coastline. This brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, tensions escalated, the US Navy blockaded the country, and Russian forces shot down a U2 spy plane. People thought we were about done as a society, and if it hadn’t have been for some common sense on the part of Kennedy and Khrushchev, realizing that both sides would be obliterated, we almost were. Uncle Sam promised never to invade Cuba, and the bears graciously removed the missile sites. Kennedy also secretly assured the USSR that they would remove their Jupiter missiles sites from Turkey, a quid pro quo deal. Arguably all nuclear missiles are defensive in nature, as the use of one in actual combat heralds the apocalypse with in hours. The United States didn’t take too kindly to the threat.
In the 1980s, a more complex situation existed. The US was preparing a new model of missile, the Pershing II, for deployment in West Germany to counter Soviet SS-20 missiles. These weapons would be close enough to Russia to strike their targets in 4 to 6 minutes, or barely any time at all. Reagan was also trumpeting his 600 ship Navy plan, which involved modernizing and re-commissioning all 4 Iowa class battleships, and building the US Navy to levels that would overwhelm the Soviet counterpart. Finally, Reagan’s greatest military boondoggle, the Strategic Defense Initiative, known as Star Wars, was in full R & D. SDI was the direct ancestor of today’s Missile Defense Shield. The idea was to shield the US from nuclear attack with a network of ground to air missiles, lasers, and space based systems. Sound familiar? The Soviets were scared of these things combined, and for good reason. One of the most obvious reasons for there still not have been a nuclear war since the 1950s is that both sides would be mutually annihilated in the battle. Mutually Assured Destruction, known for the past 30 or 40 years as MAD, was the common stance policy in the 1980s when Reagan kicked off his military buildup. If one side could successfully defend themselves from nuclear attack, much like a kid hopped up on too much caffeine could in the 1980s at the arcade playing Missile Defense, then nuclear war came one step closer to a reality, because in theory, you could “win”.
That is why the Russian supposedly panicked in November of 1983, when the Able Archer exercise simulated the lead up to nuclear war, involving western political leaders and the military. They thought it could be real, or a ruse that would lead to a sneak strike – with the latest American bluster, it was believed the Americans thought they could win a limited nuclear war.
The missile signing deal today brings us one step closer to the brink. What if the Russians decide to strike before 2012, in order not to lose their nuclear advantage? No one will be left to complain that it wasn’t the right choice. With the ongoing conflict in Georgia, in which Russia announced that they are withdrawing, but tanks have been seen still rolling deeper into the country, and Bush’s continuing war in Iraq, it almost seems like the intro to Fallout was bang on the money – World War III will be fought over oil and uranium, as we squabble over who gets the last bit. Funny to think that more that roughly 18 years after the end of the Cold War, tensions between East and West are beginning to build again, although this time we aren’t in a conflict of ideologies, we’re in a race to see who can build the biggest, baddest sphere of influence with the most resources. Détente indeed.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Apparently not so Eco-Friendly after all
I’m all for saving the planet. It’s imperative, if not for our generation, then for the next, or the one after it. We in North America have been living above the world’s carrying capacity for a long time. One could argue that we are the least at fault, as we live in a vast area with many natural resources, and our continent’s population is a mere drop in the bucket of the globe’s, clocking in at a meagre 15% of all humans alive. We like to flaunt that we feed the world, our agriculture helping much more populous or poverty-stricken nations.
We’re still horrible polluters, with little to no excuse. Our public transit is a sham, we drive cars many sizes too large for our needs, and think nothing of waste. Why bother? There’s still plenty of land to build landfills on.
One thing that has to be kept in mind though is not to jump to quickly on board with new “greener” trends. Some of it is hype, and some of it is marketing nonsense. CFLs are a good example. When they came out, a few early adopters, myself included, went out and bought them as a green gesture, consuming less than ¼ the wattage of their conventional counterparts, they seemed like an intelligent and mature decision. Now we’re being told that the mercury they contain could be almost as harmful as the extra wattage that normal bulbs would have burnt. Is it a valuable trade off? I don’t really know. I haven’t tried to switch back, as I enjoy the extra light per-watt, and the fact that they seem to last much longer than regular bulbs – I’ve only had one burn out in almost 3 years.
The problem here is the government jumped on board with the “green revolution”, and has all but mandated that stores sell nothing but these new green bulbs. Are we setting ourselves up for pain further on down the line? For the same reasons that nuclear power should be considered, the mercury bulbs should be to. The pros and cons of any invention that has long-lasting hazardous waste associated with it should be weighed carefully, and objectively, before making a reflexive emotional decision.
I read recently that in most North American cities, the bus system is actually no better on a fuel-per-person-mile than cars, even cars with only one person in them. This obviously is a scale issue, but isn’t immediately apparent. In smaller cities, say under 200,000, there are a lot of empty or near-empty buses driving around in non-peak times. For public transit to be effective, it needs to be rolling all of the time on a consistent schedule, not just at peak hours. Diesel buses burn a lot of fuel, whether they’re loaded or not. Obviously in bigger cities, the networks are slightly less wasteful, as there’s enough people on them, or at least on a staggered schedule, to make the system worthwhile. I myself am a little guilty though – I can only think of a handful of times since I’ve taken the bus outside of rush hour.
I think we need to buckle down and start investing in new technologies, and doing what we can. Why do tractor trailers still only get 6, a figure they got back in the 1970’s? Where are LED light bulbs, a technology that was more or less ready years ago? Why are we still, in 2008, burning coal to power cities? These are questions that we as a society need to grapple with.
On a personal level, there are plenty of things we should and could be doing. When was the last time you checked the pressure on your tires? As derisive as the US media has been on Obama’s plan, he’s right. If tire pressure was kept up in every car in North America, the amount of fuel saved would be astounding. When was the last time you threw something out that was still perfectly useful, instead of keeping it or donating it to a second hand store like Value Village or Goodwill? My challenge to anyone that reads this is in the next week, do at least one thing that you wouldn’t normally have for the environment. I’ll strive for this as well. And maybe, if everyone out there did that, we’d be taking a step in the right direction. We must keep in mind that the rest of the world is industrializing, and with China’s and India’s industrial base transportation infrastructure growing exponentially, with 2.45 BILLION people involved, North America needs to step back and look at our own behaviour, and do our level best to curb pollution.
We’re still horrible polluters, with little to no excuse. Our public transit is a sham, we drive cars many sizes too large for our needs, and think nothing of waste. Why bother? There’s still plenty of land to build landfills on.
One thing that has to be kept in mind though is not to jump to quickly on board with new “greener” trends. Some of it is hype, and some of it is marketing nonsense. CFLs are a good example. When they came out, a few early adopters, myself included, went out and bought them as a green gesture, consuming less than ¼ the wattage of their conventional counterparts, they seemed like an intelligent and mature decision. Now we’re being told that the mercury they contain could be almost as harmful as the extra wattage that normal bulbs would have burnt. Is it a valuable trade off? I don’t really know. I haven’t tried to switch back, as I enjoy the extra light per-watt, and the fact that they seem to last much longer than regular bulbs – I’ve only had one burn out in almost 3 years.
The problem here is the government jumped on board with the “green revolution”, and has all but mandated that stores sell nothing but these new green bulbs. Are we setting ourselves up for pain further on down the line? For the same reasons that nuclear power should be considered, the mercury bulbs should be to. The pros and cons of any invention that has long-lasting hazardous waste associated with it should be weighed carefully, and objectively, before making a reflexive emotional decision.
I read recently that in most North American cities, the bus system is actually no better on a fuel-per-person-mile than cars, even cars with only one person in them. This obviously is a scale issue, but isn’t immediately apparent. In smaller cities, say under 200,000, there are a lot of empty or near-empty buses driving around in non-peak times. For public transit to be effective, it needs to be rolling all of the time on a consistent schedule, not just at peak hours. Diesel buses burn a lot of fuel, whether they’re loaded or not. Obviously in bigger cities, the networks are slightly less wasteful, as there’s enough people on them, or at least on a staggered schedule, to make the system worthwhile. I myself am a little guilty though – I can only think of a handful of times since I’ve taken the bus outside of rush hour.
I think we need to buckle down and start investing in new technologies, and doing what we can. Why do tractor trailers still only get 6, a figure they got back in the 1970’s? Where are LED light bulbs, a technology that was more or less ready years ago? Why are we still, in 2008, burning coal to power cities? These are questions that we as a society need to grapple with.
On a personal level, there are plenty of things we should and could be doing. When was the last time you checked the pressure on your tires? As derisive as the US media has been on Obama’s plan, he’s right. If tire pressure was kept up in every car in North America, the amount of fuel saved would be astounding. When was the last time you threw something out that was still perfectly useful, instead of keeping it or donating it to a second hand store like Value Village or Goodwill? My challenge to anyone that reads this is in the next week, do at least one thing that you wouldn’t normally have for the environment. I’ll strive for this as well. And maybe, if everyone out there did that, we’d be taking a step in the right direction. We must keep in mind that the rest of the world is industrializing, and with China’s and India’s industrial base transportation infrastructure growing exponentially, with 2.45 BILLION people involved, North America needs to step back and look at our own behaviour, and do our level best to curb pollution.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
$16,000 Scammer Gets Owned
As promised, a slightly lighter topic than global war for my next post back.
For the last few days, I have been following a post on a performance car forum, found at http://www.tamparacing.com/forums/general-car-chat/504615-attn-joe-dono-aka-scp_celica-scammer.html. In it, a young man named Joe is getting called out and destroyed for trying to reclaim his modified Celica from the shop while ducking $16,000 in labour.
To summarize the story, as reading the thread at this point would take days, and even though the amount of ownage that’s going on is amusing, it isn’t THAT amusing, Joe brought his base automatic Celica into the shop more than half a year ago, initially for a custom paint job. While it was in the shop, he kept adding things to it, custom audio setup, body parts, minor engine modifications, and so on. They kept doing the work, as Joe kept paying for the parts, insisting that his “sponsors” and grandfather would pay for the balance when completed. Apparently he claimed that his grandfather was “old school”, and wouldn’t pay until the car was complete.
Then came crunch time. The car was essentially finished, and apparently was signed up to be in a car show. Joe sent his mom to go pick up the car, not telling her that the work hadn’t been paid for. The shop refused to release the car. He then sent his girlfriend, who offered a $60 down payment to release the car, and asked to setup some sort of payment plan. Clearly, with the amount of money involved, they refused this as well. Finally, he called and asked them to wash, wax, and polish the car, and leave it sitting out in front of the shop.
At this point, the owner of the shop, Aaron, posted the situation on the message board, warning the board members that Joe was a scammer, and detailing the situation. This is where things got interesting. Aaron detailed that he was putting a mechanics lien on the car (which in my opinion, is for more than the car’s even worth). Joe posted on the board that since he didn’t own the car (his mom does, even though the man’s 20), and they were two months behind in their payments with the bank, that the lien wouldn’t do him any good, and to “mark my words, I’ll have the car by Friday”. At this point, the board, and then the Internet, exploded. First, people openly derided Joe, then arguments went back and forth about work orders vs. verbal agreements. At this point, people started posting links to the thread on other message boards.
Word spread. People jumped in, saying Joe had tried to scam somebody a year earlier on another car forum by trying to buy a 350Z with four credit cards that weren’t in his name. Someone else reported that Joe had sold them a $1200 MacBook Pro that turned out to be an iBook G4 with a dead battery. Someone else said that Joe had approached them about doing work to “his” Celica, but wasn’t willing to bring the car in for an estimate, only to drop it off to get the work done. It turned out that the man had been jailed before for fraud. People started picking apart his photo submissions, and found that many of the photos he had watermarked as being “his” photography were stolen.
The flip side of the story is the shop. They did $16,000 worth of work on word of mouth, investing all of their time working on the Celica, in effect spending both their professional and personal funds on it. The owners claim that without the payday of the Celica, the shop will be forced to close almost immediately, and they will be unable to make their mortgage payments or provide for their families. They are now accepting donations (at the prompting of the board members, not themselves) to go towards legal fees for the upcoming court battle to claim this guy’s mom’s car.
Joe is an idiot, and if 1/10th what has been shown on the Internet is true, is getting everything that he deserves. If you google his full name, threads talking about this attempted scam fill the entire first page. He’s done irreparable damage to his reputation, and perhaps he will finally learn a lesson from this experience.
But these shop owners have a lot to answer for as well. I understand the challenges of starting a small business. In fact, my understanding is exactly why I didn’t take my Entrepreneurship class’ advice and start my own. Things are tight for a long time, and more than half of all new businesses fail. There are two owners who are claiming that without this big “pay day”, their shop is going to immediately fold, and they won’t even be able to make rent so to speak. One has to look at this situation with a cold eye to see that this doesn’t make sense. My heart goes out to these guys in this situation, they have been screwed. But my mind does not, because let’s be frank - $16,000 is not a lot of money, especially not split between two people and a business. Rent alone on most commercial properties is well over $1000 a month. If they couldn’t afford to professionally take a $16,000 hit, let alone personally as well, then they’ve been managing their finances extremely poorly. That’s $8000 per person, even assuming the business was completely bankrupt all along. The pictures they showed of the car prove they do decent work, and the engine mods means they know about the mechanical side of tuning. Why weren’t they taking other jobs to pay the bills? Fixing rust, bodywork, oil changes, engine repairs, and so on.
While this is a classic example of a scammer getting his just deserts, it also demonstrates that a solid business plan and good organizational skills are needed to run your own company. The shop owners clearly had all of their eggs in one basket, dreaming of a big “payday” and the potential advertising windfall if the car was successful in the show circuit. They should’ve tried taking on smaller jobs to pay the bills and tell this Joe guy that his car was going to take longer, or be more realistic about how far they could financially extend themselves. I would like to think that instead of just horrible planning, they had lofty ambitions of being the new “it shop” in the area, and wanted to prove that they could do anything and everything, and customer satisfaction was first priority.
I think this entire situation proves that eventually, karma’s a bitch, and if you keep screwing people over, you will get caught. It also demonstrates that small business ownership requires a rock solid financial plan, and business partners should never EVER take money out of their personal finances to run the business, as it often leads to disaster. Everyone, on all sides, can and should learn from this.
For the last few days, I have been following a post on a performance car forum, found at http://www.tamparacing.com/forums/general-car-chat/504615-attn-joe-dono-aka-scp_celica-scammer.html. In it, a young man named Joe is getting called out and destroyed for trying to reclaim his modified Celica from the shop while ducking $16,000 in labour.
To summarize the story, as reading the thread at this point would take days, and even though the amount of ownage that’s going on is amusing, it isn’t THAT amusing, Joe brought his base automatic Celica into the shop more than half a year ago, initially for a custom paint job. While it was in the shop, he kept adding things to it, custom audio setup, body parts, minor engine modifications, and so on. They kept doing the work, as Joe kept paying for the parts, insisting that his “sponsors” and grandfather would pay for the balance when completed. Apparently he claimed that his grandfather was “old school”, and wouldn’t pay until the car was complete.
Then came crunch time. The car was essentially finished, and apparently was signed up to be in a car show. Joe sent his mom to go pick up the car, not telling her that the work hadn’t been paid for. The shop refused to release the car. He then sent his girlfriend, who offered a $60 down payment to release the car, and asked to setup some sort of payment plan. Clearly, with the amount of money involved, they refused this as well. Finally, he called and asked them to wash, wax, and polish the car, and leave it sitting out in front of the shop.
At this point, the owner of the shop, Aaron, posted the situation on the message board, warning the board members that Joe was a scammer, and detailing the situation. This is where things got interesting. Aaron detailed that he was putting a mechanics lien on the car (which in my opinion, is for more than the car’s even worth). Joe posted on the board that since he didn’t own the car (his mom does, even though the man’s 20), and they were two months behind in their payments with the bank, that the lien wouldn’t do him any good, and to “mark my words, I’ll have the car by Friday”. At this point, the board, and then the Internet, exploded. First, people openly derided Joe, then arguments went back and forth about work orders vs. verbal agreements. At this point, people started posting links to the thread on other message boards.
Word spread. People jumped in, saying Joe had tried to scam somebody a year earlier on another car forum by trying to buy a 350Z with four credit cards that weren’t in his name. Someone else reported that Joe had sold them a $1200 MacBook Pro that turned out to be an iBook G4 with a dead battery. Someone else said that Joe had approached them about doing work to “his” Celica, but wasn’t willing to bring the car in for an estimate, only to drop it off to get the work done. It turned out that the man had been jailed before for fraud. People started picking apart his photo submissions, and found that many of the photos he had watermarked as being “his” photography were stolen.
The flip side of the story is the shop. They did $16,000 worth of work on word of mouth, investing all of their time working on the Celica, in effect spending both their professional and personal funds on it. The owners claim that without the payday of the Celica, the shop will be forced to close almost immediately, and they will be unable to make their mortgage payments or provide for their families. They are now accepting donations (at the prompting of the board members, not themselves) to go towards legal fees for the upcoming court battle to claim this guy’s mom’s car.
Joe is an idiot, and if 1/10th what has been shown on the Internet is true, is getting everything that he deserves. If you google his full name, threads talking about this attempted scam fill the entire first page. He’s done irreparable damage to his reputation, and perhaps he will finally learn a lesson from this experience.
But these shop owners have a lot to answer for as well. I understand the challenges of starting a small business. In fact, my understanding is exactly why I didn’t take my Entrepreneurship class’ advice and start my own. Things are tight for a long time, and more than half of all new businesses fail. There are two owners who are claiming that without this big “pay day”, their shop is going to immediately fold, and they won’t even be able to make rent so to speak. One has to look at this situation with a cold eye to see that this doesn’t make sense. My heart goes out to these guys in this situation, they have been screwed. But my mind does not, because let’s be frank - $16,000 is not a lot of money, especially not split between two people and a business. Rent alone on most commercial properties is well over $1000 a month. If they couldn’t afford to professionally take a $16,000 hit, let alone personally as well, then they’ve been managing their finances extremely poorly. That’s $8000 per person, even assuming the business was completely bankrupt all along. The pictures they showed of the car prove they do decent work, and the engine mods means they know about the mechanical side of tuning. Why weren’t they taking other jobs to pay the bills? Fixing rust, bodywork, oil changes, engine repairs, and so on.
While this is a classic example of a scammer getting his just deserts, it also demonstrates that a solid business plan and good organizational skills are needed to run your own company. The shop owners clearly had all of their eggs in one basket, dreaming of a big “payday” and the potential advertising windfall if the car was successful in the show circuit. They should’ve tried taking on smaller jobs to pay the bills and tell this Joe guy that his car was going to take longer, or be more realistic about how far they could financially extend themselves. I would like to think that instead of just horrible planning, they had lofty ambitions of being the new “it shop” in the area, and wanted to prove that they could do anything and everything, and customer satisfaction was first priority.
I think this entire situation proves that eventually, karma’s a bitch, and if you keep screwing people over, you will get caught. It also demonstrates that small business ownership requires a rock solid financial plan, and business partners should never EVER take money out of their personal finances to run the business, as it often leads to disaster. Everyone, on all sides, can and should learn from this.
Monday, August 11, 2008
War in the former Soviet States - A Quick Glance
In my latest attempt at returning to semi-regularly updating the blog, I’m going to talk about the most important piece of political news in the last week, in my opinion. Not the opening of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, which was impressive – but the war in Georgia.
Late last week, Russia sent 150 tanks, and many troops across their border into a region of Georgia known as South Ossetia. South Ossetia has being trying to declare independence from Georgia since 1992, shortly after the fall of USSR, and 70% of the population in the region holds Russian citizenship, voluntarily given by Russia over the past 15 years (arguably as a way to destabilize Georgia). The entire area only has 99,000 people, according to the 1989 Census, the most current. Some estimates, according to Wikipedia, place the current population at 62,500. This little war is being fought in an area with population roughly the same as S, D and G. Think about that for a moment, 150 tanks is a little more than excessive for this type of operation.
What triggered this whole mess was Georgia launching a military operation on South Ossetia on August 7, shelling their claimed capital city. Their authority to do this is questionable, but quite possibly valid – Russia itself has been quite adamant in their authority to conduct military operations in Chechnya, which wants to break away from Russia. Russia has responded by sending troops and tanks across the border, and bringing in an air component involving fighters and bombers. It is unlikely that Georgia will be able to “win” this conflict, especially in light of the fact that they’ve had to ask the US to help them get their force in Iraq back home to help with the fight. Russia may have stepped into a conflict that could drag out for a while though, as Georgia is fiercely determined to keep the territory.
What is very compelling is the fact that this, like so many conflicts in the middle east and asia, has the potential to go south very fast. Georgia has been trying to get into NATO for some time now, and they are one of the few countries that had signed on to the US’ “coalition of the willing” in the Iraq War. In the last few days, many are wondering where US support for their forces is, as a quid pro quo for their help in Iraq. This is a very dangerous tightrope for the US and the West to walk. Russia is still a very formidable power, if not re-approaching the status of superpower, to confront. The Cold War buff in me thinks that this war is something NATO shouldn’t and couldn’t afford to touch.
Towards the end of the Cold War, contemporary thinking believed that World War III would probably start with the Soviets pushing west into Europe. This would lead to a short bout of conventional fighting, which would quickly escalate to nuclear, as NATO forces would be overwhelmed by Soviet conventional forces. Faced with a much longer supply line, the US policy was speculated to be the use of low-yield, kiloton range tactical nuclear weapons over the advancing Soviet conventional forces. No one knew for certain what would happen then, but people feared the possible response – that the Soviet leaders would retaliate with nuclear strikes on NATO targets in Western Europe. This would lead to full scale war with strategic nuclear weapons, with several gigatons of power being unloaded on civilian targets worldwide. Arguably, this threat of mutual annihilation kept the Cold War contained to smaller wars by proxy for decades.
We still can’t afford to go to war with the Russians, for the same reasons. The United States military has proved that they can’t control Iraq, and to an extent, Afghanistan, even by throwing years and trillions of dollars at the problem. Georgia is right in Russia’s backyard, it is highly doubtable that the US supply line is up to the task, especially after more than half a decade of fighting elsewhere. US involvement in Georgia wouldn’t be a “war by proxy” like Vietnam or Korea, it would be a direct confrontation, US troops facing Russian troops, for the first time in history. Georgia does not have the manpower to accept training and equipment, and Russia is already directly involved. Luckily, logic would dictate that this scenario is unlikely.
Aside from worries of global war, which are practically unjustified due to the unlikely nature of the situations that would bring it about, there is another reason that this war in Georgia is alarming – location. Georgia is just north of the hotbed of the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Also, a pipeline that runs through the country pipes 1 million barrels of oil per day into Western Europe. While a million bpd is just a drop in the bucket as far as oil transport goes, it will be a good excuse for oil companies to increase prices if this conflict goes on for any length of time.
In summary, war seems common in this area of the globe, and regardless as to who is at fault, we need to step back and look at things objectively. We cannot afford to get involved. The risk of escalation is too great, and it must be remembered that World War I was started with the assassination of a prince, and defense agreement pacts put the major powers in gear. The best we can do is hope that there is a quick resolution to the fighting. Georgia has already tried to declare a ceasefire, but it needs to be acknowledged by both sides, and something has to be done to diplomatically end this conflict. It is disheartening to think that in the 21st century, we are still a world that throws stones at its neighbours.
By the way, I promise to do something a little more light hearted and less politics/current events for my next post.
Late last week, Russia sent 150 tanks, and many troops across their border into a region of Georgia known as South Ossetia. South Ossetia has being trying to declare independence from Georgia since 1992, shortly after the fall of USSR, and 70% of the population in the region holds Russian citizenship, voluntarily given by Russia over the past 15 years (arguably as a way to destabilize Georgia). The entire area only has 99,000 people, according to the 1989 Census, the most current. Some estimates, according to Wikipedia, place the current population at 62,500. This little war is being fought in an area with population roughly the same as S, D and G. Think about that for a moment, 150 tanks is a little more than excessive for this type of operation.
What triggered this whole mess was Georgia launching a military operation on South Ossetia on August 7, shelling their claimed capital city. Their authority to do this is questionable, but quite possibly valid – Russia itself has been quite adamant in their authority to conduct military operations in Chechnya, which wants to break away from Russia. Russia has responded by sending troops and tanks across the border, and bringing in an air component involving fighters and bombers. It is unlikely that Georgia will be able to “win” this conflict, especially in light of the fact that they’ve had to ask the US to help them get their force in Iraq back home to help with the fight. Russia may have stepped into a conflict that could drag out for a while though, as Georgia is fiercely determined to keep the territory.
What is very compelling is the fact that this, like so many conflicts in the middle east and asia, has the potential to go south very fast. Georgia has been trying to get into NATO for some time now, and they are one of the few countries that had signed on to the US’ “coalition of the willing” in the Iraq War. In the last few days, many are wondering where US support for their forces is, as a quid pro quo for their help in Iraq. This is a very dangerous tightrope for the US and the West to walk. Russia is still a very formidable power, if not re-approaching the status of superpower, to confront. The Cold War buff in me thinks that this war is something NATO shouldn’t and couldn’t afford to touch.
Towards the end of the Cold War, contemporary thinking believed that World War III would probably start with the Soviets pushing west into Europe. This would lead to a short bout of conventional fighting, which would quickly escalate to nuclear, as NATO forces would be overwhelmed by Soviet conventional forces. Faced with a much longer supply line, the US policy was speculated to be the use of low-yield, kiloton range tactical nuclear weapons over the advancing Soviet conventional forces. No one knew for certain what would happen then, but people feared the possible response – that the Soviet leaders would retaliate with nuclear strikes on NATO targets in Western Europe. This would lead to full scale war with strategic nuclear weapons, with several gigatons of power being unloaded on civilian targets worldwide. Arguably, this threat of mutual annihilation kept the Cold War contained to smaller wars by proxy for decades.
We still can’t afford to go to war with the Russians, for the same reasons. The United States military has proved that they can’t control Iraq, and to an extent, Afghanistan, even by throwing years and trillions of dollars at the problem. Georgia is right in Russia’s backyard, it is highly doubtable that the US supply line is up to the task, especially after more than half a decade of fighting elsewhere. US involvement in Georgia wouldn’t be a “war by proxy” like Vietnam or Korea, it would be a direct confrontation, US troops facing Russian troops, for the first time in history. Georgia does not have the manpower to accept training and equipment, and Russia is already directly involved. Luckily, logic would dictate that this scenario is unlikely.
Aside from worries of global war, which are practically unjustified due to the unlikely nature of the situations that would bring it about, there is another reason that this war in Georgia is alarming – location. Georgia is just north of the hotbed of the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Also, a pipeline that runs through the country pipes 1 million barrels of oil per day into Western Europe. While a million bpd is just a drop in the bucket as far as oil transport goes, it will be a good excuse for oil companies to increase prices if this conflict goes on for any length of time.
In summary, war seems common in this area of the globe, and regardless as to who is at fault, we need to step back and look at things objectively. We cannot afford to get involved. The risk of escalation is too great, and it must be remembered that World War I was started with the assassination of a prince, and defense agreement pacts put the major powers in gear. The best we can do is hope that there is a quick resolution to the fighting. Georgia has already tried to declare a ceasefire, but it needs to be acknowledged by both sides, and something has to be done to diplomatically end this conflict. It is disheartening to think that in the 21st century, we are still a world that throws stones at its neighbours.
By the way, I promise to do something a little more light hearted and less politics/current events for my next post.
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