Monthly Archives: November 2008

How to not solve the economy problem

Posted on by
2

I’ve heard that Stephen Harper has a degree in economics. Maybe this would be more apparent in his governing if he weren’t so preoccupied with destroying his political opponents and attempting to set up a golden age of conservatism in Canada. The economy, it seems, is the thing that no one will shut up about, even though most people probably have no idea about what’s a good or bad plan to save it.

Let’s have a look back at the election. The Conservatives constantly pushed the fact that there would be no deficit. I mentioned to some people that that was a retarded idea. The surplus was already getting tremendously thin because of Harper’s previous tax cuts. It was incredibly stupid to make a promise that would box them in like that, especially given that the word crisis was being thrown around.

Essentially, the Conservatives had two choices. One was to break the promise and go into a deficit by spending on a stimulus package. The other was to do whatever it takes to balance the budget. One of these ideas was good economics. The other idea would have prolonged a recession. Thankfully, the Conservatives decided to go with good economics. Unfortunately for them, it now looks like they’ve either lied during the campaign or they just learned some introductory macroeconomics in the last week or two.

To compound on that problem, the Conservatives decided not to take an opportunity to fix the economy this week, but instead tried to destroy the opposition by taking away public financing for political parties under the guise of protecting the economy. I can’t really blame them. If their goal is to ensure permanent Conservative control of the government, then this was an excellent opportunity. If their goal is to save Canada’s economy, this is pretty much the worst thing they could be doing.

In 2003, Jean Chretien introduced some legislation that would ban corporate and union money donations, lower the personal donation limit, and create a public financing system in which each party would get $1.95 per vote per year. This way, we remove lobbyist influence and at the same time, the parties that have traditionally relied on this money won’t suddenly implode.

Now Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty want to take away this subsidy. It’s not difficult to see why. The other parties rely on the subsidy to survive. The Conservatives don’t. In scrapping the subsidy, the Conservatives will essentially bankrupt the opposition and make it impossible for them to ever challenge the Conservatives again. This is even more suspicious after the election that was seemingly called for no reason – except to drain the finances of the other parties.

The worst part is that they tried to cover this up as something to help the economy. If you want to reform party financing, go ahead, just don’t try to pass it off as a consequence of fiscal policy. And I don’t care what you think about the current state of party financing. Trying to defeat your political opponents by deliberately running them out of money is not a win for democracy. Even more so if it leaves any opposition completely crippled.

And why is Stephen Harper so terrible? Because he only saw two outcomes to this. Either there’d be another election, which he would pretty much be guaranteed to win, likely with a majority, or the parties would wallow in their weakness and get trampled by losing all of their money and being unable to operate. He obviously didn’t think the other parties would have the spine to seriously consider a coalition. He also obviously miscalculated. And so instead of trying to solve our economic problem, he’s inflicted a political crisis on himself, all because he couldn’t let the opportunity pass to give the other parties another kick to the shins.

And now, we have the Conservatives trying to fight back by doing what they do best – spreading misinformation. Already, we’re seeing them paint the opposition as greedy and trying to undemocratically overthrow the government. This is why Civics was required in Grade 10.

So at this point there are a bunch of things that the Conservatives would like for us to forget. They’d like for us to forget that they were trying this exact same thing back in 2004 that the opposition is doing now. They’d also like for us to forget that they only had 37.6% of the vote and only have a minority government. Finally, they’d like us to forget that this minority government and coalition government stuff is how the parliamentary system is supposed to work.

Interesting times for Canadian politics, that’s for sure.

This week’s old animu: Higurashi

Posted on by
Reply

I decided to hold off on writing this until I’d finished the second season as well, which I can say in retrospect was the right decision to make. Anyhow, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry – Higurashi) is all about deception. It’s usually labelled as a horror or mystery, both of which are accurate. It’s an adaptation of a series of visual novels of the same name.

Higurashi travelled to my attention as a horror anime with some creepy as hell crap that goes on. The people who say this would not be wrong. There are some really disturbing scenes and a lot of unsettling ones. I was pretty convinced that this would not be easy to watch by Rena’s “gomen nasai” scene. But, there are also some pretty hilarious and cute scenes as well that provide a very stark contrast to the violence that happens.

But Higurashi is a mystery too. It has a surprisingly deep and intricate plot. It really is much more than the ridiculous amounts of violence and this becomes more apparent as you complete more story arcs. Each arc gives you more information about the characters and about the circumstances surrounding the events, introduces something new into the equation, and reveals some things that may have mislead you in previous arcs. The picture you get after finishing each arc becomes bigger and clearer.

Higurashi obviously starts out very grim, with people offing each other constantly and going all delusional. The incidents start out small but grow with each arc. But by the end, the narrative is surprisingly positive. What’s Higurashi about? It’s about friendship and overcoming destiny. Sure, there’s no shortage of anime like that, but watching the series go from focusing on desperation to hope was incredibly intriguing.

The biggest problem about it is if you think of it as two seasons. Higurashi really should be considered as one long fifty-episode series. If you consider the two seasons separately, the first season was very horrific and ended on a mildly positive note, but doesn’t tie anything up or offer any closure, but rather hints at it. The second season on its own is considered far slower, since it contains far more development of the characters and the plot. Really, it’s supposed to finish up and give meaning to what happens in the first season.

Higurashi is simply excellent. It’s got a great cast of characters, it has some incredibly disturbing stuff, and it’s got some of the best storytelling I’ve seen in an anime. It’s a very unique series that now occupies a spot on my list of favourites. Just try not to dwell too long on the fingernails after you’re done.

Introspection, featuring iTunes

Posted on by
2

So, I am taking this opportunity in between arcs of Higurashi to bring you this fascinating look into what kind of crap I’ve been listening to. Those of you who have Macs will almost certainly be using iTunes as your main music player of choice and will probably own an iPod. iTunes keeps track of how often you play a given track and also does this when it syncs up with your iPod, allowing for a decent representation of your listening habits. One of the default iTunes smart playlists is the Top 25 Most Played. That’s right. We’re going to examine the top 25 most played songs on my computer that I’ve still kept ever since I’ve gotten this computer. WALL OF TEXT, BEGIN.

At the bottom of the list, we have Keikenchi Joushouchuu, the opening for the first season of Minami-ke. I can’t explain it, but it probably has something to do with how well it fit Minami-ke and the random shouting by the various characters.

Coming in at 24th, is Utada Hikaru’s Hikari, the theme for Kingdom Hearts. This is the song that brought Utada Hikaru to the gaming world outside of Japan. It’s the first of her songs that I’d heard and is probably the song that sold me on the whole games with vocal themes thing that Squaresoft was trying to push. She also takes 23rd, inexplicably with Nichiyo no Asa, a random track from her ULTRA BLUE album.

Tied at 21 and 22 are Utada Hikaru’s SAKURA DROPS and Hirano Aya’s Bouken Desho Desho?. SAKURA DROPS is an awesome song with a stunning PV. Bouken Desho Desho? is special because it’s the OP for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, an anime which broadened my perspective on the medium. Spots 19 and 20 are taken by Lia’s Toki wo Kizamu Uta and eufonius’ Megumeru ~cuckool mix 2007~. Both of these songs were OPs for CLANNAD, another anime, coincidentally also produced by Kyoto Animation, that’s introduced me to another genre of anime.

In 18th, we have Deep River by Utada Hikaru, an album track from her album of the same name. After that is Unnamed World by Hirano Aya, which is the ED for The Daughter of Twenty Faces, an anime that had a promising start featuring thievery and heists, but descended upon a road filled with disappointment and crappy science. Also notable for having an ED that I liked better than the OP.

Spots 12-16 are taken by Utada Hikaru and various tracks from her ULTRA BLUE album. These are BLUE, the third track; COLORS, one of her singles, again with a pretty PV; This is Love, the first track that had a pretty cool electronic sort of feel; Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro, the theme for the CASSHERN movie; and Keep Tryin’, another one of her singles.

Numbers 9-11 are another tie. The first is Allegro Cantabile by SUEMISTU & THE SUEMITH. It’s the OP for Nodame Cantabile, an anime that follows two music students and how they go about their lives at the conservatory. The piano is in the spotlight for this piece, which is fairly fitting. After that is WORLD END by FLOW, the second OP for Code Geass R2. I thought it was a good song, but that’s likely because I am attracted to songs that feature violin. Rounding the set out is the brilliant green’s Ash Like Snow, the second OP for Gundam 00. Ash Like Snow was fairly different from what I’d come to expect in a Gundam song, but it definitely fits the mood that they were trying to create for Gundam 00.

Eighth and seventh place are tied by Hirano Aya’s God knows… and ORANGE RANGE’s O2. O2 was the first OP for Geass R2 and isn’t a song that I really, really like, but I guess it’s alright. I’m surprised it made it this high. God knows… on the other hand, is a song that is awesome. Its status is enhanced by the fact that it was part of one of the best scenes in anime I have ever watched, the concert scene in episode 12 of Haruhi.

Sixth place is taken by HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR’s Ichirin no Hana, the third OP for Bleach, back when it was still in Soul Society and not in Hueco Mondo: really, this isn’t Soul Society again, we swear! It gets points for going really well with the OP animation and for fitting with the events of that arc, and definitely for not being a garbage arc.

Fifth place is taken up by T.M. Revolution’s resonance, the first OP for SOUL EATER. SOUL EATER was one of the first anime I picked up when I was looking to get back into anime after I stopped raiding in WoW and after Gundam 00 finished its first season. The OP animation introduced me to a world where Gundam 00 wasn’t the only anime in 720p. Not only that, but I would learn later that the actual lyrics of resonance was eerily relevant to the world of SOUL EATER. It also helps that SOUL EATER is one of my favourite shounen series now.

Utada Hikaru’s Beautiful World takes the fourth spot. This song was the theme song for Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone. This song had that different feel slow, but ethereal quality that some of her other songs had, like Passion or HEART STATION. Of course, I haven’t seen Evangelion, so I don’t really care about that.

Third place is taken by COLORS, by FLOW. This is the first OP for Code Geass, which was, in retrospect, a pretty interesting mecha anime. I don’t think I could have expected what R2 would bring when I first heard this song. I’ll always see Japan in the crosshairs when I hear the opening drumroll.

L’Arc~en~Ciel grabs the second spot with DAYBREAK’S BELL. I wasn’t a fan of READY STEADY GO, the second OP for Fullmetal Alchemist. But this! This song was different and persuaded me to reevaluate what I thought about L’Arc~en~Ciel. Combining this song with the visual of green sparklies coming out of a Gundam in 720p was something special. This song was definitely representative of what kind of change they wanted to bring to Gundam.

The top spot goes to a song which was the theme for a game that I’d never played. When I’d heard that Kingdom Hearts II wouldn’t be using Hikari as its theme, I thought that it was a waste. In my mind, Hikari and Kingdom Hearts were inseparable. And then I watched the PV for Utada Hikaru’s Passion. It was strange, because it definitely felt like Kingdom Hearts, but it felt like it had matured. And it sounded very different from her previous songs, but sounded exactly like her style. All I know is that this song deserves to continue to stay at the top of the list.

This week’s old animu: ef – a tale of memories

Posted on by
3

So I noticed that I’ve been finishing the old animes at about a pace of one per week in addition to whatever I’m watching that’s airing right now, especially since I learned to manage my bandwidth better. I guess that makes it a good excuse to make this a weekly feature, at least until I start 3A and get beat’d by a triumvirate of CS courses. I guess when that happens, I’ll just not-stfu about everything all the shows that I’ve wanted to talk about but missed. There are a lot of those drafts sitting around. Since Clannad, I’ve gone through Kanon and Spice and Wolf. So this week is the fourth since then, which brings us to ef – a tale of memories.

ef is another one of those visual novel adaptations that I’ve tried to avoid but am now getting around to them for lack of anything else to watch. The VN that it’s based on is divided into four different stories and ef goes through two of them. Notice that this season, ef – a tale of melodies is airing, which goes through the other two stories. The entire thing has a very different feel from Key VNs, which at this point, together with School Days which I would prefer not to bring up, are the only points of reference I have to this genre.

Actually, the entire thing isn’t really comparable. Yeah, there’s drama and romance and they try to make you BAWWWW, but that’s about it. The structure of the plot is completely different, focussing on several different stories going on instead of going through several arcs with the main character at the centre of everything. The real striking difference is in the presentation.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, which was done by the same studio, had a really crazy artistic and visual style for a comedy. Just take a look at the OP and ED. Now take that style and add some symbolism, some significance and importance to the plot, and apply it to a show with drama and romance. There are tons of jarring cuts to scenes of seemingly random stuff that grow into something very powerful. Like SZS, the best way to get a feel for the show is by having a look at the OPs and EDs.

And part of the presentation package is music. Let’s be honest, the Key VN anime’s strong points do not include their music, save for the occasional fluke. But in ef, the music fits right in with the crazy visuals. The entire thing is finely tuned and deliberate.

Thematically, ef is a lot heavier than Clannad. Because of the visuals, there’s a lot of symbolism going on. Because of the circumstances of the characters, there’s a lot less focus on them and just being in school or walking around the shopping district. Clannad and Kanon were very similar in that there was a guy that just went around solving the problems that the girls they met had. Eventually, the focus came down to only one girl. Here, we’re able to see how the different themes play out at about the same pace, since we’re focussing on more than one relationship progressing.

Basically, it’s an impressive, fairly thoughtful drama filled with tons of symbolism and imagery in crazy ZETSUBOUSHITA style. I’ll be watching ef – a tale of melodies, but I don’t know if I care about the other two characters’ stories as much. But, I will have to amend my post about this season’s OPs, because ef melodies has an awesome OP, ebullient future, that places second, in between Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi and Toki wo Kizamu Uta.

Canada ~After Story~

Posted on by
1

Now that the little distraction that was the American Presidential election is now over and we’re all feeling chipper that Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States, we can roll our eyes back towards this land of ice and snow and start killing snow moose for walrus-men consider the political dynamic here.

On October 14th, Canada held its 40th General Election. On the surface, it seemed like nothing changed. Seats were flipped and Stephen Harper remains a Prime Minister with a minority, just as it had been since 2006. But for the two major players, the Conservatives and the Liberals, everything has gotten considerably worse.

Yes, Stephen Harper managed to get the Conservatives another term in power and even gained a bunch of seats. But, he’s failed to get a majority after facing a severely weakened Liberal party twice. He couldn’t do it against Paul Martin and a Liberal party that was caught in a scandal. He couldn’t do it against Stephane Dion, even after controlling the narrative about Dion being a weak leader and shoving misinformation to everyone about the Green Shift. It’s becoming less likely that he’ll see the majority that he’s been fighting for since he became leader. This draws us to consider who might be succeeding him and it appears that there’s no one obvious yet. This will be a problem for them.

On the other hand, the Liberals couldn’t be in worse shape. Most of the seats that were changed were ones that were red. The party is in a poor state financially and with another leadership race so soon after the last one, the strain on the monies will only get worse. The party’s share of the popular vote is getting gobbled up by the NDP. The chances that the Liberals go the way of the Progressive Conservatives is getting larger and larger and the next leader will be determining whether the Liberals survive or not.

And that brings us to the Liberal leadership race. Immediately, we’re faced again with Michael Ignatieff facing off against Bob Rae, but things are looking a bit different today than it was two years ago. For one thing, there isn’t the cornucopia of candidates running. This time, we aren’t seeing the bitter divides between the two frontrunner camps that plagued the last race. It looks like the Liberals have realized the situation they’re in. And in addition to the sombre mood of the party, there’s the sombre mood regarding the economy.

These two factors greatly reduce the chance of anything like Dion’s from-behind victory from happening again. On the other hand, from the endorsements and support that he’s been getting, it looks like the party is almost ready to just hand Michael Ignatieff the leadership. On the plus side, it doesn’t seem like there will be an irreparable rift between the two frontrunner campaigns this time around. However, I’m not happy with the near-presumption that Ignatieff will just take a stroll until May and win. I think he should have to fight for it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like he’s going to be getting much of one.

I’ve honestly never understood how it was possible for Bob Rae to become a serious contender to lead the Liberals. I know he’s smart and has all the qualities for the job and it looks like a lot of Liberals do too. But outside of that, there are too many people who have a dislike for him, regardless of whether or not he deserves it. It doesn’t matter if he’s changed his positions or that he may have done the best he could in the early 90s, you can bet that the Conservatives will attack that angle relentlessly. Just look at how they controlled Dion’s image.

The other guy is Dominic LeBlanc. He’s young, smart, and is apparently a fine MP. His biggest challenge is the fact that we’ve been hearing nonstop about Rae and Ignatieff for over two years now, while he’s relatively unknown nationally.

I guess it’s fairly obvious who I think should be the next leader of the Liberals by default. But I will qualify that by revisiting the 2006 leadership race. In 2006, I thought Gerard Kennedy should be the leader. He swung more to the left side of the party and had a pretty good record. As the Minister of Education in Ontario, he did a lot to fix the screwups that are the reason that Mike Harris is so reviled by students.

Michael Ignatieff on the other hand was not those things. He’s definitely more of a centrist. His initial support for the Iraq war threw a wrench in his campaign. But most importantly, he was a very new MP and had just returned from the States. Before his return and shortly after it, there was speculation that he returned to try to run for the leadership of the Liberals. The question to me was why we would want someone who came back just to do that?

Two years later, through his time as an MP, we’ve learned a lot more about him. He’s definitely intelligent, but more importantly, he’s also very articulate. Despite being away from Canada for so long, he has an excellent understanding of the national culture. He’s got a vision for Canada, as a nation and for our standing in the world. He has the progressive values that the Liberals stand for. He’s not one of the old-school guys from one of Chretien’s or Martin’s camps. He’s got the support of the party. He understands that the party desperately needs to be transformed and rebuilt. And he’s likely not going to get trapped and smeared by the same Conservative strategy that took down Dion.

He’s someone I can respect and someone who’ll probably be able to make me switch my vote back to red.