The Next Doctor – Christmas Special

Christmas Eve, 1851, and Cybermen stalk the snow of Victorian London. But when the Doctor meets another Doctor, the two must combine forces to stop the rise of the CyberKing.

Rosita and the 2 Doctors

Cybermen

The 2 Doctors

Rosita

Cyberleaders, Doctor, Miss Hartigan and Doctor 2

Mr Scoones and young slaves

Miss Hartigan, The 2 Doctors, Cyberleader and Rosita

Cybershades

Miss Hartigan flipping the switch with the Cybermen

Miss Hartigan confronts the establishment at the graveyard

The Cybermen take over the graveyard

Miss Hartigan and the Cybermen

This was a fun episode.  The Doctor arrives in 1851 London to be greeted by the Doctor who knows all about The Doctor but doesn’t know about our Doctor.  There is trouble afoot with the Cybermen looking to create the CyberKing.  They have an ally in Miss Hartigan who has a lot to prove and a lot of revenge to extract on the people of London.  Overall the episode was entertaining and light.

Words to live by in 2009

Work like you don’t need the money
dance like no one is watching
sing like no one is listening
love like you’ve never been hurt
and live life every day as if it were your last

 

I know there are a number of different versions of this quote but it’s the message that is important.

Am I a Grumpy Old Man?

I am beginning to think that I am a grumpy old man.  There are a number of things that are happening that I don’t fully understand nor support.  These aren’t just local but national and international in scope.

 

 

 

We have a great country and have many opportunities that we can go after.  The world is in financial meltdown.  Credit and jobs are getting harder to find and easier to lose.  On the one hand the US has admitted that the financial crunch started there yet they can’t understand why we are annoyed with them.  I can’t understand why the world continues to invest in American securities when they are going downhill fast.  They are spending all kinds of money, in the $trillions, yet they are talking about tax cuts.  How will they pay for all of these bailouts and loans?  The greed of the financial marketers to create all of those bad mortgages and loans and resell them over and over creating derivatives and other totally speculative financial instruments where they made obscene profits.  Even today after the bailouts these people just don’t get it.  They continue their greedy and self serving ways with “taxpayer” money.  There is no accountability, no shame.  This thing is going to get worse before we start to see a return to financial stability in the world.  This pisses me off.

 

In Canada, we are being pressured to rescue the big 3 Auto Makers.  This is a real challenge because we need the jobs but the companies haven’t corrected the problems that got them their in the first place and they don’t seem to want to address this issue.  They went for short term profits and built gas guzzlers and not fuel efficient vehicles using new technologies.  There was little or no long term thinking nor trying to address the “green” market.  Toyota and Honda both had hybrids that perform well and sell well.  GM killed their electric car.  The Canadian autoworkers say it was the financial crisis that is causing the problems today yet these same worker wanted GM to keep a truck plant open that couldn’t sell its products.  The company screws up and the workers pay.  This pisses me off.

 

We are in NAFTA yet the Americans don’t play by the rules and they almost destroyed our forest industry because we didn’t use the same model that they use.  The US Congress is likely to become very protectionist and hurt Canadian jobs as a result.  My thinking is that we should turn off the tap for Canadian oil and sell it elsewhere in the world where is would buy the appropriate respect.  This pisses me off.

 

Canadian politicians at the municipal, provincial and federal levels are jerks.  Our city politicians can’t decide what the city should be funding and what it should not fund therefore our property taxes are out of control.  The Ontario Government has failed miserably except when it comes to teachers.  Now a teacher with the appropriate time in can make over $90,000 a year for less than 10 months work.  Their argument that they work very hard during those months doesn’t cut it, when I was in the Army we were expected to be available 24/7 no matter what for so-so pay.  The provincial liberals just got blasted by their auditor general who says they suck.  The federal politicians don’t really care about us; they only want their perks and powers.  This latest coalition crap is symptomatic of the problem.  Jack Layton says that this is the way that proportional representation would work yet he rejects things before he hears them and he is overly partisan about anything that he does provide assistance – if he touches – Jack and the NDP did it.  A pox on all their houses.  This pisses me off.

 

There are a number of strikes currently under way and I for the life of me cannot understand what is going through their heads.  I’ve been on strike and it is so stupid and non-productive, you never get it back.  The bus drives say they want respect, the postal techies say they want respect yet they show none to their customers, the people who make their jobs possible.  What about the hundreds of thousands who have lost or could lose their jobs because of all of the above?   We all have to sacrifice in this time of crisis but it seems to be me first.  This pisses me off.

 

Something is wrong with society when greed is rewarded and running a company into the ground gets you a government bailout and people show no respect for their fellow human beings.  We are doomed.  Our future is dark.  No wonder I am a turning into a grumpy old fart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s Next?

The Governor-General prorogued Parliament giving the Politicians a chance to take a breath and reflect on their actions.   Everyone of the elected Members of Parliament need to shake their heads and realize that they should be ashamed of their behaviour.  No one is exempt from this shameful demonstration of power politics.  Canadians in general are not amused and are disgusted by their actions.  A pox on all their houses.

The Prime Minister initiated the troubles with his ill thought out plan to kick the opposition when they were down.  His misjudgement has probably damaged his reputation forever.  He has done enough damage to the Conservative cause that they will never achieve a majority government under his leadership.  It’s time to groom the replacements.

The Leaders of the three opposition parties needs to have a reality check.  Yes, if you add up all their votes and all their members they outnumber the Conservatives but there is no consistency in their party policies that would justify saying that they represent a majority view.  They are 3 distinct views that are barely similar and often opposed to each other.  So saying that they represent a majority of Canadians is invalid.   The Liberals under Stephane Dion are desperate for power since they lost it, but they lost it for a reason and they haven’t corrected that reason.  They haven’t cleaned up their act like the Conservative had to when they were down to 3 seats.  There is little contrition for the bad faith they showed Canadians under the various scandals and little cleanup.  Stephane Dion is desperate to change his legacy of being one of the few Liberal leaders that weren’t Prime Minister and I think that is what drove him to work out this coalition.  He probably saw it as a golden opportunity to improve his historical record.  Even now the second place runner in the leadership contest, Bob Rae, is trying to use the coalition for his own political gains.  This could precipitate a complete collapse of the Liberal party should they piss off the Canadian people which is their current direction.

The leader of the Bloc sees this as an opportunity to have a veto on any and all actions in parliament.  The other members of the coalition try to pretend that they haven’t given the Bloc the equivalent of Sovereignty Association.  The terminology in the agreement was between Canada and Quebec.  The Bloc had nothing to lose everything to gain no matter what happens.  Canada is the one who loses by this political pandering to Sovereignists.

Finally, we have Jack and the NDP.  He knows that this is the closest he will have come to being in power.  Canada is not a socialist country and wouldn’t support their policies in government.  They provide a counterbalance to other policies but they aren’t mainstream.  When Jack has participated in anything in a cooperative way you get told by him that he did it.  He takes credit for everything that comes close to him.  He needs constant reinforcement that he is a good boy.  Jack loves the camera and just can’t resist puffing himself up.

The politicians have damaged their standing in society – they have shown themselves to be more interested in power than getting the job done.  Originally the opposition didn’t want to cooperate with the Conservatives lest they be successful in handling this crisis.  Canadian have engaged themselves in this situation and hopefully they will hold the politicians to account for doing what we citizens want them to do.

Hot Air

So we had the “important” speeches from the Prime Minister and the Liberal Leader (sort of).

Mr. Prime Minister you missed an opportunity to engage the members of the coalition and the people.  You were not conciliatory and unapologetic for your badly thought out decision about political financing.  Have you given up?  Is it time for you to turn the reigns of the Conservative Party to someone who can work with other parties without under cutting them?  I was disappointed by your performance, I expected more.  You seem to need a time out to shake your head.

Mr. Dion, what it wrong with you?  Tonight’s video was an incompetent exercise.  You missed the deadlines for the networks to show you address.  When it did air, it was out of focus and amateurish in quality.  Your speech was uninspired and hard to follow.  The biggest error was to have a book behind you entitled “Hot Air”.  That describes your performance.  You want the control of government and you can’t even put out a professional message. 

You have not demonstrated any qualities that make you a suitable Prime Minister.  Your behaviour in Question Period bordered on hysteria.  You are fighting so hard to be Prime Minister that you have lost sight of what this country is about.  Your coalition members are making it sound like the Government is responsible for all of the job losses and you are not telling the truth when you say that nothing has been done to provide relief.  It may not be adequate but your job is to get it improved not take over the government.

The Bloc has a veto on any legislation that your coalition will propose so they are an integral part of that government.  They also seem to have managed to get promises for more than $1billion additional funds for Quebec for their support.  What about Canada?  You use language in the agreement – An agreement between Canada and Quebec.  You have given Quebec Sovereign Association by your actions.  You sir, are full of HOT AIR.