Saturday, January 01, 2005
New Year, New Blog
Webmasters: please either change your existing links to this site to the new blog, or just add a new one (the old content will probably remain here until the Earth spirals into the Sun). And if you don't have a link, now's a good time to start. ;)
Looking forward to seeing you there.Friday, December 31, 2004
Don't Mix TV and Politics
Take television. I love television. I don't buy the so-con "corrupting our children" stuff too much (it might do that, but decent parenting should make this a non-issue lesser issue than it's made to be), and I buy even less the liberal "consumerist anti-people culture" bull. I watch TV and I watch it religiously.
But when you deal with either southern California or NYC, you're going to deal with liberals. Crazy liberals, the ones that believe the world revolve around them. Take my favourite shows, The O.C. and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Three of four of the young stars of The O.C. were visible Kerry supporters: Benjamin McKenzie, Adam Brody, and Rachel Bilson. I'm don't know about the (relatively) old actors like Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan and Tate Donovan, but the lack of information speaks higher for them than the more visible political affiliations of the aforementioned younger actors. And thankfully, it appears that Mischa Barton is much too glamourous to get politically active.
But The O.C. is nothing compared to L&O: CI, which is essentially the one-man show of Vincent D'Onofrio. This would be fine, if he wasn't (supposedly) losing it since Kerry lost the election. This sort of behaviour, of course, is the sort that really makes me shake my head. Look, I love CI, but there's no way that you can produce a show with an actual lunatic as the lead.
I suppose it could be worse: I could live in France, where most of the news media is shipping in bull by the truckload and tempting our minds with beautiful newscasters.
At least she works for LCI, which, while French, doesn't appear as ridiculous as, say, Le Monde. Think of it as MSNBC en français.
So yah, park the politics at the front door before sitting in front of the boob tube. If you want to be informed, go online.Thursday, December 30, 2004
No Cure for Stupidity
Thankfully, if there's one thing Canada is good at, it's going bananas over Americans acting in their self-interest (even if the plan doesn't actually work). The most obvious result of Americans flocking to buy sold-in-Canada, made-in-America drugs is that Canada will run out of drugs. So Ujjal Dosahjh, the Health Minister, has flatly told the US to stay out of our medicine cabinet.
Yet I wonder if the long-term ramifications of this news is actually beneficial to anyone. Drug companies may be swimming in profits, but it's profits built upon an increasingly unsustainable and socially unbeneficial foundation: imitation drugs for non-deadly conditions. You know, the drugs that are featured in all that spam you get in your mailbox these days. Instead of developing new treatments for Parkinson's and ALS, drug companies are stifled by the FDA and patent process into developing ED drugs and marginally better cold tablets.
Most drug markets in the world are heavily government regulated in pricing or profit margins. And I'm not talking about Third World countries: this is Canada and the EU and other well-off places that have similar costs of living to the US and can actually afford more expensive drugs. The result, unsurprisingly, is that the largest burden of drug costs are on Americans. A US scheme to reimport Canadian drugs, and the corresponding failure to accomplish its objectives, might cause enough of a shock to do two things:
- Other developed countries would consider loosening their drug price regulations, to avoid the more dire prospect of a full out price or quantity shock from US purchases.
- The failure of the reimportation scheme would finally force the FDA to review and revise its clinical trial process
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Merry Christmas
Friday, December 17, 2004
Here's Johnny
Actually, I won't write about the crappiness of the finale, 'cuz someone else (from MSNBC, no less) already did. The opinions expressed in the article are pretty much the same as my own, although I preferred Kelly more, ever since Jen's credit-stealing stunt in the Levi's catalogue task.
Well, I will miss Raj. He's the only contestant I liked in this season. And you got to love that web site of his.
Speaking of web sites, I've registered a domain name and I'll be getting a hosting plan tomorrow. The new blog will merge my political and personal blogs into one, although it'll most likely be more political than anything else. Plus I'll have some personal photo galleries and other things. But everything's going to be hush-hush until I'm done.Sunday, December 12, 2004
In The ROC
Events, past and present, under this flag:
December 11, 2004: Pan-Blue parties hold their majority in the election for the 6th Legislative Yuan.
December 13: 1937: Japanese troops enter Nanjing, initiating a three month orgy of murder, rape and pillage.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Moratorium
Apologies for the much-belated notice, but I'm not going to be blogging for a while, not until Dec. 16 at the earliest. I have six final exams, of which I have finished one as of this time. Five days of exams from yesterday to the upcoming Saturday, plus next Thursday. Yah I don't think there's much time for anything else.
I'm contemplating getting my own server and domain name. Recommendations for hosts are welcome (e-mail me; I'm still checking).
On a different note, today is the anniversary of a Day of Infamy, which brought America into the world's struggle against tyranny. Her contribution was essential to victory, and I thank those who sacrificed so much for the sake of future generations.