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Connecting The Dots, Edition #11

Posted by squizz on 26 July 2010, 1:55 pm

In this hectic world, often we don’t have sufficient time to connect the dots between seemingly disconnected stories that flicked their way through our collective consciousness. To help bridge this gap, say hello to Connecting The Dots, where I’ll endeavour to bring together and seemingly disparate stories into a contextualized, cohesive whole. Or I’ll just slap together tangentially related stories and wrap up with some grandiose closing sentence. Either way, let’s go!

This is an age of information, right? Right? We have seen the future of “investigative journalism” — and it is WikiLeaks. Now media outlets needn’t fear the societal repercussions of their merciless cuts to investigative reporting. Rather than paying for “reporters” to “cultivate sources” and “investigate” “stories”, they can simply wait for anonymous whistleblowers to send shit to WikiLeaks, which the online muck-racking storehouse will then turn over to the big media outlets, for their unpaid interns to pore over. Continue reading ‘Connecting The Dots, Edition #11’ »

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It’s been a shitty week for…

Posted by squizz on 21 July 2010, 1:20 pm

A lot of people, really. And the week isn’t even half finished. But here are some folks who’ve had it especially rough so far.

Shirley Sherrod. The former employee of the US Department of Agriculture was forced to resign after a misleading video of her was posted on a rather ironically-named website, and later picked up by an ironically-named TV station. In line with our generation’s minuscule attention spans, a 40-minute speech she delivered to the NAACP — which stressed the importance of racial tolerance — was cynically edited into a three-minute clip which, when removed from its context, could be construed as racially intolerant. Not only did her employers throw her under the bus, so did the NAACP. Continue reading ‘It’s been a shitty week for…’ »

Filed under Toronto, hockey, sports. Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
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Definition Reminder, Volume 1: “Sexist”

Posted by squizz on 16 July 2010, 4:09 pm

Words have extraordinary power. Sometimes, though, words and their meanings get twisted or confused… through malicious manipulation, or just innocuous ignorance. So let’s remind ourselves, every now and again, of what some very loaded words actually mean.

The word of the day today: “sexist”. A brief reminder of what is, and is not, actually “sexist”.

Not sexist: Pamela Anderson, of her own free will, deciding to have her body decorated like a butcher’s diagram for an advertisement meant to sway people towards vegetarianism. Continue reading ‘Definition Reminder, Volume 1: “Sexist”’ »

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Connecting The Dots, Edition #10

Posted by squizz on 14 July 2010, 3:42 pm

In this hectic world, often we don’t have sufficient time to connect the dots between seemingly disconnected stories that flicked their way through our collective consciousness. To help bridge this gap, say hello to Connecting The Dots, where I’ll endeavour to bring together and seemingly disparate stories into a contextualized, cohesive whole. Or I’ll just slap together tangentially related stories and wrap up with some grandiose closing sentence. Either way, let’s go!

Blame it on the oil. Everyone else does. An American environmental group is urging tourists to avoid Alberta since, y’know, the oilsands are super-icky. Their video, featuring sludge-trapped ducks and scary bar graphs, actually seems like it’d be effective in dissuading folks from visiting the wildrose province. But if those images don’t work, may I suggest an alternative deterrent message? “Come to Alberta… if you want your RV charred, your car stolen and your bodies to go missing.” And if neither of those work, just show them this:

That oughta set ‘em straight. Continue reading ‘Connecting The Dots, Edition #10’ »

Filed under bizarre news, connecting the dots. Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Steinbrenner, as he’d want to be remembered

Posted by squizz on 13 July 2010, 2:16 pm

Well, I have no idea how a man I’ve never met — and who I pretty much considered the Emperor Palpatine of baseball — would want to be remembered. But with the death of former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, I figured it was as good a time as any to share a rare Seinfeld moment when “the Boss” was played not by Larry David, but by himself:

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Missing the point on Mel Gibson

Posted by squizz on 12 July 2010, 11:53 am

If the news of the past few days is accurate, then suffice to say, Mel Gibson is a dangerous lunatic. The latest news, which emerged today, suggested that he’s been caught on tape threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend. This follows the weekend’s release of an audio tape that has been referred to — in most of the dozens of places I’ve checked — as a “racist rant“.

Now, after Gibson’s first highly-publicized racist outburst a few years ago — combined with the supposed anti-Semitic undertones of The Passion of the Christ (which I haven’t seen) — I expected all sorts of horrible, aimless epithets. Maybe a diatribe about how such-and-such a group was running Hollywood, or destroying America, or who knows what. I had no idea at whom this newest outburst was directed, or what the context was — but when I hear “racist rant”, this is what comes to mind.

Upon listening, there was absolutely no doubt that there is a strain of repugnant, undeniable bigotry at play. This was no mere misguided attempt to undermine the power of the N-word, a la Michael Richards. This was pure vitriol.

But here’s the context: Gibson, in a taped (unbeknownst to him) phone call, berated his ex-girlfriend for dressing provocatively, calling her a “fucking embarrassment.” He then suggested that should her mode of dress cause her to be raped by a “pack” (his word) of black men, it would be her fault.

The racist element of that declaration is galling — but “if you get raped, it’s your own fault”? Sorry, majority of media outlets covering this story, but you’ve missed the point. This was no “racist rant”; Gibson used his racism merely as a vehicle for intrinsic, deplorable misogyny. Continue reading ‘Missing the point on Mel Gibson’ »

Filed under bothersome moralizing, idiot celebrities. Tagged 
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The King is dead. Long live the King.

Posted by squizz on 9 July 2010, 4:13 pm

Now I know why LeBron James always chalks up his hands before the start of a game.

It was long-term preparation for the most egregious, preposterous, self-indulgent wankfest the sporting world has ever seen.

The way his unprecedented hour-long live “special” last night on ESPN — dubbed The Decision — was promoted, you’d think LBJ was the first high-profile athlete to ever face free agency and make a decision about his future.

He, of course, isn’t — he’s just the first to approach it in such a transparently self-serving manner.

In his pathetic desperation to elevate his legacy, James took self-aggrandizement to an unbelievable new level, in a league already rife with disgusting displays of ego and selfishness.

And, to top it all off, he made sure to leave his hometown fans in agonizing doubt about his future, before summarily and smirkingly massacring the sporting hopes of the entire city — a city, let’s not forget, that’s already endured more than its fair share of depression, both in pro sports and in its general socio-economic well-being.

The old King is dead. Say hello to the new King — the evil King. Continue reading ‘The King is dead. Long live the King.’ »

Filed under basketball, bothersome moralizing, sports. Tagged , , ,
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There is nothing I can say about the G20.

Posted by squizz on 25 June 2010, 5:44 pm

It’s rare that I’m at a loss for words. I can ramble at length about nothing in particular for alarming lengths of time. Relevance and coherence usually aren’t prerequisites for my expulsions of thought.

And yet this entire overblown, wasteful clusterfuck is beyond description. I am honestly concerned that — given the seemingly endless supply of money being thrown at the effort to crack down on anyone who seems threatening to the G20 — if I wrote what I’m honestly feeling right now, some goons from CSIS would break down my door, throw a sack over my head and toss me into the back of an unmarked van.

Our social services and civic infrastructure are crumbling, yet our governments find over a billion fucking dollars between the couch cushions to throw at G20 security. They spend a week shutting down the downtown core of the country’s largest city to erect a fence to ensure the world leaders needn’t be within hundreds of yards of the people they ostensibly govern. Our provincial government silently passes legislation to temporarily suspend basic civil liberties so that not only can you not get behind the fence, you can’t even get near it.

Where the fuck is this? Who the fuck are these people? Continue reading ‘There is nothing I can say about the G20.’ »

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On regret, redemption and handlebar moustaches

Posted by squizz on 4 June 2010, 2:31 pm

Not pictured: Canada's former prime minister

Saying “sorry” is a hard thing to do.

Scratch that — saying the word “sorry”, in a disingenuous attempt to move beyond an uncomfortable situation, is troublingly easy.

But apologizing — expressing genuine remorse for something you’ve done and the way it’s affected other people — that is hard. It’s hard because the first step is taking full responsibility for your imperfect actions; and, in so doing, confessing to your own fallibility and vulnerability.

This week, we were provided with two examples of situations where a sincere apology could (and should) have been tendered: in the case of an elected political leader who was conclusively proven to have conducted shady business transactions while in office, and in the case of a sports official who was conclusively proven to have made a split-second error in judgment.

And of course you know which one of them actually stepped up. Continue reading ‘On regret, redemption and handlebar moustaches’ »

Filed under Canadian politics, baseball, bothersome moralizing, sports. Tagged , , , ,
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Today at The Daily Squizz: Nothing! What a surprise!

Posted by squizz on 3 June 2010, 12:19 am

Yes, it’s been a while (by the standards of a site that calls itself “daily”, anyway) since I’ve posted anything, and for that I apologize. This post won’t provide anything of real substance either, beyond a reminder to you, my loyal readers, that this site has unfortunately fallen a few rungs down the priority ladder in my life at the moment.

If all goes according to plan, though, I should be blogging and tweeting like a hurricane come the beginning of July. Till then, any updates that do arrive will probably be sporadic at best.

Thanks for your patience and understanding. This is a recording.

Filed under self-referential crap.
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