Wolves on the Wing

To the short sighted and callous members of my province who called 911 and flooded social media to complain about the Amber Alert that roused them from their sleep last night, I have one thing to ask and one thing to say:

First I must ask what the hell is wrong with you? It's an AMBER ALERT, you swine droppings. While I grant you that it was ultimately ineffective due to him already having murdered the child in question the police were 1000 to the power of infinity% correct to have issued it in the hopes that someone who was awake might see them in time for them to intervene.

Secondly, grow the fuck up you emotionally stunted cretins. Not everything in society is about you. Sure, it sucked to have my REM sleep interrupted, especially when I've been getting so little of it, but you didn't see me calling 911 to complain. That's because I have the maturity to understand that my beauty sleep doesn't matter more than a shot at saving an abducted child's life, even when later information seems to indicate that she might have been dead long before it could have been issued.

Seriously, what's next? Complaining when the local emergency room doctor makes you wait for your sore throat so they can deal with the heart attack someone just had? Getting road rage when a fire truck rolls through a red light so it can go put out a fire at a nursing home? Cussing out an airline gate attendent because your connecting flight is delayed on account of it crashing and killing all onboard?

I know I'm ranting now but when shit like this happens I just can't defend it or the people who are this short sighted. I makes me want to stick my head in my oven in despair...and my oven's electric. That's how disgusted I am by these people.

Those who read this blog know that I've pretty much given up completely on the Conservative Party of Canada providing me with anything other than face palms, cheap laughs and a constant sensation of visceral horror. However that's only on a good day which sadly today is not.

No, today is unfortunately a day where two Conservative politicians, Jim Hillyer (MP for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner) and Rob Ford, (former Mayor of Toronto) have passed away.

In Ford's case especially it would be way too easy to make a snide remark, a lame joke, or even a hateful comment so since I've never felt that to be an appropriate response to someone's death* I'll let someone else on the Internet handle that. Rather I'm just going to say how sad it is for any 40-something man to pass away at such a relatively young age. Regardless of whatever a person's political stripes its a tragedy to leave family behind and dreams unfinished.

Condolences to their families.





*Not strictly true but generally I save the "He died? Awesome! I hope it was long and painful" for people who go above and beyond to earn such a response. Neither of these gentlemen ever came anywhere close to that threshold.

Of course I'm behind the times on this due to real life committments but I was rather saddened to hear that Jack Bruce had passed away. He always was one of my favourite bassists and singers, and as part of one of rock's first "supergroups" and "hard rock trios" his impact on rock history is definitely up there. I know Eric Clapton got the main headlines both during and after Cream's two and half year run in the mid Sixties but he and Ginger Baker definitely gave Slowhand a nice foundation to work with.

I can't claim to have ever played this as well as they could but I will say that rocking out on this probably kept me from breaking my hand during some very frustrating late elementary school years. So for your enjoyment here's "Sunshine of Your Love" from their Farewell Concert in 1968. Farewell Mr. Bruce, you will be missed. :-)

Five university students killed at a house party in Calgary. Four people stabbed in a Regina mall.

What the hell?  This is just nauseating. My condolences to the victims and their families.

I really hope this isn't just part of a chain of copycats. :(

In the last month or so we've lost The Count, Neil Armstrong, and  Jon Lord of Deep Purple. Those are heros from just about every stage of my childhood and early adolesence.

Damn, I feel old, but at least all three of those lived to see a man walk on the moon. With the way space exploration seems to be going these days I know I won't. :-(

Sadly, sometimes, no matter how hard you try, no matter how hard you want to, you just can't save everyone.  And as hard as it is for me to say this, if continuing rescue efforts is going to overly risk the lives of rescuers, then I have to respect the decision of trained professional rescuers not to continue their efforts.

Unfortunately decisions like this have to made, and sometimes the decision isn't the one anyone could possibly want. Still, let's leave the courts out of it. If the experts say they can't safely rescue trapped people without them, then they can't. Getting a court order demanding they risk being squashed themselves is just wrong way to go in these sad situations.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/story/2012/06/25/elliot-lake-mall-rescue-work.html

Jim Marshall, the man behind Marshall Amps, has passed away.

Would I be over-reacting if I plugged my microphone into my Marshal MG15, dialed the master volume knob all the way up, and gave a William Shatner-esque scream at one in the morning? 

Marshall posted a very nice obit about him here: http://marshallamps.com/

Father of Loud, indeed. He will be missed. The world of music just became quieter place and we are all the poorer for it.



Edited to add: I just posted this comment on the condolence board:

"I know I won't be the only one to say this but the sound of a humbucker through a Marshall amp is why I started playing in the first place. Lots of people deserve a moment of silence after their departure. Mr. Marshall just happens to also deserve having that moment sandwiched between the loudest chords possible.

To paraphrase the Thunder from Down Under, "From those you allowed to rock, Guv'nor, we salute you."

Jim Marshall, the man behind Marshall Amps, has passed away.

Would I be over-reacting if I plugged my microphone into my Marshal MG15, dialed the master volume knob all the way up, and gave a William Shatner-esque scream at one in the morning? 

Marshall posted a very nice obit about him here: http://marshallamps.com/

Father of Loud, indeed. He will be missed. The world of music just became quieter place and we are all the poorer for it.



Edited to add: I just posted this comment on the condolence board:

"I know I won't be the only one to say this but the sound of a humbucker through a Marshall amp is why I started playing in the first place. Lots of people deserve a moment of silence after their departure. Mr. Marshall just happens to also deserve having that moment sandwiched between the loudest chords possible.

To paraphrase the Thunder from Down Under, "From those you allowed to rock, Guv'nor, we salute you."