Author: Alan

Chat for Friday

It’s here again. Why does this work? Why do you demand bullet points on Friday but separate posts the rest of the week?

  • Update: New Canadian hero!
  • Update #2: BTW, if anyone suggests that the economy was not strong at the end of 2005, before the Tories, think again. High dollar and exports growing faster than import growth.
  • I hate opening ceremonies to the Olympics. It is like a great joke on us all:

    As in past opening ceremonies, viewers might have a tough time deciphering many of the elements, some of which are meant to convey a deeper meaning. Rollerbladers clad in red bodystockings with giant flames shooting out the back of their heads will symbolize the passion, speed and energy of both Italians and Olympic athletes. Dancing trees and artificial cows pulled on rollers will pay tribute to the Alps and their farming culture. Performers suspended by wires will create a mid-air version of Boticelli’s Venus.

    What is an artificial cow? I remember the worst was at the end of the Montreal Olympics teens with big flags ran around in formation to the tune “Thanks to the Volunteers”. Or that could have been the Commonwealth games in ’78. I watched so much of the TV then that when I went to sleep I could still hear Ernie Afaganis’s voice.

  • I would love to take a day off ribbing Tories so just let me say I have a new favorite Tory – Garth Turner, he of the mid-90’s mid-Saturday afternoon financial self-help TV show. Why? Because yesterday he said he campaigned on the position that party switchers should have to run in a by-election and he repeated it again unlike someone in the cabinet who actually said that was then and this is now. Then was three weeks ago.
  • Wayney, Wayney, Wayney. Dear oh dear oh dear. Steve Somers on WFAN 660 AM was taking non-stop calls on Waynegate last night. Apparently if you possibly know that your assistant coach is running a betting racket that is not enough to tarnish the golden boy. And – as a co-owner of the team – if your GM is allegedly involved, too, that is not any of your problem. Maybe it’s not but when you say you knew nothing about it and then you are supposedly heard speaking of it before you knew nothing one does not know what to think. Rumours spin around. Do you care?

#12 – No Thought of Re-ratting

“Complex files”; it sounded so important at the time. My country could use me even if my party could not. And now… my files are gone but my duty remains. My old lot will be at the helm for a year. Two at the outside. But how to raise the subject with my new colleagues? None of them have made moves toward the leadership but I expect that will change.

Aut Caesar aut nihil.

I must be strong now.

Moneyball?

The New York Times has a good article this morning re-evaluating the concept of Moneyball:

“Moneyball” extolled the talents of Beane, portraying him as superior to other teams’ general managers. Lewis celebrated Beane for his ability to produce winning teams with small payrolls, but Terry Ryan has done the same thing with the Twins, a fact Lewis didn’t acknowledge. As little as Beane might have thought of Howe, the Athletics reached the playoffs three straight seasons under him and have not been there the last two years with Ken Macha as their manager after making it in his first year.

It has been three years since the publication of “Moneyball,” and it is worth assessing other matters the book discusses. Several times, Lewis wrote about the Athletics’ infatuation with Kevin Youkilis, a young player who had a high on-base percentage, the gold standard of Beane’s player evaluation. In limited playing time with Boston the past two seasons, Youkilis has compiled a .376 on-base percentage but has yet to show the Red Sox he is ready to help them on a daily basis. They are planning to try Youkilis, a converted third baseman, as a platooned first baseman this year.

So many consultants’ schemes and management theories turn out like the evil counsel to the king in bad movies set in the Middle Ages. They focus on the ends but not the means or the means but not the ends. Usually a lot of villages get flayed in the process. Moneyball seems to me like that, focusing on the average to get above average. It is like the trap in hockey – an intervention in the game from outside the game to win the game that loses the game. Focusing on Youkilis is like that. A cornerstone of not a lot.

#11 – Not So Easy, Is It?

First full day out of power. No longer a minister of the Crown.

Feels strange… But there’s a certain feeling of freedom in it. It’s not my job any longer. The country can get by without me and my colleagues. The sun, unlike what our old chief said on the campaign trail, will still rise in the east and set in the west. It’s for us to hold the (temporary) victors to account, to act as the loyal and principled opposition.

I think they’ll find it’s harder sledding than they imagined. I see that the halo of our country’s saviour did not last a full day – not even two hours! After the battering they gave us, I can’t help but feel a little vindicated. It isn’t nearly as easy as it looks from the Speaker’s left-hand side, is it?

What to do, what to do… Well, there’s that bottle of vodka from my last trip to St. Petersburg. Or the flask of absinthe from that NATO summit in Prague.

There was no need to leave it for my successor…

Google Chat

Not being an instant messaging sort of guy, I wonder why Google would get into it now that it is so long established. Their last move into the specialties of others, Google Analytics, fell decidedly flat and is the most useless thing I have ever signed up for.

This is an interesting statement:

“We are breaking down some of the artificial barriers between e-mail and web browsing,” said Salar Kamangar, a Google vice-president. “We observed by talking with our users that there is no reason to think of IM [instant messaging] as different from an e-mail message.”

It is a good point that email and IM are the same thing with a slightly different appearance to the user giving a false sense of cool. But that is no different than any fashion or bauble. But why invest in those?

#10 – So Many Tories

[Sunporch. Morning. The first newspaper in the pile is unfurled majesteriously, the rest sitting on the ottoman under a pair slippered feet.]

Him: Well, look at that, would ya! [To the next room] Hey, honey! There are Reform Tories, Harris Tories, Mulroney Tories and even a couple dear old Joe Clark Red Tories in there! [Quieter] All squished in just 27 seats. How will they manage that? But nothing for Diane Ablonczy, the younger less…err…hearty…Deb Gray. Great gals and tough ones too. Too bad they never made it to the promised land. Room for a turncoat but not for Diane.

[Reaches for tea, then toast, then tea again, slurping.]

Him: Too bad about Diane. And, hey, they still have a Heritage Ministry. That was a great Ministry. [Louder again] Hey Honey! Remember when I had Heritage? [To self] That was great. One reception after another…

[She enters in dressing gown. Grabs a paper out from under his feet, shoving them aside. He makes a face and she makes one back smiling.]

Him: Watch your step! Remember when I had Heritage? I figured they’d have that one for the chop for sure. Too bad about Emerson, eh? Nice enough guy but a bit full of himself…Mr. Big Phd…Mr. businessman. Worked his way up through the public sector to mark his private sector mark. International Trade. No harm there. Not like you do much there. When did they split that from Foreign Affairs anyway? They same folk sitting in the same embassies putting up with two different Ministers. The boss would never have put up with that. Fat chance he’ll get voted in again.

[She gets up and walks out giving his shoulder a swat with her paper on the way by.]

Him: What! What did I do? [Quieter] Too bad about Ablonczy – what a sparkplug…

NuEthics for NuCons

The days events are best summed up by Bob at Let It Bleed:

IF …in May 2005 you were OPPOSED to Belinda Stronach crossing the floor to the Liberals

THEN …in February 2006 you should be OPPOSED to David Emerson crossing the floor to the Conservatives…

There is of course more so go read the whole post. How delicious to watch out new rural overlords ineptly and unnecessarily fall on their faces on day one and watching their bloggy pals split off the thinnest shavings of a hair you will ever see to distinguish the bad old Grits (quite evil actually) from the new ethical Tories. Thankfully, there are many blue bloggers and fellow libertarian travellers who are as disgusted as I am. Actually I am more amused than disgusted as I have every expectation the Tories will operate exactly like the Grits except for the sanctimonious grin on their mugs.

Now…to be fair…Don points out that PM Harper never said that this flipping of parties was wrong. He just never quite said it was #1 on his plan for governance.

Update: Steve the Angry Man twigs to what this new math means:

…There is also the independent. That means that a tie does not actually exist. Either the CPC+NDP or the Liberal+Bloc would have to entice Andre Arthur to their side…

So the Quebec City shock jock André Arthur now holds the balance of power in the Parliament of my country. Excellent. Thanks Prime Minister Steve.

#9 – Rewards For Treachery

So, it was Emerson, was it?

I didn’t see that coming. I thought it’d be Brison, myself. Or Holland. Or, now that I think about it, just about anyone else . . . except Stronach, of course. Even Harper couldn’t take Stronach back.

You can’t even blame him for that: who’d trust her on that side of the house? [Sotto voce] Or this one, either?

Other than David’s little plum, who else did he have to call upon? They’ve been out of government for long enough that they really are having to entrust rookies with big responsibilities. That Solberg kid, for example, is just bound to trip up. He may play well in the sticks, on that internet blog circuit, but he’ll soon find that running a ministry is much more difficult than just coining a few quips for his basement-dwelling blog readers.

Oh, and Jim “I’m a yes-man for Harris” Flaherty to Finance? We don’t even need to write the press releases for the Toronto Star . . . they’ll write ’em without prompting (or payment). Harper really handed us a good media hook there. Clement in Health is nearly as good — we can count the Toronto media as on our side again with those two in Cabinet.

And does Harper really think he can run a government with so few ministers? Please. The civil servants will keep them so busy that they’ll always look flustered and badly briefed in front of the cameras. It’s such a nice set-up for us, and they think they’re doing something clever.