Reader Tips

Reader Tips 52 Comments

Welcome to the Wednesday (EBD) Late Nite Radio. In 2005, while strolling on a winter evening in their native Finland, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta Kalleinen had a flash of inspiration:

In the Finnish vocabulary there is an expression “Valituskuoro”. It means “Complaints Choir” and it is used to describe situations where a lot of people are complaining simultaneously. Kalleinen and Kochta-Kalleinen thought: “Wouldn’t it be fantastic to take this expression literally and organise a real Complaints Choir!”

As complaining is a universal phenomenon the project could be organised in any city around the world…

After the first Complaints Choir formed in Birmingham England (“the participants…understood the concept instinctively”) dozens of Complaints Choirs sprang up all around the world, from Budapest to Hong Kong to Buenos Aires to Jerusalem. The best ones understand that quotidian kvetching about small things is the whole point; others, such as the Hamburg Complaints Choir, start off promisingly – “My lawn doesn’t grow – the days are too short!” – but then launch into a litany of civic/political complaints that are about as amusing as a 60’s protest song or a letter to the editor.
The Tokyo Complaints Choir – “The cat that lives near my house ignores me” – hits the mark, as does tonight’s featured choir from Sweden, whose complaints – “nobody wants to buy my sofa on Ebay,” “I’m so tired of headwind,” and “cupcakes are too big” – are the embodiment of pointless kvetching. Here they are then, for your amusement: the Complaints Choir of Sundbyberg. Enjoy.
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in any format in the comments.

52 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Here’s something that might be of interest to music fans: a collection of the behind-the-scenes session musicians who played on many of the acid-rock era’s biggest hits finally get their moment in the sun.

  5. PETA wants Robot Groundhog
    http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2010/01/27/12630821-ap.html
    As an aside:
    WOODCHUCK (GROUNDHOG) STEW
    1 woodchuck
    2 onions, sliced
    1/2 cup celery, sliced
    Flour
    Vinegar and water
    Salt and pepper
    Cloves
    Clean woodchuck; remove glands; cut into serving pieces. Soak overnight in a solution of equal parts of water and vinegar
    with addition of one sliced onion and a little salt. Drain, wash, and wipe. Parboil 20 minutes, drain, and cover with fresh
    boiling water. Add one sliced onion, celery, a few cloves, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until tender; thicken gravy with
    flour.

  7. Why can’t everybody just speak English? You know, like … me. Why did they take away that guy’s medal, it’s not like he killed anyone like, you know, Morgentaler?

  8. If I may, to our Finnish brethren:
    ‘Valitskouro’ sul fluuten ne pitcula et sielka cor osaa voit tahdos. Ei ne oiken trupukaan!
    Vitua freli filppula va drolin. Voorten glos.
    Pardi.

  9. “Spanish newspaper ABC quotes (Hugo) Chavez as saying the US navy launched a weapon capable of inducing a powerful earthquake off the shore of Haiti. He adds that this time it was only a drill, and the final target is destroying and taking over Iran…”

  10. who caught Rex Murphy’s commentary tonite about the proroguing?
    ” the only one that consistently outsmarts steven harper is steven harper”
    LOL !!!!!

  11. EBD – I truly feel sorry for the Venezuelan people; how will they ever live this down? Chavez is doing his utmost to outdo the pomposity and stupidity of the leader of North Korea, and may well succeed.

  13. let’s hear it for the blackwater boys messing things up and causing untold difficulties for the regular armed forces personnel doing a very very difficult job:
    Jan 25, 7:07 PM EST
    Charged contractors had checkered military pasts
    By MIKE BAKER
    Associated Press Writer
    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A pair of former Blackwater contractors charged with murdering two people in Afghanistan had checkered pasts with the military before getting hired to work overseas, according to service records disclosed in recent U.S. court hearings.
    The troubled backgrounds of the two men – including instances of violence, drug use and disregard for authority – are a first sign that Xe, the company formerly known as Blackwater, was staffing its war-zone work force with contractors who might not be suited for the job.

  16. Halfwise,
    I want to register a complaint too..
    The CBC poll re the burqa [covered face], is running 77% against. You should read some of the squealing comments.
    MY complaint:
    Security comes first. Cultural traits are allowed when there is no public risk. Burqa or face / identity covering is a MAJOR security risk.
    Sorry, but public safety comes first. The hidden face makes it impossible for our police to do their job properly.
    The covered face makes it impossible for public servants to be 100% certain who they are handing out government cheques to.
    The covered face makes it impossible for elections officers to be certain someone is not voting several times over.
    The covered face makes it impossible for airport security cameras to provide the security they were installed for.
    The covered face makes it impossible for convenience store owners to know if they are dealing with a male felon or not.
    All the above are matters of public safety. I’m pressed for time, but no doubt you can think of more public safety risks, such as how does the public transit operator read the face of someone hidden in burqa?

  19. Will try to get this past the filter.
    I want you all to try this: curl the fingers of your left hand around so that you could touch your thumb with each. Make sure each finger tip is at least an inch from the other when you do it. Now look at the Guitarist on the right and watch his left hand fingers around the fret board. **http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdnBYZiBUxU&feature=related**
    Yeah! Guitar is easy; just try it.

  21. re the complaints choir: “The cat that lives near my house ignores me” … “nobody wants to buy my sofa on Ebay” … “I’m so tired of headwind” … “cupcakes are too big”
    Don’t forget to add “Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament”.
    It reminds me of a Playboy spoof of the late chess champ Bobby Fischer that had him saying things like, “The sun came up too early this morning”.
    re video suggestion from Sgt Lejaune @ 10:48 p.m.:
    That was hilarious! However, I would like to point out that If I Fell has more than three chords in its intro alone …

  22. Star, Tuesday, Jan. 26.
    “Big box child care is setting up shop in Canada and critics worry it will undermine quality, scuttle chances for a national daycare program and thwart provincial plans for all-day kindergarten.”
    Australia-based Edleun Inc. is looking to acquire and develop “high quality” child care and/or early education centres across Canada, according to documents filed with the Toronto Stock Exchange.
    “A large international body of research has found that for-profit daycare provides lower quality care for young children than non-profit or public programs. Non-profit and public daycare are also more accessible and affordable and more accountable to taxpayers, research shows.”
    Well, I have to call B. S. on the “accountable to taxpayers”. One vote lost among millions every five years is not the same as the accountability you have when you can put your dollars to work every hour of every day. If you don’t like what you’ve purchased, you can go to another supplier next time.
    The leftists are always trying to claim that non-profit enterprises are cheaper, but profits arise from producing goods and services more efficiently, and government (and private) monopolies are noted for inefficiency, so I think we have to call B. S. on that one too. As we’ve seen in health care, government-provided services tend to be along the lines of “take what you get and be glad to get it” – not unlike what a parent says to a finicky child at supper time. The nanny state in action.
    “The stock exchange isn’t about public service, it’s about profit, pure and simple”, says child care researcher Martha Not-so-Friendly.
    It’s about trade first and foremost, not profit. Profits stem from efficiency of production for trade. That does seem a somewhat more alien concept to child care than it would be on an assembly line, of course. But trade of value for value is what the economy is all about. Not freebie government services that cost more in taxes than they’re worth.
    Note also that daycare advocates invariably say they would provide “high quality” child care centres. But what does government ever provide that is high quality?
    Ideally, small children should be with one parent or another, not in a daycare. It’s probably better to have one parent working and one staying at home, although the issue of female ambition and desire to be productive is an important consideration too. As economic productivity increases, the length of the work-week becomes shorter: 40 hours becomes 35, and so on. If the expansion of Big Wasteful Government under Pierre Trudeau (if not earlier) had not come to pass, we might well have found our technology so advanced by the year 2010 that the work week might easily have dropped to, say, 24 or 27 hours. At that rate, a person could work three days a week rather than five. More to the point here, hubby could work Monday to Wednesday and the wife Thursday to Saturday (for example). Thus both parents can be productive and satisfy their ambitions while the kids are looked after. No need for external day care of any kind. This, of course, would infuriate the leftists whose goal is to seize control of the children and indoctrinate them, as they are already doing in the public school system. However, it’s never too late to reverse course, to unleash productivity and raise the standard of living by making the economy as close to laissez-faire capitalism as is humanly possible.
    – – – – – – – – – –
    Related: the National Post ran an article on Monday noting that some “women’s studies” programs at various universities are being renamed for the purpose of having a broader appeal; the new nomenclature includes items like “gender, sexuality and social justice”. Of course, social justice is an anti-concept and a fraud, so they might as well call them “square circle” studies. And women’s studies itself is no more than a subsection of anthropology, sociology and/or psychology (or other disciplines).
    An editorial in the Post on Tuesday noted that equal protection under the law has been undermined because feminist legal scholars persuaded the Supreme Court to permit preferential treatment for “disadvantaged groups”, of which women were allegedly one (the editorial does not mention s.15(2) of the Charter of Rights, the disgraceful “affirmative action” clause, which is behind this).
    It also notes that some feminists claim that all heterosexual sex is oppressive because penetration amounts to “occupation”. This is ludicrous. But when you remember that modern philosophy is based on mysticism via Kant, Hegel and Marx, and that this nonsense is equally mystical, then things start becoming more clear. Only a Marxist would extrapolate a term like “occupation” in this manner.
    And finally, the editorial notes that the courses have taught that women are “victims” and men victimizers. This ties in with the “political correctness” school of thought that seeks to use minorities to overthrow western civilization – also a descendant of Kantian mysticism via Marx.
    A letter in Wednesday’s Post notes that most daycare workers are women. Is it possible that boys will become overly “feminized” from this?
    Another letter toes the party line, saying that “critical analysis of perceptions, privileges and oppressions inherent in societal constructs of gender” (plus the other usual suspects like race, sexual orientation and age) is “a crucial undertaking for a nation committed to social progress, equality and equity.”
    This too is standard Marxist language.
    The letter writer claims that “opinions of feminists and feminist-oriented activists vary greatly, and cannot be condensed into a single viewpoint”. However most states founded on Marxism are violent and hostile to the viewpoint of anyone but their current leader, so I would call B. S. on this.
    Finally, Wednesday in the Post, Barbara Kay discusses lunatic feminist Mary Daly, who died on Jan. 3. She’s the one who refused to let men attend her classes at Boston College, until she was forced to retire in 2001 after a lawsuit from a male student.
    Kay quotes Daly: “If life is to survive on this planet, there must be a decontamination of the Earth. I think this will be accomplished by an evolutionary process that will result in a drastic reduction of the population of males (by 90%). People are afraid to say that kind of stuff any more.”
    People who are afraid to be identified as fruitcakes won’t say it, that’s for sure.

  25. Al Gore’s Weather (AGW):
    “*”It’s very hard for any of us to grasp how this larger warming trend is happening when we’re still having wintry weather,””
    …-
    1. “Earth needs sunblock and fast, scientist says
    Toronto Star”
    2. “*Report: Harsh winter a sign of climate change (More “Global Warming” insanity)
    MSNBC ^ | 1/28/2010 | Juliet Eilperin and David A. Fahrenthold/WP
    This winter’s extreme weather — with heavy snowfall in some places and unusually low temperatures — is in fact a sign of how climate change disrupts long-standing patterns, according to a new report by the National Wildlife Federation.
    It comes at a time when, despite a wealth of scientific evidence, the American public is increasingly skeptical that climate change is happening at all. That disconnect is particularly important this year as the Obama administration and its allies in Congress seek to enact legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions and revamp the nation’s energy supply.
    “It’s very hard for any of us to grasp how this larger warming trend is happening when we’re still having wintry weather,” said National Wildlife Federation climate scientist Amanda Staudt, the new report’s lead writer.”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2439160/posts

  26. Just read this bit from the Chronicle Herald’s reporter just out of Haiti. It appears that my fellow hairybags on AthaB and Halifax have been picking them and putting them down.
    “I’ve never been prouder of my country than watching these people help the miserable, suffering wretches in Haiti after the earthquake.
    I’ve been thinking about it, and I no longer care very much who wins the men’s hockey gold at the Olympics in Vancouver.
    Compared to what Canadian volunteers and the Canadian military have done here, that is meaningless.
    Next to saving a child’s leg, what is a gold medal worth?”
    http://thechronicleherald.ca/forum/list/113

  27. Just read this bit from the Chronicle Herald’s reporter just out of Haiti. It appears that my fellow hairybags on AthaB and Halifax have been picking them and putting them down.
    “I’ve never been prouder of my country than watching these people help the miserable, suffering wretches in Haiti after the earthquake.
    I’ve been thinking about it, and I no longer care very much who wins the men’s hockey gold at the Olympics in Vancouver.
    Compared to what Canadian volunteers and the Canadian military have done here, that is meaningless.
    Next to saving a child’s leg, what is a gold medal worth?”
    http://thechronicleherald.ca/forum/list/113

  28. the Coalition is Alive & Well As i stated with my reasons yesterday in readers tips
    have a look a Spectors take @ Bourque today
    Did Obama give another Election Speach last nite?
    You bet he did!
    I think Americans are coming to the realization that’s all Obama is good for, We need to Blah, blah, blah….. Do this & that, Typical Liberal/Socialist bamboozle the voter into believing your going to change the channel, Your going to get things done. But just what has Obama done in his 1rst Yr other then Say Iam going to do this & that When in truth he has done Nothing other then give speaches.
    Should be interesting to see Rasmussen Reports today’s Presidential Tracker.

  29. The Times Online reports that the Information Commission has judged that the University of East Anglia broke the law known as the Freedom of Information Act when it refused to comply with requests made under that law for information on global warming.

  30. Here we go again Liberals Speaking for me, when i have never been asked..
    Gerard kennedy states that Canadians want their Taxes Raised to battle the deficit, A deficit i might add that the Liberals/NDP/Bloc forced Prime Minister Stephen Harper to do or face a coup’
    This was on Tom Clarks Power Play with a follow Up conversation in the stratgist section.
    Do You Want Your Taxes Raised???
    Would you support a Federal Party That will Raise Your Taxes?
    What prescription drugs to you take if you said yes!

  31. nv53 “A large international body of research has found that for-profit daycare provides lower quality care for young children than non-profit or public programs. Non-profit and public daycare are also more accessible and affordable and more accountable to taxpayers, research shows.”
    I would be interested in knowing more about this. On what bassis are they judging public daycare to be better? There are many stories that would refute this. An article I read some time ago, comparisons were done in Quebec between public sector and private (In Quebec there are private daycares because the public system (expensive as it is) is not really universal. Anyway, the public system was deemed “better”, but only on superficial things like food services or having fancier facilities. The private systems were totally satisfactory with respect to care. (If they were not, they would not be in business — always the best way to ensure quality. How many public schools go out of business when quality drops?)
    I also disagree on the issue of costs. As long as government subsidies are available to private daycares (as is the case in Alberta) they are equally affordable. I think quality there is also quite comparable, so I would look at studies from there.
    Finally, any time someone puts forward the contention that “public” =’s “quality”, I personally think of the public schools, which (for the most part) are neither well run, nor affordable. Unions are one of the reasons for the lack of affordability. I do not disagree with good salaries, but in most union situations, there is a somewhat exaggerated notion of what constitutes a “good salary”, and in schools, most have moved well beyond this.

  32. Sorry hit post not preview
    What pescription drugs do you take if you said yes?
    Another thing lets just see if the Outrage occurs from the Media over Raise Your Taxes, Of course we all know there will be None! We all know the Media will be the talking puppet’s for the Liberals explaining the Virtues of Raising your Taxes. This has already started with the Reporters Segment on Power Play last nite, The Leading Economist & financial Guru, Travers of the Toronto Star & Fife of CTV..

  34. Jane Macartney, Cats and dogs to be taken off menu in China
    From serving it with turtle to stewing it with snake, China has savoured the delights of dog and cat meat for thousands of years. But now, the country known for its experimental culinary traditions could be about to end a centuries-old custom and remove both animals from the menu.
    In what would be China’s first law against animal abuse, anyone caught eating cat or dog meat would face a fine of as much as 5,000 yuan (£450) and up to 15 days in jail. Organisations involved in the sale of either meat could be fined between 10,000 and 500,000 yuan. A draft law is expected to be sent to parliament, the National People’s Congress, in April, according to state media…

  35. Here’s something “You Wont See Much of” in the MSM in Canada
    Bill Clinton Praise’s Canada Haiti Effort
    G&M jan 28/2010
    * Former U.S President Bill Clinton met with Stephen Harper at Davos economic conference and singles out Canadians as the biggest donors for quake relief…more
    btw: comments are priceless driveby’s are ramped
    **Grey/Bruce/Owen Sound getting socked with snowsquals, check for rd closeures if traveling this way.

  36. Today’s Rasmussen Reports Daily Presidential Tracker
    -17
    *interesting to note this is 2pt’s more from yesterday as he was at -15.

  37. This article “Can Climate Forecast be Trusted?” in Spiegel on Line (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,674087,00.html), reports variety of responses to the fact that the IPCC included in it’s last report that the glaciers in Himalayas will melt very soon.
    There is certain uncertainty in the political speech where a German Minister of Environment calls the report an “error”, another German guy (Shroder) says that it is amazing that the “blunder remained uncorrected for so long”.
    How is it that apparently intelligent people will not call lie a lie. The glacier reference in the IPCC was a deliberate and conscious lie admitted to by a guy fro Malaysia, for the clear purpose of political forcing (as they like to say).
    It seems at times that there are those in power that don’t know, don’t want to know and insist on knowing.

  38. CF Combat Camera, Village-based Approach in Dand
    The village-based approach – which represents an important element of Operation KANTOLO – builds the support and trust of the Afghan population and authorities by establishing the security needed to provide reconstruction, development and employment. The village-based approach is a tactical application of the counter-insurgency doctrine, engaging every segment of the population in rebuilding and developing their community, which in turn makes the insurgency less effective and less relevant to the population.
    This video highlights the progress and development of the village-based approach in Dand District, and more specifically the village of Deh-e Bagh.

  39. O’s Violence: O’s narcissist’s Body Language*.
    “If it was sincere signaling we might be looking at a “Samson pulling down the temple to get all those Philistines” moment in our future.”
    …-
    “By the end of the speech I decided my initial impression was wrong. He seemed to strike a tough guy pose at the end — and I’m talking physically and “pictorially” here. It was the kind of look you might see in a young adolescent male who is trying to “intimidate” to get his way — an unspoken threat of violence. The problem with the pose is that it is meant to make you look really strong but if you back down it makes you look really weak. I’m not sure, but it might be a “rhetorical device” he picked up from the Left Reverend Wright. If it was sincere signaling we might be looking at a “Samson pulling down the temple to get all those Philistines” moment in our future.”
    80. hdgreene.
    http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2010/01/27/the-state-of-the-union-speech/#comments
    …-
    O’narcissist”
    “It is important to understand that the use of violence must be ego-syntonic. It must accord with the self-image of the narcissist. It must abet and sustain his grandiose fantasies and feed his sense of entitlement. It must conform with the narcissistic narrative.
    Thus, a narcissist who regards himself as the benefactor of the poor, a member of the common folk, the representative of the disenfranchised, the champion of the dispossessed against the corrupt elite – is highly unlikely to use violence at first.
    The pacific mask crumbles when the narcissist has become convinced that the very people he purported to speak for, his constituency, his grassroots fans, the prime sources of his narcissistic supply – have turned against him. At first, in a desperate effort to maintain the fiction underlying his chaotic personality, the narcissist strives to explain away the sudden reversal of sentiment. “The people are being duped by (the media, big industry, the military, the elite, etc.)”, “they don’t really know what they are doing”, “following a rude awakening, they will revert to form”, etc.
    When these flimsy attempts to patch a tattered personal mythology fail – the narcissist is injured. Narcissistic injury inevitably leads to narcissistic rage and to a terrifying display of unbridled aggression. The pent-up frustration and hurt translate into devaluation. That which was previously idealized – is now discarded with contempt and hatred.”
    http://www.globalpolitician.com/25109-barack-obama-elections

  42. Choose your inflata dolls carefully
    Guy goes in an adult store and asks for an inflatable doll.
    Guy behind the counter says, ‘Male or female?’
    Customer says, ‘Female.’
    Counter guy asks, ‘Black or white?
    Customer says, ‘White.’
    Counter guy asks, ‘Christian or Muslim?’
    Customer says, ‘What the hell does religion have to do with it?’
    Counter guy says, ‘The Muslim one blows itself up.’

  44. Here’s an excerpt from Conservative senator Michael L. MacDonald’s response in the Chronicle Herald to an earlier column in the same paper by Liberal Senator Wilfred Moore in which Moore hyperventilated that Harper’s decision to prorogue was an “affront to our democratic process”:
    “With only one previous prorogation in almost four years in office (when Prime Minister Stephen Harper rightly stopped the Liberal-NDP-Bloc ‘coalition’ from subverting the will of the electorate), it’s not unreasonable that the PM ask for Parliament to be prorogued — as all previous prime ministers have done — to write a throne speech, shuffle the cabinet and prepare a budget.
    “Pierre Trudeau prorogued 11 times in 16 years; Jean Chretien four times in 10 years, including a four-month delay after Paul Martin became PM, to give Martin time to get his government ready. Newly elected governments take over within a few weeks, yet we’re asked to believe a sitting cabinet minister needed four months to set up shop!
    “Of course, Mr. Chretien’s true agenda was distancing himself from the auditor general’s report on the sponsorship scandal and dropping the mess into Paul Martin’s lap. I don’t recall manufactured outrage at the time by either the press or the opposition — certainly nothing resembling the contrived performance Canadians have been subjected to of late. Senator Moore was in that Liberal caucus and ignores their conduct, yet now expresses concern about an ‘affront to our democratic process.'”
    Says it all, doesn’t it? Makes you realize how appallingly, baldly hypocritical some of our journalists – like the parliamentary reporters at the CBC – are.
    Read the whole thing here. Post excerpted facts on Facebook, and email the column it to every hyperventilating, faux-outraged journalist out there.

  45. The hate Harper seed has been planted with the wks of continuous attacks by the msm over the prorogue and the stage being set for a spring election.
    Will Canadians want to ‘Throw the Bums out’ in a spring election?
    Jane Taber jan 28/2010
    i have been harping(no pun intended) on this all wk with the subtle hints from taber, power play a coalition is in the works, And the PM will not be able to flush them out this time, The Opposition is holding their cards very close to their chest this time.
    Canadians will be duped into an election with the Extreme possibility of a Liberal Minority and with a NDP/grn coalition being formed with the down card being a deal for Duceppe to support a Liberal/NDP Minority In effect creating a Majority & there will be Nothing we will be able to do about it. The Opposition majority deal will be signed in order to prevent a Vote of Non-Confidence from the Conservatives.
    Watch the crying towels comeout then from the taxpayers..
    Still storming in Grey/Bruce with squalls slowly moving south.

  46. Well, you should have heard the hue and cry this morning on the Sask Edition of CBC Radio!
    Host Sheila Coles was almost wetting herself in delight doing her interviews and reading the predictable emails from the loonies.
    She does an interview with some dipshit Cdn teacher who staged her one-woman protest of Harper’s Prorogation over in Oman. She had someone take pictures, and then boastfully claimed to have forwarded them to various Cdn media outlets.
    I don’t know how long this went on….could only take so much of it.

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