the super terrific happy hour all-media hiatus

On a day filled with awesome trailers and the kind of blog-friendly public stupidity you can't make up, I must sadly bid farewell for what will probably be the entire month of July. You see, our small ISP is no longer providing service as of tomorrow, and since we're moving on July 30, there's no point in trying to get a one-month hook-up. And yes, several of you have pointed out that I could go to the library to do this; however, here in Oakville, that requires two buses and, with the wait time, nearly one hour each way of travel time on top of an indeterminate wait to use a computer (which can be a long time. Oakville library users are computer hogs.). I could say something about Oakville Transit at this time, but it would be 99% angry expletives. Add it to the list of Things I Won't Miss About Ontario (currently on the list: everything).

Now, back to what provides so very much blog fodder: the aforementioned public stupidity. Due to a severely understaffed (and hence, backlogged) municipal justice system, and the recent closure of all night courts, the city of Toronto hasn't been giving timely trial dates to people contesting $30 parking tickets. These are the tickets for basic violations, like parking in places that have big signs saying "no parking". As a result, people have discovered in droves that they can, in essence, park wherever they please and face no consequences. A city councilor, trying to show that he's all for the little guy, told the Toronto Star that the lack of timely trial dates enabling people to get away with unpaid tickets has turned Toronto into a city of scofflaws. That's right, it's the city's fault that people are abusing the (flawed) system and using their sense of entitlement to break the law and make a mess of the streets (and deliberately contribute to the city's insane traffic congestion that everyone complains about incessantly). If only the municipal justice system were more efficient, the good people of Toronto wouldn't break the law.

That's so dumb (and empirically false) on so many sociological, philosophical, psychological, and ethical levels that I won't debase myself by writing a refutation. It was just so mind-boggling that I needed to share my disbelief with as many people as possible.

But let's end the month on a happy note. Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't already seen it - or just want to see it again - I give you the first official trailer for Quantum of Solace! Woop woop woop!