Let it be said

Watching the calendar slip by, one taps the coil of memories. One memory in particular sways me. Wise men state sublimely that cleansing the soul brings rewards. And people live long after death when someone states their names.

I have two names. They are names I want you ...reader, to retain.

The first name is Darlene Moses. The second name is Howard Desmoulin. As a favor, burn them into those memory cells so they may live long after I am gone. They had very short lives. And it wasn't their fault. It was an accident of time. It was an accident of place of birth. Serendipity served them poorly.

I use only their names in this article. It is not for secrecy or fear of triggering any legal retaliation. Rather holding consistent with the theme, other names will not be used because they do not deserve to be memorialized by repetition of those names.

You see Darlene and Howard were victims of racism. Racism indirectly killed them. They died together in a car. Carbon monoxide ended their lives on a cold winter's night.

I first met them both in my first stint in grade nine. Darlene appeared a mousy girl, a large round face and glasses. She was extremely studious, hard working, attentive and quiet. In the street speak of the time, she had brains.

Darlene had wonderful hand writing. I once managed to read one of the papers she wrote. It was fantastic. Hardly any of the familiar red marks on it. But the teacher had only given her a “C” on it. Clearly the essay excelled mine and I had earned a B+. It disturbed.

Howard came from the same community as Darlene. Meeting him in PE class, the Phys Ed teacher decided that we were ideal wrestling (Olympic style) partners. Training together gave us a mutual respect.

Both appeared to have a difficult time in school. Some classes they shone. In others they failed. It was a problem that all teens from that community had. The high school faculty claimed that it was because of the bus ride they had every day.

A problem with an essay assignment kept me waiting by the faculty lounge. The door was open and I parked the butt against the wall. Teachers streamed in and out. Students weren't allowed in. Naturally the only teacher I wanted was absent. But all faculty came here before going to class. It was the best place to wait.

Conversation streamed out from the lounge. The business teacher rolled in like a politician on an election campaign, walking by me without attention, I couldn't vote. At that point, I didn't care for the guy. He wormed his influence to a good gig. Business was introduced as a specialty. He also got himself onto the promotions committee. So much for my progress.

The scuttlebutt was that a couple of his pets were invited to the teach's house and there he proudly showed nude photos of his wife. His wife was another high school teacher. She was a looker for a really old woman in her thirties.

This high school was located in what would be called a rural backwater area. Most of the teachers of that period came there not because of the excitement of Northern Ontario living. Rather the reason was that they couldn't be hired anywhere else. They all were fresh out of teaching schools. They all were planning a short experience resume stay. We were in their eyes, uncultured country bumpkins. The business teacher held to that attitude.

Business teacher's voice was clear and a few decibels above the rest. For the most part one ignores the comments of going golfing, fishing and going to the camp or cottage. One comment came stinging through the cacophony, “I will never pass an Indian!”

It was the biz teacher. “Not a chance. I don't care what kind of topic they hand in. They won't get past me...”

I held my breath. Moments passed. Nary a contrary word. None of the other faculty stood up to oppose this comment. Darlene and Howard were screwed.

Finding ever soft

Experienced in the formidable dilemma of hyper acidity, I couldn't help notice that whenever the diarrhea emerged I was down to my last wraps of precious bum wad. Running out of toilet paper at that crisis moment is not cool, or clean. Yet it led to the simple solution for diarrhea prevention. Merely purchase a more than ample supply of ass wipe. Then miracle! No trots.

Desperate

The economy of the US isn't the only thing that is bereft of ideas. So follows the television sector. All they had was various versions of Idol, several versions of autopsy programs, and ....

Wait. An aside brews. How many times have you noticed that all of the CSI programs have... A cantankerous boss who speaks as every word is its own sentence... A cutesy lab rat(s) handling body parts... A genius forensic Pathologist... And roughly the same plot line every time out.

Back to the theme. ...and one can easily prove it. In the new season the prime featured "buzz" program is a regrilling of turkey meat "90240". Yuck!

Not an American

Two posts appearing in one day. They've been building up. Inventory sale.

You are not an American if... You haven't lost your retirement savings in all the financial institution's collapse.

I mean it. Isn't amazing that the champions of free enterprise will use hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up the friends of the Republicans. I mean the thought of having to detach themselves from chauffered limousines must keep them aroused in the recent weeks.

The electorate has shifted away from the Republican nominee and his Alaskan floozy. It is one thing to be a red neck but it is quite another to have one's entire retirement funds disappear or having a house foreclosure due to the collapse of the mortgage holder. Obama is five points ahead again.

And isn't astounding that people lose loved ones due to the avarice of medical practitioners in the US. The US government stands by in the carnage of an inefficient health delivery system. People die in the thousands. Yet the instant a financial institution moves into health problems, hundreds of billions of taxpayer monies are put up front to buy out the problem.

This is a lesson that no economic model works efficiently. At the end of the day any economic model works if the practitioners are honest. Economics depends on people. Sadly every economic model at its age sort of weeds out the sound and leaves only the greedy.

Make no mistake. The US government's financial scrambling to protect companies like AIG and others is not meant to save the US nation, its sole purpose is to save the wallet depletion of Bush's friends and business allies. Bush and his compatriots have done this routine before with the Savings & Loans Crisis when they defrauded poor mortgaged home owners and lined their pockets with $120 Billion of taxpayers money. Subprime Crisis is only a rehash of the poor mortgage policies of the US.

A properly instituted US public health plan in the US would have likely saved their economy. One of the reasons that people could not meet their mortgage payments was the need to pay the escalating health care cost in the US. Yet Canadian Conservative thinkers insist that Canada should adopt the US health care model. Think again.

Hey! Where's the Bull Crap?

The Harper government campaign uses the feel good atmosphere to attack Stephan Dion. A warning here. There is nary a hint at what the Conservatives policy stance on anything in the ads.

Not a word of the Afghan war's expense.

Nary a hint of what sort of treasury monies are available to the Canadian business community caught in the absolute financial disaster exploding south of the border. The Bank of Canada works largely in secret. But can you believe for one second that any or every major Canadian bank would not have financial exposure in the wake of the Lehman debacle?

Old phrase updated. Hey! Wheres the bull shit?

Que Sarah?

Technically, legally, future Vice President Sarah Palin will never travel to Ontario. According to Ontario law any animal that even looks like, appears to be related to a pit bull is banned and if found here euthanized. According to Palin remove the lipstick and there is a pit bull. Everyone knew she looked familiar.

Happy feet

Happy feet. Today I got to the chiropodist clinic today. Not taking mental health day off today. Rather employed on Happy toe day. Tomorrow or toe day. Clean. Rehydrated. Denailed.

Retro-virus

Toronto goes retro. Three of the struggling professional teams pick up old used managers again. Its the easy way out. Strickly PR.

Cliff Fletcher broke the new old trend to the Maple Laughs. In midseason Out went the hapless John Ferguson who couldn't buy a break. Paul M

Cito Gaston re-emerged as the Field Manager of the Blow Jays. Out went the easy going John Gibbons, an excellent baseball manager for four years but destined to be the sacrificial lamb for player's under performance.

Not to be out done, Rich Stubler, rookie head coach gets the axe and is replaced by a fossilized Don Mathews. Stubler was given no slack on the learning curve, and not the same slack as Pinball Clemons was the previous year. During one game with Hamilton, the owners and Clemons hung like vultures over the shoulder of Stubler. Claiming support for Stubler, it was a less than subtle message to the players that days were numbered.

Like is any one crazy enough to remarry an ex-wife? Don't visit Toronto. She might be waiting.

Air full force

Election full force on. The shits been flying like a Boeing. This an opportune segue. For openers the Cornservatives and the New Dumbercrats slagged the Liverals for leasing an older Boeing 737 from Air Inuit. Apparently, this was the only plane available in Canada at the moment.

The high and flighty claimed that the planes they leased, Airbus 319's, were more fuel efficient. Not by much. I looked the fuel consumption up. Yes it burns more but only a bit more. I mean be more fuel efficient and use a Greyhound bus.

But the Canadian taxpayer should take all these clowns to task over this three ring circus. First, if any of these people were even half environmental conscious they would gang together and travel on a single plane. Or, save us from all the fossil fuel farts and travel commercial.

Their excuse is that they can't use commercial. The commercial carriers are on a different schedule. Shades of Conrad Black here. Any excuse to dip into the pockets of the stake holders.

Isn't that a great bureaucrat speak? Stake holders. What a cognomen. Apt when the blood sucking politicians use it (a vampire subspecies known as “poliampires”). The pundits are right when they employ “stake holder” in my case. The fucking thing would be made of the finest maple wood (since it seems to be sappier) with a pointy point. And aimed at the hearts of all the poliampires and their lap dog media pundits.

Dimensionally Canada hasn't grown any larger than 130 years ago. We've only had commercial aviation for half that. Can't these guys use a train or a Budd car instead? True family values in this country emerged from a Pullman attached to the back of a cattle car train. Think of it. There is a whole bunch of Budd cars sitting forlorn at CPR Mimico.

You see its a big charade. With modern media technology the environmentally conscious politician would be better able to practice what he or she preaches by simply sitting in front of a computer terminal and answer emails and write profusely on a constantly changing website. This would save immense amounts of energy and polluted air.

Aside about Nawrleens

Some confusion to be removed. The reason that I did not put an updating animated picture is that I wanted to show what I saw, not what I see. Besides the stupid cameras aren't working right now.

Heights

This summer winds down with a thrill to politicians. Harper seeks an election. According to a recent poll, conducted by who the hell cares, Harper has been calling in the opposition leaders in order to declare that the Parlaiment is unworkable.

The issue dividing the electorate is the fear that the Liberals will bring in a carbon tax. Another tax grab to be sure. Yet the new tax is to lower the thirst for energy by increasing the cost of energy.

Lets back up a bit. Here is an electorate that cites the environment as a big issue. Governments should do something about the environment. Yet no one wants to drop their personal consumption of an ever depleting energy source. Everyone else has to do it.

The citizens of Canada are not alone. The Europeans cite global warming as a great concern caused by the burning of fossil fuels mostly oil. But when they hear that the Ice Cap disappears, they go oh good, there is a lot of cheap oil up there under that Ice Cap.

So much for Bangle Dissed and the Pacific Islands. Oh the hypocrisy of Canadians rises to new heights. Harper, and all the other hypocrites count on that.

Having a run

A conscientious friend sent me the link for a downtown live camera of New Awleans. Unfortunately a good idea winds up being twisted by the obvious reality of the situation.

It is a link to be appreciated. But in a rainy hurricane, visual impairments abound. C'est la vie.

Kaboom update

Apparently in the case of the Sunrise Propane explosion of 810, the Toronto Sun reports that the operators of the gas plant allowed truck to truck transfers. For any gas, this is not allowed. Note that I once worked as a gas plant operator in Edmonton.

If true the operators of Sunrise should be criminally charged for allowing and encouraging such a practice. The operator that was handling the transfer lost his life due to his inexperience. He was only a foreign student working in the summer.

The reason that truck to truck transfers are not allowed is that vehicles notoriously have bad grounding. One of the trucks may have had a higher electrical static (capacitance) charge compared with the other. The reason that all trucks must transfer to and from a tank is that the tank can be fully grounded. Trucks that operate on rubber tires can hold a charge and if tying to another truck there is a very good change of a very good spark. A spark is a good source of ignition.

Since the employee was only a summer guy, there is no way that he would have chosen this method of transfer unless he was told to do so. Does one expect the owners of Sunrise to be charged criminally? No. This is Canada.

Reassurance

This is Ontario. Step into an elevator. Look for the elevator operating certificate. Observe the lower part of framed and glassed document. There exists or should exist a round image or logo with TSSA on the center bar.

The elevator is inspected by the very same Ontario government agency that over saw the safety and operation of the exploded Sunrise Propane facility. Happy elevating.

Darn it

The Rogers Communications Empire swallowed almost all of the Toronto broadcasting stations including Moses Znaimer's once experimental City - TV. Znaimer it should be noted left art for the dollar when he began selling out his assets to buyers years ago.

There were many good programs on CITY. CITY trained many good on air personalities. CITY shared owners and facilities with MUCH Music. Alas the world of commerce led by the grey eminence of Ted Rogers.

While CityTV created many interesting personalities, it was also visionary. It hired an eccentric but skilled weather forecaster by the name of Harold Hussein. It worked with Harold Hussein. It was the first station to actively assign a regular reporter to cover the environmental beat years before the environment saviorship became fashionable.

One of these shows featured a sock puppet by the name of "Ed the Sock". The character was a grumpy curmudgeon who could insult and comment on almost anything. The Ed and Red show could not withstand the sanitizing effect, and dumbing down of CITY TV. Ed and Red have been anyting but politically correct. This coming weekend the Roger's Empire have broken the backs of free artistry by canceling the TV show.

I'm for a resounding BOOOO!

reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_the_Sock

Third party profit

Squeals of burning rubber pierce the night as the usual car takes off on the light change to green. It matters little whether the car on the side next is going to race. Drivers take off from the lights all the time, roaring onto the next red light a block away.

Many people win half a dozen races every rush hour. Goodyear rubber makes a profit.

Maple Laughs not so much

Justice in this world comes hard on the heels of those deserving. Mayor David Miller keeps trying to explain away his absence by saying that he was with his family to celebrate a daughter's 13th birthday. That's birth "Day" not "Birthweek" Dave. So. No one's buying it. Simply say, ya right... ha ha. Laugh it away.

Considering the fact that there is monster maladministration by the NHL hockey Maple Leafs, its not surprising that a company hosting the same moniker also scores on own goal. It is in the name Adolf.

Then on his return, he is confronted by the closure of the Maple Leafs Plant and the recall of thousands of pounds of meat. It remains an ironic muse to notice that now here is a lot of political porkers finally wondering "Where's the beef?"

Left is always right

Education can be confusing. Even a little bit of education muddles. From this derives a sense of deception by educators.

Proof lies in the right hand, left hand description. In school, the kindergarten teachers teach that the hand on the left hand of your body is the left hand and the right side and right hand the same.

In our journey studying school in science we learn about the body and all the nuances of biology. In studies of law, we learn that the owner, the operator of machinery is responsible for the operation of a piece of equipment.

The name of that equipment belongs to the owner. For instance, this tractor is Charlie's John Deere or this is Jack's snow blower. Thats a prime lesson in the study of business law.

Students learn later in science education thousands of little trivial facts. One of these is that the right hand is controlled by the left side of the brain. The left hand controlled by the right side of the brain. The brain controls almost all of body function including the hands.

By our business law model then the correct definition is that what you thought was the right hand is actually the left hand. And the left hand should really be called the right hand since it is controlled by the right side of the brain. Then the right hand is actually the left and the left is actually the right hand.

Remember this next time you talk to your hands. Incorrect naming is probably why they are angry at you.

Options

When it comes to politics, few Canadians participate due a large dose of anguished apathy. As long as perception holds firm the idea that despite all the problems there is good order and government, there appears little protest.

That day maybe coming to an end. Mayor Miller's and the Toronto deputy mayor's absence sparks the issue about democracy. Voters tend to vote for the person that best mirrors them. However after 810, there is sparked a political movement. Miller returned to vacation in BC.

Arithmatic message

Mayor David Miller's performance during the last couple of days since 810, appears wanting. 810 is the day that the Sunrise propane explosion occurred. So far he has not accepted Toronto council's responsibility for anything to do with the mini-disaster.

Today the death toll rose to two. An unidentified body has been found at the disaster site. A Sunrise employee is listed as missing. One of the top field chiefs of the fire department "Bob Leeck" passed away. Initially natural causes were given as the chief's cause of death. This claim has been muted because the cause of death may not be natural.

Yet Mayor Miller claims that it is a provincial regulator that is responsible for the mishap. What a lack of leisurely responsibility. Miller blamed it on old bylaws. Yet ultimately who is the politician that is most responsible for being the guardian of the municipal citizen. If there is an emergency of any sort, its the mayor's job to assume responsibility for emergency action according to the Ontario Municipal Act.

Before any sort of law, it is the Mayor and council's job to protect the lives and property of its citizens. Otherwise the math of this equation is that the councilors of Toronto failed in their duty and are the ones that are immediately responsible. Casting blame is unseemly but a weapon of choice for this lame mayor. He is a person who shows little or no leadership needed in a mayor. One hundred homes lay waste as a result.

The mayor states that it is the old municipal bylaws that are to blame. But ask yourself which political body is most responsible to update, and maintain those bylaws. It is council. It is math. Math comes after arithmatic. And after the Math it is the aftermath. In the Toronto aftermath, no one is to blame.

Windy booms

Sitting by the window at the computer early Sunday morning I too heard the rolls of what I thought was distant thunder. Fortunately, Sunday isn't the best time to listen to ESPN radio. TV sucks in the early morning hours. So I had 680News the all news radio channel on.

Not that 680 is all that good either. They don't do much news normally. Most of the time its in house advertising every two minutes or so telling everyone of how they do the news. You might get a story or so in between the advertisements.

But that AM they had breaking news right on the four am newscast. There was explosions in North York by Downsview. Well it was mayhem and confusion. They had five different virgins of the same story.

It took almost to 7:00 am by the time they had the story all sort of straight, they did report the massive sudden evacuation that took place. That thunder I heard was the explosions ten miles away.

Its strange. I mean the aftermath. The post partem period is worse than the actual events. Basically all the safety devices on propane tanks worked. Everything exploded upwards. They may never know what caused the explosion. Propane fires are like that.

My educated guess is that it was some kind of spark. Thunder had been in the area and could have left a charge in the industrial framing or the actual tanker truck. One or both were not grounded correctly. A tanker driver fortunately escaped the fire. Only one person is missing and if they had been caught inside the plant, they are likely dead.

One fire fighter died indirectly due to the fire suppression activity. 18 more fire fighters went to hospital for treatment. Fighting these kinds of fire is not easy. But to the credit, of the fire departments involved, this fire was contained within the site.

Later in the day though, Julian Fantino, the publicity seeking head of the OPP, couldn't wait to get onTV and give his pointless little point. The only thing the OPP did was to close down the 401. And even that took them a couple of hours to figure it out. What a putz.

City Mismanager needed

Unreal is the word. Democracy in its basic form is being subverted by a power hungry mayor. Shirley Hoy, City Manager of Toronto, resigned over differences with the ever cliquish council and mayor.

Instead of having an open competition for the position, Toronto Mayor, David Miller, is arbitrarily selecting a candidate of his choice. No vote. No choice. No examination of the candidate credentials. So much for Democracy. So much for the city of Toronto. So begins the rule of the entitled class.

The Right to get fried

Look into the potato's eye,
Carefully guide the sharp nose of the peeler.
Surround the furry brown knot
With a ripping cut
Thrust and lever the little cone
Tear the seed from its fleshy host.

Congratulations champion,
This is one spud
That will never bud,
You are now a vegetable abortionist.

Renewing

Feeling renewed, the doctor filled those prescriptions before he went on vacation. Failing that I can honestly say with some least anticipation, the bus is late on all this stuff.

I am supposed to get a full intake and discharge pipe inspection in January. It has taken a while to get to see a neurologists. There are just too many ...gists.

Leaf fan molester

When seeking out sanity, don't go near a Toronto Maple Leafs supporter. They are not too well endowed with any intellectual acumen. This includes the sports casters of which there is a legion. They are all experts in the fields of athletics.

One can certainly tell. They are all working themselves up into a frenzy about a skill player named Mats Sundin. He is presently a free agent.

At first he didn't want to leave Toronto. So he signed a one year deal, at a discount rate to play hockey in Leaf land. He said he like playing in Toronto. He does have an excuse for this. He's Swedish.

So earlier in the spring time when it became apparent that the Leafs had about as much chance of making the playoffs as Albertans embracing the Kyoto treaty. There was a hullabaloo about Sundin not wanting to do it for the team, and sacrificing himself to become a rental player

Now he clearly stated that he wanted to remain in Toronto for the season. Yet the fans went nuts because they thought they could get hundreds of good players in trade. It remains a specific quandary for Sundin.

First he stated that he wanted to play in Toronto. You see this is the top of the laundry list of paradoxes. If Sundin had requested to be traded, there would be screams from the very same fans mind you. The kind citizens of Toronto get sort of ticked when a world class super star states a reluctance to come to Toronto. You know the old USA cultural concept, that everyone wants to be an American. Its the same thought process.

No wonder a lot of superstars don't want to come to Toronto. The fans are idiots. Its a no win.

The last perplexation remains Sundin's reluctance to make up his mind. He had stated that he wanted to announce his intentions July 1st. He had some fantastic offers regarding time and length of contract. He has yet to make up his mind.

This outward failure of committal doesn't go over too well with Leaf fans. First if he resigns with the Leafs, they will be mad that it looks like that he was trying to hold them over a barrel. If on the other hand he signs on with another team, again the very same fans will roast him for being an inconsiderate mercenary.

In lock step comes the Toronto sports media which acumen can be resolved with the simple point that they all forecast the Patriots to win the Super Bowl and most forecast the Penguins in the Stanley Cup. If there is a favorite these guys ride with it. The same goes for Sundin for the sports media in Toronto plays up to their audience, never guides it.

This glares in the Sundin example. They appear not to understand why Sundin is taking his time. This shows a large lack of attention. Had these "experts" read their notes from a couple of years ago, it would show that Sundin had serious hip problems after a season of hockey. He was thinking of retiring then. The only treatment for his hip problems was replacement which would have ended his professional hockey career.

Since no surgery has occurred since last we looked, one can assume that Sundin is allowing his hip to recuperate enough to play for a full season. Every year the hip problem gets worse. Sundin knows that he cannot play hockey at a professional pace unless his hip is relatively pain free. So it is no surprise that he has not committed to any hockey contract because his hip is saying no.

Doomed

Those who do not learn from history, are doomed to be Americans.

The Sweep in Regent Park

With an old twist on a new theme the Toronto Police are trying to mask another scandal by picking on the poorest of the poor. A drug sweep in Etobicoke would yield far more drugs but those people can afford lawyers, indeed many are lawyers. The poor area is Regent Park in Toronto. Not too many lawyers in that place.

Two of the eighteen people picked up in the summer's big drug raid were police officers. One of them from the infamous 51 Division.

Do as we say not as we do

An amazing thing has been discovered. City of Toronto ambitiously set out on a recycling program imposing a mandatory waste management upon its citizens. It distributed tens of thousands of blue and green boxes to almost every household with buckets made in the USA, with non-recycled plastic.

Another of Life's Dangers

I couldn't resist putting this into the Blog. Its from Reuters. It shows the everyday extreme danger of being too close to clad ass.

Woman sues Victoria's Secret claiming thong injury

Fri Jun 20, 8:26 AM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A woman who says she was hurt by her thong panties when a metal clip flew off and hit her in the eye has sued Victoria's Secret, saying in a TV interview on Thursday that the injury caused her "excruciating pain."

Macrida Patterson, a 52-year-old Los Angeles traffic officer, told NBC's "Today" show that she suffered cuts to her cornea from the small piece of metal that had been used to secure a rhinestone heart onto the blue thong.

"I was putting on my underwear from Victoria's Secret and the metal popped in my eye. It happened really quickly. I was in excruciating pain. I screamed. That's what happened," Patterson told NBC.

Patterson's lawyer Jason Buccat, who also appeared on the "Today" show, said the metal staple causes "severe damage" to her cornea that required a topical steroid.

The product liability lawsuit, which was filed on June 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court and first reported on the Smoking Gun Web site, seeks unspecified damages.

A spokeswoman for Victoria's Secret, which is operated by Limited Brands Inc, could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb)

Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Canada Co. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service

No ideas on laundry day.

This time, this particular blog comes forth with no particular idea, plan or theme. Its because I had to do laundry today. Thus listening to Chrissie Hynde belting out "Don't get me Wrong". She is still hot in her 50's.

Unfortunately, she is Vegan. Huge turn off. It means her tits are fake. I have a theory that a woman who likes steak, eggs, and bacon usually got big tits. This goes for other singers. I mean what is the problem?

Last decade, I was a member of a chat room called the Dino Forum. It was on H&R Block's Compuserve network. There I developed the "Convergence Theory of Extinction" after researching all the popular extinction theories. I am still trying to dig it up for entry into this blog.

Several of the members were genuine bone infidel Paleontologuts. These fossil hunters were queried (by me) as to this issue. "If ancient human ancestors ate only vegetables or fruits alone without meat could modern humanity have evolved?"

None supported the Vegan ideal. When this is pointed out to Vegans they get very upset since the cornerstone of their pet theories is that human ancestors did not eat meat. I am poison personified even though theirs is the false history. Is there no forgiveness in this land.

Shit! The dryer bell just rung.

News from the UK. (Pronounced Uckkk!)

This was posted on the flight forum.... There was no copyright. Don't blame me for that.

The following are real extracts from actual complaint letters sent to various councils and housing associations throughout the UK. ..............

I want some repairs done to my cooker as it has backfired and burnt my knob off.

I wish to complain that my father hurt his ankle very badly when he put his foot in the hole in his back passage, and their 18 year old son is continually banging his balls against my fence.

I wish to report that tiles are missing from the outside toilet roof. I think it was bad wind the other night that blew them off.

My lavatory seat is cracked, where do I stand.

I am writing on behalf of my sink, which is coming away from the wall.

Will you please send someone to mend the garden path. My wife tripped and fell on it yesterday and now she is pregnant. We are getting married in September and we would like it in the garden before we move into the house.

I request permission to remove my drawers in the kitchen.

50% of the walls are damp, 50% have crumbling plaster and the rest are plain filthy.

I am still having problems with smoke in my new drawers.

The toilet is blocked and we cannot bath the children until it is cleared.

Will you please send a man to look at my water, it is a funny colour and not fit to drink.

Our lavatory seat is broken in half and is now in three pieces.

Would you please send a man to repair my spout. I am an old age pensioner and need it badly.

I want to complain about the farmer across the road; every morning at 6am his cock wakes me up, and its now getting too much for me.

The man next door has a large erection in the back garden, which is unsightly and dangerous.

Our kitchen floor is damp. We have two children and would like a third so please send someone round to do something about it.

I am a single woman living in a downstairs flat and would you please do something about the noise made by the man I have on top of me every night.

Please send a man with the right tool to finish the job and satisfy my wife.

I have had the clerk of the works down on the floor six times but I still have no satisfaction.

This is to let you know that our lavatory seat is broken and we can't get BBC2.

My bush is really overgrown round the front and my back passage has fungus growing in it,

Decline of the Canadian righteous

In the time of plenty, Canadians show a peculiar quirk. Last night, I had the extreme displeasure of witnessing the magnificent arrogant pomposity of a leading light of one of the New Democratic Party(NDP). Gerald Caplan hung his spiel on the program of a supreme media pompous ass, Steve Paikin.

Caplan flogged his book on Africa, the name of which I will not mention. Caplan waxed fondly on his magnificent contributions of caring. Paikin tossed the lob ball questions in a rehearsed sympathy. Smothered in hyperbole caring, Paikin seduced the book's regurgitating major themes about Africa. All the information contained therein is commonly known for the last 100 years. Caplan killed a lot of trees barfing up his whining data about the problems of Africa.

Yet this headlight of the party which claims to be the guardian of the vulnerable and depressed, walks draped in his own righteousness without failing to observe the abysmal failure of his own political stripe. For the last thirty five years the NDP remains kidnapped by a small clique of elite intellectuals with no grasp of the lower grades of society. Unions slowly abandon this small group of no good, do-gooders.

When formed the NDP was created by the group of gritty socialists and disinfected Liberals. They ate meat. They had fought in wars. They supported the military. They drank and drove. They hunted animals. They fished. They ate meat. They ate processed foods. They earned money working with their hands, not their mouths. They wanted universal health care. They sought safer workplaces. They believed that everyone should be housed. They wanted people to have viable and affordable access to justice. They worked to see that everyone could share in the wealth of Canada. They only bought Canadian made goods. They wanted jobs for all those who wanted to work. They wanted adequate support for those who weren't able to work. They cared about fellow Canadians without any tinge of whiny hypocrisy. They listened. How much changed the NDP now is.

Not meaning to portray the “Good Old Days”, rather to essay the divorce of political aims and the failure of NDP policy distancing its place from the common good. The Jack-off Layton portrays a righteousness arrogance that makes Stephen Harper look good. Worse, if you actually met him, you would know that and he still won the party leadership.

How-weird Hampton, of the Ontario provincial party cannot grasp the concept that he is not a good political leader. He makes McGuinty look good. How bad must one be to do that.

You see one cannot be mad at the Conservatives or Liberals. Inside the party meetings, they know that they are compromised jerks, they act like compromised jerks, and all their political acts proves that they are compromised jerks.

Today's NDP excel beyond jerk status. Caplan's great performance proved this. While he lines up for the poor of Africa, the poor of Canada are cast into deeper poverty. Two downtown food banks are closing before this summer during a period of time when fuel prices are literally driving food prices up beyond the level of affordable. He and his fellow NDP'ers wax fondly in academic arguments on Health Care. Increasingly the medical community with the assistance of the provincial government bureaucracy works to decrease and marginalize the health care that the poor have access to.

While transsexuals have gained funding for sex change operations, the Ontario provincial government and the responsible minister George Smitherman have reduced funding for families on welfare. They eliminated the Winter Clothing Allowance and a monthly grant to each child. They claim a federal tax credit will mostly cover this withdrawal of funds. Ironically the mean federal Conservatives came up with an idea to actually boost the income of the poorest families, and the provincial Liberals clawed this back.

Smitherman still brags about the withdrawal of the Special Diet funding for thousands who need it. He considers a feather in his political cap. Ask him.

And the bad news still pours in as the City Council of Toronto led by that champion of the poor, Mayor David Miller, fixes its new pay scale at least 25% higher refuse to add funds to social action. Due to his leadership, one quarter of the Regent Park residents lost their homes. Their homes were seized to provide low cost housing for middle income supporters of the NDP and the city government. They are literally destroyed a community because it housed poor people not worthy of belonging to the city of Toronto and its image.

Everyday people are loosing their homes in Toronto. The city and provincial have reduced funding resulting in closing half of the homeless shelter spaces in the downtown area of Toronto during the last twelve months. The first act of the Miller regime was to bar homeless people from gathering in Nathan Phillips Square. Miller claims a political affinity with the NDP. Some affinity. Such a friendship leads to the conclusion that the NDP is the new enemy of the Canadian poor, the Canadian worker.

A new high water mark will be achieved this summer in Toronto. While people yell that the Toronto Transit is an essential service, the Meals-on Wheels program is ceasing operations since the cost of fuel exceeded any funding given to it. The aged, shut-ins and poor who trapped in homes will face certain malnutrition perhaps even starvation. Yet this is considered less essential because it serves the poor. All this occurring under the seats while hypocritical pompous people like Miller, Caplan, and Paikin twaddle about Africa on the other side of the planet.

Damn Blue Lines

After listening attentively to Prime Time Sports on May 20/08. The discussion was about hockey's problems. As much as I hate one pill solutions, there maybe a single rule change that would go a long way to address them. Whether or not anyone agrees with such a change, it would make for interesting discussion on Prime Time.

The fundamental arguments were too long to call in on a phone line show. To the hockey “purists”, the knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss the idea outright without listening to the arguments. The simple single rule change is to “Remove the Blue Lines.”

I am trying to keep the outline as small and concise as possible. The simple solution covers a lot of territory though.

Basic Problems in Hockey

In no particular order, basic hockey problems as discussed on Prime Time:

1. The continuing appeal to the USA audience. Part of this making hockey more “television” friendly.

2. Speed of the game and length of the games.

3. Fighting.

4. Officiating.

5. Goalie equipment.

6. Defense. e.g. The Trap and the dominance of defense in today's game.

7. Ice size.

8. Tie games.

9. Offense eg. More goal scoring.

10. Number of players.

These are problems that have crept into the game over the years. So basically the nature of the game has changed while the fundamental rules have not managed to keep up. Historically, the response to these evolutions generated even more rules. In effect these rule changes contributed to make the rules governing the game more onerous, more complex and more difficult for officials to apply in a faster game.

Observations

A... American audiences don't like complexities. Especially on television. Canadian audiences grow up with the game and are very familiar with the nuances of the “Blue Line Offside.”

When the Fox Network tried to promote the game in the USA, they believed that their audience couldn't follow the puck. So the mind masters applied a technical solution, which was colorizing the puck travel. The effect on the televised game was hysterical.

Actually, I found that most neophyte fans follow the puck, while Canadians follow the man with the puck. This is only because the Canadian viewer grew up with the game and its nuances. If one sits with immigrants who have never been exposed to the game tend to to the tennis thing and follow the puck. This confuses neophytes because many penalty calls, and offside calls are generated by players away from the puck.

B... The physique and skill levels of players are now much larger than a generation ago. The disparity of talent level between the worst and the best National Hockey League players is far less than a generation ago. The size of the National Hockey League ice sheets have not gone to the international size. One would think that it would have been mandatory for the new arenas to accommodate the potential for the larger ice sheet.

Another answer tendered has been to reduce the numbers of on ice skaters from 5 to 4. But this idea has not been palatable to many commentators and fans.

C... Attention spans of most television viewers is much shorter than it used to be. Most hockey games last about three hours when both the television networks and the live spectators really focus on two hour, to two and a half hour games.

D... Many fights occur shortly after a stoppage in play.

Hypothesis and effects

The proposition is to eliminate the “Blue Line” off side and indeed the Blue lines altogether. What would be the effect on the game?

Recently the NHL has eliminated the use of the center “Red Line”. The effect on the game has meant fewer stoppages. Logically, elimination of the Blue Lines would further reduce the numbers of stoppages on the game. This speeds up the game dramatically since a high proportion of present stoppages are related to the Blue Line offsides. More playing time in the game would be devoted to playing, not facing off.

Reduction of these stoppages would also mean a decline in fighting since there would be fewer face offs where trash talk occurs. Teams would also focus on players that combine speed and fitness which usually isn't the province of the classic goons.

Without the need for calling the offsides, this eliminates the need for any linesmen. You can reduce the number of officials on the ice. Removing the Blue Line offside aids on the remaining two referees being able to focus on actual physical infractions instead of devoting added observational stress on accessing on whether or not a play is offside. Indeed, it may be possible to reduce the numbers of actual on ice officials by use of modern technology. One referee can be on the ice, and another (both connected by radio) sitting in an observation booth off the ice.

In the latter case, with an on ice official, and with an off ice official, fewer plays would be halted by the puck striking an official. One official must be on the ice to drop the puck in the case of face offs. This would tremendously improve the observations of officials on play, reduce accidental intrusions by officials. The off ice official also calls penalties and can easily monitor any replays. With two less bodies on the ice that were in part there to monitor offsides, there is more room on the ice for play.

The net effect is to both speed up the game, make it more efficient from both a time and officiating perspective. To the television networks this would be a plus. Indeed, one is looking at a two hour versus a three hour game.

Another likely effect of the removal of the Blue Line Offside is an increase in scoring. The Trap defense depends on being able to push the puck carrier into a tight position in the center area or a spot where a check can be made. Instead of trapping and zone defenses the defending team would find the man to man defense a preferable option.

Historically, the reason that Red and Blue lines were introduced in the early part of the last century to even competition. The spread of player talent and player skill level was more profound in the time that those rules were introduced. One must remember that originally hockey's only lines were the goal crease and goal line. Street hockey or Shinny Hockey is much closer to the original design of the game than the rule intensive modern game.

In Shinny, there is no offsides. The goalie or goal player is far more active on defense and offense. The game is more fluid, rarely stops and has fewer fights due to the need to constantly perform on the puck/ball more effectively. The Shinny version of hockey is far simpler to understand.

Removing the Blue Lines would also make television viewing much easier, the game would be far faster in tempo, the goal scoring opportunities far greater and the game far easier to understand. It would be all action.

One of the greatest issues has been ice size. By removing the Blue Line Offside you increase the Offensive area of hockey play without the costly issue of renovating arenas, or reducing the numbers of on ice players.

Now one of the greatest dilemmas that modern hockey has encountered, has been the material improvement in goalie equipment enabling goalies to wear greater protection with far larger equipment without a comparable increase in weight. In real life it has meant that the modern goalie literally fills the net. The athletic goalie of the past has been replaced by the butterfly style of goalie.

Removal of the Blue Lines would also dramatically effect the goalie. While the butterfly goalies have much larger padding they have lost mobility. In the Shinny style of hockey to prevent the cherry picker pass, goalies must come out to play the puck. They are the only ones allowed to play within their creases. Outside the crease though they are allowed to play the puck.

There is one good reason for this. In Shinny, any cherry picking scorer will be marked by the goalie. In effect this means that the defending team in the other end of the rink will be put in the position of a power play situation. Anyone who has played Shinny knows that a cherry picking player is almost more annoying to their own defending team as it is to the offensive team.

Much the same thing happens in Basketball. Cherry picking remains a minor problem because the defense must present an equal number of players. Also anyone who has played Basketball and Shinny knows that trap play is very difficult because if the puck carrier manages to pass out of the trap there will be always a three or four on two situation. The only way to compensate for this is to get an extra player involved on the defense and that has to be the goalie.

If the NHL removed the Blue Lines the present day teams would be confronted by one of two choices. If they opt for a stay at home butterfly goalie, then that arrangement will not be favorable in defending the offensive rush since the defenders cannot trap the puck carriers on the blue lines. If there is a cherry picker goal scorer then any long pass will mean a free shot on the net (with goalie).

This means that with the need for a more flexible and mobile goalie playing out of the net, equipment size must be reduced. Butterfly goalies in full size equipment are not mobile enough. The large trap glove must be reduced to enable the goalie to put both hands on any stick. To a Shinny style of game the present day butterfly goalies are more like sitting duck goalies.

Conclusions

Removal of the Blue lines enhances the television experience. How?: It is addition by subtraction. The change generates a more fluid, more goal scoring game in these ways:

It adapts the game to a better television compatible format.

It heightens the entertainment level of the game.

It generates more excitement in the offensive play.

It will generate more goal scoring.

It doesn't eliminate the Trap but it does make it far more risky and difficult to apply.

It creates more playing room on the same size of ice sheet.

It shortens game length.

It reduces the numbers of on ice officiating.

It literally makes officials more efficient.

It reduces fighting.

It forces the goalies to use smaller equipment to enable their mobility.

It again favors the more athletic, good skating goalie.

Help China

Aid flooded into China in the aftermath of the earthquake. At the same time, two food banks have closed in downtown Toronto in the middle of the poorest of the areas.

Apparently the city and provincial politicians have quietly withdrawn funding for these basic services. And this at a time when food and necessities should increase by about 10% this year. All this due to the outrageous increase in energy prices. These events get no Canadian media coverage.

Updeights

Without a permanent connection to the internet, it has been difficult to maintain a constant timely flow to the blog. Not that there is any particular shortage of material to write about. In a country filled with political buffoons like this its almost nigh impossible.

No doubt Canada is closing in the number one position. The Italians are starting to feel challenged in this department.

I have been working on the Memory topic. Its not very long. Just a high content, high complex sort of topic. In many ways I should not have started on that.... whatever it was.

Summing up last blog re: Break - a Synopsis

• It snowed, the Toronto fat cat skiers cheered. But after the snow they couldn't get out of their driveways.

• People rushed to the airport to get out of the city for a tropical vacation. Its all timing. Winter got them before they got hot.

The Break???

March break marched in like a Lion and out like a miserable exercise. The gonad free politicians granted a "Family Day" in February without pointing to the fact that only a couple of weeks later, there is an educational exercise called "March Break".

For the uninitiated or for us paleo-humans forced to go to school in only the most inclement of weathers no matter the date a short background is required. March Break is one of those committee sourced brain child of an educational system devoid of any understanding of its clients. The idea was to let students catch up on critical study projects in a relaxed period.

It also is "supposed" to let teachers catch up on the bureaucratic overload and prepare the final exams. Like most things theoretical there quickly evolved a whole other environment. The original concept, a good one conceived its model in a time devoid of something called affordable air travel, and in an era of Cold War where travel mounted greater peril than the commercial pussy willow journeys available today.

March Break, as a concept began well and was a valuable tool. No one traveled and people did study as there were the 3/4 season exams at the end of March. In the old order, exams counted large in any study course. The idea of having students actually participate in the learning process was totally alien. Teaching hugged the concept of rote and knowledge regurgitation.

When parents realized that here was a free week to bring their snot monsters along to a tropical winter vacation without having to dump the progeny on grand parents, unsuspecting relations or paid baby sitters. Travel agents developed new travel packages for families while sneaking up the fares during this designated week. In short, it became a clear week off.

There is less study during this week than at any other time of year including summer. In short its a week off. Which leaves me confused? Why the need for a Family Day?

The only way to relate is to recount my experience with teachers, usually rookie teachers, who insisted on giving home work before Christmas vacation. In the old days, (oh the pain of such a phrase) any break from the enormous mind numbing Ontario educational experience was appreciated.

It propelled a surreal experience. Every person in that classroom nodded in agreement with the proposal because the clock ticked slowly down to an abbreviated freedom. And every person in that room save for one lonely soul (the teacher) knew that they didn't plan to do a lick of work during that period.

Then "school breaks" appear a sham. And March Break in Canada, is no less a sham.

However this spring break began wonderfully if not a participant. If parents cannot get the full time off to go to a tropical vacation, they schedule closer family events like skiing. Skiing needs snow.

At the beginning of the March Break this year there came such a great snow fall. It caused airport delays which meant that the tropical vacations started off shortened by a few days and travelers spent a few days at airports waiting.

Additionally those skiers appreciating the benefits of snow viewed a welcoming glance, anticipating the freshly groomed base on Blue Mountain and other like "hills". Yet, it snowed so much that even if these people dug out their Mercedes they couldn't easily get to those slopes because the roads were clogged with snow. Justice exists.

Helping the blind

While working on various projects, I took the TTC a couple of times. The Commission upgraded the service to include street announcements for the next stops. This multi-million dollar project was done to placate a few blind people who sought this feature through legal action.

And the new system works. A digital sign near the front of the bus, streams out the name of the very next stop.

Memory and the cast of being

I am trying to use a new approach to memory and its use. Something about the theory of memory being solely located the brain seems way too simple.

It is entirely possible that memories may be locate exterior to the brain itself. More on this later.

A Whopper

The old adage that bombarded my youth was issued from old geezers. "Hard work doesn't kill you."

After years of observation, participation and research I can honestly say, ...Thats a big fucking lie.

Whiving wit’ liners

Inordinate caché bellows above the line of passable toleration. Ears are smoking with the oft greeting of every Torontonian, “Ohhh its so cold eh!”

No it isn’t. It went down to –17ºC last night and early, early this morning. This is only down to “0” on the old temperature scale of “F”.

To make it really sound good, denizens of this city use something called the wind chill to make it sound even better. The breeze brisked this obscurely calculated number down to –36ºC. This sounds good but to get the full effect one must be standing on a football field, starkers.

To avoid an avalanche, stay out of the mountains. To avoid wind chill, stay out of the wind.

And the complaints were everywhere. Onto the subway cars, which are comfortably warmer than the surface and people sit sweating like stilted sponges. It may be cold to them, so they are all bundled up. Parents nag all their snot monsters in CWT (Canada Without Toronto) to unzip and loosen the winter gear indoors or in warm areas.

Its easy to tell a Torontonian in the winter. They can wear a parka, scarf, toques and mitts in a Tomato hothouse and still complain about the cold outside.

Experienced Canadians from CWT sit with perplexed look and their coats unzipped and toques stowed in pockets. Like its even warm outside to them.

Two weeks past, Prairie Canada experienced minus thirty four Celsius (-34ºC) but that came as a daytime high time temperature unaccompanied by wind chill hyperbole. Of course the Toronto newscast media brains tacked it on.

Worst of all, worst of all is that every news outlet seeks to find a lower exaggeration as a way to promote advertising, gain listeners. CityTV is the worst of the lot, followed by CTV. Of course the CBC advances a full explanation of the meteorological event so while ones body numbs to the cold, the CBC numbs the mind.

And what really hurts is that I can't afford earplugs.

Note to all CWT visitors to Toronto. Please bring your own hearing protection.

Wondering about emails.

Its completely baffling to me. How do all these spammers know I got a small dick?

Hey don't laugh too much. You're on the mailing list too.

Rumblings in Paradise

The measure of all economies is the relationship between the economy and the political. While separate in academia research and news media reportage, in real life they are undeniably linked.

While greeted with cheers by national ideologists and the international traveler, the rise of the Canadian dollar to parity value with that of the American currency describes the advent of economic troubles. The economic health of Canada is inextricably linked to the performance of the US economy.

Worse still it is a one way link. A healthy United States economy can swoon the Canadian economy despite poor political management. A healthy Canadian economy cannot improve the performance of the United States economy.

A rise in the value of the Canadian dollar against the American is the whistling wind of an approaching economic tornado. The value of the Canadian dollar was strongest before the 1974 recession. In 1988, the value of the Canadian dollar had risen. The rise in the value of the Canadian dollar versus the American precedes a downturn.

Kissing the frog

Sometimes proposals take on an air of fiction. A kerfuffle emerged when some black community leaders and school trustees took up the idea of what they called black focused schools. After weeks of rampant and ambling debate the idea was adopted by the rather dysfunctional Toronto Public School Board.

Now examining the merits of such a school at no time did any of the proponents put forward two critical points. They might have proposed that such a school demand a higher academic achievement than general schools. Second they did not advance to the public a list of subjects.

What was lost amongst the arguments is that only public, Catholic and private schools were entitled to exist. No one has suggested that a school maintains itself on the basis of race. Indeed such a creation violates the civil rights codes so hard won and maintained by this nation and its laws.

The TPSB passed the agreement then promptly forwarded it to the government. So in essence, the school board wanted to create a select school based on race, with no marked improvement in academic performance and have the rest of the province pay for it. The TPSB remains notoriously the most inefficiently managed educational entity in North America.

In what was a moment of political clarity, Dalton McGuinty promptly nixed the funding the idea. Indeed funds might be deleted from grants to the board if the idea went ahead. If these proponents want such a school why don't they create, operate and fund it on their own wallets. They are free to do that.

Winter Storm

Winds howl battering the glass of the window and the storm marches on, into Quebec. For once the weather forecasters had this call right. With due warning the denizens of this fumbling burg manage the turn of weather, still complaining.

I turn the page on the calendar into a new month. February comes in like a lion. Global warming also effects old proverbs. March appears to be a loser as its zoology abandons to the house of the Woodchuck. Its good to have all the animals in one short month. Ends total confusion.

April will be glad to get rid of the rainy tag one can be sure. March's rains bring April's flowers.

Almost dyed

Life streams along in a parade of surprises. For the longest time I thought the macho man is not allergic to anything.

Last Saturday, I hand washed my laundry. In one cycle of wash I placed a rather new twin sheet. From this sheet streamed reddish dye. It was made in Pakistan. So I pulled out the sheet, squeeze dried, and hung to dry.

Within an hour my fingertips started tingling painfully. Another two hours later my hands were burning. By the time I went to the hospital. Having experienced caustic burns, I thought this was the reason. The soap and the dye had combined to give me a caustic burn.

I did hunt around for a nurses clinic but was forced to the emergency clinic of a hospital. Apparently none of the "street clinics" provided by the social health agencies work weekends, for as we all know, there is no poverty on the weekends and there is no medical emergencies on the weekends.

Anyhow I was given some prescription for a cream coping with caustic burning. This would take care of the hands but my top lip was swelling mysteriously. And the itching screamed more widely.

This was steroid cream. The very same that Barry Bonds claimed to use. It worked sort of.

As Monday rolled in there was hives all over my body. I just touched an area of skin and it would erupt red boils and itching. Now I couldn't go too far away from my home. I looked like a walking measles factory. Some friends said take some Benadryll.

No it isn't an allergy. And even if it was I had to get permission from the doctor because it would interact with my other prescriptions.

Two days more and two more nights of fierce itching, scratching and I finally saw the doctor who signed for more cream and yes Benadryll.

The illness isn't all that much. The burning hands not that much. What really stinks is that I do have an allergy after all.

Wind Warnings

A few days ago there were wind warnings galore. For brief morning moments, the forecasts hinted at a touch with hurricane strength winds. So it was.

Having just got up and shaken the webs out of the twists of morning’s wakening, I ventured forth and dread the inevitable chorus of whining about the wind chill. It can be the depth of summer and denizens of this city will wind chill the air temperature with their anguished vortices.

Wisdom emerges from the north. An old reply from an old Nortarian (person from Northern Ontario). ‘Get out of the wind.’

The actual sequence of weather events that hit this churlish urban complex ran like a hair salon. There was snow, a thaw and then wind. Or Shampoo, Rinse and Blowed Dry. Toronto looks rather shag.

Bhutto

Strange events in Pakistan emerge like a bizarre entertainment. First a politician who wants security from a government doesn't stand up through the sun roof of a bullet proof car.

I followed Ms. Bhutto's political career for quite a while. Like the Peron's of Argentina and the Kennedys of the USA, there was always a large margin between the promise and the actual result.

In actual political performance Bhutto could be termed ineffectual and very divisive. Al Qaeda, the likely agency of assassination, may have finally goofed if it can be proved that they did this. The worst thing a society of future martyrs can do is to make a martyr of an opponent.

Mad fool

Using the Barbara Amiel phraseology about having a taste of the extravagance which knows no bounds, this year's Christmas Day repast marched up the avenues of excess.

I decided to spoil myself with something very special. Yes I went, bought and opened a jar of Cheez-wiz.

And when I was done with the sausages, yes I spooned some remaining amounts directly from the jar. Hmmm that's some good eatin'.

More on Christmas

Less on Christmas. Off the annual to do list.

Since the advent of the internet, which is about 14 years. I usually sent out Xmas wishes to everyone on my active email list. They would naturally hit the reply button and return said salutations.

This year I decided to be the passive. My turn to hit the 'lie reply'.

Only one. That's it. Hmmmph.

And I checked in ALL the email accounts.

I'm not bitter. I am used to getting no respect. Rodney Dangerfield died. Now I'm number one forget whats his name.

Hey next year. Time for the old 813.54d2.

Jolly Jolly little elf

Jolly, Jolly little elf
Removing a box off the shelf.
Tearing open the seal
Letting loose a squeal
For he had just opened
The surprising scene
Of last summer's
Box of bread
Printed in red
Contents fuzzy and green.

Season of Joy

To bad. At the moment Christmas seemed to be such a suck. I haven't blogged in eons. Had a good reason too. Couldn't see the screen due to all those eye infections.

Now that these eyes lids have settled down a a bit, I can now look at the screen after almost two months. Figured out how to fix future eye infections. For those on Prevacid and Losec all you might be susceptible to such infections. Simply stop taking it for about three weeks.

The anti-anticid beta blockers reduce the PH in your stomach but also eventually lowers the PH in your tear glands. This means that the weaker acid in the eyes doesn't do its job in blocking what would otherwise be common infections not likely to infect.

The only downside to this is that you must endure a return to the bowels in malfeasance for a short duration.

Contexts

Sands flowing through the glass hole marked time. No isotope ticked the periods of a human existence. Humans invented time and the machines to mark it. The time masters lacked trust in the sun.

In the sun lies the substrate of all vitality. So why so many demands that you wake up before the sun comes up?

Feet up

I admit it. I haven't posted in quite a while. Everything is going on and nothing is going on.

So I went to the doctor a week ago. It was a late appointment. So at the end of the physical he goes. "You take four prescriptions. But what do you take for the fractured disc in your back?"

And my reply, "What fractured disc?"

The doctor goes. "The last X-ray you got showed a compound fracture of your disc according to the radiologist."

"No one told me about that.".

Entry for today with no special title

Wonder what the freezies are doing? Looking at the calendar, October month enters its final full week of seven suns.

Amazing that I am still in short sleeves. Looking at a small closet of jackets I ponder when next it will be cool enough to don this garb.

There are upsides to global warming.

Harper, Hillier and Hooey

Last week according to news and media reports, Stephen Harper, Canadian Prime Minister, un-extraordinaire, basically admitted that the only reason that Canadians engaged in Afghanistan solely for the reason because the Americans wanted it. And toilet goes flushing the reconstruction, security and we are bringing democracy premise for our armed intervention in another society.

Harper springs forth with the motto that such arguments are against supporting the troops. Nothing can be further from the truth. It is entirely consistent that the efforts that our military are putting forth are to be credited with excellent and exceptional work consistent and surpassing our expectations. Even then it is their reports that indicate the futility of the task seems a running deer.

And it is a task set forth by an Ottawa based government entirely in cow-tow position to a renegade superpower mad about the world swimming in an Olympic size pool of self delusion. Even historically the scope and tactics employed by our armed forces have been proven quite inefficient for the last two thousand years.

Only Alexander the Great succeeded in Afghanistan. General Hillier appears no Alexander. Alexander got results. Hillier constantly trips on his sword and tongue. Canadians are fooled because the media confuses his farcical self-promoting strutting at every photo op as soldierly.

He is no Patton. Patton got results. Using his troops as a vehicle to personal glorification, he appears a hero. A word, here. I grew up with men returned from a World Wars. I know heroes. Hillier remains far from heroic.

Soldiers shouldn’t be allowed into such circumstances. One takes every word of their proclamations that they are doing good in Afghanistan as gospel truth. Soldiers do not control society by their intellect, they exercise social control by the weapons they carry.

Also the casualty list is both a curse and a boon to government. At the time of writing 71 Canadian souls have been lost due to this conflict. Seventy-one people should be mourned but in reality it is such a low number for such a conflict, indeed such a statistic should be considered exceptionally low.

Even the Afghans can’t control Afghanistan. Nor are they a united people. They never have been. Afghanistan is only a region inhabited by a small number of warring, feuding tin pot war lords whose only concern is their poppy powered bank accounts,. not with social harmony and not with social advance. Without a central figure to control their anarchist martial attitudes they persistently devolved into civil war with no recorded exceptions. They are barbarians unto themselves.

Now Harper and the neo-Conservative fundamentalist Christians believe that this mission must be extended. Morally this is unforgivable. Our compact, our agreement with the NATO allies will be filled. In every sense the European allies of NATO are the ones that have skirted their responsibility to the alliance. This was supposed to be a NATO mission. Like the Canadians, NATO was dragged into this by an American need to control the Iraqis oil patch.

Even the Americans have only so many troops. The American Christian right failed in their goal in Afghanistan. Osama still rides his horse. The Americans failed in Iraq. New Orleans city paid the price.

One of the most hilarious events was the recent release of a poll claiming that about 70% of Afghans support foreign troop intervention. This must be very similar to the Russian polls of the early 1980’s which stated that 70% of Afghans announced support for Russian military intervention. This is also likely consistent with Taliban polls which will certainly indicate a 70% support for insurgency. 70% of Afghans will say anything anyone wants to hear.

Understand that such a response bears no malice. Rather such a response comes from survivors. These people survived warlords, invading armies and other do gooders. They care little for “free world” government forms. Their preferred government form is the traditional tribe and chief rather than the elitist abstract forms of imposed government. Eventually they will have a democratic form of government but in no record has a will for democratic reform been imposed from outside a state.

In 14 months our present military responsibility ends. Regardless of the situation, for Canada’s government and the Canadian army that contract has been filled. It should not be continued in its present form.

The contention to extend the present military mission is entirely ludicrous. First, one of the biggest spin of rational emanating from this conflict is the Afghan cultural demand for honesty. It is a mechanism to respect. How can any Afghan elder respect the word of a Canadian officer or agent when to this point they have always stated that they weren’t in Afghanistan to stay. Extending the mission means that foreign troops intend to stay. If Canadians leave when they say we will leave, means that our word means something.

The big military pitch has always been to approach Afghan village elders as guests. Guests who do leave, when they say they are leaving, always earn a welcome back. Guests who overstay their welcome are poison in Canadian society, and more so in Afghan society.

We can go back if invited. We are more likely to carry more cache of diplomacy with Afghans if we keep our words to the letter of the contract. It is more ethical to do what we say.

One of the most recent pitches for staying has been Hillier’s bleating about the need to train Afghan police and soldiers. Well during World War II, Canada trained thousands of people, in Canada. It would be far cheaper, far more secure and far more effective to train these police and soldiers in Canada than Afghanistan. Canada trained allied pilots and spies in the safety of our borders.

All the teaching tools are here. Southern Alberta and the Caribou Chilicotin mimics topographically Afghanistan. So all the teaching material would be here. The student troops could train without fear of sudden attack. They can be prepared better for combat here than over in the wrecked facilities in Afghanistan.

The best full training for such forces would be in Canada not Afghanistan. When they return to Afghanistan they would be fully trained and experienced to defend themselves. Now that the Conservative government has spent all this money on new airplanes the traffic to and from Afghanistan of these training troops.

We could fully train 3 to 4 Afghan police and soldiers in Canada for the same cost of maintaining a single Canadian soldier in Afghanistan. And the Canadian government could fund that training as our contribution to the NATO effort. And in employing such a strategy, we could achieve the original warm aims far more efficiently, more effectively and more quickly. Don’t train the Afghan army and police in Afghanistan. After six years of trying, that pony won’t learn that trick. If there is a need to train police, train them here.

RIP MMP

That sound… a scream.

That sound a scream of joy. The idea of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation crumbles in the dust of its own stupidity. That scream erupts from air ripping vocal chords in emotional display mouthed with a hoo-ray.

A scream of despair. The proponents of MMP groan in terrible pain as the elitist concept gets ground into the dustbin of history. 103 selected citizens, mostly the Premier’s concept of citizens, (all sporting red hearts, brown noses grunting like abandoned Peccaries.) allegedly grouped together and came up with this idea.

Such a proposal then provides the punch line of either one of two jesting queries:

1. How many Liberals does it take to come up with an actual idea?

2. How many Liberals does it take to come up with a very stupid idea?

One answer for both. 103.

We could have this on Jeopardy.

Alex: Okay the only remaining category Liberal Patronage?

Contestant: Stupid ideas for $120 Alex.

Alex: (Ding) 103… one … hundred and … three

(Boop, boop boop … boop)

Need an answer.

(((((aaja;fjapp))))

Contestant: What was the number of stupid butt kissing, brain farting, cater eating Liberal panty waists who recommended MMP?

(ding, ding, ding, ding, ding ding.)

This is being written in the early morning and not having the actual figures all the radio reports indicate the magic sixty percent was achieved and that is rejection. A big fat NO.

The media is sort of muted. Many alleged television journalists sort of were sure that this measure would pass. Liberal supporters took it for granted that since this was a committee of brainy trusts that everyone would naturally fall for the line.

Opposition to it from mostly print media journalists grew during the last days and overwhelmed the lazy campaign of the pro MPP forces. It was a tsunami of opposition.

This doesn’t mean that I am opposed to election reform. There is a better alternative.

First the province does need a few more MPPs re-established and not necessarily along Federal riding boundaries. Federal ridings follow a design based on the National needs and criteria. The Provincial legislature should define those boundaries along Provincial needs and demands.

Second run off elections similar to the process used in Europe would work. In Ontario’s case a run off election would be triggered by a plurality of less than 49% and a less than a vote lead of less than 12% or less than 42%. Which means that if those criteria are not met the top two vote getters would have a run off election 14 days later.

This system would assure that a certain majority in each riding would vote for the elected member. Such a system assures that the new member has received a definite number of vote support entering the legislature. Oh never mind. It will never be accepted it makes sense.

RIP MMP

Constricting Canadian democracy

The other side of the debate

Have you ever wondered why the Ontario Political Parties are almost universally in support of the proportional representation idea? The official name is something like Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMPR). Such a new structure doesn't represent Joe Citizen. It is a change designed to garner more power for the individual political party leaders.

They all state that there will be a full disclosure of the list of party candidates. Mind you this is to fix a system they claim is broken. The first questions that must be asked are: Is it the system? Or is it those managing the system?

In short, the present system works fine if those driving it were competent. It is the poor manager that blames the system. And the present system worked for hundreds of years. Such a change like MMPR will permanently diminish the voter's access to the politician. It transfers political power from universal sufferage to political party compacts.

Here is why.

Representation Comparison

To compare the United States of America (USA) constitutionally began as a people’s republic. One person, one vote. The representatives swear to uphold the people’s Constitution. On their ballots, the political party comes first.

In the case of Canada the constitutional formation evolved from the British experience in quite a different manner. Canada was and still is a constitutional monarchy. And Canadians forget this at political peril. In Canada, the Member of Parliament (MP; MPP; MLA) swears political fealty to the Crown and represents a district called a Riding.

Why use the word political peril? A peril exists because the entire Canadian political structure evolved in an environment so different than the USA. Canadian colonial precursors fought wars to keep that political affiliation intact. In the USA the Congress represents the people of the Nation. In Canada the people are represented through the Crown.

The USA presently evolved as a rather homogenous mono-culture even politically. The USA possesses ten times the population compared with the Canadian population statistics. Geographically the USA is smaller.

Proportional representation presents a far major shift to divisive party politics. Each party nominates a candidate to run in each election presently. In Canada, on the ballot it is the person who represents a riding not the political party. In proportional representation a list of Candidates is presented to some sort of cesspool of politicians and those party favorites, these party special lists represent. In no case are unaffiliated people nonparty members qualified for political appointment.

In the present electoral system the focus is on the individual candidate in each Riding. Now the focus will change. In this present system any person can run independently. In the new regime only political hacks would be available for governing. This new aspect of MMPR impairs political government represented by the Crown. In our system of government ideally the MP or MPP should be representing the Crown.

Along side of this one must remind oneself that in the Republic system there is no such thing as Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. The implication is clear. With this new system the opposition will only be loyal to the party that selected that individual not to the Crown, the people of Canada or the people of Ontario.

Political Instability

A peril because one of the most important features of the Canadian voting wisdom has engendered long periods of what is called majority governments and short periods of minority governments. While uncomfortable for those in opposition, the so called first past the post system has brought governmental stability and as a result economic, social and cultural stability.

Unlike the USA the Canadian government depends on the voting support of most of the members of Parliament. In the US, conceived in the blood of rebellion, the government executive functions apart from its legislature. Often the party that controls the Congress is not the same as the party controlling the Executive Branch of that Government. In that case the government decision making process is compromised and stifled.

Some people advocate a more USA like political system and in a Parliamentary structure that brings disaster because the responsibilities are different. It means potentially political chaos and even a more intransigent political structure benefiting only political parties.

In most systems where Proportional Representation exists there maintains long periods of minority coalition governments. In Canada, in Ontario the Riding and its constituents are placed ahead of the political party. With the advent of the Proportional Representation the advantage, the control of government shifts away from the Crown, the people to the hands of the mandarins of political parties. These people only care about themselves and care little for Joe Citizen. The power shift from away the people, and to the political party is the prime reason why all the Ontario political parties are for this resolution. It kills the Parliamentary system slowly in a strangulation of party politics in an environment of coalition politicians which they control.

Advocates claim otherwise citing specific examples like Sweden. In every manner Sweden is so unlike Canada on so many levels. Sweden is a very small country physically. Sweden is a mono-culture. Sweden’s political systems work far different than the British evolved Canadian system. In most cases, Proportional Representation, stifles government.

Riding vs. Constituency

Diminishing citizen access highlights the argument why so applies in much of Southern Ontario. Recall that earlier the emphasis on the idea of Crown representing Canadian Joe Citizen. Each MPP represents an area.

One of the largest myths is the absurd idea that in Canada there is a one person one, vote idea. So in almost every set of Riding redistribution hearings since then, there has been an idea about all ridings being approximately equal in population. It is the over riding goal albeit a twisted one.

This is always worth repeating. While an ideal, this equal population only works if the foundation of the state is a popular republic. Unlike the USA Congressman the MPP just doesn’t represent the people in Parliament. The MPP also represents the Crown to her/his Riding. Canada is a representative monarchy. The MPP swears to the Crown as the representative of the people. The MPP is not the people’s representative. Rather they are the responsible elected agent of the Crown to the people.

Again in all this, presently political parties are entirely secondary to Canadian government. Ontario political parties only wish to deprive Joe Citizen of even that political right. Political parties wish to control the Ontario parliament, the people, the Crown be damned.

Lets define what a Riding began as. In times of yore it was decided by the Crown that population was the secondary consideration to political access to that MPP. A “Riding” was a distance that a single rider or riding MPP could cover in the space of one day. From the idea it wasn’t just the idea of one person one vote but also it was firstly the idea of one person equal access to government.

As it evolved into the 19th century, the idea of political access predominated. In a city with dense populations the access could be divided into access by statistics. But in the rural districts it was political access that had to be considered first. Every citizen not only has an equal vote but every citizen must have an equal access to government.

In the federal government redistribution circa 1974, there was a significant shift from the idea. An MP from Northern Ontario named Keith Penner fought hard against this change since it began the decline of political access to government by citizens. His arguments ring to this day. Basically it was an injustice to such a large important territory so critical to Canada lose political power simply because of a lower population compared with a dense urban area like Toronto.

When Parliaments evolved the idea of political access dominated versus a population factor for represenetation. How does this work?

Presently I live in Toronto not by choice. The riding in which I live probably has about 120,000 or so. To access my MPP I simply have to walk up to College Street and walk into his office. Also there is the option of simply going to a ceremony or community social function or funeral. The MPP should likely be there.

In Northern Ontario, today that same political access to Crown representation is not there. The MPP is an able hard working person but cannot give the same quality of representation. The size of his “Riding” is too large. The office is in Thunder Bay. Despite his best efforts the MPP cannot go to the social functions or funerals that urban MPPs can. Simply stating. A Northern Ontario Joe Citizen has far poorer access to representation than a Toronto Joe Citizen.

Even though there maybe only 80,000 people in the riding and in theory the MPP represents far fewer people the quality of representation remains mitigated by geography, distance and adverse climates. Since 1974 that quality of representation has reduced significantly and Northern Ontario residents are only second class citizens due to an inane drive to determine Ridings based on population alone.

This inequality resides in rural southern Ontario as well although not to the significant degree. An MPP in that Riding can drive to any social function within several hours travel and be back in the legislature the very next day, but the rural citizen doesn’t have the same easy access to political representation Toronto residents do.

Now with the advent of Proportional Representation this access will be even further diminished. A city like Toronto or London has more members. They will chose those members by outright vote to be the ones nominated to that class of MPP. In Northern Ontario the only representatives that will represent them will be only those members that southern Ontario party members chose.

The only difference between Northern Ontario Joe Citizen’s access to political influence and the rural person in southern Ontario is only in the degree. Proportional Representation, if adopted is simply a naked power grab by urban centric political parties.

Political responsibility

And who gains access to these proportional MPs? In a Riding/Constituency system the MPP remains uncomfortably responsible for that Riding. A proportional MPP doesn’t answer to anyone save the political party they belong to. They will not have the same right to cross the floor in a dispute with their political party mandarins. Political freedoms so long protected by historical evolution are now gone if Proportional Representation is adopted.

Again, who does the Premier or Cabinet member be responsible to if she/he is a Proportional Member? People do not have the right to complain to this person. The idea violates the very heart of Parliamentary democracy because Proportional MPPs are responsible only to the parties political, not the people, not the crown, only to a vested interest.

And this is why few Political Parties stand up to oppose this faulty idea. Proportional Representation skews and begins the wrecking of the Canadian, of the Ontario political system. And the personal rights to equal political access for all is further diminished.

Paradoxical Conundrum

Great problems espousing support for any political party in this election. It is an example of a paradoxical conundrum.

Regardles of which side I would speak in support, the feeling remains the same. No matter which, I would be speaking like an idiot.