Wanted: Premier for Ontario, No IQ test required

This week witnessed one of the most classic cases of  "foot in mouth" syndrome to have come along in a while, and lo and behold it came out of Ontario. The last time I can recall such stupidity from an Ontario politician was in January 1999 when Mayor Mel called in the army to perform snow removal in Toronto.  Then there was Bob Rae of course....

Recently Alberta's Premier Alison Redford sent a request to the Premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty to show his support on selling the oil sands to the world, support that would be helpful at a time when Alberta energy is being referred to as "dirty oil" in some quarters. This undoubtedly seemed to Premier Redford to be a reasonable request considering the vital role Alberta's energy industry plays in the overall health of the Canadian economy.

Unfortunately Premier McGuinty apparently has a different opinion on Alberta's role in the Canadian economy, and particularly in regards to his own province. In fact rather than show his support for Alberta, he chastised our province and laid the blame for many of Ontario's financial woes right at our feet.

Obama's Sleight Of Hand Is Quicker Than The Eye

With the Republican Primaries heating up south of our border in preparation for a November Presidential race you can expect to see a great deal of positioning from both Republicans and Democrats in the upcoming months. Although Obama has not officially kicked off his campaign  for re-election there is no doubt what so ever that he and his team are laying the ground work.

I suspect the Republican nominee will hammer away at the President's dismal record over the last three years knowing full well Obama will have little chance of defending it as the facts speak for themselves. So the Obama teams strategy so far has been one of redirection, something that any good magician or politician knows all too well. In magic (like politics) a vital component to a magician’s sleight of hand is the redirection of the audiences attention from what they are inevitably trying to catch you doing. Unfortunately the re-direction that Obama and his team are employing may result in may result in America being torn apart. How so?

"Volt Obummer", An appropriate re-election slogan for November 2012

Back In December of 2011 we featured an article about the Chevy Volt that questioned the insanity behind the massive government subsidies (between $200K and $250K per vehicle) being provided to General Motors to produce a vehicle that consumers are not buying. Well three months later not much has changed, the subsidies are still being given out by the American taxpayer courtesy of President Obummer, unit sales are far below initial numbers predicted by GM and have been downgraded again for 2012, and there are still reports of Volts catching on fire. So when I stumbled across this ad parody for the Volt I just knew I has to pass it on. It comes to us courtesy of the folks at bailoutcost.com, a group that is promoting awareness of the real cost of the GM bailout. Enjoy... I sure did.

Now if I can just find such an ad parody for solar panels produced by Solynda, another company that received massive bailout subsides (upwards of $500 Million) from Obummer and his cronies and promptly went bankrupt virtually before the ink had dried on the bailout agreement.

Political Correctness Soars To New Heights

For those of you who have been incommunicado (i.e living in a cave, stranded on a desert aisle, or just coming out of a coma) for the last month or so you may have missed the "scandal" resulting from a headline run by ESPN for a story regarding The New York Knicks and their superstar Jeremy Lin (an American-Asian).

Here's the story in a nutshell. ESPN editor Anthony Federico wrote an article featuring the headline

"Chink in the Armor: Jeremy Lin's 9 turnovers cost Knicks..."

The headline, which ran on the mobile version of ESPN's website, was yanked after 35 minutes, and ESPN  fired Federico immediately thereafter. The sports news giant also doled out a 30-day suspension to anchor Max Bretos, who had used the same racially insensitive phrase. Federico apologized on the air for his "honest mistake," saying he wasn't trying to be "cute or punny," and had used the same phrase "at least 100 times"  previously in headlines, and simply didn't notice that "chink" is a racial slur for Chinese people. In fact a review of past ESPN shows the phrase being used over 3000 times by different individuals in different circumstances! Lin accepted the apology.

Was it a honest mistake or intentional? Who knows, either way it is over with Federico now out of a job and Lin having received an apology.  Unfortunately, that does not end the issue for some who feel the need to address it by determining what the "politically correct" guidelines are when airing or publishing any media regarding individuals of Asian descent. Remember, most of us are simply too stupid or possibly just too ignorant to know how to conduct ourselves in public, so thankfully  the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) has drawn up guidelines for the media to follow. Here you go, straight from the AAJA.....
(by the way, the comments in RED are mine, )

Our Government, So right one day, so wrong the next

If you are like me last week was one for celebration. The Conservative government finally made good on their promise to scrap the Long Gun Registry by the passing of Bill C-19, and to say this was long overdue would be an understatement. This legislation when first enacted by the previous Liberal government was promised to make the streets safer and be self-funding, unfortunately like so many promises made by those in power this was a hollow one. Not only were the safety benefits of the program questioned by everyone ( including many in law enforcement) but in short order the program ran up a cost to the Canadian  government of over $1 Billion.... Surprise

Well fortunately after 'only" a billion or so of taxpayer money wasted this program is close to being history. Public Safety Minister Toews stated
“It criminalizes hard-working and law-abiding citizens such as farmers and sport shooters, and it has been a billion-dollar boondoggle left to us by the previous Liberal government.”
(You have that right Vic, good for you)

According to Bill C-19, all data pertaining to non-restricted firearms will be deleted as a measure to protect individual privacy. Unfortunately, once the bill is finally passed into law, Quebec has indicated it will immediately seek an injunction from the courts to halt the destruction of the registry data. Gotta luv Quebec...

Congratulations to Mr Harper and his party for doing the right thing, now hopefully the Liberals in the Senate don't hold up the passing of the bill.

Now, lets look at another effort on the part of the Harper government, one that is not so "right".

You can lead a horse to water, but that doesn't get you a foundation built...

As some of you may recall, in December of 2010 I posted an article about the housing situation on the Attawapiskat First Nation reserve in Ontario and the ongoing political and public outrage calling for the government to fix the problem. My solution was simple, or at least I thought so. Unfortunately, as usual the Canadian government decided against listening to my sage council on the issue and took their own course of action. A course of action that I suspect had far more to do with public relations than actually providing a long term solution to the issue.

The governments solution at the time was the announcement that they would commit to sending 22 modular homes up to the reserve as quickly as they could be built and road conditions would allow. The band committed itself to the responsibility of preparing the lots so that when the homes arrived they could be dropped in place and residents could move in as quickly as possible. A joint effort that would ensure that results were achieved as quickly as possible.

Well the good news as of this week is that the homes building is progressing at a rapid pace, with a good portion of them completed and ready for transport. The bad news is .......

My, how times have certainly changed

This would be hilarious, if only it wasn't factual, when I came upon this I just had to pass it on, I wish I could give credit to someone but I don't know who authored it. If you do, just let me know and I will thank the individual.

By the way, take it as the humor it is intended to be, if you think about it too much you will break into tears.

CBC......What on earth are you thinking?

I read an article the other day, well actually I read it twice, then once more just to be sure that I was not imagining or misunderstanding what I saw in print. As I wasn't certain I could believe the contents of the article, I went out to do my due diligence and research to verify the facts.

As you may have surmised from the title of this post the article is about our beloved mother corp, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Now as a Canadian I have learned long ago not to be too shocked by any decision or course of action CBC undertakes, remember these are the same clowns that cancelled The Simpsons (a ratings giant) because it was not Canadian content, yet have force fed us Coronation Street (a British soap opera) for the last quarter century. So what was it that nearly made me fall out of my chair?

Are there any losers left?

This past weekend my family and I had the good fortune to attend a hockey tournament with my sons team. These events are always a good time and provide the opportunity for the players and their families to get to know each other better.

However, they often highlight a pervasive attitude in our society that is anything but good. The attitude I refer to is what I call the "Participation Award". You know, the award that every child participating in an event gets, sometimes its a pendant, maybe a medal of certificate. It is generally the award that the team that didn't win gets by default.

Ahhh....A man after my own heart!

The last few days have seen a flurry of outcry in response to a remark made by one of Canada's senators. Now while I could comment about the fact that our political parties seem to have more interest in playing a game of one-upmanship than actually running the country, I will hold my tongue on that issue for another opportunity (Lord knows there are enough of them). Rather today I will share my thoughts on the comment that actually started the ball rolling on this one.

The comment was made by Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, who has made a few remarks in the past that have got him into hot water. While I can't say I agree with all of his remarks I do see the wisdom in his latest one. Now before I go any  further here's a little history on the man, Boisvenu became a prominent victims' rights advocate after his daughter was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 2002.  Prime Minister Harper appointed him to the Senate two years ago.

So what did he say that has got opposition parties and bleeding hearts up in arms?

What's all the fuss about Old Age Security?

Like most people I see a day when retirement will be upon me. So while I am doing my best to build a nest egg for those years I also realize that I will be counting on the government for some of my retirement income.

This means that anytime our federal government discusses changes that may effect the retired segment of our population I listen up. Naturally when I recently heard Prime Minister Harper speak on the need for raising the age of eligibility for Old Age Security (OAS) to 67  from it's current 65 my ears perked up and I immediately assumed the worse. However like so much of what the mainstream media serves to us there is far more to it than meets the eye.