Quick Hits From the Week That Was

This will be a new weekly feature that will focus on some of the things that have happened around the world in the last 7 days. As this is the first one, I may take some liberties with that definition and go a little further back but regardless, here we go…

With all the bling they wear, they could probably afford to feed half the poor people in California by themselves

-Kanye West spent $6 million to propose to Kim Kardashian. At this time, it is unknown how much he spent on her ring but let’s put the whole day at about $8 million conservatively, or basically what he makes in about 1 month (based on last year’s figures at least). At a time when everyone is trying to be fiscally responsible, here is the self-proclaimed  “next King of Pop” spending like a drunken sailor on a whore, sorry, she just plays one on reality TV.  At least she didn’t name her child something stupid like, oh wait, yeah….she did

-The new wannabe Madonna known as Miley Cyrus needs to have a sit down with the real article so that it is explained to her why she is making herself look like a fool and isn’t really doing anything than making a mockery of her own public image. Her musical talent aside (and she appears to have some), she needs to have someone other than Sinead O’Connor (that paragon of one hit wonders that she was), espouse the lack of moral virtues of the industry they are (or once were in O’Connor’s case) a part of.  Had Madonna or Britney or Lady Gaga said the same things to Cyrus, I doubt we would have heard the backlash from Cyrus that we did and still do as it appears most of the inability to listen to a very valid message from Sinead isn't the message but rather the messenger herself. Miley, it shouldn't matter who is giving you advice. It's valid. You need to listen.

-Will Americans finally wake up to the reality which was broadcast on the HBO show “The Newsroom” last year? In case you missed it, Star Jeff Daniels main character of Will McAvoy essentially made striking comparisons between the Tea Party and the Taliban. He drew parallels in their attitudes, their goals, their beliefs about freedoms, you name it. And then, to top it off, the Tea Party went and caused a near month long shut down of the US Federal Government. I guess they wanted to make that comparison a little more legitimate as now its crystal clear that they want to overthrown the President. Before it was more undertones of bigotry and hatred. The shutdown, brought on by the incredibly asinine notion that the poor deserve to have health care coverage, was a blatant attack on the people of the United States, akin to a terrorist attack from within. These people are poisoning America and the sooner that is seen, the sooner the cancerous tumor that they are can be extracted from the government offices they are currently infesting.

-The World Series looked like it was going to be a mismatch after Game 1 and I, personally, was disappointed. The last thing I want to see is the Red Sox cruise to another World Series Sweep. I have no love for the Cardinals mind you, I just can’t stand the smug attitude of john Farrell, former Blue Jays Manager, who pined for the Red Sox job so much, he forced his way out of town. A person who acts the way he did, clearly did not deserve to have this kind of success this fast. The only reason he has is that the Red Sox were re-built character-wise and have one of the deepest and most talent laden roster in the league, despite their age. They might well still win this thing but make no mistake, this is a mirage we are seeing. This team will not be able to repeat their success next year, not with all the changes coming within their own division with a young Tampa team still in its prime, the re-vamped Blue Jays, ever dangerous Orioles and the Yankees who we all know are going to do everything in their power to void the rest of A-Rod’s contract so that they can sign Cano to whatever he wants and then go shopping again on top of that. 

After making this catch, Beltran left the game and the Cards got spanked but they won Game #2

The Red Sox are aging and, as we saw yesterday when the Cards evened the series, a young and hard throwing team can run and pitch their way past them as they will eventually implode (see that horrific top of the 7^th inning as case in point). I feel The Cards might just be able to pull it off but they will need to win the first game in St. Louis first or else the Red Sox will be deadly and out for blood in Games 4 and 5.

-It shouldn’t be a real surprise that people are upset with the US over the NSA’s actions being made public. They have spent the last decade spying on allies as well as friends illegally. I just wonder if such a fuss would have been made if the NSA had actually shared their findings with their allies instead of kept it to themselves as it appears they did out of fear of legal reprisals (which is where this story is heading).

Another part of this story that isn't making nearly as many headlines is the fact that many of the NSA analysts who were doing the illegal surveillance were also doing so for their own personal reasons. Jealous spouses checking phone voicemails and emails of their wives and husbands, fans checking in on their favorite celebs or athletes, it runs the gamut in terms of what these people did with little if any real penalty for their actions. Sure their were some who had their security clearance lowered or were suspended without pay for some time but the fact that this was allowed to even happen at all tells you how poorly these people were monitored...BY THE VERY SPY AGENCY  THEY WORKED FOR!!!

-Still on the topic, there are many countries still gripped with austerity measures designed to try and stabilize their economies and yet not a single one has seen those same austerity measures (which include cutting pensions and wages to the vast majority of people within their borders) used on the salaries of ministers and members of parliament within those same countries. In fact, in some cases, just like what AIG did in granting bonuses to its highest ranking staff members after they were bailed out 5 years ago, many have seen an increase in their pay (Portugal and Greece among them) as well an increase in the police protection they are afforded. Maybe if they were being fair to the people they are supposed to be governing on behalf of they wouldn’t need more police protection.

Euro governments are still in financial peril and yet they don't look at a top down solution, only bottom up

-A small question that still begs to be asked: The American Revolution happened over 225 years ago so why are they STILL using the un-scientific and very British Royal way of doing measurements in miles and inches as well as Fahrenheit? Meters, kilometers and Celsius are used by EVERY scientist on earth and is not based on some abstract measures created by an English King a few centuries ago. What gives?

-This one has “karma” written all over it. The man who dared to accuse North America’s longest serving mayor of conflict of interest charges, Elias Hazineh, has been ordered to pay $170,000 of her $500,000 legal bills she mounted fighting his claims. It’s been argued that Mr. Hazineh was actually a puppet for long-time political rival of the Mayor, Carolyn Parrish, who was the person who blindly forced a judicial inquiry which found that there was no wrong-doing on the part of the Mayor, despite Ms. Parrish’s deepest wishes that there were. Mr. Hazineh should go ask Ms Parrish for reimbursement or help in paying back the Mayor as she might well be the only person other than him who thought there was something wrong being done during the tenure of Mayor McCallion, who has seen her city grow from a farming community of 30,000 in 1978 when she took office, to a sprawling Metropolis-like City of nearly ¾ of a million people today.

The longest serving mayor in North America deserves to have a lot more respect shown to her then she has lately

 

-In case you remember the name Carolyn Parrish, she was the Liberal fool that openly criticized America by calling the entire country “a bunch of war-mongering bastards” back in 2003. While this is becoming more and more true by the day, her gaffe led to her being kicked out of the Federal Liberal caucus, led to her eventual loss of her riding in 2006 and was a sign to come for the entire Liberal party which is now but a shadow of its former self both in actual federal seats in parliament and in financial aspects as well. She thought she was going to just ride into city politics and knock the “old lady” Mayor McCallion into retirement. She should have probably just bided her time quietly until the Mayor moved on at her own pace instead of trying to push her out the door like the ungrateful brat she appears to be. Mayor McCallion is the reason that there are or have been ANY city governments in this area that have maintained a balanced cheque book (Just look at the mess David Miller left in Toronto. It has taken 3 years for the city to get out of the hell hole he created financially). Parrish is now looking more and more like an impatient child who feels the position of Mayor is hers by some sort of birth right. Won’t happen now and hopefully that should serve as a lesson to any and all challengers to Mayor McCallion (should she choose to run again).

-something really needs to be done about the amount of drivers on the road that literally think they are more important than the other thousands of drivers in and around them. Each and every day, I see drivers riding along the shoulder to pass others or failing to yield to emergency vehicles or blatantly on the phone flaunting their carelessness as they cut people off and then get mad at others for calling them on their pathetic behavior.  There needs to be some kind of easily accessed webpage or site that others can either take pictures of these people violating the law and post to instantly or some kind of police traffic site where the same can be done. I mean what is the point of the HOV lanes and their painted road signs if every day people violate them without consequence?

-On the topic of the HOV lanes, I propose that the government should install those same plastic cones every 5 meters or so apart, right on the lane marker, to deter people from illegally changing lanes at high speeds while in those lanes. This would drastically reduce the number of lane violators and/or cause insurance rates to rise as idiots will damage their cars trying to swerve between them. Either way, at least someone will be happy (mostly the insurance companies).

-Again, still on topic, Car Insurance companies in Ontario are gauging people even more in the last few months before they are forced to cut rates by at least 15% by the government. In some cases, rates have soared for some drivers over 30%, which, after the forced cuts, would still bank them a hefty amount. This is truly pathetic of these billion dollar companies to try and milk the cow even more before they are forced to cap their rates by the government. Personally, given how this has transpired, if I were in power, I would impose huge fines on these businesses as these are predatory business practices they are employing and they all know exactly what they are doing.

-On a final note, there are rumblings of a possible snap Provincial election coming down in the next 60 days or so as the Fiberals are thinking they may be able to re-gain a majority position given how weak Andrea Horvath and Tim Hudak look to be lately. I fear that they may be right and that I may have no choice but to either spoil my ballot or bite the bullet and vote NDP as Tim Hudak is a putz who is ruining the gains made by conservatives in this province. No wonder the Conservative party of Canada is NOT affiliated with the Ontario PC Party. I wonder what it would take to get Hudak ousted as leader? A 3^rd defeat at the hands of a bunch of lying Fiberls? If so, then we may be able to finally get rid of him as leader and replace him with a new person who better understands how to wield the power entrusted to them when elected.

I know Mc-Liar is out of the picture but Wynne looks like him a little and is acting like him so there is no real difference between the two

 

Until next time....

John Scott Hit: NHL Needs To Send A Message

Adam McQuaid jumped John Scott after his horrible hit on Loui Erickson

With the recent rash of suspensions in the NHL, the time has come to send a message to players that injury-causing hits will no longer be tolerated, especially those committed by players who are so interchangeable that their absence from the team will do little to alter the game results of their team.

John Scott may very well be a very pleasant and likable guy. We all heard his comments after his brain-rattling hit on Loui Erickson of the Boston Bruins 2 nights ago but his actions are so entirely unacceptable that the league enacted a rule that outlaws the exact angle at which he maliciously drilled Erickson from. If you recall the Matt Cooke hit on former (and soon to be retired) Bruin Marc Savard, which at the time did not result in a penalty, caused Savard to suffer such a severe concussion that he was only able to return nearly a year and a half later and was almost immediately re-injured (another concussion) on a play that appeared harmless in comparison.

While it is also true that Scott may have no real “priors” in terms of other suspensions, a message needs to be sent to all players, particularly those who live out on the edge of being true NHL players: The Stars of the game are off limits and failure to understand that may very well mean your own career in exchange. 

After his face was mangled and no penalty was called on either play, JR went nuts verbally on the NHL, with good reason. The only difference now is that we are not visually seeing the carnage as it's being counted in concussions

This reminds me of the mid-1990’s when the stars of the game like Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull and JR (Jeremy Roenick for those of you who weren’t sure) would openly and bitterly complain about the treatment they were being subjected to by the lesser lights of the league. Essentially, lower skilled players would hack and slash and basically assault the stars of the game whenever they could with impunity and get away with it. It got so bad the Lemieux actually decided to retire instead of keep playing (before eventually returning 3 years later).

A message needs to be sent now, especially since the league is taking steps to make it more difficult for fighters to police the game. Case in point, the recent Luke Gadzic vs Travis Moen fight in Montreal which was stopped as soon as both players took off their helmets (a way for the league to police their own  new rule about helmets as well). If the league is going to slowly start to weed out the role of the enforcer/fighter as they have been, then they need to also say in a loud clear voice right now that going after the high priced talents of the league is unacceptable and make Scott the poster boy they can march out to the world as an example of their new mandate.

This shouldn’t even be a numerical suspension in terms of how many games he misses maximum. There should be a minimum in place but the maximum should be left open ended. What Brendan Shanahan needs to do is tie Scott’s return to the ice to the return of Erickson’s. Loui was acquired by Boston to be a top goal scorer as his history over the last 5 years would indicate, he (unlike Scott) knows how to put the puck in the net. So if Erickson is out for 30 games, so is Scott. If Loui returns after 21 games, then so can Scott and so on.

The minimum number of games he should be suspended for is 10 games but to set a precedent and show low-skilled meat heads that this kind of action is no longer acceptable, tying his return to that of the player he injured would be ground breaking and could very well change the way many of these lesser lights in the league look at how the act on the ice. It won’t take multiple suspensions like it did with Matt Cooke to change behavior. All it would take is one meted out in this fashion, to change the mindset of these players.

One more note on this particular player. Scott is a Sabre and their new coach, Ron Rolston has now had 3 incidents occur in less than a month on his watch as coach (The Scott-Kessel pre-season scuffle which cost David Clarkson 10 games, the Patrick Kaleta head hunting hit which cost him 10 games and now this one). At what point do you look at his tutelage as being a possible reason for these actions. Granted Patrick Kaleta is a tool who doesn’t seem to have a clue about respecting other players as he constantly chirps and runs anyone, but John Scott is a bit different.

It was clear that he was sent out in a pre-season blow out game to attack whomever it was that was lined up against him that night, this time it was Phil Kessel. Against the Bruins, down by 2 in the third period, there was plenty of time to get back into the game and Scott should have been stapled to the bench while your skilled players did everything they could to get you closer. Instead Rolston sends out a heat seeking missile in Scott with the clear intention of having him be a “shit-disturber” out there. You have to really question the mentality of this coach as I doubt any other NHL coach would have done as he did in both of these instances.

Part of the discipline here might also need to be handed out to the coach who seems to think he is coaching in the ECHL as part of the movie “Slap Shot”. He was fined for the pre-season altercation but maybe taking him out of the equation for a few games would serve to teach him about how things are done in the NHL. Then again, with Buffalo off to a 1-9-1 start, letting him stay behind the bench might be punishment enough.

Liberals Need to Go but Not Many Real Options

I had hoped she would be different from Mc-Liar.

Alas, I was oh so wrong...

I was the first to admit that I was glad when former Premier Dalton Mc-Liar "retired" and left office. The thought at the time was we would see some kind of change in Ontario's Provincial political spectrum and things would start to clean up as his replacement would do their best to distance themselves from all the previous adminstrations scandals (ORNGE, Fighting the teachers needlessly on their contract issues, Power Plants being shuffled around, the OLGC mess and subsequent unnecessary firing of the man who fixed many of the issues Paul Godfrey, Refusal to step in and settle the LRT vs. Subway debate in Toronto).

Instead, the only change we have seen so far is the sexual orientation of the new Premier, or in other words, "same ole', same ole'". In fact, I would argue that the current Premier is even worse then Mc-Liar because not only was she part of the team that was behind most, if not ALL the scandals, she is now trying to push most if not all of them back in her closet of skeletons while creating her own public money scandals.

Speaking of which, Ms Wynne was in the news today defending her Government spending $7 million on bonuses and insane pay for 64 executives in charge of setting up and ensuring the 2015 Pan Am Games are on or under budget and all the venues are completed on time. These same executives, who are basically milking the province for asinine expenses and caused the same Fiberal government to force them to adhere to serious and relevant charges instead of the frivolous and needless attempts they have been making to pocket extra cash.

You would think that given all the problems that have finally come to the surface from the now 10 plus years of Fiberal Governments in Ontario, this new Premier would at least TRY to be somewhat different then her predecessor but nope. We have a woman in charge who is doing her best to be just like Mc-Liar in just about every which way possible which means every one should start reaching deep into their pocketbook because the only thing she hasn't done yet is announce a hike in taxes (but given the way she is spending like a drunken sailor as Premier, you just know that it is coming soon).

The biggest problem is our utter lack of a true alternative. We have the NDP and Andrea Horvath who SHOULD be using her role now as the third party in a minority Government to her advantage, forcing the Fiberals to do EXACTLY what she wants with regards to any number of bills and amendments to proposed bills coming to provincial parliament. Instead, we have hardly heard a peep out of her and her image which had been on the rise, has taken a massive hit. If someone in her position of power can't seem to realize that she HAS the power or how to USE that power, then clearly they will not be able to use their power properly if they are ever in that position.

If I were in her position, I would have pushed MY agenda to the forefront instead of sitting on my 

hands like she has for months. Hello Andrea, are you awake over there?

Even though I am bashing her, she is still the better choice out of her, our current un-elected Premier Wynne, and the leader of the PC Party, Tim "who the heck" Hudak. Here is a man who has absolutely no clue what he believes in nor what to do to wrestle the chair of power away from the Fiberals, despite 10 years (!?!?) of horrible public service. Hudak went into the last election on a huge upswing, with some polls showing that not only would he win, but win going away. Then he began to open his mouth and you started to see that he will never be anything more then a contrarian; someone who has no ideas other then the ones that are different then yours. I may have just made up that word but it still seems to fit with him.

Hudak lost a double digit lead when he started to question the role of unions, threathening to break them at any instance when they disagreed with HIS future government. He started to question how our schools are funded by proposing equal funding for all faith schools (sorry to anyone who agrees with this but this should NEVER happen and I will explain shortly). His lead took hit after hit with each campaign stop and debate as it was clear he had no real plan in mind. As much as I think McGuinty was horrible, he was a good politician; he knew what to say to get people to vote for him. He somehow was able to wrangle away a minority government despite the fact he had no business doing so.

None of these 3 have or had a plan on how to make Ontario the top Province in Canada again

Add in Ms Wynne and that makes a frightful foursome...

Back to the faith based schools concept I mentioned earlier. There is absolutely no reason to give each and every faith an equal footing in terms of funding. We have the Catholic board and we have the public board. There is no need for ANY OTHER faith based school board. If people of other faiths were barred from attending catholic schools entirely, then yes, I would say it is unfair and equal funding should be part of the mandate.

The fact is anyone from any faith can attend any Catholic or Public school now while these faith based schools are exclusionary and will not allow people of other faiths to enroll in them and therefore do NOT deserve equal funding. As well, given the fact that we owe our entire school board system to catholic women school teachers teaching in 1 room schools back in the late 1700's (as you can see, I have watched the Canadian Heritage commercials), our history and educational foundation was started by Catholic school teachers reading out of a bible to students so I'm sorry if it bothers some but we have already changed WAY too much for foreigners (in my opinion) and this is one area where we should frankly say "enough is enough!" There, I have said my peace on this topic.

Tim Hudak seems to have forgotten this part of our history as Mc-Liar did before him in his ill-advised final push to force the very people who put him into power (teachers) to accept a new contract that had not been negotiated at all. Education, or the lack thereof, is the single biggest reason why the US is falling and falling and falling into more and more financial and social upheaval. It is the uneducated masses who support the Tea Party in the US. People who can't "read a lick" but know that Barack Obama is a Muslim because Fox News told them so.

 This dilapidated building is what is left of one of the 160 closed schools in Detroit

Elect Tim Hudak, and this could very well be a part of the future of Ontario

The city of Detroit is bankrupt and has been cutting back on everything over the last 40 years starting with their schools. They have closed 160 elementary and high schools in the greater Detroit area which has resulted in thousands of school aged children not getting an education and instead working on the streets for drug dealers and causing general mayhem in starting fires and destroying what is left of their decaying city. A city of over 1.3 million people in the early 1980's is now down to just over 700,000. If Hudak had things his way, we would be right there following in the footsteps of Detroit.

So what does all of this mean? Well boys and girls, it means we are stuck with a corrupt government and 2 inept opposition leaders that are either to gunshy to use the power they have or will make things 1000 times worse if we ever put him into power. Both of the opposition leaders have no real plan on how to turn Ontario back into the once fiscally booming Province it once was and so we are stuck with this malaise which is cast over our entire Provincial political system.

All of this reminds me of a line from the movie "The American President" where Michael J. Fox and Michael Douglas have an exchange regarding leadership which essentially is an explanation of how desperate we as people are for true leadership in our daily lives. Fox (one of his aides) explains to Douglas (the President) that people are so desperate for real leadership that they will crawl across the desert and stop at a mirage and drink the sand thinking it is water. Douglas responds that the people drink the sand because they don't know the difference between real and fake leadership.

A couple of scenes from the American President

Leadership is what we truly need

That is where we are now. We are so desperate for real leadership that we soak up anything that even slightly resembles leadership in the hopes that it may be what we need to turn our city, province and country into what we hope it can become. With the way our 3 current provincial leaders are going, with their me-first attitudes and lack of both forward thinking and creativity, we have to hope that our next true great leader is waiting in the wings.