An amazing piece of local cyber-history

Reading this morning's papers about the launch of a new search engine, one that may or may not challenge Google for supremacy, I decided to test it. So using a well known, but still unknown worldly reference I punched in my name. This is one of the pages that came back. opinion page: everybody has them, some stink more than others Some of you may be interested in what I was thinking in the millennium years and others may be amazed that some of the local issues haven't changed a great deal, just the names.

A comment about Obama that I can agree with

Peter Hitchens writing in the "Sunday Mail":

"JFK and Ronald Reagan actually had something to say when they went to Berlin, because the wall that sliced through the city so clearly illustrated the brutal ‘we know better than you’ arrogance of idealistic Leftism. Now the wall is gone, and the most Left-wing person ever to run for President of the USA tries to steal his forerunners’ standing by driveling to a crowd in a park, most of whom can’t understand a word he says. Lucky for them, say I. When will Mr Obama’s absurd bubble of adulation burst?"

Read this for a realistic angle on jail

Read this opinion from the UK, conditions are the same in North America and think about it - or just reject it as liberal crap. Either way it is pertinent! Crime problem? Just lock 'em in the lavatory

I can finally agree with something Corcoran said

In an op-ed piece here in the National Post this morning Terence Corcoran disagrees with the fundamentals of the recent spectrum auction. In this country the airwaves are regulated and in a fit of government activism the ruling party, as would the opposition, decided to auction off the place that broadband lives - the wireless frequency. Canadians have been paying through the nose for the use of cell phones due to an oligarchy of three non-competitive phone companies. These companies purchased 60% of the airwaves offered and 40% was set aside for new comers. This was done in the naive belief that competition would ensue thereby bringing prices down.

I agree with Corcoran and disagree with the premise: how can new companies burdened with so much debt, used to buy spectrum, compete with the oligarchy. The real result will be no change and the big three will buy the startup's airspace and continue to hose us with high cell phone charges. Buy shares in Rogers and Shaw!

Another JibJab commentary

Look what the big boxes have done, in the minds of the JibJabbers here

Stuff for Monday morning

Why do people bother to go to Council when nothing will happen to what they say:


This is an item on the Council agenda for Monday evening. Mr Taggart is going to tell Council what his client thinks of the idea of roadblocks, imposed by Councils, on the property at Tremaine St. The old Cobourg Matting Company site is rundown, abandoned and sits in a floodplain. There is a plan to redevelop it with homes (what else!). However it appears by the wording of the agenda it doesn't matter what Mr Taggart and his client say, none of it will be acted on as the remarks, whatever they are, are already determined to be consigned to the official hiding place of limbo-land, known as "received for information". And, Council still doesn't understand why they are fading into political irrelevance in the eyes and ears of the voters.

The Cobourg Star finds a new guy!
Dan Christie, selfstyled curmudgeon and sometimes renaissance man has a new gig. Every other Monday the readers of the CDS will find 750 words of "wisdom according to Dan". However the first attempt didn't get off to such a good start. Dan trying to shed his 'bad-boy' image penned a piece of pablum about the pablamic subject of "nice". Unfortunately the other 'bad-boy of the pen' - Wally Keeler, read the piece and spotted a quote which had been wrongly attributed to the wrong author. Pens flew and a correction was issued and although the axchange will never be worthy of the literary sparks produced by the "London set" of the 1930s it is an indication that Dan had better sharpen up as others are just waiting to pounce.

Another Superjail saga looms
Many people can remember the 'superjail debate'. It took place about ten years ago in Cramahe Twp. Acrimonious exchanges pro and con divided the Township. Eventually the jail was sited in Lindsay and things died down. I say this for the spectre of jail debate has entered the County politic. A report has been filed at the governmental level that recommends, amongst other things, that a new 'superjail be constructed in Kingston and smaller jails be closed and the system consolidated at the 'superjail'. The area pols are horrified, the MP says there's nothing to worry about and Stockwell Day, the Minister of the Interior, says "Yep it's one of the recommendations, but don't worry it's a good ten years off." My money is on the opinion published by local Lawyer John Hill. He said that the fix is in, MP Rick Norlock is being taken for a ride and the system is going to follow the US example of building "SuperMax".

You're never too old!!

94, Entrapped In Prostitution Sting

The Jib Jabbers are back

It's that time of the year, election time that is, and the satirists and comedians are hard at work making fun of the process. Jib-Jab, an animation company that produces spots about everything, and some of those spots allow you to insert faces of your choice and send them to friends and enemies alike has produced this one about the forthcoming election. See it here

And who said the option was dead!

Police chief supports amalgamation with Cobourg

And we thought that Keef was the problem stone!

I guess being 62 and filthy rich allows you to do things like this Runaway Ronnie disappears with Russian

More on stupid people

This letter was published in the Northumberland News:

To the Editor:

My husband and I attended the Cobourg Waterfront Festival on June 29.

We parked on a small side street and did see the no parking sign, however we parked well off the street not blocking anything.

When we returned, a tow truck was hooking up our van. We received a parking ticket and feel this may have been justified, but to tow the van over a $22 ticket is a bit much.

Is the Town of Cobourg that much in need of money? We are three seniors with a veteran sticker on our licence plate, yet the tow trucks were lined up like vultures.

God help the poor out-of-town families left stranded with children, not knowing if their vehicle had been stolen. I would think Cobourg would be more lenient when they are looking for the tourist trade.

We for one will never attend your festival again.

Jean Ferguson

Brighton

What can we say? Try this - "If you knowingly parked under a No Parking sign and then complained about being towed because you were in a safety zone we don't want you in Cobourg if you are not going to obey the law!!"

What a perceptive comment

Tucked away in the comments on Garth Turner's blog today was this comment - read it and then realise that not all taxpayers and voters are of the usual type some can think!

"I got my first up-close look at where my new neighbours are living while (coincidentally) distributing Garth Turner fliers over the past few weeks.

Several things struck me:

1) In the two and a half or so hours I spent pounding the pavement, I saw exactly two other people using the sidewalks - one walking a dog, and another handing out newspapers.

2) The reason for this may be the fact that there is absolutely no shade to be found. Anywhere.

3) The second development I walked through wasn’t bad, but the houses in first one (which was only a year old) all had peeling paint, heaved up paving and crumbling concrete on their steps and porches.

There are many, many things wrong with suburbia, particularly in its current, “insta-house” incarnation. Garth has covered most of them, but one thing we all have to remember is that the people living there aren’t the enemy.

Too often in Milton I’ve heard disparaging, marginally racist comments made about “those people” who have suddenly invaded our town, as if somehow they are to blame for the mess. In fact, not only are they the victims in all this, they are actually responsible for the only upside in this whole fiasco: added racial and cultural diversity in Milton.

Hell, I can actually buy some decent East Indian junk food now!

By all means, blame the developers, although they are only doing what corporations do - maximizing profits. Even better, blame the municipal politicians who, seduced by the siren song of millions in added property taxes and development fees, have rubber stamped every single development application that has crossed their desks with the sole caveat that there be at least one Big Box complex for every eight square kilometres of McHouses.

The fact that they have suddenly realized that all the development fees they’ve been charging don’t begin to cover the costs of servicing these developments, and in fact come too late to help anyone for years after they move in, elicits exactly zero sympathy from me.

And yet, they keep handing out those permits like candy and continue to leave all the fussy business of urban planning to corporations whose sole purpose is to squeeze as many high-priced, low-cost houses as they can into hundreds of undervalued acres of former farmland that we may never, ever get back.

They should all be run out of town on a rail."

Your morning smile

And you thought there was just Molly Maid! Fancy A Job As A Naked Cleaner