Start the week off with cheesy puns

I hate puns, not funny not clever and just too cheesy. Here is a page chock full of them. The subject is the shoe attack on Bush yesterday in Baghdad. At last Bush said something I could agree with, calling the attack an expression of free speech. I wonder how Canadians would have reacted? This event will keep the late-night talkers in material for a month.

For those people who love the electoral process

The Senatorial election in Minnesota has been a strange one ever since the SNL comedian Al Franken decided to be the candidate. On election night Franken was about 300 votes behind the sitting Republican and ever since the counting process has been long and involved. The latest twist is detailed here Personally I can't wait until it finishes. But will it be cut short by the counters and governing boards, just as the counting in Illinois in 2004 and Florida in 2000 was?

Who's in charge of this Agency?

Reading the local papers this weekend, I was out of Town last week, and the report that the "Doctor Retention Committee" is running out of cash jumped out at me. This is probably a misnomer, they spending cash they have never had! It seems to me that whoever is running this agency is running on the wrong assumptions and therefore committing money it never had - or never had any hope of getting. Just who is on the Board of this Agency or does it get run out of the back pocket of Kim Rudd and a couple of chums? The budget was based on taxpayer funded donations from all of the Municipalities in West Northumberland. Unfortunately some of the Municipalities canvassed didn't contribute or only gave partial donations. Thus the cash flow estimate was out of whack. Instead of cutting back activities the committee went ahead and committed to an aggressive budget that will require extra funding to fulfill its purpose.

The question now is should lower tier municipalities fund this kind of activity? I think not - the Province is responsible for Health and to have Municipalities compete with tax dollars in the lottery to attract Doctors is an irresponsible use of tax money. If we have to bribe Doctors to come here how long will they stay, and will they move to a better offer the next time a Municipality comes along with money in hand? It is interesting and satisfying that two of the three new Doctors came from the area before training. Would they have come back home without incentives?

The whole process is unseemly and wasting tax dollars and without good cash flow controls the Committee will be forever coming cap in hand trying to guilt Councils into paying for a process that should be out of their jurisdiction!


And talking about spending money - just who paid for the fireworks in the opening ceremony of the "Peter Delanty Memorial Rink" that interrupted dinner last night?

Now this is how to handle online disagreement

Taken from John Draper's excellent online edition - The Cobourg Blog wonderful way to handle differences of opinion. Christie does a great job of deflecting potential insult.

1. Daniel J. Christie Says:
   December 13th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

   A botonist once told me that most species of tree increase their output of seeds in the last year of their lives. So it is that Stephen Harper, a Manitoba Maple in the throes of death, appoints 15 seeds to The Senate thereby ensuring that the species -acer conservatus- no matter how undesirable, lives on and, through political insemination, is perpetuated.

2. Joe Fountain Says:
   December 13th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

   I would have thought that a “Sun Media” columnist would get the facts correct. There are 18 Senate vacancies.

3. Wally Keeler Says:
   December 13th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

   The same “Sun Media” columnist is also incapable of differentiating between Aldous Huxley and George Orwell.

4. Daniel J. Christie Says:
   December 13th, 2008 at 9:00 pm

   Both your arguments are iron-clad, well put and beyond any defence I might offer. I therefore defer to your superior intelect, researching skills, grasp of calculus, and, above all, deft and gentle-but-scathing wit. Thus, faced with towering opposition armed with such withering asides, I withdraw.

   For now anyway….

5. Wally Keeler Says:
   December 14th, 2008 at 5:42 am

   Hyperbole will get you everywhere.

Anybody know what this means?

PORT HOPE, ONT. — It's late afternoon in this pretty, historic town east of Toronto, and the light is getting crepuscular in the sunroom of the clapboard house that Farley Mowat and his wife, Claire, have lived in for more than 30 years.
Time, in short, for a libation.

Such is the lead for another fartcatching feature, in the G&M here, about our own literary icon - Farley Mowat. The article gets easier to read and there are lots of words containing few syllables. However the lead just got to me.

Almost as much as the report that Rick Norlock, our very own conciliator and man of many olive branches saying that he welcomes Mr Ignatieff's suggestions about the "New Harper Era". But it is reported, in the CDS, here that"He did not like Mr Ignatieff's tone, interpreting it to mean that discussions would take place "if the prime minister comes crawling" to the new opposition leader. Well (RN) has been sniffing the fetid air in the PC caucus room too long. Nobody has suggested such a thing and perhaps nobody likes the PM's tone either! It's easy to see how Norlock's EA- Tom Rittwage - can be as obnoxious as he is - he must have been sniffing the fetid air too.

The wrong symbol

Just driven back from Strathy Rd and the Town is busy clearing snow from the intersections on the West side. The question is - since when have we cleared snow, on sidewalks that abut private property? This little tractor had not only cleared the intersections into a parking lot but ploughed the snow on a sidewalk connecting the lights at the MoneyMart building and the entrance into Walmart and the entrance of the parking lot into the Bulk Barn. This sidewalk runs along land owned by somebody that wants Loblaws on that spot for their future store. Are Loblaws?property owners going to pay for this?

Clearing sidewalks which private owners should be doing is one thing the other is that this is a Department - Public Works that turned down the idea of clearing snow for Seniors. Some symbol of arrogance, some symbol of not caring and the wrong message entirely.

Of course I will be pleased to eat every word of this post if the Town actually gets paid by Loblaws/property owners for doing this!

Yep it's King Iggy!

Now where does this leave the progressive side of the Libs? Iggy represents the old Libs, no matter what he says. These guys just think that changing the monarchy in the Party will bring everyone back into the fold. Sorry, that's not going to cut it. The new Libs need more than that. Like policies, like a leader that relies on consultation as opposed to Royal edicts. I await to be convinced. But if this guy thinks he can deny Harper a majority, in January, I have some swamp land in Florida for sale!

Late comment
A quote from Warren Kinsella's page. WK is an Iggy fartcatcher in the biggest way and represents the moral superiority of the Liberal Party

"...and we will win it. With the best front bench anyone has ever seen - including, notably, Stephane, Bob and Dom. We have got some of the best political organizers around, from all sides. And the party and the grassroots are itching for a scrap, too, as evidenced by last week's events."

For those who have been away for a week

This guy works for the National Post and has summed up all of the columns written in the last week. He must have spent his time reading for days but he did a good job in producing this summary The perfect tsunami. In a teacup .

So we get to see Iggy crowned today!

Pundits are proclaiming that the Libs secret cabal of movers and shakers have decided to dump Dion and install Iggy, either today or Wednesday. Can anybody see the hand of our very own Senator from Bagot St. in this? Still a huge influence in the party Sen David Smith has been a big backer of Iggy from day one. He brought him up from the depths of obscurity, in Harvard, to be foisted on the Party as the Messiah. It will finally happen now, circumventing the Party leadership process and completing the putsch.

What it means for the anti-Harper forces is up to question. In an ideal world one would be structuring an arrangement to run a two party race in close ridings to eliminate vote-splitting, but that means the NDP has to be convinced that there is something in it for them: either more seats or more friendly legislation. In the absence of such a deal then the Libs can only depend on the dislike of Harper and the fact that Iggy is not Dion for more votes. Will there be enough votes to take power? That is debatable!. So we are back to square one - the ascension of Harper to power for the next four years.

What a pertinent post

Mathew Ingram of the G&M has a post about the topic that we have been blazing away at for the past two days - anonymity. Here it is; it says it all.