This has to be passed on

Wally Keeler writes, and I agree, that this collection of videos has to be in the public domain.

"It might interest those to know that the Press Conference a.k.a. Two Minutes Hate, at which Gordon Gilchrist was the target of hatred by the righteous, can be found on Youtube here.

And another view here from CFRB

A good theory why Spitzer had to be removed

In this "babble" forum post reporter Greg Palast opines about the way Wall St. bankers punished Elliot Spitzer (of course it helped that ES couldn't keep his pants on) babble: Eliot Spitzer - the media lynching makes sense now

The week's observations

Why the Town can't be taken seriously about its budget
Two instances of folly have shown up in the last two weeks from the Mayor and Council in their attitude towards the Town's finances. The first was approving a capital budget and a tender request for the "frink" wanting it built before the end of the year, and then not approving operating funds for the said object - mind boggling! The second instance is allowing the Cobourg Yacht Club to operate on a pathetically low lease for its facilities. Occupying prime harbour lands for its clubhouse and boat storage yard, not to mention having exclusive parking rights in the only parking lot in the Marina not subject to parking fees, they only pay $2 per year, and now Council has allowed this ripoff of taxpayers for another 15 years. This cavalier attitude to the husbanding of the Town's financial resources is a betrayal of taxpayers trust. Town assets should be used by the private sector at normal commercial rates. This same Council at budget time will do what all other Councils do when looking at budget lines will bemoan the lack of financial acumen that allowed a previous council to grant the St Peter's Court low income complex a fifty year tax break and yet they allow a club that has faced charges of elitism and exclusivity for years get a sweetheart lease rate. Shame.

Count me out on this one
The mighty Mayors of the Lakeshore have engaged in a case of testoral/estrogal bragging (one of them is a woman) about whose town will use less hydro on the most useless example of municipal feelgoodism I have seen in a long while. I refer to the one hour of self inflicted darkness to demonstrate to the world that if people wanted to they can use less hydro. This exercise called by do-gooders and greenies is supposed to draw attention to the need for more conservation measures. Just like other political stunts, and the proposed Mayor's anti-poverty taskforce is one of them, this voluntary shutdown is just that, a stunt.

If the Town was serious about conservation it would instruct the company they own - Lakefront Utilities, to implement meaningful conservation measures: grants or subsidies for home renovation programmes, meaningful rate reductions for users who save energy, aggressive appliance replacement programmes etc. But they will not do that because, despite talking a big case, the Town and the Utility are scared s***less that consumption would drop. They would lose revenue and in the absence of a Provincial revenue replacement programme local rates would have to go up to cover the revenue loss.

I would suggest that if these grandstanding politicos and greenies were serious about this day let them try it on a day in the middle of the darkest winter and then see who falls for this local con game.

So who is the American now?
This week when one of the Harper clones excoriated the DIon Liberals for "an act of americanism" for pushing the RESP private members bill through the House, he obviously didn't know that his own party was guilty of an even greater example of Americanism. The term refers to the practice of member initiated bills (as opposed to government bills) or the attachment of items having nothing to do with the bill being passed. The best example of this has now come from the Cons. They have buried, way down in the budget, an item that has nothing to do with money but Tory ideology, a clause that allows the Minister of Immigration to whatever they want to do in the administration of immigration quantity and quality. What has immigration got to do with the budget, yet the Liberals are damned as "Americanised billmakers". Such chutzpah, the immigration item will go over well with the redneck community but destroy whatever efforts Jason Kenney has been doing in the ethnic communities trying to get their votes. What Tory numbskull thought that one up!

Another slant on the private lives of Public Figures
New York state's Governor has resigned for being exposed as a person who frequented prostitutes. I wonder if he not been such a hypocrite (he aggressively prosecuted call-girl rings in a previous occupation) as opposed to being just a politician with a penchant and craving for extra-marital sex, would there have been such a furor?

What a case of constipation!

Woman sits on the toilet for wo years

Anonymousers beware

Read this if you post anonymously or use a pseudonym Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

The OPP problem in Kenora

In the far north - Kenora - a policing situation has reached a democratic crisis. Last month, using Jack Watkin's report and recommendations, the Kenora City Council voted 4-3 to replace the Kenora Police Service with the OPP. This was a hotly contested issue and still remains controversial.

Last week the Kenora Police Service Board voted 3-2 not to disband read about it here. This now sets the stage for Council to confront the PSB. Seeing that Council has no power over the PSB except for the ability to set the budget, what will happen when the Council refuses to fund the PSB?

An interesting jurisdictional mess!

Just a comment on the comments!

As regular readers know I am addicted to talk radio, especially when I am driving at night. Being on the job last night in the middle of the storm I decided to listen to the CB instead of George Nory prattling on about aliens and the end of the world. It was bith enlightening and very illuminative and insightful about the opinions of the "rednecks".

The contributors to the evening's radio waves covered all of the subjects under the sun and none of them fit to be heard by the "thought police" or the professionals whose wages depend on the foolish utterances of others. Those watchdogs would have had a fit just listening to these guys go on about immigrants and turbans and other irritants to the "Dominant Group"

Anyway I would suggest that if these professionals want to set up a years worth of work they should just listen any night to channel 19

Piling on

The expression "piling on" is most apt in the case of the virulent campaign being waged by the masters of the "official reconstruction society associations". By that I mean that every group in existence, that incidentally obtain their employment from parsing all public utterances for offensive words and phrases - offensive to whom one asks, culls the society in which we live for the malignment of minorities.

Two cases come to mind, the infamous Gordon Gilchrist, and now Rob Ford, a Toronto councillor. Gilchrist wrote a letter expressing his views about immigration and immigrants worth as future Canadian citizens, and Rob Ford, when extolling the virtues of the Asian worker called them "Orientals". Both cases have raised the ire and collective wrath of the professional "minority police" for offenses against minorities. It is no coincidence that these two folk are facing people who would give no quarter to them even if they had their mouths sealed for ever. Their utterances are just an excuse to beat them over the head because of their right-wing political opinions.

But the underlying issue here is not that these miscreants said what they did but by doing so have done two things: exposed the "minority police" who lie in wait for silly people to say silly things and then amplify the comments for the purpose of aggrandizing themselves, and have confused and angered the "white folks" who now wonder just can be said in public without being censured for it.

Free speech is neither free or speech! Not free because if one expresses views contrary to the arbitrariness of "modern society" one is condemned for it. And, not speech because nobody has taught the mainstream what to say. As someone said to me this morning - "I, can't say oriental anymore?"

This debate will turn into racial warfare before it gets better, such a pity because none of the people involved are racists, a little confused by the forces of change coming upon then a little too fast perhaps, but conflict just the same!

An image generated by the headline doesn't match the story

What an image this is California cows start passing gas to the grid

Typically topical!

Are elected officials allowed to have private opinions?
I would hope so but not according the the local arbiter of morals and taste - the cobourg daily star. In an editorial excoriating the local school board trustee for expressing his opinion about immigration and in the wake of the white folks at the school board passing a motion of censure, because his views on immigration conflicted with the PC position on diversity; the debate is not over. The question is, can an elected official hold obnoxious views? Of course and until the local school board makes Gordon Gilchrist wear official pajamas then he can say anything he wants on his own time. The school board doesn't pay enough to take over ones life and brain so they should expect trustees to say foolish things, and it is good that they do, it proves that they are human and have foibles. After all this is not the first time we have had Cobourg trustees saying obnoxious things and being flamed for it. Bob, I should be Mayor, Spooner, when he was a trustee ran into trouble when he made comments about Jamaicans and their propensity for crime and was roundly criticised by all involved. All I can say is that people say obnoxious things and offend other people and that is their right, but it does make them look foolish. If they want to take the risk good for them because what's the alternative - self-censorship and that should be a hanging offense!

Will Hillary be booted out this week?
This subject is a hot one in our house, the love of my life intensely dislikes HC, mainly because she stood by her man, and also is a fan of Oprah, "what she likes - I like". So my choice of HC is looking more like road kill every day. If she doesn't come through on Tuesday she will be toast. Pundits have gone crazy on this topic and I really think that the coverage has not been fair. Obama has been given a free ride, but who cares, he is on a roll. Come November when when he has had months of fighting McCain he will not be looking so good and his platitudes will be wearing thin.

Prince Harry is home!
So the third in line has completed 10 weeks of a 14 week combat tour and the papparazi were muted. Good for him. After all of this be prepared for news of him completing secret training in the special services, a branch of the Army where disappearances are expected and common place.

Not the final word on the Monstrosity at the Lake
Council has obstinately upheld the voting split and forged forward with a motion to retender the concrete blob that will mar the green space at the waterfront. The local paper has been bombarded with a vast quantity of letters that denounce the vote. The taxpayers still do not know the estimated operating costs and are outraged at the sums of money that have gone to the consultants up to this point. What can be done now? Unfortunately not much, there are still voting points left in the process - one to award the tender and one to adopt the money allocated within the budget, but that will not bother the "four dead white men". The problem is that the protesters are now known as agitators, objectors and the usual suspects in the eyes of Council. As such if any of them appear before Council to speak they will not be listened to and also run the risk of losing public support "because they protestoth too much". For any campaign to succeed it must be seen as positive - bring on the campaign for a community centre.