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.

What we find in our morning mailbag!

I received an amazing set of pics from last week's Queen St fire. Taken by our fearless poster - Wally Keeler. A beautiful set of artistic life stills; see them here.

This idea is an original - perhaps that's why it won't go anywhere

Hidebound bureaucratic pols and traditionalists will not understand this but freethinkers will and it's brilliant read it here

A thought for the day

A thoughtful look at the coverage of the race down under globeandmail.com: A glaring double standard

Cobourg's other blogosphere

In the "Cobourg Blog" here there is an article about the revised plan for the "frink". The history of this item is blurry but the upshot is that it will consume about $2 million dollars to build. On Monday evening the Council will vote on a revised plan, one that will keep the project below $2.4 million. The ironic part of this financial boondoggle is that as the costs go up, due to inflation and the lack of available contractors, the revising of the plan to fit the price leads to reductions of scope. What a display of "more for less"!

Anyway John Draper describes the revised plan as a concrete pad with an artifact in the middle. This artifact may or not be a fountain, but it is still an ugly P.O.S.

The sad part about all of this, according to local "frink" expert - Martin Partidge - is that a natural ice rink is already part of the park, all we have to do is fill with water and let it freeze naturally. Just like those rinks in Donegan Park and the private pad right next to Councillor MacCaughey's house on Henry St. Having an ice rink in the park can be done for nothing, but will be subject to the vagaries of the weather. The Mayor, once the concrete is in can be praised and damned at the same time: praised for a year round ice rink in mild weather and damned for the rest of the year for polluting the green space at the waterfront with a patch of useless concrete.

On the subject of the Cobourg blog one should visit it only for the fact that the most verbose of posters have discovered it. A fellow called "poetency" (we all know who he is), and Daniel J Christie have been offering comments faster than the internet can print them. Most entertaining!

But back to the subject of Council's role in the "frink", there is one very disturbing aspect to this. The engineering and development costs have been performed by Totten Sims & Hubicki (TSH) to the tune of about $110,000 dollars. Who has been authorising these payments and what ambiguous motion allowed it to happen? A real cause of concern for all those taxfighters out there

The Tuesday read

Not quite the last word on election signs
Last week the County banned election signs from all County lands, and that includes roadsides. This action drew the interest of Murray Weppler, a veteran campaigner and planter of thousands of signs, he pointed out that under Federal law nobody is allowed to hinder the "political message" unless it is for safety reasons. Seems straightforward to me; now all we need is a lawsuit against the County and we can get our political expression back.

The search for a Kraft replacement
The Mayor of Cobourg, as chair of the search committee for a replacement for Kraft, was reported as saying he has met with a few potential investors. That's OK for some but until he says who they are can we be sure that the site will remain an industrial employment site. It wouldn't surprise me if one of the groups was Mitch Goldhar's Smartcentre group. specialising in the turnaround from industrial to commercial and the attendant profits contained therein, Mr Goldhar has planted shopping malls in old industrial locations. That's what we don't need on that site - another shopping mall!

Let me be the first foolish one to say this in public
The other day I was almost involved in a traffic accident because of the person in front of me. It was a white box on small wheels driving in the middle of the road. The occupant of this travelling coffin is a disabled person, whom I have since discovered is deaf, so she would never hear any horn blown at her. This white box (a motorised wheelchair) was travelling so slowly that when I spoke to the person who almost hit me from behind said, "You were going so slowly I thought you were parking!". It is a bloody menace and so are the other motorised wheelchairs in the road. I can understand why they are not on the sidewalks but not all of the sidewalks are impassable. So "GET OFF THE ROAD." BTW if I am the only one of this opinion tell me.

Now we wait for the accounting
The Winter Festival appeared to be successful, in the Park. But did the visitors only stay in the Park or did they shop on the Main St. The Main St. didn't appear to be any busier than normal from where I was on Saturday, so who did benefit: the Merchants or the families in the Park, and congratulations to the setup people in the Park, or both. And did the sale of buttons cover the actual and total costs? The final report will tell.

The Police issue in Kenora
The Chief of Police stood up at a Police Services Board meeting last week and dared them to disband the Service. Interesting times up North but with ramifications down here. Read the story here.

A few thoughts

How about that black school?
What a bunch of nonsense, imagine that a segment of society that has trouble keeping their kids in school now demanding a school of their own. How about this - give the kids a decent school with good teachers and a commitment to excellence. I'm no educational expert but surely a good curriculum committee in the school board could write up a set of courses that would encourage all kids to stay in school, if the black kids think that by learning about "black values" would keep them in school go for it but within the system.

How soon we forget!
Talk of regional development, Hamilton Twp and Cobourg are thinking of sharing a land use for future job growth, kinda makes one think about the "Diamond Triangle". A regional development organisation that failed about fifteen years ago in a flash of municipal jealousies. I often wonder just how much institutional memory remains in the municipal sphere these days.

Goodbye to election signs
The County has banned election signs on all County roads. A silly decision, but completely predictable considering it came from the King of Northumberland - Big Hec - the Mayor of Trent Hills. One side effect would be the reduction of campaign budgets as only half the number of signs will be needed now. At $7.50 a pop a lot of money is going to be saved.

The last outrage for last
"Steve" is running scared of the prospect of his political situation worsening and is now trying to engineer a Federal election. He and a few stupid liberals are lusting for an election, he will get one, spend a lot of money and the electorate will not be impressed. We do not want an election, but we will be getting one. Sad, and a waste of money.

Mayhem at City Hall

Read this and thank our lucky stars that we don't take things at City Hall quite so seriously as this guy. Oh but wasn't the Mayor of Niagara falls attacked with an iron bar a few years back. Moral of the story - don't aggravate the voters! Gunman kills 5 at town hall in Missouri