This is bizarre

The Ontario PCs issued a press release and it was picked up by Northumberlandview.ca here. This release takes the McGuinty government to task for not making Lou Rinaldi a Cabinet member in the latest shuffle. First of all who are these faceless people in the PCs? Last time I looked the local PCs were floundering to find a candidate to run against Loo. Secondly since when does "Little Mike"  speak for constituents in NQW. Thirdly by nominating Loo to be Cabinet material is says bucket loads about the standards of a Hudak Cabinet, presumably Loo would be a key member if he was a PC!

The Ford saga continues

The old saw "There is no such thing as bad publicity" certainly holds true for the fat guy running for Mayor of Toronto. Rob Ford riding his one trick pony seems to be taking it down the road of success. The more outrageous his behaviour becomes the more his supporters howl in glee. Makes remarks about immigrants, shown to be a man with a faulty memory not being able to remember a conviction in Florida, but then he couldn't remember what he said at the maple Leaf gardens after an evening of lubrication. His record of self-abuse which leads to memory loss is working out well for him amongst the lads. White males love this guy. His one trait for electoral success appears to be one of the populist type. But we have been down this road before. Angry white males voted in grat numbers for that other person who "did what he said he was going to do". Unfortunately Mike Harris didn't do what he said he would do half of the time and still gained a reputation for doing it all. 

Frankly the BurdReport is appalled at a candidate who doesn't admit to his warts but in fact denies them. Having warts is OK but lying about them is not. Just remember the front runner of four months ago being hounded from the race when Adam Gianbrone, a single man admitted to having a bit on the side - he admitted it and was booted. What does the fat buffoon Ford have to do to get booted too? 

Fun on the Pier

A guest post from W Keeler - to view the pic click on it

Cobourg's waterfront was assaulted by outsiders Monday afternoon. The outside agitators came from the west, an unrelenting swarm of heavy breezes silting Corktown with fine sand dredged up earlier in the year. The outside agitators also stirred up some exhilarating head-banger waves to entice local teenagers to the bottom end of Division Street.  

Occasional waves exploded two or three stories into the air, drenching girls who perched themselves, like sweet little seagulls, on the steel railing that perimeters the pier. 

There were three boys and a girl in the frothing turbulence of the water, riding the surface currents of the waves. It was a wonderful display of mental alertness and physical strength and endurance of their prime-of-life bodies. The background ambience is Danger. Risky behaviour? Of course. How else does a human being test their abilities? 

 

The waves had a rough rhythm roughly learned by the teens, when they were climbing the ladder, the impact and withdrawal of a single wave ripped them off the rungs and pulled them back down in to the deep. One of the boys gripped the girl's arm to ensure her safety. She successfully made to the arms of a girlfriend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, everyone is safe and secure, drenched in a lifetime memories. They will eventually become responsible civilians, pass through two or three decades, and recall the sheer exhilaration if this day. One older woman admonished the teens, telling them the fine details of bashed heads, lungs full of water, etc. It reminded me of the words of Irving Layton in The Whole Bloody Bird: "It is cruel for the old to inflict their disillusioned wisdom on the young. Fortunately it is also impossible."    

 

 

 

 

 

 

Online gambling - what are the odds?

British Columbia has online gambling, it is outlawed in the USA and many rinky-dink nations have embraced it as a way to make money. Premier Dad has decided that Ontario should get into it later this year. After voicing concerns for many years he has come around to the position of his Lottery Czar – Paul Godfrey, who on his very fiirst  interview after being appointed, mused about getting into online gambling. So what will make online gamblers switch to the OLG? Nobody knows but as online gamblers have the world to choose from the odds on the OLG site better be more than average. This will be the norm – online offers to entice numbers to the site and better odds will keep them there, although the complexity of the games and the ability of the games to hold gamblers’ attention will be necessary.

The downside is that without investing heavily in programs for problem gamblers this will be a very risky and immoral venture. Once again a demonstration of greed before morality. Perhaps if the proceeds of this new venture were to be dedicated to health care or any other such government program rather than just being pumped into general revenue the public may be more accepting.

Legalise Pot, Not Gambling

Recently I watched some coverage of Proposition 19 , currently up for a vote in California. This innovative initiative is designed to raise tax revenue in that state, which is in imminent danger of not being able to run essential government services. Proponents want to legalise possession of small amounts of marijuana, setting up a system to collect taxes on its sale like they do on alcohol. They figure they can raise 1.4 billion a year doing it, and polls show 52% of Californians support it.

Watching the show my thoughts turned to our own Premier Dad announcing last week that online gambling, once disdained by him and his party, is to be the latest new tax generating tool of our government. I'm no expert on addictions, and no gambler either, but my gut (don't need no experts to tell me stuff) assures me that many more lives have been ruined by obsessive gambling than obsessive pot smoking, if there even is such a thing, which I doubt.

There are enough closet puffers out there to finance a few government projects, believe me, and there are also many pot growers in the province who would welcome a chance to grow and sell their product legally.

California will have the same problem as Ontario if pot was legalised though, and that is a federal government with a contrary law. While the feds in the USA are relaxing their stance, allowing medical marijuana in its military hospitals in the 14 states where medicinal pot is legal, we would certainly face a huge battle here with Captain Stevie and his Robot Puppets in charge. They're the guys who keep busting and jailing disabled people who have medical certificates to smoke up in Canada. It could take some convincing to bring them along. They'd have to think up new uses for all the jails they want to build, for one thing. Maybe hydroponic grow-ups, I'm sure we can think of something useful.

All I know is given a choice between sitting in front of a computer screen gambling away the rent money, and paying a tax on pot like we do at the liquor store, I'll take the latter option any day. It's so much less perilous for the people.

Anonymous postings

Yet another muse about anonymous postings. This comes in response to both a desire to do something different with the site and a question from Greg Hancock, who like many others is getting a little peeved with the ease that anonymouses can snipe from the bushes and PO the rest of the site. Pleading guilty to having a liberal policy about comments it is realised that such a policy is not pleasing to some.

The answer is to transfer to another platform where comments have to be accompanied by an email address. This email address should not be displayed but known only to me. You don't give it up you don't get to play. The real alternative would be to switch on the 'users only' switch to read the site and that is far too private. We at the BR like comments but bear with us as we tighten them up a bit.

BTW if you are really interested in the next phase of the BR checkout this beta site and submit comments and explore the work so far. The difference in this site is that when comments are submitted you will asked to submit a name and email address. The details will be confidential, the name chosen will be shown and all that this will do is PO the anonymousers who hide behind anons. Just to restate you can still be anonymous but youo must provide an email address. Even this can be a pseudonym as yahoo and google mail can be faked.

Pssst - want to buy your neighbours' junk

If you do head on down to the largest yard-sale in the province. Sales from one end of the Town to the other. This collectin of tables was in Victoria park, presumably these folks either came from out of Town or live in apartments. The best buy of the day was at the Library book sale - five for a dollar, everyone else was at least fifty cents or a dollar each. Great fun and a wonderful Saturday morning.

Jerry Ford is revealed - check out "jerryford.ca"

jerryford.ca

Perusing the list of names on the Town of Coboug's website page that shows the names of filed candidates, we have a person called Jerry Ford. Nothing in the MSM yet, how does this person expect to get noticed if there is no publicity? Ditto with Wayne DeVeau. He has put his name forward but some people do know who he is, probably not as many as he thinks there are!

So go to it folks - if you intend to run filing your name is not enough, we have to know who you are.

Met John Floyd today, he tells me that he will be announcing his candidacy for the Mayor's spot in Port Hope, at his house on August 25th. That's only eight weeks before the voting day - not much time but the big difference with John is that he has been running for Mayor for the past twelve years since the last time he ran.

Mr Marin makes a call

The Ontario Ombudsman, Mr Marin, has issued a report, some call it scathing, about the way LHINs conduct their public consultations about decisions that affect the public. In the case of a LHIN in Niagara it closed emergency rooms with decisions made behind closed doors, after a period of questionable public consultations.

In Cobourg we have had closures of hospital run clinics bsed on approval by "public consultation". A citizens panel was established (opinions abound about the legitimacy of that process) and they recommended that closure take place. If memory is correct this panel only had one public session out of five held. Does that make the cut under Mr Marin's rules? If it doesn't then the opponents case that the closings were out of line hold water. Anyway it seems that Mr Biron and his high priced consultants will have to head back to the drawing board to design a proper and transparent consutation process for the next round of cuts, that are as inevitable as night follows day.

Don't make wishes - you might get more than you dreamed of.

This adage comes to mind when it  was revealed that paper ballots , in Cobourg, are as dead as the dodo. A dangerous move and one subject to manipulation. Now people may call the objectors to voting machines and internet voting conspiracy theorists or just plain cranks but as the guy in Missouri says, "If I can't see it I don't trust it!" Just remember the missing votes in the Al Gore election and who are these people running the election anyway, they certainly aren't the little old ladies with the blue hair that have been running electioni all their lives? 

Say goodbye to recounts and polling figures. This move will throw political science for a loop. Nobody will know where the votes come from, only those who vote. The wonderful thing about this is that traditonal  "vote-pulling" and "marked lists" are gone so local rainmakers are now redundant. After all how will scrutineers know who has voted and when? Internet voting has reduced the election period by a week as any candidate stupid enough to waste time door-knocking in the voting period will be met with the voter at the door telling them that not only did the voter vote but guess what, "And I voted for you!"

So the modern day mystery will be the way internet voting will unfold, every body has access to a computer and if motivated enough to get off the couch and put the beer down might do it. We can't wait for the mystery to begin.