Is this guy the son of Elvis

Elvis Presley is reputed to have recorded over 900 songs, this fellow - Pete Vallee - knows them all. For a more detailed description of Big Elvis click here Pete goes by the moniker of "Big Elvis". This name came about because at one time he weighed over 800lbs. He has since lost 500 of these pounds thus begging the question can he still be called "Big Elvis"? One of his more startling accomplishments is his claim to be an illegitimate son of the real Elvis click here A fascinating story.

His free show is a highlight for both freeloaders and Elvis fans. He gives good value and a fun show. His sidekick does a mighty fine impression of Conway Twitty. We make it a point to drop in every visit we make.

A week's worth of reading in two hours

A pile of newspapers has produced these notes:

The "County's Growth Study"
This exercise, one that is regularly repeated every so many years (five to fifteen), is in full bloom. How can anyone be convinced that this is just not another box on the Gantt chart? Something that is required by the consultants. Because the submissions are the same, the presenters are the same but the politicians are different. Maybe that is the problem!

This particular set of politicians are upset that the Province has ignored their delusions of grandeur. Stamping their feet they have excoriated the Province for only setting out modest growth patterns in the big picture. But why should the Province send any money this way when it appears that the Mayors of the County are complaining about the estimates because if the growth patterns, put out by the Province, hold up then very little infrastructure money will be coming to the County. That's the beef - "We are going to missing out on the money".

Besides why should any of us longtooths take this exercise seriously when we can remember previous Provincial population studies predicting that hamlets, like Camborne, Cold Springs and Welcome, growing to 3,000, as they did in the 70s and 80s.

The developer led planning of Cobourg and Port Hope has little to do with Official Plans and other documents, they always get their ways by buying in by funding secondary plans, why should the next ten years be any different? Cobourg can grow to 16,000, in the East End anytime. All they, the developers, have to do is to build another Sewage Treatment Plant and go to it. Bring in the 'boomers' from Toronto and forget the need for the need to provide sustainable jobs and industry, and ignore the looming problems of a real estate deflation and housing market collapse when the boomers die and the surviving population is not large enough to buy all the empty houses.

But these issues will not be heard in the County's study because it is only an exercise to keep the politicians and bureaucrats busy.

If the truth were told the last thing the midgets of the County, the rural mayors, want is an Official Plan, it will be their demise, as it is a precursor to one tier government.

Smart Meters:
Smart Meters are back in the news. These devices, a product of active McGuinty minds, will be soon coming to a house near you. Your House! At a cost of $4 a month all these devices will do is record the amount of electricity the house uses and relay that information to a central office. Killing at least two meter reader jobs and giving the homeowner any useful information I defy the Hydro Utility to give us all one practical reason why we should pay a monthly fee to be told how much hydro we use. One more prediction - this useless fee will be the "photo radar" of the next Provincial election. The first political party to promise to abolish these redundant appendages and monthly tax grab, a la Mike Harris and photo radar, will win the next election.

Here goes my head:
Why are we, as a community deluged with celebrations of the success of Women: Businesswoman of the Year, Woman of the Year etc. I could easily live with this when we celebrate the success of winners - male or female. I fear I have a long wait.

Two pics from last week:

Away for a week

We are away for a week, today is a trip to the Grand Canyon - pics to follow.

Gran Pulls Own Teeth Out Because She Couldn't Get NHS Dentist

I just hope that the antimedicare zealots don't get a hold of this story Gran Pulls Own Teeth Out Because She Couldn't Get NHS Dentist

Just a quick question

Howcum if the County has received 2 million bucks for its roads and bridges why do we still have a 6.1% increase?

The French rush in

Let me declare my bias, as a person born in England I am genetically programmed to be suspicious of the French (the Paris guys not the Montrealers) Never having won a war and always looking for a fight to run away from or surrender out of.

So these are the guys that the Harpercrits and the Dion dummies are relying on to haul their ashes out of the fire. A Battalion of frenchies (less than the 1000 demanded by parliament) are moving into the holiday camps enjoyed by the other "fighting" forces of the Dutch, German, Italian, Ukrainians and the other nations who use "caveats" to avoid meeting the enemy. Remind me next time when we renew the NATO alliance to join up with "caveats". We can avoid casualties and spend less money!

So do you feel better now?

Earth Hour:
After the orgasmic display of darkness, led by the cheerleading of the Toronto Star (how many extra trees were chopped to print the large editions?) we are now in the throes of post-darkness "So what do we do now?" It will be interesting to do the calculations of the lost revenue, here in Cobourg. Because as expressed in the past, lost revenue has to be made up by the local utility. But the bigger question is: "What's next?"

The greater population that has fallen for this gimmick designed to draw attention to the problem of Global Warming now has to get off the pot and decide to force the Politicians to do something. How about more money for mass transit, how about tax breaks for telecommuters, how about low cost loans and grants for home renovations, how about power at cost.

And before you beat me over the head for criticising the gimmick let me tell you that on Monday a new furnace is going into my house, and it ain't cheap to buy the most efficient furnace available but it has a very nice payback in reduced gas and hydro costs. So the four large bills needed to get this unit should be a very nice investment. I've lowered my carbon footprint, what have you done except feel good about switching some measly lights off for an hour?

The County Budget may be eclipsed:
As you know the County Budget came in at a whopping 6 something percent. This is totally unacceptable, especially when considering that two Mayors were absent for the vote and a vote to defer to reconsider was voted down. But now we have a Provincial handout of approximately $2 million. This will definitely lower the increase and make all the budgeteers look good, but making silk purses out of pig's ears shouldn't be the case here. We should still be calling the County Mayor's to task, as Deputy Mayor Jeff Lees has done, for approving an exorbitant increase.

I ran into another former vocal critic yesterday
She told me that she was laying low for a while, "You know it just isn't worth it (to speak out) if you have to endure a month of criticism." A failing comment on the merits of dissent. Sad!

Two different wage increases
Two population groups received wage increases today: MPPs and workers on the minimum wage. Guess which group got the 75 cent increase? Not the MPPs, receiving their third increase in 16 months their base wage, and none of the government members get this as they are Parliamentary Assts or Cabinet members, now tops out at $116,000. A contrast in values!

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?