Assassinations are effective silencers

2015/03/04 Leave a comment

“In dictatorships like Russia and Argentina when individuals become troublesome for the administration they are shot dead. Assassinated! Or made to seem to have suicided.
In what we call democracies like Ontario they use character assassinations to discredit and silence dissenters.
—————
In Moscow where the Putin people put short-work to another challenge to the president for life they have marched in remembrance of Boris Nemtsov,  an effective orator who had been scoring political points against Vlad the Impaler.  It was around Boris Nemtsov that  many Russians felt they could rally  in support of a better life.   And then they buried him.
Naturally, the Putin police have been put on the job to find the killer and bring him to ‘justice’.  The aftermath is of little consequence because the problem, ‘Nemtsov’ has been solved.
————-
In Argentina, a prosecutor who was to testify against the president for alledged crimes against the people of that country, was found dead of a “self-inflicted” gunshot to the head the day before he was to reveal in court his charges which he claimed would put President Cristina Fernandez in irons. Instead he went to an early grave, his demise timely insofar as the President was concerned
putting an end to the critical challenge facing Ms.  Fernandez.  And, as they did in Moscow, thousands marched in Buenos Aires with tears and lighted candles.
Here again the immediate problem in a country famous for “helping dissenting citizens disappear”) was made to disappear.   The secrets of Alberto Nisman were buried with him.

Reminds one of the untimely, embarrassment saving journeys to an early grave of Ron Brown, a U-S cabinet secretary. He died the weekend before he was to testify to a committee of the Congress about Bill Clinton’s nefarious schemes. Plane crash. Or, George de Mohrenschildt who was on track to testify to members of the U-S House Select Committee on Assassinations. “Suicide.” Or Vince Foster whose “suicide” saved (BOTH) Bill and Hilary trouble. Dead men and women tell no tales.
The Mafia chieftain of New Orleans for years Carlos Marcello had a favorite saying, “three people can keep a secret, if the other two are dead!”
————
In Ontario, the provincial parliament was the scene of an assassination. Absent guns and bullets,  words were the weapons of choice.
During a debate on the floor of the parliament on the updated sex-education curriculum the Honorable member from Chatham-Kent-Essex  Rick Nichols said he thought “opting out of teaching students evolution “was not a bad idea.”  We  understand that in the political arena, debates on one subject can morph into irrelevance in the twinkling of an eye…..that’s how  “..teaching evolution” got thrown into this back-and-forth over Sex-Education.  This happened on a Tuesday.

Anyway by Thursday  we witnessed a full Liberal frontal assault on Rick Nichols.  Led by the deputy premier, and other members of the Kathleen Wynne government  they pounced to deflect

“a steady barrage” of questions from the Conservatives and the New Democrats about allegations of bribery in a recent by election in the city of Sudbury.  The scorn heaped on Rick Nichols came from not only the Liberals, but the New Democrats too!  But the Liberals took it a step farther showing off copies of the latest National Geographic called “war on science.”

Deputy premier Deb Mathews rose to say, “I really do want to take this opportunity to congratulate the Ontario PC party on being the cover story of the current issue of National Geographic magazine.  Rick Nichols was not in the House Thursday probably warned off by the Interim leader of the Tories.  But his absence didn’t diminish the ridicule.

Rick’s statement, ” I don’t believe in evolution”  inspired a cartoonist for Toronto Star to deliver a vicious frame that clearly suggested Rick Nichols was a crackpot.   Then, the crippling words of ridicule spooked the Conservative hierarchy into declaring Rick’s opinion about “evolution” were his and definitely NOT  representative of Ontario Tories.  Not much comfort there Rick!

While I am not surprised that a backbench Liberal might be allowed to vent spleen over the Conservative member’s statement, “…I don’t believe in evolution” , I would not expect the Deputy Premier and the Premier to fully embrace the blatant attempt to make Rick Nichols look and sound small and deranged and unworthy of his position as part of the political fabric, no matter the party.   His religious conviction became the reason for a scurrilous attack approved of  by the Premier, Kathleen Wynne.  And it came from someone who is the beneficiary of the pluralist society in which we live. It elected her to be our Chief Executive without so much as a whisper of dissent relative to her sexual orientation.  And you know many people have held their tongues because their religious beliefs do not coincide with her lifestyle.

And rather than suggest in no uncertain terms that Rick Nichols is absolutely entitled to ‘not believe in evolution’ because this is a society is tolerant of ALL,

she said, she was very surprised and “taken aback” to hear Nichols confirm his belief, not to believe in evolution.

Furthermore she added, ” I would have expected, quite frankly, that everyone in the legislature would have a firm belief in the science that we teach in schools, and certainly that I believe in.”

What science is that Premier Wynne?  You mean the “theory of evolution” is now the Science of Evolution?  Just because National Geographic says evolution happened doesn’t mean it did.

Is it now a prerequisite of seeking a seat in the Provincial Parliament that you belong to the vast majority of non-thinkers who say they believe in evolution!

Is it not possible to suggest that theory, not matter how plausible to some is still a THEORY?  Synonyms include conjecture,  speculation, assumption….even Einstein, whose theory of relativity has stood years of testing said if there is ONE mistake in my theory it is history, literally!  Last summer there was some speculation that his theory was toast but the speculation was premature.

And then someone said if evolution is proved what do we do about where all the subjects of evolution came from.  That gave rise to the incredible theory that the Universe came from nothing.

It was suggested by Lawrence M. Krauss that Quantum Mechanics may be the answer.  His theory was welcomed by many who felt that at last you could put God out of the equation.

One of the problems of course, his theory copied from several scientists before him violates the First Law of Thermodynamics.  That’s the law that  says nothing in the Universe(matter or energy)

can pop into existence from nothing.  The debates may never end and I must, so I will leave with two points.

For those who continue to struggle with where it all began remember these words:

“the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God…….for in six days the Lord created Heaven and Earth and the SEA and ALL that in them is and rested on the seventh day wherefore, he Blessed  the Sabbath Day, and hallowed it.”

And (2), for those who believe this statement and the rest of the Bible are the ravings of the deranged, writing mythological nonsense, try and get your evolutionary mind around the miracle called  the eyeball!

Help is on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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NFL drops another…..

2015/01/23 Leave a comment

In a world dominated by Central bankers concerned about deflation who would have thought that a football player(Tom Brady) would be sent out to face the media to explain his involvement in what an Indianapolis Reporter claims is deflationary monkey business.
Monkey business engaged in by the New England Patriots. Naturally, Mr. Brady denied any knowledge of deflation as it relates to the footballs used in the game he and the Patriots played on Sunday last. In fact why wasn’t the equipment manager sent out to face the reporters. He would have first hand knowledge, wouldn’t he? BUT,
my first reaction to the deflation story, now categorized by some unimaginative reporter as Deflategate, which is probably called deflatengaten in Munich, was what’s the difference, both quarterbacks use the same ball. Well they don’t! I was totally unaware that each team is required to provide 12 footballs for their own use when they are on offense.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a dumber idea. Why would the NFL, a billion dollar monopoly put at risk the efficacy of a game on which millions of dollars are wagered by allowing the teams to provide the footballs which obviously are vulnerable to tampering! Even if there was no tampering in this case.
And this was not just another game it was a contest to decide half of the competition for the SUPERBOWL which everybody knows is THE sporting event of the American year.
Doesn’t the NFL have protocols in place that would ensure no equipment vulnerability. Obviously it does not but did you know that? I did not.
—————-
So what could be behind the story broken to the world by an obviously biased observer that NEW England played with footballs that were deflationary.
(A lark?) (revenge for the terrible beating endured by the Colts)(or perhaps a promotional gambit inspired by someone in the Commissioner’s office to help promote SuperBowl).

Whatever the outcome of this bit of deflationary news, it is much more interesting because the investigation of the balls in question rests with Roger Goodell and company, the NFL’s highest authority and an organization that seems to have an infinite capacity to fumble the ball.

We know one thing, the NFL couldn’t have created a more effective campaign to advertise the SUPERBOWL!

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The hosed in this group are all Canadian

2015/01/14 Leave a comment

Today gasoline prices in 11(eleven) US states are a shade below $2 dollars a gallon.
In the Greater Toronto area the price per gallon of gasoline, if you’re buying the cheapest grade, is $4.20.
That’s (4 dollars and twenty cents) “at most GTA gas stations.”
Stations selling for less are independent of the 5 major oil companies that have been dictating the price all gasoline consumers pay
for years, costing us hundreds of millions of dollars.
Recently friends were visiting from Italy and as we drove along Lawrence Avenue shortly after they arrived both noticed the gas pricing anomaly at the same time, exclaiming in unison
“…..do ALL the stations charge the SAME price for gasoline?” “Why yes, Torontonians prefer it that way.” The visitors were incredulous!!
The idea that all major service stations, Shell, Esso, Husky, Petrocan and Sunoco in the GTA could getaway with the obvious fixing of gasoline prices, speaks volumes about the intelligence of the consumer of gasoline in the Greater Toronto area AND the competence of the Federal Anti-Competition Bureau(or whatever it’s called now) responsible for making sure things like this DON’T happen!
The lack of competition among Toronto’s oil companies has become part of the landscape. So much so that daily, Radio and Television stations proudly report the price of gasoline (tomorrow),
“at most GTA stations.” And of course the only BIG FIVE stations not selling at the pre-ordained price are those situated close to the Independent Stations that sell their gas at a few cents below the price set by the PIG FIVE! While the Combine restricts competition, it still remembers there is some competition for the gasoline dollar in Toronto but not much.
For instance I have to drive several kilometres if I want to buy my gasoline from a station not of the PIG FIVE. The restriction is obvious! The lack of competition, costs me that’s is a fact!
World oil prices have fallen about 60% since June. Under the watchful eyes of the PIG FIVE gasoline price in Toronto have fallen less than 40%.
How come? You know how come!
It drives me bonkers that people in Niagara-on-the-Lake or St.Catharines can slip across the border into New York state and buy gasoline for $2.00 a gallon instead of paying $4.20 cents a gallon on the way to NYS.
Of course the first thing GTA people will point out is that the US gallon is smaller and the Canadian dollar buys less.
You do the math. Imperial gallon versus the American gallon. In Toronto, the PIG FIVE charge 89.9 cents a litre, in Buffalo where competition rules, prices vary averaging 35 to 40 cents a litre.
It’s a tribute to the strength of the Oil monopoly that even as world prices have dropped precipitously, they have managed to keep GTA gasoline prices substantially higher.
It suggests Federal-provincial collusion with BIG OIL.
Toronto is the perfect place to pull off this kind of mischief because it’s citizens care more about the state of the Maple Leaf nation than they do about oil companies picking their pockets.

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…..”Hello I’m Rob Ford and I’m here to apologize………..

2014/07/16 Leave a comment

The latest polls suggest Rob Ford, the embattled and politically challenged Mayor of Toronto is unlikely to win re-election but there is hope for

this troubled pol, his could be a new, profitable career in the relative new field of Apologistics.  To date he has made more apologies to more people for a variety of reasons than the last three mayors combined.

But these apologies could be the foundation of a new career.  Ford the Younger could develop into the best known, best paid apologist, of world reknown.

“………..Hello I’m Rob Ford and I’m here to apologize on behalf of BIG OIL to the thousands of Toronto motorists who have been

subjected for years to an obvious gas price fixing conspiracy that has cost them millions of dollars.  I also apologize on behalf of the Toronto media

that has been co-opted and now daily trumpets the cost of gasoline, “at most GTA stations-tomorrow.”

And while I’m at it I want to apologize of behalf of the Competition Bureau that has allowed the collusion to continue.

It’s always difficult to spot conspiratorial truth when you are deaf, dumb and blind.  I ought to know.

I’m Rob Ford and I’ll be back with another apology tomorrow.”

—————–

“…………………..Hello I’m Rob Ford and I would like to apologize to all Blue Jay baseball fans who have had to accept that the current manager  is not very good.”

——————

” Hello I’m Rob Ford and today I have been asked to apologize IN ADVANCE for the growing cost of the Pan-American games and the eventual budget shortfall

which means millions of dollars more will be needed to meet the final financial requirements.”    You see it developing!

The number of Rob Ford apologies grew by leaps and bounds as politicians, bureaucrats, Sport moguls, CEO’s etc…found paying Rob Ford to apologize on behalf of their profligate spending

and shoddy performances, made life a lot easier and seemed to deflect direct strident derision from the general public.

Some day APOLOGISTICS will be occupied by many but we will always remember that Rob Ford was a pioneer in the field.

—————-

And we will always remember those famous words, “Hello I’m Rob Ford and I’m here to apologize……………………….”

AJ (aka) HB

 

 

 

 

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QUESTIONS

2012/04/15 Leave a comment

(same old story)

Gasoline in the Greater Toronto Area today is, 6 dollars and twenty six cents a gallon. $6.26.

And it’s $6.26 at every major gasoline station in the GTA.  Esso, Petrocan, Shell, Husky, Sunoco!

Do we expect this blatant example of price fixing will ever come to the attention of the

toothless Competition bureau in Ottawa?  If it’s not price fixing, than what is it?

Are we to believe that the operating costs of each gasoline company, Esso, PetroCan, Shell, Husky and Sunoco

are identical, therefore each must charge exactly the same price for gas?  Is this what they’re telling us?

Do we believe this makes sense?

(Statistics Canada)

On April 7, 2012 Stats Can reported that during March, Ontario added 46-thousand jobs!

Did anybody in the Main Stream media challenge those numbers?

There were 22 hiring days in March.  That means 2-thousand and ninety-one jobs(2 ,091) were created in Ontario

every hiring day.  And the entire media bought this?

Did anybody look at the 46-thousand and calculate the obvious-

that 460 companies in Ontario each needed to add 100 people to their payroll in March?  Do we believe this happened?

But what if the figure is true?  Does that mean that every the reporter, editor and columnist missed the biggest story of 2012?

Wouldn’t the hiring of 46-thousand people in one province in one month create a dramatic, one of a kind good news story?

Can you keep that kind of story(if it’s real), a secret?

Could one thousand companies in ontario hire 46 people(that would be 2.09 people) a month and nobody notice?

So do you think stats coming from Statistics Canada are reliable?  Unassailable?  Goofy?

If you think reliable, by July Ontario’s unemployment rate should be down to 5%!

And  if unassailable that boast by Flinty Mcguinty that the HST will create 500-thousand jobs will come to fruition.

And if goofy , PIGS WILL FLY?

(Baseball)

What’s wrong with this picture, the Blue Jays are batting and although there are two outs, the bases are loaded and

the batter is Jose Bautista, one of the most feared hitters in baseball and all of a sudden Brett Lawrie, our guy

on third base makes a dash for home–a decision doomed about the time of conception, therefore a dramatic failure

in execution.  Third out.  The bat falls from the hands of Jose Bautista and with it the prospect of  possible success!

Is Lawrie humbled by his brain cramp? Is he apologetic for trying to be a showboat ?  He is not!

Was his dash to home plate with no hope of success a team building effort? HARDLY!

There is a difference between irrational exuberance and stupidity, isn’t there?

All is forgiven.  The Jays win the last game of the series with Baltimore, and Lawrie hits a home run!

So everything is HOKAY?

__________________________________

The journey to Dire Straits continues.

__________________________________

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Failure makes a comeback!!!

2012/02/23 Leave a comment

(WE are the  HOSEES)

Our per gallon price of gas in the City of Toronto today is:  $5.82

The price in Buffalo per Imperial gallon, if you could buy gas that way in Buffalo,

is: $4.41.  The fact is the Americans are paying 25% less for gasoline than we are!

And of course, in the Greater Toronto area, all the pumps owned by the majors(Shell, Esso, Petrocan, Sunoco and

Husky) show the SAME price:  it’s the gasoline sellers’ salute to Toronto’s Winterlicous prix fixe restaurant event that just concluded.

And it comes to us courtesy of the Federal Competition Act, or is that Anti-Competition.

Toronto per litre price: 1.28.  Buffalo per litre price: .97!!!!  Imperial gallon: 4.546 litres; U.S. Gallon: 3.785 litres.

So, if we are being hosed by them–that makes us the hosees!

(Travelling and Contemplating)

Some days it feels like you’re stranded between Penury and Dire Straits with a handful of

“not a winning number” lottery stubs and dog-eared coffee lids saying “please play again” while waiting for a bus

that will come by flashing “Not in Service.”  Ever? EVER!

This situation is not a good situation but it’s the ideal place from which to cogitate about life on THIS planet!

(City Hall)

Somebody call the coroner because I’m sure someone has died there.

So much hand-wringing, so many tears, such anger.  Why?  Because, to hear these mourners tell it,  the greatest,

most wonderful and talented civil servant that ever walked God’s green earth has been cashiered.

“Did he die”, you ask. NO, he was sent home.  Fired.  Driven from his office by that big bully the mayor of Toronto:

Fat, but getting thinner–Robbie Ford.  In fact, Ford didn’t send him home – a majority of members on the

Transit Committee, to whom this poor, humble, fired Civil Servant reported on his day to day accomplishments, did the

deed.  With the ‘goodbye, nice to have known you’ note they tucked in $500,000 plus.

Usually when you tell a person to go home and not come back–that’s it.  But this is a story for another time.

(Maria Augimeri loves Gary Webster)

I don’t know what her normal temperment is but yesterday she was ‘white hot’ decrying what she called “the abuse of power.”

Maria you should know is a member of the Transit Commission.  She loves the work of the guy (Webster) who was fired.

She thinks he was the most hard working, dedicated and talented Chief General Manager that ever lived.

“So,” Ms.  Augimeri demanded to know, “what message are you (other committee members) sending to our employees,

that professionalism gets kicked out the door and toadyism wins?”

Frankly, yes.  It certainly worked when David Miller was mayor.  All the toads got a place at his toadstool and the non-toads

were unceremoniously tossed.  (Write for names.  The list is too long for this time.)

MARIA of course has forgotten about the toadies that attended to Mayor Miller’s every wish because she was one of them.

Did she ever challenge Dapper David when he sent home dedicated, loyal, hard-working civil servants who weren’t

TOADIES, she DID NOT!  She suffers from ‘politicized amnesia’ that has been exacerbated by the fact that she no longer

sits in the INNER circle.

(term limits)

Maria Augimeri has been in politics for 30 years.   She’s long past her’ best before’ designation.

Maria is a poster child for the institution of term limits.  She is one of the reasons politics to many is a dirty word.

Hazel McCallion, Mississauga’s 7% solution, is another prime poster child for TERM LIMITS.  Eight years and out!!

Give others a chance to familiarize themselves with the political process.  Everybody will benefit.

Too long at the political trough blurs the landscape and deadens the senses.

Maria has been a Toronto Councillor since 1997 and judging by her comments yesterday relative to the firing of

Gary Webster she needs to understand that there are others who can do the Councillor thing just as well as she.

They would be the ones with perspective.  The ones that would avoid making goofy statements.

After eight years you really start to believe you cannot be replaced.

Unfortunately all politicians are afraid to consider term limits.  But that doesn’t mean it should remain off the table.

(OXYCONTIN)

Who put that on the table?

This drug is devastating lives from coast to coast and we hear nothing from those people in Ottawa who are supposedly

in charge of our health and welfare.

The braintrust at the Food and Drug Directorate are busy banning vitamin use based on flawed research but have nothing to

say about a drug they approved that is twice as deadly as morphine.  Why did it take a provincial initiative(Ontario’s) before

anybody bothered with what is already a soul destroying drug!

And even this provincial initiative is off centre.  Oxycontin  is not just a threat on the reservation it has invaded

thousands of households in Canada and somebody better pay attention to the thousands who are addicted to what

we frivolously call “hillbilly heroin.”  Talk to the addicted.  See their pain.  Sympathize and then do something.

We need to find out how this destructive pill was allowed into the country?  Whose hand is in whose pocket?

And when will the provincial initiative move Ottawa into doing something meaningful(nationally) besides regulating the

amount  of Vitamin D3 in a single pill?

We should know how many highly  placed people working in the Food and Drug Directorate have conflicting

ties with Big Pharma.

Next:

Is Santorum  the man to dethrone Obama?  Stay tuned.

We might as well camp here because we’ll never make Dire Straits before nightfall.

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There’s the Gravy Train!!!!!!

2011/10/05 Leave a comment

/.The Gravy Train that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been looking for EXISTS!!!

It’s as real as he claims but it exists behind impenetrable walls of self-interest and entitlement.

These walls are as real as if they had been constructed of mortar and steel.

And if they could be breached,  inside, “on Guard”, watching for intruders hard by the GRAVY TRAIN are the Sacred Cows that have

driven this  city’s budget into the red and have every intention of keeping it there.

Independent auditors didn’t find it and because auditors by nature help protect Gravy Trains!

The Gravy Train isn’t about the few million dollars council recently cut from the Budget and Council knows it!

The Gravy Train is the vehicle of the unelected, of the elite.

Self-interest and entitlement bind together the objectives of various city units like:

the fire and police departments, their unions and other city unions  that need to maintain their numbers, because Unions have only one

objective-get numbers, increase numbers, maintain numbers.  Others who fuel the GRAVY TRAIN are the boards–Zoo, Library and some

City departments-like the out-of-control Water department.  When these departments are asked to cut budgets, they ignore the request and

deliver a bigger one.

This year the police department was asked to deliver a 10% decrease, year over year, and delivered a budget showing

a 1.5% increase!

Self Interest and Entitlement also live outside the Units we associate with City departments.

The lobbying for tax dollars to support every conceivable kind of Arts-related endeavour is intense!

The list probably isn’t endless, it just looks like it.   So that brings us to the obvious conclusion.

Mayor Rob knows he has not reached the controls of the Gravy Train and he is probably cognizant of this fact–he will not reach

them even if he spent the next forty years in the Mayor’s Chair.  There is no one in the city with the political jam, let alone Council support,

who can breach the walls.   Furthermore, there is no support among the Media to get to the Gravy Train.

Among the media, the leading excoriator of Mayor Rob’s contention is the Toronto Star.

Almost daily the Star finds some way to ridicule, belittle, denigrate his Worship’s contention that a Gravy Train exists! !

Well we know it exists and now we know where it is–the question is how much money is it carrying—

my guess:  between 500 and 700 million dollars.

/…Here’s a quick example.  Among the recent decisions of Council looking for those elusive, loose tax dollars was to sell, privatize or come

up  with another operating model for the Toronto Zoo.  The Zoo loses 11-million dollars a year.  One Zoo board member is

Councillor Glenn De Baermaeker.  He voted against finding ways to save money and save the Zoo.

He said it was “a desperate and pathetic move.”

The only thing “desperate and pathetic” was De Baermaeker’s solution: keep the Zoo and continue to send the annual 11-million dollar bill

to the TAXPAYER.

He, along with other members of Council, helped build the walls that protect the Gravy Train.

They subscribe to the Neo-Grecian Formula of Collective Penury.

It is real!  It is a contagion!  And it’s catching!

/…Not offered as issues in this provincial election campaign:

Hey Dalton, where are the 600-thousand jobs that the introduction of the HST was going to bring Ontario?

Hey Horvath, what about your poor, bedraggled Union people who have been fighting the savagery of US Steel?

Hey Hudak, what about Caledonia?  This is still a land of Law and Order is it not?

And what about insurance rates and the huge profits churned out by that group of free enterprizers?

And, I almost forgot, what about the Prix Fixe that has been imposed by the even richer oil companies on gas prices

in all the major Ontario cities? Today Toronto residents pay: $5.573396 for a gallon of gas!!

Stateside, the gasoline just dropped again today–next time you’re in Buffalo help yourself to the smaller gallon

for $3.25!!  You don’t think we are being jobbed by the Oil Companies–well the politicians didn’t even remember

to bring it up!! They do care!  But not for us!

The GRAVY TRAIN is real–

/…AJ/KO

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The Golden West

2011/08/07 1 Comment

/…The vast fruited plain was our home for the past two weeks and it is a site to behold………..

golden fields of Canola waiting in the sunshine before losing that glorious glow and declaring themselves ready for the harvest!!!

/…but there are many pockets of land left barren, and unseeded because of too much moisture, especially in Southern Saskatchewan.

Huge acreages where grain usually grows are covered by water the result of  more rain than many old-timers ever remember.

/…Our travels took us to Nanton, a small but thriving town on highway 2 south of Calgary.  It’s the gateway to what some call the

finest ranch country in the nation.  It is also where you will find the Bomber Command Museum and the FOXeS.  These Foxes(four brothers and

Lady Fox-mama bear to some, comprise one of the areas best known families.  There’s Dan, he’s a museum Board member and one of the charter

members , then Gary who is the area’s mechanic to go to, motorcycle wild-man and antic car aficionado, Mark is the farmer

looking after vast fields of grain and hay–his cattle herds dot the fabulous hills west of Nanton, the ones that fold into the foothills that

work their way into the mountains that seem to look different everyday. Lee is the family golfer and lately has again displayed a major talent for painting

pictures of the land that time forgot.  Lady Foxe, better know as Joan is the family matriarch living on her downsized ranch, from time to time holding court with  the ‘Boys’ and their wives, keeping track of the grand-kids and reminding the great-grand-kids of the traditions of the family into which they have been born.

/…we left Nanton reluctantly because of the beauty of the foothills and the mountains, less than hour away…. And the Elk, and the Buffalo and the

mountain sheep and the bears………………………….and of course the BIG SKY!

/…Saskatoon is one of the most beautiful cities on that fruited plain.  It was there, actually 45 minutes northwest in Borden  that we renewed our

longstanding friendship with Cousins Ron and Julia, Gail and Bob.  The Bezugly’s(Ron and Julia) farm some 6-thousand acres were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

Who would miss that?!!! Gail and Bob Young flew into tranquil Saskatoon from that most troubled world capital, Washington DC!

The 50th was a hoot.  Lots of people, fondued 10 ounce steaks, new and fondued potatoes, salad, Saskatoon berries, wine, beer and coolers and the Satellite Kid–one of the funniest of the many Elvis Impersonators I’ve ever seen.  And he’s from Borden, population  200, maybe 215!!!???

Borden where twilight lasts about an hour and a half, where the Borden Bridge is an icon–that’s the one you see on the blog page.

Borden where people smile and say hello and live a life of simple sophistication,  complicated only by the vagaries of weather that determines what the

land will be allowed to yield–this year.  That’s the great thing about sports and farming–there’s always next year.  But so far this year is shaping up to

be a 60 goal season.  The crops are getting ready to produce megatons and the Bezugly clan is wishin’ and hopin’……………….. and so are we!

/…The return home was accompanied by the abruptness of reality.  That August is here and the CNE is just around the corner and we all know what that

means, the final long weekend of summer.  Time and tide wait for no one.  Funny how time slips away.  Welcome to the Dog Days of summer

The heat wave was over but the markets were in heat and the population was being screwed over again by the genius architects in the financial capitals of the world.

Do we really believe these people in charge are any smarter than we are???  I’ll bet anyone of us could run a deficit of a couple of billion?

You just need to remember three KEY words———-“not my money.”

/…Naturally the Blue Jays were winning one and losing two,  every three games–even tho’ they added Rasmus and Lawrie while were gone!

11 and a half games behind when we left,  12 games when we returned.

/…Toronto’s political landscape remains the same.  Fatso Ford and brother Doug are still running the Fort having just concluded a running-off-at-the

mouth battle with Margaret Atwood, a world-famous Canadian author that Doug Ford had never heard of…….you know that means every library

in the City is in danger.

/…the world financial crisis is still a crisis, undoubtedly the result of that deadly combination–bureaucracy and politics— they are successfully

overwhelming economics in every G-8 country.  Maybe the Return of the Apes is a harbinger??!

/…A review of two articles written about the trial of former Toronto Maple leaf Rick Vaive captain gives emphasis to the importance that communities

have at least two dailies.   The two stories make you wonder whether both reporters were in the same courtroom?

Vaive, charged the impaired driving was in court friday, the 5th(august) and that’s about all the two reports agree on;

Star staff reporter Peter Edwards and Toronto Sun columnist Michele Mandel offer their versions of what happened.  Frankly, my reading of

Mandel’s version in the Sun suggests she is in much less awe of  Vaive then Peter Edwards and that would suggest she takes DUI’s more seriously than

Edwards.  The trial will resume, incredibly on February 16, next year!  Flinty McGuinty has failed miserably to solve the overloaded court dockets

across the province even though his Attorney General keeps promising a more streamlined vehicle.  There never was much of a styling difference

between the model T and the Model A.

/…Conan O’ Brien who used to write jokes for his late night rivals continues to scribe the funniest lines, this time for his own show.

From the Sun’s line-up of the week’s best late-night laughs-O’Brien: “A man  jumped the White House fence, but after a brief chase.

the Secret Service was able to talk President Obama into coming back and finishing his term.”

Until next time, TA from AJ.

 

economics

 

 

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By the Numbers-a sequel

2011/07/20 Leave a comment

/…5 major players have now been added to the casualty list that has enveloped The-News-of-the-World scandal:

Rebekah Brooks, former International News CEO-resigned. detained and questioned;

Chief of Scotland Yard, Paul Stephenson resigned; Paul Yates the Yard’s counterterrorism chief-quits

Sean Hoare, former news-of-the-world reporter and whistle-blower,  one of the first

to accuse the paper of hacking and pinging-dead.  Police call the death unusual but don’t think he was murdered!

Piers Morgan, arrogant TV host , the replacement for Larry King live is linked to, scandal tainted types like Brooks.

And today “Jonnie Marbles” enters the scandal as a foot-note.  His claim to fleeting fame-throwing a shaving cream pie into the face of Rupert Murdoch.

/…17 the number of U-S states suffering under a heat dome that is pushing temperatures in usually cooler cities like Minneapolis into the 100 plus range.

It ‘s same kind of heat we were feeling monday across the Ontario South and the same kind of oppressive tropical heat we will be feeling thursday.  37 celcius-Oh Yeah.

/…The City budget committee is looking at a 774 Million dollar deficit but the Toronto Star and the Mayor’s critics claim–that can’t be right. it’s only

443 million!!!  The Star which is still trying to come to grips with Ford’s victory last year, has become a pathetic critic of the Mayor and his efforts(some of which are silly)

to rein in spending.  Like all deficit situations the problem isn’t a lack of revenue, it’s a lack of discipline.

Despite his lack of finesse in handling the deficit, he is the only Mayor since amalgamation making any effort to find those the economies of scale

that the Harris twits said would materialize for the taxpayers of Toronto, Etobicoke, York, East York, Scarborough and North York, if we would only submit to their ‘common sense’ plan.

Lies, lies and damn lies and we bought them!

And of course there’s fat in the operating budget of this city!  In the late 90’s a Committee of Concerned Citizens in the Town of Caledon, tiny by comparison to Toronto

took just fifteen minutes with the Mayor and his staff to find 100-thousand dollars in savings without affecting services.  Savings that the Mayor swore were not there.

Of course there’s fat in the Toronto budget.  Probably about 200 million dollars.  Those numbers and the re-allocation of resources would give us a balanced budget.

If you want a good look at how badly managed the city’s finances are check out the Sue-Ann Levy column(Sun-June 21st).

/…Does that mean we would need a 3% tax increase in 2012?  maybe!  especially if a tax increases means a budget surplus.  But Mayor Ford’s suggestion that a tax increase next year would be fine

because we didn’t have one this year is the kind of foolish observation he needs to stop making!

/…one of the reasons for budgetary missteps is the failure to change spending plans; for instance Applefield drive in Scarborough is designated for a major refit– they plan to tear up the street, the sidewalks.

the curbs etc and make everything new.  The fact is there is no reason to destroy what is perfectly functional and in need of some repairs!

Why is this being done–a city official told me,” it’s part of the five-year plan and it went into the hopper a long time ago.”  If you’re short of money change it.  “No, we can’t do that, it’s all part

of the plan.”  The fact that the Councillor lives on this street wouldn’t have anything to do with the decision not to change the plan, would it?

/…Is it possible that at least one of the Wards in Scarborough has descended into the kind of blatant influence peddling so familiar in Louisiana, or is that Mississippi?

More on that in later editions of HolidayatLarge.

/…July 19, ten years ago the U-S national debt was 5-trillion, 705 billion, 50 million, 480 thousand, two hundred , 67 dollars and 56 cents: 5, 705, 050, 480, 267.56>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Gold on this day(july 19, ten years ago) was trading for $266 US dollars.  This morning gold hit $1602!

/…Since filling the screens world-wide a week ago Wednesday, Harry Potter-deathly hallows(2) banked an estimated $307 millions dollars U-S.

/…The number ONE deli in  Toronto is Zane Caplansky’s smoked meat emporium on College street and now those smoked meat sandwiches are coming to a place near you.

Caplansky has TWO trucks ready this week for lunch hour service and private events.  Good luck to Zane Caplansky.

/…It’s a rare thing to see a Toronto Sports writer offer an opinion that is critical of fans and teams in this loser’s paradise, but that’s exactly what we got today

from Steve Simmons.  Are Toronto sports fan suckers or just the most loyal dummies in all of Sportsdom?  Read all about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/…And did the First lady of France, Carla Bruni really tell the French newspaper Nice-matin, the baby she is expecting, the Sarkozy’s first

is “unexpected and unhoped for.”  Tough luck kid, life is problematic enough if they want you…can you imagine…….

/…And finally a 20 foot Animatronic Triceratops is available from Hammacher Schlemmer.   This motion-sensing animatronic giant is just the thing

to give those neighbourhood kids a Halloween fright.  Cost:  $350,000 U-S!

 

/…”

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By the Numbers

2011/07/10 Leave a comment

/…Our world is a parade of numbers!

It’s one way we determine accomplishments in politics, in business, in sports, in our lives….It’s one way we measure success and failure—

#…Derek Jeter of the Yankees…3004 hits, the only Yankee among the great Yankees to reach and surpass that plateau..

#…Oddsmakers placed 1 to 4 odds Jeter’s 3,000th would be a single.  It was a home run!

#…The Blue Jays bullpen, has blown 14 of 32 saves, second last in the American League…

#…Zero the number of goals scored by TFC in the last two games………….

#… At 34, Yoshikazu Tanaka is Japan’s youngest billionaire.  He owns Gree Inc. his country’s second largest networking company.

#…The unemployment rate in Greece is 16%, but the rate for those under 24 is 42.5%.  In  Spain 44.4% of those under 24 are not employed.

#…21-thousand is the number of part time jobs canadians found in May,  7-thousand the number of fulltime jobs!!

#…The people of Greece owe their government almost 60 billion dollars in unpaid taxes!!!

#…The 60 billion dollars is owed by 900,000 individuals and companies.

#…In the United States, for the first time,  married couples make up less than half(45%) of all households.

#…This weekend in Toronto, the forecasters got the weather 50% right, that may be above their average!

#… Comedian Craig Ferguson observed “The Royal couple will be visiting 8 major cities during their 9 days in Canada.

That’s amazing to me, he continued, Canada has eight major cities???”

So now the narrative extruded from all those numbers in summation:

Derek Jeter has reached one of the loftiest plateaus in baseball that will be duplicated by very few because you need both skill and longevity to walk on it.

This time the oddsmakers got it wrong but normally they are right far more often than weather forecasters.

A baseball team can’t be thinking about a post season with a bullpen as bad as the one the Blue Jays management has put together. And we don’t expect

TFC(Toronto’s soccer team) to be in the playoffs either.

We are impressed, with the abilities, talent and good luck of one Yoshikazu Tanaka,  now with a fortune of a billion dollars.

If there’s going to be major trouble in Greece and Spain you can expect it from those under 24.  You cannot continue to expect law and good order in countries where

that large a segment of young people have no work!

I don’t know what we our business reporters are excited about.  Many would not see the creation of that many part-time  jobs as a good thing, when compared to the

pathetic number of fulltime jobs reported in May.

Now if the people of Greece came clean and paid the back taxes they owe the government…..the bankers in Germany and France would be smiling,  but you can’t get blood from a stone.

In the United States what God has ordained, man has put asunder and the number of  married couples continues well into the minority.

And one thing more:

Craig Ferguson is a mean man with mean jokes about our great country, the one NOT saddled with a debt of 14 trillion dollars!!!!

And so it goes:

“Although he may not always recognize his bondage, modern man lives under a tyranny of numbers.”

Nicholas Eberstadt

The Tyranny of Numbers:  mismeasurement and misrule.

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