New Balance Shoes Cost Canada $6,000

How about this story from the front page of the National Post this morning:

Killer awarded $6K over wrong shoes in prison

Want to hear the story? Sure why not. Better sit down.....

A guy who killed not one, not two, not three, but four people has just been given six thousand dollars of our money by the federal court of Canada because prison officials were slow in giving him a brand new pair of New Balance running shoes.

The quadruple killer's name is Gregory McMaster. He’s now being housed in a nice little medium security institute at Fenbrook Institution near Gravenhurst.
He went on a killing spree in 1978 killing four people including a Minnesota police officer.
He complained that because prison officials were slow in getting him a nice new pair of New Balance runners, he suffered a knee injury while working out in 2004, so he sued us taxpayers.

Yesterday, we taxpayers agreed to fork over six thousand dollars to Gregory McMaster, but of course the lefties claim we don’t need any tightening up of our justice system.

By the way, just thought you’d like to know, almost ten million Canadians didn’t bother to vote on Tuesday. That’s about ten million eligible voters who couldn’t be bothered. This increases pressure to impose some sort of mandatory voting system. It has worked in Australia.

Does Canada Need a Majority to Survive?

There is one overriding question that is beginning to dominate our election campaign.
Simply put, it is this:

Should we elect a majority government?

In light of the growing financial distress, would Canada be safer with a majority government?
Very interesting column in the Globe and Mail this morning written by Gwyn Morgan, well known and successful Canadian businessman, who says, "The unpredictable challenges of this global economic crisis cannot be navigated by another minority Parliament bound up by partisan bickering. The best hope for Canadians is to elect a government with strong, decisive leadership and the mandate needed to steer Canada around the shoals that lie in our path."

What do you think? Is he right?

Thus far Canada has escaped the financial crisis which is staggering the United States and is now spreading like a virus to Europe and the UK.

Already indications are mortgage rates will soon begin to climb again in Canada. It seems impossible that we will fully escape, especially when you consider that about 80% of everything we make and grow in this country is sold to the United States.

Aside from ideology, is Gwyn Morgan correct when he says the best hope for Canadians is to elect a government with strong decisive leadership and the mandate needed to steer Canada around the shoals that lie in our path?
Among other things Morgan claims that "The New Democratic Party offers a typical socialist agenda. Tax and spend, subsidize unionized industry and make big business "pay" - the kind of policies that drove Ontario and British Columbia to the brink of economic ruin."
Morgan also points out something many of us weren’t aware of. “The carbon tax,” he says, “has wildly differing effects, depending on how you heat your home, the fuel used to generate your electricity and how you earn your living. If you heat with natural gas, the impact might be only 2 per cent, but if you use fuel oil it's more than 10 per cent. If you live in B.C., Manitoba or Quebec, where most power comes from hydro dams, there will be little impact on your electricity bill. If you live on the Prairies, in Ontario or in Atlantic Canada, where fuel oil and coal generate a significant portion of your power, the impact will be substantial, increasing the cost of generating electricity by about 10 per cent for fuel oil and more than 50 per cent for coal-fired plants."

He says,"No one knows what chapter of the global financial meltdown we're in, and whether the latest Hail Mary bailouts by the U.S. Treasury will stop the downward spiral." The best chances for Canada to weather the coming storm is to elect a strong majority government.
What is your view here?
I’m not sure that with five political parties in the running we will ever again see a majority government. There may be some times when that’s not a bad thing, but in times of grave financial crisis would our chances of avoiding a meltdown be better with a strong decisive majority government?

Is this absolutely the wrong time to bring in another minority government?

Government Funded Arts. Cut or Keep?

All this fuss over so called cuts to the arts. I really don’t understand it. Unless of course it is simply a last ditch attempt by the Liberals to win a few seats. But when you examine the facts, the complaints make no sense.

The issue really isn’t about the amount we spend on the arts, it’s whether government has a right to decide where money for the arts, or anything else should be spent. Overall, funding for the arts increased eight per cent last year, but several programs were cut, lopping about 45 million dollars off the overall budget.

In other words, the Conservatives took money away from some programs, allocated them to other programs, and added eight per cent. What’s wrong with that?
And look at some of the programs cut: The one the so-called arts community seems to be complaining the most about is something called PromArt, which didn’t actually fund any works of art, but rather provided travel money for various individuals and groups.
The Rock band Holy—F***for example can still perform, but we taxpayers aren’t going to be paying their travel expenses to foreign lands anymore. Ditto left wing radicals like Avi Lewis.
We won’t be paying for guys like Gwynne Dyer to take a nice little trip to Cuba.
Films like Young People F****ing will just have to find funding from someone other than us taxpayers.

And let’s not forget something else. When it comes to funding the arts, governments of all stripes have always, and continue, to pour billions into things like art galleries, museums, arts centers, libraries and various other so called cultural events from rock fests to local fairs.
And what about the publishing industry? I picked three books at random from Steve Madely’s desk this morning. The first happens to be a book entitled Where War Lives—author is Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Paul Watson.
Fine. An interesting book, but check inside the front cover. Let me read you what is says: “We acknowledge the financial support of the government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program”

Let’s see. That’s four separate grant programs that little book has tapped into. How much money is involved I have no idea. The next book I picked up is the Way it Works, by Eddie Goldenberg, right hand man to Liberal Prime Ministers for many years. Let’s see how his publisher tapped into us taxpayers. This book says: “We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts council for our publishing program."
Another four grant programs hit up for an author who I would suspect is hardly destitute.
The third book I picked up in a real Left wing Dandy entitled Dry Spring, The Coming Water Crisis of North America written by Chris Wood. His publisher has been able to tap into a different set of taxpayers grants. Let me read the inside cover of this book: "Raincoast Books gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Government of Canada through the Canada Council for the arts and the Book Publishing Industry Development Program."

Wonderful. Another four grant programs hit up, and, by the way, Raincoast Books was the distributor for the Harry Potter books so I would imagine it has a few dollars stored away for safe keeping. Hardly in need of your money or mine.

Now let’s have a look at a local author named Lowell Green who has written three best selling books, made a fair chunk of money, as did his publisher, without receiving one single cent. Not a cent of taxpayers money from any source.

And Why should Lowell Green, or any author receive any taxpayers money? If people want to read the book, they will buy it. If people don’t want to read the book, they won’t buy it. But why should taxpayers be forced to pay for something nobody wants to read?

Same holds true of other segments of the so called arts world. Create something of value, something people want to read, see or hear, and they will pay for it.
Fact is, supporting stuff only a tiny handful of people have any interest in, does not support the arts, it supports junk, and actually discourages real worthwhile art.

Let me give you an example:
A very well know and popular Canadian Author recently contacted several major publishers to see if they were interested in a new book he was writing. His four previous books had all been Canadian Best Sellers, made hundreds of thousands of dollars for him and his publisher who was going out of business. One of the publishers who responded said they weren’t interested and only published what they described as "literary works". But, said the author, you are guaranteed a profit from my book of at least a hundred thousand dollars. "Oh," replied the publisher, "we don’t really care about that. We are government supported!"

Lovely stuff.

And by the way-most Canadian authors who are not in the main stream “CBC literary crowd” will tell you similar stories.
Yes, government needs to support the arts. Galleries, art centers, and museums are a vital part of our culture, but surely we taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for so called artists who in one case stuff vials of blood in their anus, stand on their heads so the blood runs into his mouth, or garbage like young people F****ing!

And we sure as hell shouldn’t have to pay for lefties like Gwynne Dyer to travel to Cuba!

Canada Needs a Guiliani

One of the most astonishing things we hear these days is that punishment does not deter crime. Astonishing because there is overwhelming evidence proving that punishment is a major deterrent to crime.

Listen, I am the co-founder of Big Brothers of Ottawa. I understand very well the importance of a strong male role model for boys.

I was very much involved in the formation of Big Sisters, so I understand very well the importance of a strong female role model for girls.

I have been a member of the John Howard Society so I understand very well that some people can be successfully rehabilitated away from a life of crime.

All of those organizations and others devoted to provide assistance and guidance to young people play an important role in crime prevention. But I know something else. It is this:

What keeps many people away from a life of crime is plain and simple fear.
Fear of getting caught.
Fear of severe consequences.
Fear of the shame involved.
Common sense tells us so. More importantly, so do the facts.
Yes the facts.
For just some of those facts, turn to page 40 of “How The Granola Crunching, Tree Hugging Thug Huggers are Wrecking our Country."
Here is some of what you will read:
In 1993 after more than 100 years of left wing, soft on crime administration, New York City had 1,946 homicides. By 2001, after eight years of Rudy Giuliani’s right wing-tough on crime administration, the number of homicides in New York City dropped to 642. A reduction of an astonishing 67 per cent!
During that same eight years of getting tough on crime, overall crime in New York was reduced 57 per cent.
And do you hear this Toronto Mayor Miller? During the eight years of get tough on criminals legislation, shootings dropped an astonishing 75 per cent!
Robberies in New York City declined from more than 85,000 to just under 36,000. Burglary dropped from nearly 101,000 to just over 38,000.

But listen to this:

One of the most dramatic declines was in the number of violent assaults at the City’s Rikers Island Prision. Until Rudy came along, those who committed violent offence at Rikers, even those who caused serious injury or death, were hardly ever charged.
Rudy said that’s crazy! Under my administration, prisioners at Rikers will be charged just like everyone else. Sentences will be tacked onto the ones already being served.

Are you ready for this?

Here are the facts:

In 1993, after more than 100 years of liberal, soft on crime administration, Rikers Prison Experienced 2,500 violent incidents. Let me repeat. In 1993, Rikers Island recorded 2,500 violent incidents.

Eight years later, after police clamped down and charges began to be laid, that figure dropped to, ready for this, just 70!

From 2,500 violent incidents to just 70!

Why? Because Rudy Giuliani, good friend of right wing conservative Ronald Regan, got tough on crime.
Think of it. Even hardened criminals already serving time in jail stop committing more crimes when they know they will be severely punished if caught.
In other words, even hardened cons fear tough penalities.

Alright. Let’s examine another example of how getting tough on crime stops crime. Turn to page 47 of the Thug Huggers book.

In 1994 California passed into law proposition 184, widely known as the three strikes you are out law. Just as here in Canada, the left wingers screamed bloody murder! It won’t work, they said. Our prisons will be full etc. etc.
Well what happened?
Eight years after the three strikes you are out law was passed, total crimes in California dropped 45.9 per cent. Total violent crime dropped 46.6 per cent! Murder was reduced 45.6 per cent. Robbery fell 56.1 per cent, rape fell 29.2 per cent, burglary dropped 50.7 per cent, and auto theft was reduced 38.5 per cent.

All figures are from the California Department of Justice and are available to everyone, including criminologists, University professors and you.

Here’s something else you might think about:

Once again, according to the California Department of Justice, the three strikes you are out legislation saved California taxpayers $28.5 billion in just eight years. Only New York and Massachusetts have better records of fighting crime during that period. In both of those cases it was accomplished by getting tough on crime.

The facts are there, but then, why would anyone on the left let facts get in the way of ideology?

Life in a Jar

On May 12 of this year, one of the world’s great heroes died with little if any notice-let alone fanfare. Only now is this story coming to light.

Irena Sendler is this hero’s name.

She is credited with saving the lives of at least 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto at unbelievable risk to herself. As early as 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland she began providing food and shelter to Jews. Then, as it became apparent the Nazis intended to kill all Jews, she and some helpers created more than 3,000 false documents to help Jewish families escape. Keep in mind that, if caught, not only would she be put to death, but all her family members as well.

In December of 1942 Irena Sendler, who please keep in mind was Roman Catholic, not Jewish, was appointed to head a children’s section of an organization called Zegota, roughly translated, Council for Aid to Jews. As an employee of the Social Welfare Department of the occupied city of Warsaw, she had a special permit to enter the Warsaw Ghetto to check for signs of typhus, something the Nazis feared would spread beyond the ghetto. During visits to the ghetto, Irena donned a yellow star of David as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish people.

What she was really doing was smuggling babies and small children out of the ghetto, often concealed in the bottom of a tool kit she carried. During the typus outbreak she smuggled babies out in ambulances. Sometimes she wrapped the infants up as packages. The babies were placed with various Polish families, Catholic convents and orphanages. In every case, Irena wrote down the names of the children and buried them in jars. Her intent was that, after the war, it would help in reuniting families.

In 1943 Irena Sendler was caught by the Gestapo, tortured terribly and sentenced to death. She refused to reveal the names of any of those involved in the rescues. She was saved from death when her organization bribed German guards on the way to her execution. She was left in the woods unconscious with both legs and both arms broken. She was listed on public bulletin boards as having been executed. She remained in hiding for the rest of the war then dug up the jars containing the children’s identities and began an attempt to find the children and return them to living parents. Sadly, most of the parents had been killed.

After the war, Irena was at first persecuted by the Communists. She was imprisioned where she miscarried her second child. In 1965 Irena Sendler's story began to leak out. She has been awarded many citations including the Commanders Cross by the Israeli Institute. In 2003, Pope John Paul sent a personal letter praising her wartime efforts. On the 10th of October, 2003 Irena received the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest civilian decoration.
She was presented with the Jan Karski Award for courage and heart given by the American Center of Polish Culture in Washington.
On the 14th of March, Irena was honored by Poland’s senate and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. It went instead to Al Gore for his semi fictional movie.

Irena Sendler died on May 12 at the age of 98.

Her story is beginning to gain a great deal of traction, not only in Poland and Israel, but in the United States as well, where a play has been written entitled "Life in a Jar" which has been performed more than 250 times.

Drive-By Media Strikes Again

I am insulted to the core this morning.

Insulted that once again our drive-by media are displaying incredible political bias. Insulted that well paid and supposedly experienced reporters and editorial writers are not telling us the whole story. Insulted that, for the most part, the news media is just too damn lazy to dig up a few facts.

So let me inform you of a few facts which are very strangely being ignored by most media outlets:

At about 11:30 the morning of June 26 this year, a group of native Indians from the Barriere Lake Algonquin Youth Association and their supporters showed up at 127 Joseph Street in Buckingham, Quebec and began a sit in. It is the office of Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon. I won’t go into details about everything that happened here other than to say that finally Quebec Police were called and laid disorderly conduct charges against six of the protesters. According to witnesses, at least one of the protesters appeared to have been drinking.
Now fast forward to this past Wednesday.
A group of native Indians from the Barriere Lake Youth Association arrive in Maniwaki and demand to speak with Lawrence Cannon. He meets briefly with some of them.
After that meeting, Norman Matchewan, a Barriere Lake youth spokesman gets into a conversation with Darlene Lannigan, Mr. Cannon’s constituency assistant. From what we understand they wanted to arrange another meeting with the Transport Minister.
During that conversation, caught on videotape, Ms. Lannigan, who by the way is an experienced, seasoned political veteran, begins to lay out the rules for any future meeting. Keeping in mind what happened back in June, remember six disorderly conduct charges, Ms. Lannigan says, "If you behave and you're sober and there's no problems and if you don't do a sit-down and whatever, I don't care. One of them showed up the other day and was drinking."
"Are you calling me an alcoholic?" asked Norman Matchewan, a Barriere Lake Algonquin youth spokesman.
"I'm not calling you an alcoholic, no," Lannigan said. "It was just to say that you're in a federal office. If you're coming in to negotiate, I expect, there's decorum that has to be respected."

That’s it.

According to newspapers and TV and radio newscasts from coast to coast in this country, this is a terrible insult. Headline in the Sun this morning: "Natives insulted to core"

Headlines in the Ottawa Citizen’s major front page story this morning: "Cannon aide under fire for remarks". The Citizen story written by Meagan Fitzpatrick makes absolutely no mention of the June 26th sit-in or the arrests. In fact the only newspaper that makes even fleeting reference to the sit-in is the Ottawa Sun.

Sadly, what is supposed to be our only national Conservative newspaper runs a shortened version of Meagan Fitzpatrick’s story, with no mention of what prompted Ms. Lannigan’s warning.
Nor is there any mention of the June 26th arrests in the Globe and Mail’s editorial this morning which of course would have you believe this is just one more example of the terrible Tories.
Disgraceful reporting I would say. Disgraceful bias.
And why in the world Lawrence Cannon would feel compelled to apologize for this is beyond me.
In fact I think the biggest mistake was the fact he apologized. Of course Lawrence Cannon, just as is every Conservative, more than fully aware of how the media will play this.

Let me ask you this:

Instead of insulting the Algonquin’s with her warning, is it not true that Darlene Lannigan in fact was entirely within her rights to tell this group she did not want a repeat performance of the June protest?

I would go further:

I believe Darlene Lannigan would have failed in her duty had she not issued the warning.

I repeat, since the rest of the media is mute on this, On June 26 of this year a group of young people from the Barriere lake Algonquin Indian Youth group carried out a sit-in at Lawrence Cannon’s office which became so unruly police were called and arrested six of them.

If you were Darlene Lannigan would you not have said exactly what she did?
And what do you think of the media’s failure to tell us the whole story here?
Of all the newspapers I have read this morning, only the Sun mentions a previous problem with this group.

Haven’t seen TV newscasts. Help me out here. Has the June 26th sit-in been mentioned in anything you have seen or heard?

Do you think the June 26 arrests are relevant to the story?
Would you have done anything differently?

Keep Your Eyes on the Issues Folks!

You know that old saying, "It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you’re surrounded by a bunch of turkeys"? That is surely how the Prime Minister must be feeling this morning.

He's running a great campaign. Modest, solid proposals in risky times. Much more relaxed and confident that we’ve seen him before, but almost every time he turns around some damn turkey is gobbling away in the woods distracting a delighted media from the real issues.

The latest of course is the Agriculture Minister and his silly jokes. We do this kind of thing all the time in the news game.
"Black humor" it’s called. A recognized method of blowing off some steam and relieving the pressure. But for a cabinet minister during an election campaign? Geeze!
No doubt Mr. Ritz let his hair down a bit believing he was on friendly territory. A conference call with members of the Prime Minister's Office and Health Minister Tony Clement’s office. Just as obviously there is a Judas somewhere there in the mix. Somebody in somebody’s office decided they’d like to blow the Conservatives out of the water, so they blew the whistle. Lovely stuff, but a minister of the Crown should be a bit smarter for heaven sakes!

I don’t know about you, but I for one would love to get up there in that so called war room and pound some sense into a few turkey brains. I’d also find out who the traitor is and boot his or her sorry butt out onto the street!

The Mind of a Vandal

A question for you this morning:

What do you think causes vandalism?

We certainly have plenty of it. Everywhere, every day. From graffiti smeared walls to smashed tombstones. Scratched cars to trashed bus stops. Smashed windows to toppled trees. Some downright vicious! Broken beer bottles spread around kiddies playgrounds for example.

I don’t understand any of it.

This insane desire to smash, to damage, to cause pain to strangers for no apparent reason. Just the feeling of power I guess? Cause someone else grief?
Do you understand any of it?
Why would anyone, and there had to be more than one, smash historic tombstones in Perth?These people obviously weren’t kids. They had to understand what they were doing.

Why would anyone destroy beautiful trees in Westboro?

And it is my belief that vandalism goes beyond how we generally describe it.
It is my belief that littering our streets and sidewalks is a form of vandalism. It helps destroy the beauty of our city and costs taxpayers money to clean up. Dropping gum on sidewalks is a terrible form of vandalism. Have a look at any sidewalk in our city and it is littered with black spots almost impossible to remove. Gum, cigarette butts strewn about, garbage tossed from car windows in rural areas.

It’s all destructive, harmful, costly.

All evidence of humans who care nothing for others-selfish-often cruel-acts. Why?
What do people get from smashing tombstones, scratching cars, breaking windows and trying to injure children?
Is it just part of the growing trend among many young people today to display complete and total disrespect for others and others property?
My generation didn’t feature very many saints. We pulled plenty of stunts, but never, NEVER harmed anyone else or damage others property. The idea that we would set out to deliberately hurt someone else, cause innocent people pain or grief never entered our heads.
What’s behind all this vandalism of all kinds today? Why do people slash tires, smash windows, topple gravestones, cut down trees, smear graffiti everywhere, dump garbage on our streets and gum on our sidewalks? Destroy, damage and harm everything decent and good seems to be the mantra today and I don’t understand it.

Do you?

Quit Bending Over For Oil Companies!

Question: Who is to blame for the sudden and very huge increase in the price of gasoline at Ottawa pumps?

I personally blame the greedy oil companies, and I blame Canada’s competition bureau, which even today can’t seem to understand that what we are faced with here is an unprecedented act of collusion and price fixing.

Sorry but I don’t know how else you can describe it.

Hurricane Ike did very little, if any, damage to oil production in Texas which has resulted in crude prices to fall below 100 dollars a barrel for the first time in more than eight years. Oil futures fell to 98.77 US a barrel yesterday, their lowest point since March of 2008.

You would think given those facts that the price of gasoline would have dropped even more than the 13 cents a litre increase we saw last Friday. Such is not the case.

Gasoline across Canada today is selling higher than it was when crude oil peaked out at $147 a barrel.

How can that be?

Gasoline sold for about 1.32 a litre in Ottawa with crude prices above $147 a barrel.

And now it sells in Ottawa in the range of a $1.30, down maybe a couple cents since Friday with crude oil selling below 100 dollars a barrel!
Worse of course is that we consumers have no choice. All service stations are within a couple cents of each other. Clear illustration again of widespread collusion. Or is there another explanation?

And this question: What, if anything, do you want the government to do about it?

The Final Word on Libraries

Okay this will be my last comment concerning libraries. I give up. Very clearly the majority of Ottawans believe it is much more important to build a $200 million library than it is to stop dumping raw sewage into our rivers, or clean the bedbugs out of your grandmother’s mattress.
Judging from the blogs and emails received it only makes good sense that my four-year-old grandson can borrow 20 music CD’s, ten movies and ten video games every day for free, but if he wants to play hockey we taxpayers should bill him $432. Much better apparently for him to spend his time on the couch all day long watching movies then getting out onto our playing fields.

Okay, Okay, I admit my idea that we have greater priorities than spending $200 million on a library is all wrong. Ditto my idea that getting some exercise has value for children. By the way it’s not just video games and CD’s you get free from our libraries. How about free pedometers as well? And just for the fun of it, free watt meters too! Oh ya, also free museum passes. As many as you want! Not only that good folks, but you can order all of these dandy little free items on the Library “Online Catalogue”. You can even set up your own account at the Library, not that you have to pay for any of this, and in many cases we will now even deliver your free music and game videos right to your home.

Just for the heck of it. Here is the official list of what we taxpayers pay for so users don’t have to pull out the old wallet:

An unlimited number of books, printed, on tape and on CD
An unlimited number of magazines
Ten compact discs, CD ROM’s, videocassettes and DVD’s
Twenty music CD’s
An unlimited number of museum passes
Also free, as earlier stated, pedometers and watt meters!
Meantime, we don’t have the money to clean bedbugs out of public housing, we don’t have the money to stop dumping raw sewage into our rivers and to have your kids play soccer, T-ball and hockey on and in City owned property. That would cost you close to a thousand dollars…. per kid!
But as many of you bloggers and e-mailers say: That’s the way it should be.

By the way, across the River in Gatineau if you just want to borrow books, library services are free, but if you want to avail yourself of things like DVD’s and music videos you will have to pay something. These so-called optional services in Gatineau will cost you $10 a year for an individual. It’s $25 per year for a family with an annual income in excess of $40,000. It’s half that amount for families with an income below $40,000 and free for those on welfare. Non-Gatineau residents will have to pay $50 a year to use their libraries. Families outside the city have to pay $100 a year.

It works very well in Gatineau, where fees to use playing fields are far less than half of what you must pay in Ottawa.

What's the Matter With You Bloggers???

I am astonished at the response of many concerning my comments of yesterday questioning the wisdom of spending $200 million on a new library.
For some reason many bloggers and others have totally misunderstood what I am saying.
I have never suggested that we do not need libraries. I have stated this time and time again. What I am saying is that it is pure folly to spend $200 million on one new library when we have so many other needs which surely should take priority.

The other issue is the question as to why all library services are totally free to the user.
Especially such services as free movies, magazines, newspapers, music DVD’s and video games.
When I point out that a four-year-old can obtain sufficient free movies and video games to keep him perched on the couch every waking moment, but singing up for T-ball or soccer will cost close to $200 several e-mailers respond, “well it’s a pay as you go world!” Yes it is! Except at our libraries.
A four-year-old has to pay $432 to sign up for a City hockey program, but an affluent businessman can get ten free movies every single day!!! From our libraries.
Why is recreation for our children so expense many families cannot afford it, but internet service for the wealthy is free?
Then of course is the fact that while we provide free magazines, movies and video games for people living in half million dollar homes, we don’t have sufficient money to get rid of cockroaches and bedbugs in our public housing units.
One blogger replies, well what assurance do you have that even if we don’t spend the $200 million on a library the bedbugs will be sprayed?
What I am saying is that instead of spending $200 million on a new huge library let us first take a small part of that money and spray for the bugs.
Frankly I am surprised at the lack of intelligence and common sense of so many people who are blogging these days.
I tell you this.
If it was your grandmother’s bed infested with bedbugs, if you had any common decency, you would be screaming at the City to clean her mattress before spending $200 million on a library!!
Or is it lack of common decency we’re dealing with here?

The Taj Mahal Coming to Ottawa!

We don’t have enough money to spray the bedbugs or cockroaches in our public housing.
We don’t have enough money to fix the potholes.
We don’t have enough money to build a drug treatment center.
We don’t have enough money to house the homeless.
But we’ve got $200,000,000 to build a new library!!!!!????
What the hell is this?
Headlines this morning:
Ottawa Public Library Board approves spending up to $25M to buy the land for a new downtown library. Total cost of the new library somewhere in the neighbourhood of $200 million.

This is absolutely crazy!
Let me give you a few examples to back up my claim that we are totally off the tracks when it comes to libraries in our town.
Last Thursday my wife went to the Hazledean Road Library, one of two libraries in Kanata. She wanted to borrow a book recommended for her book club.
Ahead of her in the check out line was a man who was taking, believe it or not, 20 DVD’s! She knows this, because the librarian had to check and record each one which took her several minutes. The man, according to my wife, looked to be in his 50’s, reasonably well dressed, obviously either retired or on holidays since this was about 11 in the morning. Think of it. 20 DVDs, probably to be burned onto his computer or Ipod. Movies, music and video games. 20 to one man, all totally free. Free movies, free music, free video games. Free except of course we taxpayers have to pay for it.

Okay let’s move on to yesterday: My step daughter went to sign up four-year-old Peyton for hockey, a city program, at a cost of $432 for 12 weeks, having already forked over more than $500 for a summer program of t-ball and soccer. Danya declined and instead signed up Peyton for skating lessons, cost only $212.

This is outrageous!
A 50-year-old obviously well off man can borrow 20 DVDs at absolutely no cost, while four-year-old Peyton must pay close to $1000 to play soccer, t-ball and hockey.

Please keep in mind Peyton could visit any of the 33 libraries in Ottawa and borrow 20 video games so he could plunk himself down on the couch for hours every night, but his mother must pay close to $1000 to keep active in our city. Pay nothing to watch movies or play video games, $1000 to keep active. And we are going to spend another $200 million to build yet another library.

This is crazy! Pure and simple crazy! We taxpayers pay for free books, free magazines, free newspapers, free movies, free music, free video games, free internet and free delivery, but charge a four-year-old to play t-ball. Give me a break.
I repeat: this is crazy!

Surely at the very least we can kill the bedbugs and cockroaches in our public housing before we provide even more free movies in a $200 million library.

Elizabeth May Should Be At the Debate

Has Stephen Harper made his first mistake of the campaign? Probably.
It’s nowhere near a fatal mistake and voters will likely have forgotten it by election day, but it is a mistake nonetheless.
He should not have objected to the presence of Elizabeth May during the televised leader’s debates.
For the life of me I don’t understand why he objected, since Ms. May’s appearance would have done nothing except perhaps bleed a few votes away from the Liberals and NDP.
Because let’s be honest here: No one who would vote for the Green Party would ever be caught dead supporting the Conservatives. It’s just too large a leap.
But joining Jack Layton of the NDP in opposing Ms. May’s inclusion on the broadcasts helps to reinforce the message that Stephen Harper is a mean son of a bitch, cold and aloof.
Elizabeth May, of course, is playing all of this right to the hilt. Making claims of an old boy’s network: Four male leaders, male TV network executives etc. etc. Noise which undoubtedly will create a sympathy vote for the Greens which is not deserved.

But it’s not only the subtle message concerning Stephen Harper’s meanness involved here. My experience with Elizabeth May during a recent edition of the Lunch Bunch Program leads me to believe she’s not far removed from nut case status.
I won’t go into full details here, suffice to say when I quizzed her on the Green Party’s stance concerning electrical power generation, she was very adamant that not only would she close all coal-fired generating plants in Canada, but she was opposed to nuclear generation as well. When pressed as to how we would be able to power our homes and industry, Ms. May’s reply was simply that she was sure we would come up with something!!
Amazing!
Now I understand why she and Stephane Dion are in league together. They both have a magic wand stored away some place. A magic wand, which when waved, not only eradicates all carbon emissions, but provides all the energy we need to power our cars, our trucks, our homes, our industries and puts an organic pumpkin on every table.
By the way, those organic pumpkins she dumped on the food bank yesterday as her solution to world poverty-just hope they were locally grown.

Green Shift-How?

We may be missing the most important fact concerning Stephen Dion’s Green Shift Plan.
Most of the attention had thus far been centered on how much a carbon tax will cost us, with almost no attention centered on exactly how the Plan will work to lower carbon emissions.
Seems to me the means is at least as important as the cost.
How exactly does the Green Shift Plan reduce carbon emissions?
Already most of us are buying and driving more fuel efficient cars and trucks on the road, not because of any attempt to lessen the exhaust fumes, but rather to save us a bit of money. The marketplace has been a powerful force in that regard and you can be certain will continue to do so.
How will adding a few more cents in the form of a carbon tax change our driving habits any more than they have been already?
The same question can be asked of increasing the cost of heating fuel and electrical power.
Come on, most of us have already turned the thermostat down as much as we can in winter and thanks to global warming, this past summer was so cool we only needed our air conditioners a couple days. How would adding a carbon tax make any difference?
Please Mr. Dion, and all you Liberals, explain how the Green Shift Plan is going to reduce carbon emissions?
That great Nobel prize-winning God of the environment, Al Gore, has called on the United States to convert from carbon-based to carbon-free electrical generation within ten years. This, of course, was greeted with wild enthusiasm, but there’s a problem. Mr. Gore, tell us please how we could possibly accomplish this feat, in 20 years, let alone ten. Where is this power supposed to come from? Solar? Wind? Apparently mostly wind. But how? This would require vast tracts of land upon which to erect windmills and or solar panels. Would this, as has happened with some farm crops, remove good agricultural land from crop production? And exactly how much energy would be required to build the millions of windmills and solar panels required?
It’s a little bit like this move today to create cars you can plug in. Sounds great, until you ask yourself, okay, if everyone in the country plugs their car in every night, where in the world are we going to get all the electrical power? How is it going to be generated? Coal? No way, say the environmentalists. Nuclear? No way, say the environmentalists. So where and how will the power be generated I ask again?
And furthermore, the electrical grid in this Country is almost at full capacity today. How many more millions of miles of power lines would we have to build and install to accommodate all the cars plugging in each night?
So how is this great Green Shift Plan supposed to work?
Sounds to me as though Stephen Dion has a magic wand someplace. Simply wave it over the country and presto! We all turn green.
Let’s see that wand Mr. Dion.
Where are you hiding it?

Media Bias Where It Doesn't Belong

Tell me what you see wrong with this picture:

1) Anyone can walk into any one of the 33 public libraries in Ottawa and borrow, absolutely free of charge, not only books, but newspapers, magazines, DVD’s, video games, the latest movies and of course spend as long as they like on the free internet.
2) If you have difficulty getting to a library, someone will visit your home, interview you to learn what kinds of materials you like, then have them delivered absolutely free of charge to your home.
3) If you are a drug addict, not only can you obtain as many free needles and or crack pipe materials as you ask for, but we have three full-sized vans which can deliver the items to your home.
4) If you throw the needles onto your neighbour’s yard or into a local playground, we pay a small army of people to clean up the dangerous mess.
5) Ottawa’s police chief is bouncing from fundraising event to fundraising event in a desperate attempt to get enough money to open and operate a youth drug treatment center. Yesterday he was at a “Raising the Roof” fundraising event at the soon to be demolished Congress Center where Minto executive vice president Greg Rogers announced a donation of $150,000 in start up money. Chief Vern White says he’s on a mission to raise 6 million dollars.

So I ask again—what’s wrong with this picture?

Free books-free magazines-free movies and video games—free internet service as well—free needles—free crack pipe crap—but our police chief has got to spend almost every spare moment trying to raise enough money to start and operate a drug treatment center.

There’s a very interesting letter to the editor of the National Post this morning from Bob Manders of Toronto. He writes, and sadly it appears that Bob Manders is correct, from coast to coast in Canada and the United States, and probably throughout Europe as well, the so-called feminists are screaming bloody murder. And if they are not protesting, they sure as heck aren’t coming to the defence or support of Governor Sarah Palin. Some of the comments are downright, sorry to use the phrase, “catty.” A female columnist in the Ottawa Sun yesterday talked about go-go boots, comments about Governor Palin’s hair style are rampant, and it’s not just women of course.

We’re all aware of the manner in which commentators like Wolf Blitzer of CNN absolutely salivated over 17-year-old Bristol Palin’s pregnancy.

CBC’s Neil Macdonald claimed that Ms. Palin had once belonged to the separatist Alaska Independence party. Turns out it was Mr. Palin who once belonged to the party many years ago.

One of the worst comments surely is that of John Doyle of the Globe and Mail who positively sniffed with distain describing Ms Palin and her family as quote a bunch of “Alaskan hillbillies”.

What’s going on here?

The National Post this morning says, “We see Sarah Palin as nothing less than a true feminist heroine -- a woman who's lived the elusive supermom dream of combining power and privilege with a large, loving family. In a more thoughtful age, feminists would have adopted her as a great success story. But because she fights on the wrong side of the culture wars -- which is to say, the one that values unborn children and human freedom -- today's left calls her a "hillbilly" and turns up its nose. We in Canada like to see ourselves as more enlightened than our American neighbours when it comes to social issues. So here's a question:Where's our Sarah Palin? Where's our confident, brash, game-changing female politician taking the media by storm?”
Probably because the left wing media in this country just wouldn’t allow it.

And talking about the left wing media… I’m starting to call them out.

Start with the Ottawa Citizen this morning. The Citizen runs six letters to the editor, five of which are opposed to Stephen Harper.

Now it could be that in fact letters to the Citizen are running five to one against Harper. That’s possible, but somehow I doubt it very much. Sure most callers to my program support Harper, I don’t pretend to be unbiased in my comments.

But I will tell you this: If I get a caller opposed to Harper, he or she will go right to the top of the list. There is no way I would attempt to keep their opinions off the air, in fact, earlier this week I offered Liberals (or anyone) a full two minutes and 15 seconds uninterrupted to extol the virtues of Stephan Dion.

What do you think? Is the Citizen being as balanced and fair as we are here on this show? Do you believe that letters to the editor of the Citizen are running five to one against Harper? Is the Citizen displaying a very clear bias and shutting out opposing views on one of its best read features?

Global Cooling Cometh?

Could it be that instead of preparing for global warming it is really global cooling which looms over the horizon? We can’t be sure of course, but increasingly, there appears to be more evidence to support cooling than warming. We know for example that while the earth did warm about .6 degrees C in the past 100 years, the warming trend stopped in 1998. Even the strongest proponents of global warming admit that. They claim it is only a pause in warming and unless we essentially revert to a kind of Stone Age lifestyle we’re all going to fry, if we don’t drown first from the rising oceans!

But as I reported yesterday there is something going on with the sun which is beginning to deeply concern many scientists. For the first time in more than 100 years there were no sunspots for an entire month. The sun has entered into something called Solar Cycle 24 marked by an amazingly low number of sun spots. During some periods there are as many as 100 sun spots over a 30 day period, but for the past year or so that number has dropped to about 3 per month and during August for the first time since 1913 there was not a single sun spot according to the Mount Wilson Observatory at UCLA.

What is disturbing is that during the past 1000 years there have been three similar instances of very low or totally absent sun spot activity and during each episode the earth cooled substantially. In fact during one such period we experienced a “little ice age”. This occurred during the 15th and 16th centuries. During the coldest part, known as the Maunder Minimum, astronomers saw only about 50 sunspots over a 30-year period during which, among other things, the River Thames froze over completely and winter-like weather during the summer months resulted in widespread famine. Glaciers advanced rapidly in Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia and North America, making vast tracts of land uninhabitable. There are reports of Eskimos landing their kayaks in Scotland. The Viking colonies in Greenland were abandoned completely. During the winter of 1780, New York harbor froze, allowing people to walk from Manhattan to Staten Island.

We are now at the beginning of Solar Cycle 24, so named because it is the 24th consecutive cycle that astronomers have listed, starting with the first cycle that began in March, 1755 and ended June 1766. Each cycle lasts an average of 11 years. Each is marked by sunspots that first erupt in the mid-latitudes of the sun and then over the course of the 11 years, erupt progressively toward the sun equator, each is marked by a change in the polarity of the sun’s hemispheres and each changes the temperature on Earth in ways that we humans don’t fully understand.

Are we headed for another little ice age? Who can say, surely not Al Gore. Sunspots could very well start to re-appear today or tomorrow, or perhaps not. And if they don’t? Could it be that the River Thames will freeze again?

When Shakespeare wrote of “lawn as white as driven snow” he had first hand experience. He was living in the little ice age. There were a lot of lawns as white as driven snow around here a few months back. Was that the start of something? Ask David Suzuki.

If you are interested in having a closer look at this check out the website dailytech.com. Another great source to check out is the book entitled “The Deniers” authored by Lawrence Solomon.

Parents Are Failing Their Children

Let me ask you this:

Are there any parents left in this country who teach their children respect for authority? No doubt there are, but the evidence becomes less evident every day. Look at what happened this past week-end at the Knights of Columbus hall in Vanier.

Paramedics were called when a man fell unconscious. As they loaded him aboard an ambulance, a crowd of about 50 young men and women attacked the paramedics, forcing them to lock themselves in the vehicle and call police. Reports indicate the mob cursed and swore at the paramedics, then began rocking the ambulance with the frightened paramedics locked inside. The mob threw bottles and pounded and kicked the ambulance.
Fortunately police arrived before anyone was injured or killed.

Why did the mob turn on the paramedics? No apparent reason, other then a total lack of respect for any form of authority and more than that, actual distain, even for those trying to help their unconscious friend.

We saw much the same situation a couple years ago during one of the infamous tequila sunrise parties. It was a mob of high schoolers who mobbed paramedics trying to help a youngster who drank himself into a stupor. In that case the mob actually prevented the paramedics from assisting the young man who’s life was in danger.

Keep in mind we’re not talking about trailer trash here or street gangs. In both cases, and there have been many other similar instances, the young people involved were essentially kids next door. This past weekend they were attending a 19-year-old’s birthday party.

I know I will be accused of old fartism, but the fact of the matter is this kind of thing would never have entered the minds of my generation, or for that matter my daughter’s generation either.

Those of my generation didn’t grow up angels, nor did my daughter’s, but there is absolutely no way we or they would have attacked paramedics trying to help our friends.

This is a relatively new phenomenon, thanks in large part to parents who simply have failed to instill in their children any sense of respect for others, and further to that, not only a lack of respect, but actual distain for anyone representing authority in any form, obviously this even includes paramedics.

Young people today, for the most part, have grown up in the belief that there are no consequences for their actions. They taunt their parents and teachers with impunity. They are not allowed to fail in school. They quickly learn that they are essentially untouchables, above common decency and discipline of any sort - thus above the law.

And you know something?
They are absolutely right.
To my knowledge, not a single charge was laid after the tequila sunrise incident and Ottawa Police did not lay any charges following this past weekend’s disgraceful attacks.
You would like to think that at the very least a few parents would raise some hell if their children were involved in any of this.

What do you think are the chances of that?

The Democrats are Going Nuts!

The granola crunching, tree hugging thug loving mind is a wonderful thing isn’t it?
Whether here in Canada—or the United States. Progressives they call themselves. Hypocrites is a much more apt description.
Consider this situation with Bristol Palin. She’s the 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. You know the story: She’s unwed and pregnant. Mind you, she’s not going to abort, she’s going to wed the father.

Both of Bristol’s parents say they love their daughter unconditionally and are proud she’s going to have the baby.
The Democrats are going nuts! I actually heard a caller to CNN describe it as “Babygate!” Can you believe it? Babygate!

Here are the Democrats, the American progesssives who fell all over themselves defending a President who’s junior assistant was servicing him on her knees, upset over a 17-year-old unwed mother.

Bill Clinton—President of the United States of America—married man—father-- having oral sex with that woman—Miss Lewinski—in the Oval Office of the White House and that’s okay with the progressives. But a 17-year-old gets pregnant, announces she will keep the baby and marry the father and it’s “Babygate” for heaven sakes.

And it’s even worse than that! Fact is the “progressives” had already begun a whisper smear campaign claiming that Sarah Palin’s four-month-old son Trig, born in April with Down’s Syndrome, was actually Bristol’s son. Vicious smears the left here in Canada and the United States are so adept at.

Surely you recall all the stories still floating about here in Ottawa about Stephen Harper’s “hidden agenda”. The Liberals here in Canada are complaining today about the Conservatives radio and TV adds apparently having forgotten the ones which claimed Harper was going to buy aircraft carriers.

Typical though isn’t it?
President Bill Clinton getting his jollies in the White House is just, well you know, boys being boys (ditto his bare faced lies about it).
On the other hand, a Republican’s 17-year-old daughter gets pregnant and it’s "babygate"!!!
And of course—as usual—the drive by media in both countries—sucks it all up and spits it all out-

I’ve got a new word for you---“Leftygate”.

cowardly disgusting blogs!

It is hard to believe that we have people in our community who will poke fun at and make disgustingly crude remarks about someone who is watching a loved one fight for their lives.
Sadly such is the case.
My good friend and fellow broadcaster Steve Madely continues to have ignorant, tasteless and cowardly remarks directed at him from several bloggers, despite the fact everyone now knows his wife is gravely ill. As usual in situations such as this those making the remarks have neither the courage or the integrity to sign their names. Classless cowards who apparently would think nothing of poking fun at a suffering or dieing child.
Steve Madely has been around long enough to know that there are always the ignorant fools prepared to shoot him in the back from the dark, but such may not be the case with other members of his family, who not only have to deal with the fact their mother is ill, but also even as the father tries to do his job terrible things are being said and written about him. Things which have no basis in fact whatsoever. It is a shameful display of ignorance and cruelty.
My name is one I am proud to sign
Lowell Green