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?