Friday, November 13, 2009

Correctness Uber Alles


I must be showing my true colors.

Two stories with similar trajectories have got my morning goat.

1. An Islamic radical is shot and killed by the FBI in America. Days later, two Canadian associates are arrested in their homes by Windsor police.

But wouldn't you know it, those gnarly officers patted down a number of people during the arrest, including, stand back, a female relative of the suspects.

As these things go, the Windsor Police Chief has now made a formal and public apology and set up new officer "sensitivity" training in conjunction with the local Islamic Association.

Write your own commentary.

2. People bring their relatives to Canada under the family class program. Many of these reunifications work out just fine for all concerned.

But many of theses relatives are quickly and mysteriously destitute. They are suddenly on the dole and the relatives who sponsored them and swore that they would support them so I don't have to now claim they cannot.

The Ontario government has asked that some of these monies be repayed by people who promised in the first instance to do exactly that.

But, no.

Now, these people have sued the Ontario government and thanks to Ontario courts, they have won. Ontario cannot ask to be repayed, at least en masse. The government must pursue each niggly case on its own.

The key element here is that the sponsors have claimed that circumstances - ill health, for example - have made it impossible for them to honor their commitments.

I suggest that they are liars.

I suggest that Canada is known with great good humour in Third World countries as a famous patsy. That we are soft in the head and softer in the heart.

Why not demand a surety or some other bond that can be called in if necessary?

Shhhh...


There many things in the affairs of man that I don't understand.

Here is one.

A fire destroys five businesses at Main and Broadway.

O.K.

That's news.

I'll see it on the 6 o'clock, I'll read about in the paper the next morning. O.K. I get it.

But why do we seek out and print the opinions of politicians?

It's a fire.

What have that gadfly, Jim Green, and that councillor Geoff Meggs got to do with this? What light can these two spotlight seekers shed on a fire?

Unless you're wearing a helmet and a fire-retardant suit, asbestos you shut the f up.

Victor's Got a Burning Torch


I am not anti-Olympics but I am really bored with the torch stories.
If we have to endure this for another 100 days how about some edgy
torch stories. How about these?

At a Prince George strip bar, 12 guys standing at urinals pass the
torch to each other.

In Vancouver's downtown east side, 15 crack addicts race shopping
carts while lighting crack pipes with the torch.

At a Winnipeg WalMart, 9 obese shoppers pas the torch while sitting
and eating nachos.

At Kingston penitentiary, 5 inmates pass the torch while getting
manicures and massages.

At Toronto airport, 137 illegal immigrants launch a class action suit
for not getting a chance to run the torch. [Hahahaha...editorial comment...this is my favorite...hahaha]

In Ottawa, caregivers carry the torch past 8 sleeping Senators
debating a crime bill.

In Victoria, the torch extinguishes suddenly and the Liberals blame
the Glen Clark government.

In Oshawa, 14 auto workers on their third one hour break, pass a zippo
lighter and demand a bonus.


Add your own.

September Song


Lately it seems that every restaurant and cafe I'm in seems to be playing Sinatra.

This is hardly a complaint. I am grateful.

These days, I find myself marvelling again and again at just how good, how great he was.

Totally committed to every note and every nuance of meaning.

Here is one of the first songs I ever learned.

My mother who favoured Chopin etudes and little Mozart piece on the upright piano in our living room loved this Kurt Weill Maxwell Anderson tune, and I would rock back and forth on the sofa while she played it.

It is not "embedded" on YouTube, but here is the link.

Enjoy at the deepest possible level....Sink into it. Swim in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wte1uk4A5eU