Might As Well Go Home Right Now

Target Canada's new price-matching promises are, like the shelves of their stores, empty.   That is all.

Is That Ron Banerjee Choking The Gay Protester At Ford Fest?

Sure looks like it, and the folks at ARC Canada have a clearer shot, and links to video of the guy in the picture yelling anti-gay slurs.

Ron Banerjee, if you don't know, is both the leader and a large portion of the membership of Canadian Hindu Advocaacy (CHA), a hard right group of at least one Hindu (Ron) and maybe one or two other guys, also presumably Hindu.  He's done some pro-Ford proselytizing before.

Now, the guy really, really looks like Ron...here's another shot:

And even a few of his usual allies think its him:

And I hear a few reporter-types have been trying to get hold of Ron.  But it hasn't yet been confirmed as far as I know.  For my part, I've emailed one of CHA's contact email for a response, and received none.

PS.  Here's a few undisputed shots of  Ron for comparison..

Sure Its Only Forum

...from a week ago, no less.  But that's majority territory, as the poll suggests.  As for the pollsters, well, can't find where he wrote it but 308's Eric Grenier has been taking Forum a bit more seriously lately, after they called NS and Que. roughly correct, and Eric is a smart fellow.  A long way to go, and many a slip between cup and lip, but decent news, which for me, would suggest that the Tories are likely to drag out an election call rather than go in Spring 2015.

NHL & Global Warming: A Development Of Some Note

The NHL says that climate change is real, and announces measures the league will take to fight it. They're worried that the gradual disappearance of outdoor rinks might be detrimental to the game.  And it probably will be.  Less access to free ice-time means, down the road, a smaller pool of skilled skaters to draw from  The economic argument is simple and compelling: the more you charge for something the less of it you get.

Five Foot's Hubby Booted Off Blogger?

These Israeli-Palestinian set-tos always Put Arnie over the moon, so I imagine someone reported some kind of hate-speech/policy/terms-of-service violation thingy to Blogger Central and they yanked his site.  But no matter, looks like Ms. Shaidle will have work with a new John Tory administration.

PS.  Pic can be made bigger by clicking on it.

Lorne Gunter: Whatever The Facts Are, They're Bad

The Sun's Lorne Gunter objects to a PBO report claiming public sector sick day costs are not a burden on the taxpayer because  "...most departments do not call in replacements when an employee takes a sick day, [and therefore] there are no incremental costs.”  Lorne doesn't like that: whatever the costs are, they're unwarranted.  He apparently thinks that there are just too many federal public servants, however many of them there actually are and whatever they cost, and presumably if he was in charge goddammnit he would cut them to the point where the next employee taking a sick day did have an negative effect on service levels.  Apparently, Lorne thinks this is what happens in the private sector: your business owner fires everyone but his last administrator, and when they come down with the flu calls go unanswered and business goes undone. I expect this does happen occasionally, especially when times are tough, but its hardly what you would call good business practice.  And imagine how this strategy would work if applied to, for example, your local fire department.  You sack enough fellows that when the next guy sprains his ankle, the next fire gets maybe half a truck.  A guy in a VW Beetle with a can of spritzer water, maybe. In fact, in Ontario you barely have to imagine. Hudanomics, that math challenged theory propounded by ex-PCPO leader Tim Hudak, suggested firing public servants, fire men included, and redistributing the money saved to folks like chiropractors and the people who operate nail salons.  Ontarians decided that he was nuts.

Life In Scarborough: Guy On Bus, Muttering Obscenities

So I'm riding a bus home through Eastern Scarborough, and I hear this guy behind me talking shit. Weird, obscene stuff.  And it goes on and on and on, the whole bus ride, in halting English, and it keeps circling back to the same few phrases again and again: "This young girl, she let me squeeze her _____ and her ____".  But he always got mumbling when he was about to specify the precise bits of female anatomy being squeezed, so I never  heard which ones he was referencing.  For awhile I thought he might be a new immigrant learning English from an x-rated phrase book.  But when I exited the bus I got a good look at him, and he was just some middle aged white guy with a  mesh-back cap and dark glasses, and he was just talking to himself as he stared out the window.  Other than the fact that he was picking his nose shamelessly--right index finger, jammed right up--he could have been anybody.  Maybe even a pharmacist.

Rob Ford: Rage Against The Latrine

Rob Ford thinks $600,000 is too much to spend on a bathroom.  After all, the bathroom is in a field, and there are trees in the field, thus rendering the bathroom redundant.

Randy Hillier On PCPO Reform: Still Crazy After All These Years

Randy, like many PCPO mpps lately, has been advocatin' democratic reform for the Ontario Progessive Conservative party.  No concrete new policies on offer yet, unless you count ditching all the old policies.  I took to twitter, and noted how, as part of this repositioning, Randy seems to have softened his views on union bashing and other issues since June 12th's inglorious defeat.

Debate ensued:

For old times sake (but not that old--it's from 2004), here's Randy arguing that rural Ontario has to get out from under T.O.s socialist nanny state booty.

The Onion On Movies

Presented without comment.

Maybe They Were Already Dead

Paul Wells thinks the Harper government should be given credit for slaying Quebec separatism.  I'd suggest its been deceased since 1995 and Harper has merely presided over the last twitchings of the body.  I would further suggest that Harper's uncritical trumpeting of tar-sands development threatens to awake a far more dangerous beast...a British Columbia independence movement.  The more Harper pushes for projects like Northern Gateway (and perhaps, who knows, Kinder Morgan) the more he risks a sovereigntist flare-up on our Left Coast.  Those people went ape-shit when outsiders attempted to harmonize the federal and provincial sales tax; just think how they'll react when the first crew of tar-miners from Calgary show up in their gold-plated cowboy hats. (hint: it will be bad)

News From Heartland Institute Climate Conference: Barre Seid Is HI's Anonymous Donor

It's official - @wattsupwiththat finally 100% confirmed billionaire Barre Seid is @HeartlandInst #climate denial "anonymous donor" #iccc9
— Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) July 9, 2014

@Bigcitylib2 @wattsupwiththat @HeartlandInst in conversation, video footage coming. Jim Lakely filmed it--ask him!
— Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) July 10, 2014

This has long been suspected, but apparently has been confirmed.  Barre is this guy, a reclusive billionaire known for funding right-wing causes. It will be interesting now to see if any pressure is brought to bear upon him and his holdings.  General Motors, for example, was eventually convinced to end their funding of HI.

LPC Ads On Youtube

The last couple of days I've been running across the following ad every time I go looking for clips of this or that on youtube.  Below is what I got last evening.

Its Justin reading a Private Member's statement on Eugenie Bouchard, from June 4, but recycled again after her latest run.  Here's the original:

 I suppose this kind of thing is not terribly remarkable these days but its nice to see the party being creative. FWIW this is the tune I was looking for when I found the ad:

The Great Toronto Storm, A Year Later

These words seem to have held up pretty well.  May they cheer any fellow Torontonians who suffered a loss during that horrible day.  Like having their Lamborghini flooded.

Justin's Star Ascendant In Fort Mc!!!

Liberals would have won Fort McMurray #byelxn41 if held on the new boundaries, poll-by-poll results show. #YMM #LPC pic.twitter.com/JOWtfsE2ux
— Pundits' Guide (@punditsguide) July 6, 2014

Look at that top-line.

Die Media Die: National Post On Its New Summer Print Schedule

National Post is on its summer print schedule. No more Monday papers until after Labour Day.
— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) July 6, 2014

I haven't seen the official  NP statement announcing their summer schedule, but someone on the inside has emailed me a secret first draft, before the despairing tone of it was softened to something more resembling "down but not out".

Dear National Post Readers, Should There Be Any Of You Left Out There:

Between now and Labour Day we will not be printing our Monday edition.  Since it was going entirely unsold, management felt the energy expended in its production might be better directed towards heating our tents and running the coffee machines on a restricted basis.  Also, it was discovered that some of the glue used to bind our glossy inserts could be boiled down to its starch and sugar components, and smeared over bread for its calories.  Or over boiled belt and running shoe, maybe, when the time comes.  

For, as our readers may know already (assuming you are out there somewhere, not surfing the Internet for your news and entertainment), we were recently forced to sell our building on Don Mills Road and relocate to an yurt village along the Don River itself, for budgetary reasons (we're broke). We use the wifi at a nearby Tim Horton's to file our stories, and pee in the bush.  Unfortunately a nearby encampment of homeless cannibals has contested our right to this space, and they seem more numerous and better fed than we.  We may have more urgent tasks ahead of us soon than cranking out our Monday paper.

And, as for that edition, and in fact all of our editions: despite our many, many efforts to "do more with less", it still isn't happening.  Our product (The National Post) still goes over like a bus full of Vietnamese orphans off a ravine road North of Ho Chi Minh City.  

Nevertheless, we can do naught but pray for a brighter future, or at least a swift death.

The Editors
National Post

Never Ever Promise Open Nominations

Because you're not being sincere.  And because the people don't give a crap until they hear all the bad-news stories generated when you break your promise.  

This bit of advise applies to parties of all political stripes.

Centre For Israel And Jewish Affairs Censors Holocaust Survivers

Bernie Farber's new column for the CJN is now on-line.  Its about the crummy manner in which the Canadian government has treated the Pusemas, a family of Hungarian refugees which includes a six year old girl named Lulu.  What I'm particularly interested in is this bit:

Lets be clear: CIJA is financially muscling a group of holocaust survivors for protesting the behavior of the current government.  Why?  Well:

Of course this is only speculation.  But if so, CIJA and these other organizations have transformed themselves into a single issue advocacy groups, trading their ability to speak out generally for a single paltry policy stance from the current government.

Since the Canadian Jewish Holocaust Survivors wrote their letter regardless, it appears that all CIJA et al have managed to accomplish is to muzzle themselves.

Life In Scarborough: I Think I Saw A Mink

They're all around T.O. apparently, but I was here:

...which is a fair distance from water (although there's a creek a few hundred yards North, if you look at the map). It came out of the bush to the left of the tracks, and slowly loped forward towards me standing on the bridge.  Like a fat ferret, or a scrawny ground-hog that had been stretched on the rack.   It took a good half hour, sniffing about on the gravel between the two sets of tracks pictured center-left, and it paused when it saw me standing about in the middle of this pic watching it.

And eventually it spied something in the bush stage right (South) and buggered off.  Here's what a mink looks like:

...which more or less fits what I saw, esp. the coloration.  Any other weaselly type creatures it might have been in T.O.?