My 2 Cents

My 2 Cents

My Problems With Current Events and the State of the World as we know it

Garage Days Re-visited

The other night, Janice and me watched with great interest a great Canadian show called "W-5" which aired a great article tonight on mechanics and how they conduct car repairs. What we saw wasn't all that shocking, but certainly did reaffirm what we've believed for as long as we've dealt with cars: By and large, garages are loaded with crooks.

The ones that stood out the most were Sears Automotive and Canadian Tire. To a lot of people who might be reading this, you're probably saying "no wonder there". But there are some who stand by Crappy Tire and that damn Sears for whatever invalid reasons.

What the folks at W-5 did was send in the same car to each garage across different parts of the country, with just a loose battery cable, and nothing else wrong with the vehicle. Some garages fixed just what needed to be done. Others did absolutely crazy things, Sears and Canadian Tire included, like intentionally creating damages to the car so that the price of the repairs can be jacked up. It's really a joy watching the mechanics squirm when W-5's Wei Chen goes in later and tells them that they've just been tested and failed miserably. The reactions were mostly the same--let's put it this way; "Denial" ain't just a river in Egypt.

My brother Rick used to always help me out with the cars I owned in my younger years. I first owned a Chevy Citation, which gave me little trouble, but when the time was up with that car, the others came through the revolving door rather quickly. I had a Hyundai Pony, a Dodge Sundance, Ford Taurus....they all gave me nightmarish problems. And when Rick couldn't get the job done, it had to go to a garage

One time I sent my car into a place called Sumner Tire, which is now a Goodyear garage just up the street from where I live right now. When it went into the garage, Rick had a good idea what was wrong, but wanted to hear from a mechanic. They came back to us with this big-ass list of stuff that had to be done to it or else, basically, it's going to collapse right there on the hoist. Good 'ol Rick wasn't having any of it. He pretty much told them what he thought of their garage and we got my car out of there and I brought it to another place.

There's a garage in Riverview called Frank Tremblay's. Frank and his workers always did a pretty good job on my cars, but the fact remained that he was in Riverview, a fair ways away from where I lived in Moncton, and I couldn't just hike up to the garage to get my car. I was forced to explore other options. One of them was Canadian Tire. Rick had a Canadian Tire credit card that he let me use a couple of times to get my car fixed--God bless the guy. The thing I noticed with Canadian Tire was that when I brought it in to, say, get the brakes fixed, a week or two later I needed a boot on a CV joint replaced. Why hadn't they noticed that when it was in the garage getting brakes? It didn't take that long to realize that I was bringing it to the wrong place again.

There was a muffler place that did other work at a garage by where I used to live up on Satinwood Drive, "Ideal Muffler"or something like that. I was having trouble with the brakes once. They said they needed to be replaced soon, but the brake lines were leaking and needed repairs first. It was pricey getting that done at the time though, so he topped up the brake fluid until I could go back and get the job done. A week later near the garage at a strip mall, I got out of my car and one of the mechanics from the garage sped up and nearly hit me, came about two inches from it. He had this psychotic look on his face and said "where are you getting your car fixed? Huh? WHERE?" I said I didn't have the funds yet to get it done. Needless to say, I didn't go back there to get the job done. And when I did get the lines fixed, the garage I went to, Precision Wheel Service, said the brakes were good probably for another three months or more. So Ideal Muffler was on the growing blacklist.

My Pony was a pretty simple little car. There were no onboard computers, it had a manual choke, and despite its numerous problems, it would start in the coldest of winter temperatures because of that choke. But there were consistently generator problems with it. At one point, I'd gotten my hands on a Sears Credit Card, and it got maxed out really quick with repairs from Sears Automotive. I kept going back, every two weeks at one point, and repairs kept on coming. Until one time I brought it in, I asked the guy behind the counter (who wasn't a mechanic) to explain the work that had been done. As he rung in the bill in the cash register, he chuckled and even turned away because he was laughing. I was tipped off at that time that they were taking me big time. When I'd told Rick what they were doing to the car, he asked me questions that I couldn't validate, and I knew I couldn't bring it back there again. I can not rail enough against Sears Automotive. They are crooks.

My Taurus was notorious for its electrical problems. There were computer chips in the engine that were acting up, making the engine charge when it was idling, obviously a serious problem. I brought it to a place called Brunswick Auto Electric, recommended to me by a friend, and I felt good that the recommendation was spot on that my car was finally going to get fixed. When they brought it out for a test drive, they said they needed to hold it overnight and bring it for another one. Test drives cost money. Until the problem happened while they had the car in their hands, they said, they couldn't deal with it. I wound up bringing the car back and replacing chip after chip, forking over hundreds of dollars, and still not getting to the source of the problem. The first time I brought the car in, I pulled it into one of the bays at the place, and the owner SCREAMED at me because I was bringing it in the wrong bay. Then he talked to me like a misbehaving four year old when he found I didn't have a hell of a lot of knowledge about the electrical intricacies of the modern automobile. I eventually came to my senses, found another garage to get the electrical analyzed, which was Metro Auto Clinic on Main Street here in town, and the head mechanic there opened the hood, said "oh, there's the problem right there. See that box? It's gotta go." No guesswork, no bullshit, no time getting it done. When he did it, I was on my way and the car worked until it was just about ready to croak. I'd brought my cars to Metro until I didn't own one anymore.

It goes to show, for me at least, that there indeed are mechanics out there who are honest, but they're about as common as a bikini contest in the North Pole. Writing this little thing in my site is my plea to anyone who brings a car in to any of these places, let the buyer beware. Garages are dark and shady places, and not just from a lack of windows.

(April 14, 2003)

Louse of Commons

Boy oh boy, the longer I live, the more I see how much of a great big game politics is. The whole God forsaken thing is a chess game between factions, isn't it? In North America, with the United States and Canada at least, we have two democratic nations that have their respective parties that jockey for the top positions in their country's palaces; the White House and Parliament Hill.

The United States has bascially two parties to choose from, being the Republicans and the Democrats. A third party that proclaim themselves as a reform movement exists, but without anyone at the helm to steer the ship after old big-ears Ross Perot went a little too wacky a few years ago. Of course there are other splinter parties, as there are with every country's politics.

In Canada we have our own can of worms to deal with. We've got the reigning Liberals, basically the equivalent to the Democrats in the United States, and the self-proclaimed Alliance party, who claim to have more or less "united the right", or all of the conservative factions, in Canada several years ago. The Progressive Conservatives, however, whose party still exists in spite of the Alliance's claim to have put all the conservative eggs in one basket, is attempting to distance themselves from the former Reform party after several instances that have pointed the bigotry and racism finger at Mr. Deuschebag's (Steven Harper's) minions. Then there's the New Democrats, or the NDP, which does still exists but only as a minor blip every once in a while on the political radar. On the fringe we have the BQ, or Bloc Quebecois, whose seats in the House of Commons are comprised solely of the votes of its radical followers in its own home province of Quebec, and whose sole reason for existence is to separate Quebec from the rest of Canada. Go figure.

The federal budget has just been unveiled by the Liberals here in Canada, with projected spending over the next five years unparalleled since the early eighties. The difference is that the spending isn't expected to plunge Canada into the throes of debt that it did back then, while injecting some serious and much needed cash into health care, the military, social programs and basically any other legitimate group who've had their hands out for the last several years. We do have to wait and see if the money shows up, if it really does make it to its intended destinations. But besides that fact, we've got all kinds of bullshit talking, trouble walking, doomsday prophesizing naysayers saying that the over $35 billion dollars being spent just isn't enough. In almost the same breath, they'll say it's too much.

I don't know what to think of democratic politics anymore. I've realized since junior high school that politics is more or less a pissing contest between large groups of men with power and deep pockets with silver spoons still hanging out of their mouths from childhood. But I've almost reached a breaking point in patience with it here in my home country, with absolutely no one happy with anything their adversary does no matter how grand the gesture. Joe Clark, the leader of the Conservatives and former Prime Minister of Canada until he got a permanent bootprint on his ass within the same year he was elected in, would be amusing if he weren't so annoying. His constant bitching and bawling about things not being done the way HE would have them done is indictive of someone with years of sour grapes and his ass still hurting from his eviction three decades ago. I know why he's not pleased. You know why he's not pleased. He doesn't have the highest positon of power in the country, and his comrades aren't part of the ruling party, so he'll make the biggest stink he can about why he should have those things without necessarily making any sense, much like three decades ago.

Deuschebag himself, though, is probably the biggest hemmer and hawer there is on the political landscape. Forever looking for a scandal that may topple a government that has been in power half as long as he's been out of diapers (actually, that's still in question), Mr. D sounds more and more, as time goes by for everyone east of Saskatchewan, like just another shit disturber out to offend anyone who doesn't agree with him. I've said all along, the Alliance Party, formerly the Reform Party, used to have a big "R" for a logo. You decide what the "R" stands for. Consider that this bunch of losers is out to tighten the noose on anyone with skin with more than a tan trying to get into Canada.

Of course, we also have the BQ, who are steadily slipping in power and credibility even as I write this. These idiots want Quebec to have its own sovereignty outside of Canada, but keep Canada's currency and maintain the status quo. Basically they want their cake, and Canada's, and they want to eat it too. Right in front of us. Never mind the Crown owned land that exists in Quebec, eh? Minor technicalities. These people make the Alliance look smart.

Now, I'm not totally in support of the Liberals, but they seem to be the only party that has their act together enough to run a country. The alternatives to them leading us aren't exactly appealing, though, and so before anyone would do any Liberal bashing, I'd say consider what we'd be in for with the real inmates in the House of Commons running the asylum. However.....having said all this, I'm tired of the posturing, the penis size judging, and all the other macho crap that's going on in the press with all the camera and photo ops that keep popping up on our news shows. Anyone in the know does know one thing.......every politician in this country is after one thing: Power, number one, and Higher Pay, number two. The progress and well being of Canada takes a seat at the back of the bus behind these and other stupid ridiculous issues. I don't know what tradition or whatever we follow here in the House of Commons gatherings, but all the cockfighting that goes on in its neanderthal-like fashion comes off like grade-school bullying and namecalling that is unbefitting of the rest of us honorable Canadians.

So much for leading by example.

Uncomfortably Numb

The space shuttle Columbia added itself to the list of American tragedies today by blowing up over the earth and sending its pieces crashing down over the southern U.S. Seven astronauts, including one Israeli, were killed onboard.

I was looking around on the computer this morning for something that I might write about as a commentary for my website. Ironically this is what I came across. I can't say it was something that I was looking to find.

A few hours have passed now since this happened, and maybe it just hasn't set in yet, but it doesn't quite seem to resonate like the Challenger disaster did close to twenty years ago to the day. But tragedies have a way of settling into the mind and haunting those that are around to experience them.

I found the headline on the homepage of MSN.com, immediately got off my chair and turned on the TV. Of course, it was true, as CTV Newsnet had Canada's tried and true Lloyd Robertson covering and commenting on what had just happened. I knew if I wanted to see any footage of the actual accident, in repitition over and over, from multiple camera angles, up close, far away, etc., all I had to do was turn to TPN on channel 25 here in Moncton. This channel is also known as CNN in the States, but has become known by myself and others as the Terror Porn Network, especially after the events of September 11. Sure enough, with multiple camera angles, up close, far away and in relentless repetition, there was the remains of the shuttle Columbia falling earthward splattered across the screen with the reporters doing everything they can to add whatever adjectives they could use that might make the papers or get shown on international television.

Hey look, I realize this is huge news. But TPN is notorious now for taking stories like this, chaining its viewers to the screen and pounding them into submission with the surreal images of what has just become regrettable history. I can appreciate the coverage of some people's reactions, what the President has to say about what's happened, and the investigative coverage over what may have transpired to cause this to take place, but I think it can be done with respect to those it has closely affected by not showing the freakin' shuttle exploding into millions of pieces in the sky over and over and over again. To TPN's credit, surprisingly, they reported (at least for now) that no terrorist activity is suspected here.

This also all got me thinking about the Space Program. NASA gets hundreds of billions of dollars annually for space exploration ever year from the American government, with countries all over the world chipping in on the experiments and equipment to carry them out. I'm not sure what for after seeing something like this happen. My view is this: Fix what's wrong with the world before you leave it. The ridiculous amount of dollars ought to be re-directed to combat global warming, world starvation, homelessness, disease control, and basically human tragedy everywhere before we send ships with people up to space to see what's happening out there. If you've got a lot of money and a beat up car you love that breaks down a lot, you spend the money on getting the car fixed before you get a paint job. If things aren't running smoothly, the rest doesn't matter, does it? Well, things here on Earth are not running smoothly. I don't need to point that out to anyone. Why we're sending massive multi-billions of dollars worth of hardware into orbit because it's "important" doesn't make sense to me. There are plenty of things far more important before we play Buck Rogers. And don't even get me started on the Star Wars missile defense program. Sadly enough, even though the majority of people agree with this reasoning, their trillions of tax dollars will continue to be used for space exploration instead of helping humanity.

But the car known as Earth will continue to deteriorate and break down and corrode while NASA and its buddies will continue to give it a nice thick coat of shiny blood-red paint. God Bless the victims of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. The money spent sending them into space, however, is what's most forefront on the minds of the government who sponsored their mission in the end.

(February 1, 2003)

And now, deep thoughts

There's always something out there that you have an opinion on, eh? Here's a few things that come across my mind that are probably too minor to write a whole "article" (I HATE using that term, because I am not a 'writer') about........

I'm pretty tired of hearing of the Raelians. Now they're claiming that they've cloned a third child, but they don't want to offer proof. F**k off, alien lovers. My suggestion is this: Create your own little bio-dome in your own corner of the earth somewhere and leave the rest of us alone. We're all sick of you piss ants making these stupid claims about something we all already know isn't possible.

I've railed against the music scene before in my commentaries, but really, I am feeling pretty hopeless about music in general these days. Performers, namely the younger ones, just don't seem to want to present themselves as being special to look at for audiences anymore, and it seems they're only interested in copying each other. And the older acts sound more and more tired. Just look at the sales decreases in the music industry nowadays---in the last year, sales decreased more than any other period in music history. Blame it on the free downloads on the internet if you want, but between record companies not lowering the prices on CD's (it costs far less to produce a CD package than it ever did to produce a cassette one) and artists refusing to be original, this is the worst state music has been in EVER. I hate to say that. It's depressing. Music used to be an escape for kids and adults alike, a way to lift the spirits. Not anymore. Now it just makes people more pissy and downcast.

I really did respect the way President George W. Bush handled things after the September 11 attacks. He comforted the world over and assured us all that the people responsible for the cowardly acts in New York and Washington would pay with their very existence, those people being Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Fast forward to present time in January 2003, and BL is still on the loose, AQ is still out and wandering and the U.S. is chasing.......Saddam Hussein?? This smacks of severe "I'm gonna get you for what you did to my daddy" rhetoric. Bush Sr. didn't get the job done against Iraq, so his little boy will. What a waste of time and money. The further the weapons inspectors in Iraq go, the more proof they find of there NOT being any weapons of mass destruction, but Georgie Porgie still insists there is. Don't count out a U.S. vs. The World war in the future if this continues. Not on a grand scale though; because the American people don't want war with Iraq either. The irony in the whole scenario is astounding.

I'll tell you what bugs me, and you probably already heard me say this lots of time already; it's those damned Mickey D's commercials. "Take a look what's on TV!/ It's the Insane Clown Posse!" Rotten Ronnie the clown always bugged me how he prostitutes kids on McDonald's commercials with his song and dance routines, but the new commercial for their meat-of-questionable-origin flatbread sandwich really bugs me too. "People will line up outside your cubicle for a look!" Oh, well I better get one, then! I WANT people to wonder what it is I'm eating! Oh, wait, I don't work in a cubicle. Guess I shouldn't get one of those MOQO flatbread sandwiches after all. Oh well!

Well, Super Bowl Sunday is coming up and everyone's getting caught up in the commotion. Everybody but me. Bon Jovi is going to be 'headlining' the post game show, and he lovingly endeared himself to football fans by calling the Superbowl a "rock festival with a bunch of guys in colored uniforms running around'. Well it's really true isn't it? I've always hated football, I won't make any secret of it. A bunch of drug-addled physiques running around on a field trying to kill each other over a slab of inflated pigskin. 'Roid Rage 'r' Us. There's more testosterone on a Super Bowl football field than in the entire world's bull population combined. When a lot of the players' football careers are over, they embark on a career in beating people up for various dumb reasons, including their wives. In fact, a lot of pro sports athletes wind up that way. It's the grown up version of child-star syndrome, where once the fame is gone, life goes straight to hell. And as long as there are fans out there willing to pay money in the three digit range for a single one-game ticket, this breed of half-human/half-sports-automaton will continue to exist. Baseball players are the next in line in guilt. Two words for an example: Daryl Strawberry.

(January 26, 2003)

THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME.......

Back in the summer of 1991, there was a guy I knew named Anthony. I didn't know him all that well, actually. My girlfriend at the time, Michelle, worked at the Blue Cross Center here in Moncton, and Anthony and Scott worked in the mailroom there. Michelle saw them fairly often and they became pretty good friends. I kind of got to know Anthony through Michelle. One night in the fall of 1990, while I was working my job on the night shift at a convenience store, Anthony and Scott came in and introduced themselves to me. They were good, fun loving guys. Anthony was going out with a friend of Michelle's from her work named Karen, and she was a bombshell. Around 5' 6", around 125 pounds, shapely and very pleasant to be with. Anthony was no slouch himself to the ladies; he was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. They seemed like a "dream couple". They always got on well together, always had a lot of fun, and looked good together to everyone. Neither one of them had the attitudes or egos that are commonly becoming of people of their image group.

I remember when I quit my job at the store, I went through some rigorous interviewing and testing in the spring of 1991 to get my job at the Irving Tissue plant which had just opened up in Dieppe. Anthony called me up and asked me for advice on how he might be able to get his foot in the door too, as he was getting tired of the mail room. I told him what I did to get in there, and he thanked me and actually apologized for asking, something that obviously wasn't necessary.

One night in the summertime that year, it was announced on MuchMusic that a brand new, long awaited Bryan Adams song was going to debut with a video on the channel called "Everything I Do, I Do It For You". I was anxious to hear it, because Mutt Lange had produced it, and I really like the work he does with the people he works with. I watched it that night with my mom and Michelle at Mom's house. They really liked it. It was a ballad of epic proportions, with the video culled from Kevin Costner's "Robin Hood" movie that had just come out then, interspliced with Adams and his band playing their instruments on location in Sherwood Forest. I was kind of disappointed, because I was expecting a rocker from Adams where he'd been absent from the music scene for four years. But the song grew on me, and to this day it's one of my all-time favorites.

Anthony and Karen ran into trouble. Karen started to lose interest in the relationship she had with Anthony, for whatever reason, probably other guys in the picture, but it wouldn't be fair to actually claim that. Anthony did everything he could to keep Karen with him, sending her roses, spilling out his heart to her, telling her friends how much he thought of her; it was a heartbreaking thing to see. Here was a couple that was seemingly perfect and made for each other, and suddenly this happened. Karen, according to Michelle, seemed downright cold to Anthony now. And Anthony's heart was broken and bleeding beyond repair. No one seemed to see it clearly enough.

Later on one night that summer in '91 at a nightclub in Moncton, Anthony pleaded one last time to Karen to give their relationship another try. She wouldn't have any of it. Before he got on his motorcycle and left her alone, he told her to think of him every time she hears that Bryan Adams song.

The following morning, I got a call from Michelle, crying. She told me Anthony was dead. He died riding his motorcycle into a fence on Killam Drive here in the city, and it was unclear whether or not it was intentional. But I think anyone who knew what was going on with Anthony realized if it was. Michelle and I cried together, suspended somewhat in disbelief over what had transpired. Obviously, Anthony's family was devastated, his friends, namely Scott, were stunned beyond understanding, and Karen probably scarred forever.

This is a rather lengthy writeup on the events that took place back in 1991, but is warranted in telling. The point I'm trying to get across is, you can never underestimate how downtrodden a person's feelings are. Suicide is the ultimate sin. It screws up everyone that the suicide victim knows for life, whether intended or not, and makes victims out of everyone who knows them. Everyone now who knew Anthony will be left wondering what they could have done to prevent those terrible things from happening. It's something that will be stuck with them forever. But by the same token, it's true that something may have been done. Though it's no one's fault what happened, people weren't vigilant enough to Anthony's obvious emotional erosion. The support system might have been there, but it wasn't working as efficiently as perhaps it should have been.

I don't want to experience another story like that again. To anyone who might be reading this, if you have a friend who seems downcast for an unusually long time, TALK. Be a sounding board for them. A lot of times, what people need most is a listening ear, someone to prop them up as they lose their balance and are about to fall. It's easy to provide that. And it's invaluable. Most of all, it can save a life. The same goes for anyone who's so depressed they feel they may be teetering on the edge. Talk to someone, for God's sake. The trail of destruction suicide victims leave behind is far more vast than they could ever possibly imagine. Do what it takes to get out of the ditch.

As M. Scott Peck once said, "life is difficult". That goes for everyone. Let's keep an eye out for those whom it's more difficult than the rest of us.

(January 7, 2003)

ALIENS AMONG US!

Clone-Aid. What a stupid thing to call your company, even if it really does produce clones, which is something so impossible it won't happen especially in our lifetime.

You know what I'm getting at here. There's this outfit called the Raelians, a self proclaimed religion based in Quebec, that's getting a lot of worldwide attention these days with their claims to be producing real clones to the world. There are a lot of problems with these claims these wackos are making.

First of all, producing an actual clone really is next to impossible. You can do it to a point, as they have with Dolly the cloned sheep, but what they've found with that, is that when you take a living cell or DNA sample from a living being, their lives are abbreviated due to what has already happened to the creature the sample was taken from. From Dolly the sheep, the sample was taken from a sheep which was already aged, so the life of the clone that was made was accelerated and it died prematurely, in only a fraction of the lifespan that was expected. The fact that the Raelians have supposedly attempted to produce clones in this same manner is irresponsible, and in my opinion, unholy.

The Raelians are a crazy outfit to begin with. With obviously a lot of money at their disposal to waste on things that could be better spent elsewhere, they believe that humans on earth are the offspring of alien visitation long ago. The leader of the bunch claims to have made several trips to space with these aliens and even visited their planet. Oh, and by the way, I have swampland on Mars for sale if anyone's interested.

This same group of people hand out pamphlets with information on how to join their movement, and ask people to denounce their Catholic faith and join them. The leader of the Raelians, whose name escapes me at the moment, professes himself to be a messiah and saviour to the world as we know it. He promises immortality through the cloning process.

The claims that a clone has already been born, from the outfit themselves, has met with much speculation in the science world. The "parents" of the would-be clone have offered to give samples from their child to confirm that it is indeed a clone, but once push came to shove, declined to offer the samples after all. After much circulation in the press that a clone was indeed born from Clone-Aid, suddenly the Raelians are backing down when it comes to showing proof that the event is actually legitimate. Obviously, what I thought from the beginning is true: The media was duped and played for the puppets that they really are by a bunch of idiots, as is often the case (witness the Ben Affleck/Jennifer Lopez engagement, and the brouhaha that followed).

Even if cloning was something that was possible, the idea that this technology exists is nightmarish. With this kind of knowledge in the wrong hands, we could have clones of some of the most notorious people in history.....Hitler, Stalin, Dahmer, Manson.....you get the idea. What if someone tried to create a clone of Jesus with the Shroud of Turin? The end of time indeed would be here.

Still, the attempt to bring a comic book story to life has evidently fallen on its face, at the expense of all those who reported it and devoted newstime to it. It'll be interesting to see how far they stretch it. Mainstream news media has certainly brought itself down to the level of The National Enquirer and Weekly World News. Next thing you know, there'll be a picture on the front page of the paper of a plume of smoke in the sky with the devil's face in it and headlines that read "Satan Escapes From Hell!" Maybe the Raelians will report it.

Who's to say they're not from there themselves?

(January 4, 2003)

SHOW ME THE MONEY? O.K...........

Every once in a while I hear something in the world of politics that'll light a fire under my arse and make me want to fly to Ottawa and start some kind of demonstration. Ah, maybe that's slightly an overstatement, but nonetheless, hearing what I've heard recently about the state of health care and national defense in Canada, with our government's lack of will to do anything about it now, made me feel somewhat frustrated as a citizen of a country hopeless to find a group of politicians who can get the job done right.

Let me explain what I'm talking about here: Recently, a fellow named Roy Romanow combed over the state of health care in Canada and confirmed what all of Canadians all know; that the system is in need of an overhaul, and a huge injection of cash to get it jump-started back to respectability. Romanow stated that Canada needs a minimum of $15 billion dollars over the next four years to alleviate the inherent problems of medicare and the health care platform in general. How could you disagree with this if you're a Canadian? It's getting ridiculous around here. People are on waiting lists two years long for major surgeries. Doctors can't be found to reside in rural areas because of the poor wages. The United States is offering far more promising packages to Canadian interns coming out of med school to continue their careers. It's time to step up to the plate and swing hard at these problems.

But where do we get the money without further taxing Canadians as we are already, you might ask? I don't think we need to be taxed much more, if at all, than what we are right now. I tell you, the money exists already. The government is sitting on it, and it's already been paid by Canadians. Overpaid, in fact. What money is this? It's called Employment Insurance. For years, the government has held a surplus in EI and let it build up, basically offering the excuse that it's a rainy-day fund in the event Canada's economy hits the skids. What a load of crap. The amount of the surplus has hit $40 billion dollars this year. Forty billion freakin' dollars! And fellow Canadians, that's your money and my money. They took too much from us, which is what created this "surplus". That's like loaning your uncle Larry twenty bucks and him only paying you back ten. Kinda wrong, ain't it? Except in this case, we're talking billions of dollars.

This forty billion bucks can be used rightly to give a good kick in the pants to a seemingly near-dead health care system, and rejuvenate Canada's long neglected military defense. The money is there. And there'd be change left over. I doubt that a hell of a lot of Canadians would object to this money, which they've already paid, being spent on fixing the huge cracks that exist in their country. And the logic to maintain the changes is simple: Re-evaluate the EI premiums. Establish a new premium to be deducted along with income tax and EI. Just reduce the ridiculously jacked up EI premiums and make the balance accountable to the new premium, designated to health care and, to a lesser degree, defense spending. The money is there. We all know it is.

Why give money towards defense spending, you may ask. After all, the money that goes toward a single helicopter could feed X-number of people for X-amount of time, yada yada yada. Fact of the matter is, folks, we as Canadians have been dependent on the United States for as long as we've existed as a country for our safety. A lot of us will point fingers at the Americans for being war mongers and flaunting their democratic might around the world just because they can. I would say that if Canada were not a part of this continent, we would also be war torn and perhaps under dictator rule ourselves, perphaps overrun by communism. Truth is, we're blessed to live where we do and to have the big brother we have in the U.S., whether you like it or not. I'm glad they're with us and not against us. But a glaring problem exists in that our military is not holding up its share in protecting the free world. With the looming war against Iraq possibly in our future, there's no better time to re-assess our standing in the military department than now.

And again, THE MONEY IS THERE. Time to let the government know that denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

Don't make me cross!

You hear it all the time lately, don't you? In the news or any kind of media including television, movies or print. It's everywhere. It's unavoidable. And it's gotten to the point where I've chosen to rebel against it in a good way.

What I'm talking about is the Catholic bashing that's been going on over the last number of years. Janice and me watched Sex and the City last night, where a subplot revolved around one of the non-Catholic characters objecting to her baby being baptized at the insistence of the Caholic father. The Catholics were portrayed as morons basically, and the priest in the show as a cowardly backbending moron, desperate to keep parishoners at any cost. I got more irritated as the show went on. And it made me think about the state of the Catholic church, like I've been doing a lot the past year or so.

There's been a lot going on in recent years with the Catholics, much of it starting with the disgusting revelations with the Mount Cashel case in Newfoundland, then it exploded from there. At all corners of the earth you heard of priests and higher authorities engaging in not-so-holy activities. Funny thing is, you would never hear of the good things that the church does, like supporting the homeless and feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. Maybe because it's expected of them, but the terrible things that are going on are not expected or acceptable. But people are so quick to accuse. Catholicism is one of the world's leading religions, which makes it the biggest and easiest target for others. Anyone remember how huge New Kids On The Block were? Or even the Beatles in the 60's? The bigger and more mass appealing something gets, the bigger a target it is for those that aren't as popular. Now the Catholic church is being picked apart and changed and tweaked to appease those who listen too much to its detractors, and to those who want to change it to suit their own liking. What a crock. The Catholic way dates all the way back to St. Peter, one of Jesus' very apostles, and he laid down the rules as to how the church was to be governed. To change it along the way to "suit the changing times" is like remixing classic music. You don't do it. You keep it the way it was meant to be, or it's not what it was meant to be and becomes something else.

I wonder what the Buddhists would think if they were scrutinized the way Catholics were. Or what the Jewish would think if movies and TV shows were made that degrade their faith. The media would pounce on it like a starving tomcat and it would be deemed unacceptable. But Catholics have the cross to bear in that we (that's including ME) have to endure the relentless scrutiny of others and the judgment of those who don't see the big picture.

Just say your last name was Manson. Think of it for a moment. Many people, especially those who don't know you, would view you quite differently. There's the correlation of that name to Charles Manson and idiot musician Marilyn Manson----well, if your name is Manson, you must be a creep too. WRONG. You should be accepted and judged on your own actions, not others who are like you. Now why is it acceptable to bash all Catholics due to a slim minority of creeps within its church? Those who judge all Catholics according to what a few numbskulls do are guilty of one of the most unacceptable sins of the world today: Predjudice.

If you're not Catholic, and you don't like Catholicism and its followers, quit looking down your nose at them. You never know when you'll be put in the same position. And there's a good chance you'll want the support of something as powerfully good as St. Peter's minions. If you don't believe in God at all, respect the beliefs of those who do. And maybe do some soul searching. You have one of those, you know. If you believe you have a conscience, where do you think that originates anyway?

I'm a Catholic, after several years of my back turned against the practice. And I'm proud to be one, too.

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Making headlines lately in New Brunswick is a tale about a father and his son in a minor hockey league. This father in question here is suing the minor hockey league in NB for $300,000 in "damages" because his son was not given the MVP award in his league, and wants his son and him to be paid for "pain and suffering" and have the MVP award physically taken away from the kid who actually won it and given to his son.

Where the hell are we here, folks? Russia??

I know over in Russia they make a huge stink over their athletes not getting awarded the very top prizes in their sports even when they don't deserve them. Just look at the last Winter Olympics and the figure skating scandal, where it was crystal clear and obvious that our Canadian contingent skated the better pairs program by all who saw, yet the Russians were awarded the gold. Remember the Russians' reaction when an additional gold medal was awarded to the Canadian team? A bunch of freakin' babies. The world jeered the Russkies while they played the villains they so often do in sports.

Looks like we have our own Russians right here in New Brunswick. This is an extreme case of verbal flatulence on the part of this dad who's suing, but let's face it. How many times have you heard of minor league sports or school sports where the parents go over the top in their cheering and jeering of the kids playing? What has to be done to stop it? In the case of this bozo suing another kid for being a better player than his own son, perhaps suits of the sort should be outlawed or not allowed. I'm not sure why an investigation wasn't asked for instead of ridiculous amounts of money. Clearly money is what this whole thing is about with this matter.

But with parents who lose their cool at their kids' hockey and baseball games, and whatever else, I would say it's time to start doing something that makes them look as silly as they make their kids look. How about a bronze diaper award, complete with its own pile of crap in the middle? It could be awarded in front of everyone to show exactly how stupid you can actually look in a crowd and how uncomfortable you make everyone else feel if you choose to be a supreme idiot. Or maybe a plaque with those wind-up chattering teeth on it, with "Jackass of the Year" engraved on the bottom with the name inscribed underneath, complete with a newspaper article to announce the dubious winner.

In any case, let's give the kids a break here, eh folks? Take yoga or cut out caffeine or whatever it takes to calm down, and leave the young folks to their fun. Before you make these aforementioned "awards" a reality.

The True North Strong?

Recently I was watching on the news where people have been talking that Canada is "freeloading" off the United States by not holding their own in the military. Do you agree?

I definitely do.

In these times where terrorism is so very close to home, Canada is increasingly relying on its big brother south of the border to fight our battles for us. Our military is in a shambles. World War II veterans are up in arms over the current state of our military and defense, and who could blame them? One prime example is the Sea King helicopters that we've had since King Henry's birthday or something. They're sent out on rescue missions the odd time, but if I was the person being rescued and one of those things was coming my way, I think I'd be more worried. Our soldiers have been killed time and time again because of Canada's aging military equipment, and it's only going to get worse.

Everyone knows this. The government does not support its army, and does not fund them to recruit new personnel or train them or even set out to make it appealing in any way. When's the last time you've seen a catchy commercial on TV or the radio promoting joining the national guard here in Canada? Been a long time, hasn't it? The money was cut off ages ago in the name of trimming the national deficit. Now that the deficit has been eliminated, and it has been long ago, it's time to rebuild our defense. No wonder the Americans think we're a bunch of freeloaders. We're a part of the same continent, and we expect them to protect us if there's an invasion because of that fact. It's a stupid way of thinking in this day and age where terrorism is a daily concern.

Canada has been known for its peacemaking role since the second World War. Often we won't join in wars as much as go overseas to prevent them from happening. We don't even have the equipment to do that anymore, for crying out loud. I can see why terrorists may find Canada an inviting place to set up shop. What the hell is going to stop them? Harsh language?

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. With what though, we don't know right now.

Hell in a Cell?

So Joe Jerkoff and his butt buddy have finally been caught who've been doing the sniper shootings in the United States in Washington. Now there's going to be a brand new thing to talk about. Well, not that new. Capital Punishment.

Do you agree with it? Has there ever been a time when your views on it have been different than they are now? I can tell you this: I do not believe in Capital Punishment. I'm glad we live in a country that frowns upon it, and I think that it aids in reversing human evolution.

But make no mistake about it.....if my daughter or wife or any family member, heck - even a friend, was killed mindlessly by some mongoloid with a gun getting his jollies by randomly killing people, I'm not so sure I'd stop until I had his head handed to me on a platter. Of course, that's compromising my position. When you're directly involved in a situation like that, emotions will run high and perhaps override any logic. That is certainly debatable, but it's what I believe. So what makes me so special that I should have a murderer killed in a situation involving me and someone else couldn't? I would hope that God would provide me with the insight to believe that killing for the sake of killing is not what He had meant to be.

The Old Testament, however, preaches an eye for an eye. It sure does. I confess to not even having read the entire Old Testament. But the New Testament I did read, which taught me a lot about forgiveness, and how not forgiving can eat away at your soul. How on earth can you forgive a murderer though? Especially when you're directly involved?

The answer for me would be to pray and turn to God and ask him for the strength to do so. This all makes me sound like some religious nut to some of you, I'm sure. But I'm a huge fan of Jesus, that's the bottom line here; and my man JC would not have approved much of condoning the death of another human being under any circumstances. This can be so trying, though. Look at guys like Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer. I really don't know that I could forgive someone for doing the things they did.

But I do know one thing: That if I were to be killed in the line of fire of a bank robbery, or a drive-by shooting or by any other senseless means and the killer was caught, IN NO WAY do I want another human being to die by execution in my name. I do believe in God and the afterlife, and I don't want to wind up in front of my Judge with the chip on my shoulder of support in Capital Punishment.

What to do with these murderers, then? Certainly, for one thing, the prison systems are far too lax. Just recently in the news there was a story from Pennsylvania about convicts having rock concerts. These are guys who've committed senseless and brutal crimes. What's with this special treatment? Why do they get the rights to this and the rights to that? Who ever gave them the right to take away the lives of their victims? In my opinion, you commit a crime like this, and you sacrifice every right you were given as a free citizen. But that just isn't the case in jailhouses. They are not correction facilities. What the hell are they correcting???

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Who's Yo Momma?

Everyone want to discuss a loaded topic? It won't get a whole lot hotter than this one.

Women in the workplace. There's arguments about it from both sides of the fence, and even from the top of it. People are looking for things to point fingers at for the state of the world these days and how it seems to keep getting worse. Things are getting worse maybe rurally, but let's face it, how could it possibly be worse now than it was during World War II? The threat of Nazi Germany taking over the world was very real and lasted for years in its time, and it had to be terrifying for a lot of people day to day. The world has never had a threat like that since. We've had Vietnam and the Persian Gulf and Korea, but none of them were the magnitude of World War II, and hopefully, none will ever match it.

So we look to ourselves. Kids are more problematic than ever. Not all kids, mind you, but the "bad" kids now are far worse than the "bad" kids twenty years ago. Now there are guns and other weapons, drugs are getting more addictive and dangerous, and the problem children seem to be growing in numbers and getting meaner by the decade. Now, ladies and gentleman, it's time to play.......Point the Finger!

We spin the wheel and today it lands on........Women's Liberation. Women's Lib is something that had to happen sooner or later. You can't hold down real knowledge, talent and power forever, but the longer you do, the more dangerous it'll be when it's let loose. So when Gloria Steinem's Women's Lib movement blossomed in the seventies, all the Helen Reddy's of the world rose up and said "we're not gonna take it anymore!"

I can't blame them. Let's face it, men, the lot of us who are good have pure jerks for descendants. The good that Women's Lib has done is make a lot of us guys notice that women are NOT the potential evil villains or threats to us that other men have made them out to be. The human race has evolved to allow women to become more equal, but it's probably not as much due to evolution as it is due to women's anger over the restraint since humankind has existed. Men were always the hunters, women the caretakers. If you read the Bible, it'll tell you that women are supposed to serve men and obey them. Something that Women's Lib has more or less thrown out the window. At the time the Bible was written, maybe rules like that applied, but certainly God would allow us to grow and change as time goes on, as long as it was ethical and for the greater good.

In the 20th century, kids were raised to believe that their fathers were the "bosses" of the family, and the mothers were more or less the assistants to the bosses. Of course, women had arguably the toughest job of all in raising kids. Fathers did their part too, those who were good, and they would administer punishment to the kids where the mother's discipline would not succeed. Essentially, the dad was the panic button of the family. After all, the workplace by and large belonged to men while women raised kids and stayed on as homemakers. Dads were the breadwinners and moms were the breadmakers. Kids would go to school and come home to mom, who was always there for them, and an unmatchable bond would be created between the kids and their mothers. The dads were the benevolent (hopefully) but stern overseers who were there to make sure everything was in line. But when dads got home from work, overseeing seemed to be the most that they'd do. Mothers worked around the clock keeping up the house and the family. Dads worked their day job and came home and relaxed, and if they absolutely had to, would intervene if mom's discipline on the kids wasn't enough.

Perhaps begrudgingly and regrettably, this seemed to be a formula that worked. If you look at the older folks of today who come from that era, and they would probably for the most part agree with everything above. Kids got in trouble, but there were no guns, there was hardly any drugs, mom was always there, and families stayed intact, with no divorces happening like at the rate they are now.

Enter Women's Lib. Now women want to be in the workplace, too. They're fed up with being the homemakers and the repressed wives. They're bored as old hell doing the same damn thing they've been doing since the dawn of human existence. Little by little, through the last few decades, women have inched their way into the workforce to the point now where equality is on the verge of realization. In my humble opinion, women are at the very least as smart as men are, but probably for the most part smarter. That's not a slight on men, it's just the way it is. Women are built physically slighter than men are by nature, so that would have me believe that women have more smarts to compensate for that. Maybe it's the women who should be in the offices while the men are hammering out the physical things in the world. Science will even testify that women's brains are more active than men's brains are, so obviously they have more to draw from. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. There are plenty of smart men and plenty of physically gifted women.

But putting women in positions of authority, or any positions in the workforce at all for that matter, flies in the face of the formula that once worked for family life. Women are in abundance in the workplace now, far unlike it used to be in the first half of the 20th century and prior, and family life has changed along with the workplace. Is it only a coincidence that kids aren't as loving as they used to be, that they get in trouble more, that they're into drugs and crime more now than ever? The more women worked over the years, it seems, the more trouble there seemed to be with children. As the wage gap closed between men and women, women were indeed being paid more, but men were being paid less. The "big" jobs began to become more scarce, and in place are the low to middle income positions that everyone can work. As a result of wages coming down for jobs as a whole, it became more and more necessary for moms AND dads to both hold down jobs to support their families. And families are smaller. The more kids there are in a family, naturally, the more expensive and challenging it is to maintain a pleasant household. It's now at the point that both parents need to be working, and moms can't be homemakers anymore even if they want to. Although by my own admission, it must be boring as hell being a 'homemaker'. I wouldn't want to have to do it! But really, again, with both men and women working, men have to assume half the duties as homemakers, although many won't, and those who do probably wouldn't call themselves 'homemakers'. Put it this way, I wouldn't put it on my resume. I do all the cooking around here and some cleaning, and my wife does the laundry and the dishes, and we take equal part in looking after our daughter.

But not everyone can make it work. And by our own admission, it doesn't necessarily work all that well for us all the time. I have my day job, but my wife has shift work, and to keep looking after our little girl without the daycare or babysitters raising her, we have to sacrifice a huge chunk of our life together. We both, however, believe in raising our child ourselves, so it's a sacrifice we're willing to make. But too many kids are being raised by daycares and babysitters, and not getting the parental guidance they so desperately need. If you look at kids now who are in trouble with the law or who have gone astray from their families, it's a good chance that it's either a one parent family which was torn apart from financial reasons, or they were raised in daycares or by babysitters. There's nothing like a loving mom or dad being there 24/7, and that just isn't the case as much as it used to be.

My real objection isn't to women in the marketplace, because like I stated already, I truly believe for the most part women are smarter than men are, at the risk of sounding like I'm taking sides which I'm not. But there has to be a happy medium here. We're nowhere near it though, and in fact, it seems that we're not working towards making it work like we should be. My outlook isn't really positive either. I don't see things getting better, only worse. We're headed in the wrong direction, and have been since Women's Lib, which was something with good intentions but had radical ideas that seem to have gone astray.

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It's All About the Game....And How You Play It

What's happening to sports nowadays? Money is sure happening, ain't it?

In professional sports, it seems it's all for the money now and nobody plays for fun anymore. Even with music. The Eagles launched their reunion tour back in the mid 90's with astronomically huge ticket prices and ever since, all artists are doing it. And getting away with it.

Sporting events are more or less setting the stage, pardon the pun, for ticket prices to concerts to come, however. A friend named Don Goguen told me one time, "No man's job is worth a million dollars". How true is that? What on earth is anyone doing that could possibly warrant an annual salary of a monstrous amount of cash like that?

In the sports world, no one. You can argue it's a job playing basketball or baseball or whatever, but the fact of the matter is, you don't work ball games, you play them. Sure these players work out, they travel, they're gifted athletes. Fact of the matter is, the real gifts of the athletes here are their fans. Without fans willing to pay their hard-earned cash to see them perform, there are no games, or venues to play them in, or owners, or merchandise..........no nothing. What would a lot of these guys do? Right now, they play sports half the year and do what they want for the other half, and these people STILL go on strike every four years or so, waving their fists in the air, crying that life isn't fair. Are YOU sympathetic? If you are, it's time to look in the mirror. Are you getting half the year off? Are you getting millions of dollars to play for a job? Are you filthy rich because you're a gifted athlete?

The National Hockey League and Major League Baseball are constantly viewing the situations of their leagues to see whether or not it's economically viable to maintain some teams. If the teams are doing poorly in gate receipts, they're going to be under the microscope for contraction. The teams who are winning have a different deck of cards altogether. They have the financial backing they need to get the biggest and best players, thus securing a good place in their respective league standings, which translates into higher ticket sales which justifies higher ticket prices. In effect, the higher paid the players on the team are, the higher the ticket prices to pay for the bloated salaries. The Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees have been doing it for years. All the expensive players are there, so they'll get the job done. Not every team can afford that kind of firepower on their team, so eventually, they'll fall under the microscope for potentially being eliminated from the sport in question. It's cannibalism. Feed the gods while the peasants starve.

In the end, it's a foregone conclusion that it's the fans who lose. Sooner or later, a strike will loom its ugly head, fans will get fed up with the fact that a strike is happening and pledge to not support their teams anymore, and when the strikes are over, the teams will take a beating at the box office until they can suck the fans right back in by pleading to them, "but we DO love the game!" The fans will buy it, and the tickets, and the expensive players for their favorite teams, and the cycle will continue.

What I'd sure like to see is sports leagues that offer modest amounts of money as prizes for being the top teams, and have fans pay far lower ticket prices so they can actually afford to support their teams. Of course, that's a pipe dream. The age of players playing for the love of the game is over and will never come back.

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I think it's about time to vent on music here on the BBB portion of the site, where it belongs, eh? After all, music is the original true love of my life, and probably my favorite subject to talk about, so let's have at it.

There's lots that I'll listen to, and lots that I won't. And there's lots of music I won't listen to that I still respect. Rock and roll is most definitely one of the biggest things that has shaped my life and gotten me to where I am. The soundtrack to my life. Most notably KISS, as you might guess if you know me at all. They've seen me through so many times, it's amazing when I look back. When I was 12, I got Destroyer, my first album of theirs, and my first rock record. Then I listened to my brother Rick's KISS Alive I eight track, and began to become fascinated with drums from "100,000 Years", a song on that album that featured a lengthy drum solo. Over and over I listened to it. I didn't know how to play drums at all, not a clue, but taught myself as the years went by, learning all the KISS songs that ever existed. I met a guy named Larry through mutual admiration for KISS, and come to find out, he played guitar, and we jammed all throughout our teen years. My first serious girlfriend, Michelle, I met with the help of KISS writing lyrics of their music on a desk at school (a story told at length on the WWWTB page). KISS was the reason I became good friends with another guy named Pete back in high school, who lives the next street over from me now, and we still discuss everything going on with them like we were kids. I joined bands and wrote songs because of KISS. I was happy because of them. I got myself through lots and lots of hard times by putting on any random album by them and just rocking out and letting go of everything, just lightening up. If today is a bad day, tomorrow is always only hours away. If you don't feel good, there's a way you could!

Rock and roll is on the way back now, from the looks of a lot of budding bands that are on the horizon of the music scene, but the current state of pop music is a little bleak in my view. I think there's a place for everything in music, whether it be feeling down, feeling good, feeling angry, or anything, as long as there's real feeling. The last few years, though, since grunge died and maybe even since its birth, I'm hearing the feeling down and feeling angry portion excruciatingly redundantly. I guess it's what people want these days. I don't want to point out bands and 'artists', as I hate to call a lot of them, but suffice to say it seems to be all that's on music television and radio these days. No wonder kids are more depressed and pissy than ever. There's nothing to put on the CD player to help them get out of their doldrums anymore like there was before the 90's.

That's not to say that everything before the 90's was great. Some embarrassingly bad pop and metal music rose to the surface like unflushable turds in the music waters throughout the generation. But at least it was innocent stuff. No one really sang about killing somebody or hating each other or anything like that, and if anything like that did take off it didn't last. It never had a shelf life. Bands and singers who were successful with that kind of formula either changed it or died.

Now there's lots of ridicule on the whole "Electronica" genre that seems to have died a quick death already too. Thank God for that. There was so much talk that Prodigy, probably at the forefront of the Electronica movement, was touted as spearheading the future of music. Prodigy put a new CD out over last summer. Remember it? Neither do I. And when Prodigy died, so did Electronica. In fact, all things "ica" died with the turn of the new millenium. Electronica. Elastica. Metallica. Dead, dead, and dead. And please don't wake them up. Metallica don't even consider themselves "metal" anymore. Fine, so Lica it is. Dead. Don't bite the hands that feed you, boys. And with Electronica, don't say we told you so, but the Human League were the future of music back in the 80's at one point. YOU listen to the Human League. If you dare.

And now there are the here today, gone later today trend of bands and singers. That's fine by me. Like it always has been, like it always will be, no one likes a bitch to hang around for long, and at most parties if the bitch has been around too long it'll get bounced. Hence the revolving door of bitch bands. You might remember some of them now, the Korns, the Limp Bizkits, the Tools, countless other pissed off/poor me outfits, but you probably won't even admit to knowing about them in ten years.

Whatever, I have a Human League single! Just don't tell anybody.

For the Love of Money

Some time ago, video lottery terminals were taken out of corner stores here in New Brunswick, with much resistance to those who were addicted to them. The damned things were tearing aparts lives and the families of those who developed gambling addiction to them. I thought taking them out of corner stores would help alleviate the problem of compulsive gambling. Was I wrong?

I still think it was a good move taking them out of corner stores. I don't appreciate the fact that they got in there in the first place. It's another case of the government talking out of both its mouth and its ass, mostly the latter. Politicians outlawed video lottery terminals early on back in the 1980's, when they were popping up in stores and bars and the owners were making lots of money off of them. The payout ratio was high, and in turn it can be argued that this would mean there will be more repeat players, people who think they can keep winning. The reality is that these machines were designed to make profit for their owners and operators, and anyone who plays them regularly will lose. Nonetheless, bar owners and store owners had these illegal machines, and could not actually be charged for owning and running them unless someone issued a complaint to the police. This happened from time to time, and raids were made on some convenience store chains and bars to shut down and/or confiscate the VLT's. After all, money was being made by businesses tax free here.

Enter the government. A severe crackdown descended upon machine owners and their operators to the point where there was no way they could be used anymore. But there was somewhat of a compromise: That the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, the outfit that represents the government-observed lotteries, would buy the existing outlawed machines and either re-program them or replace them with new ones, changing the payout ratio drastically to collect more money for government coffers and ALC, leaving the store owners and machine operators a much smaller piece of the pie. This somewhat appeased business owners who thought they were going to lose that source of income altogether.

VLT's were pulled from corner stores a couple of years ago amidst the cries of store owners claiming they were going to have to close down due to their loss of revenue because of such. Today, stores are certainly making less money, but are still thriving. It's a wonder how they survived before the illegal ones turned up...but maybe not. Since then, big business has butted its nose into the corner store business. TRA Foods, who also run Sobeys grocery stores in Canada, bought out the massive Green Gables convenience store franchise, and most of the rest of the convenience stores are supplied by its offshoots. Thus the 'mom and pop' stores have all but vanished because of the muscling into their territory by big business. In a way, the government with its ALC ties have done the same with its VLT's.

Understandably, once convenience stores had this source of cash flow in their grasp, having it taken away from them by the same people that shook their hands on a great deal left a sour taste in their mouths. Stores are now under attack from the declining sales of cigarettes because of the rapid rise in tobacco prices, instituted by, you guessed it, taxes by the government.

Let's face facts here, though; cigarettes and lottery terminals are obviously two of life's non-necessities. I'm actually happy for the decline in cigarette sales and the removal of VLT's from corner stores. What I'm not happy about is the lack of empathy to store owners who've had carrot after carrot dangled in front of their faces, only to have the government mule cruelly and greedily chomp it down. Of course the mom and pop stores are dead, and the politicians killed them.

But VLT's are a problem that they helped to build by placing the machines everywhere upon their inception. And I mean everywhere. Gas stations, restaurants, bars, stores, you name it, they were there. To cover their asses, they created a helpline that admitted addicts could call to get 'help'. "Look, we don't want to see people lose their families and their lives over our machines, and here's proof." What a load. That's like saying "how could I have started that huge fire with just one match?" It's the smoking gun effect, the undeniable marker. In the form of a "helpline". It's like throwing a life preserver to a drowning person, only it's made of lead.

If the stores can't have them, and they shouldn't, then no one else should either. While I empathize with bar and restaurant owners, it's time to be creative again and find more legitimate ways to create revenue to make business thrive. And cheating the public out of their hard earned cash by casting a hook with a VLT on it isn't the way.

Clothes Call

Around here lately there's a debate about whether or not school uniforms should be instituted into the curriculum. This brings about some interesting questions and plenty of opinions.

I wonder if it's coincidental that this issue has surfaced at a time when bullying in and around schoolgrounds has taken center stage all over North America. As the years go by, it seems to become more and more important to kids what clothes they are wearing as opposed to who is wearing them and how they project themselves from a personality's standpoint. Children are making decisions on what other kids are like based solely on their clothing. If one kid doesn't have a Tommy shirt and there's a clique of kids who do, that clique will often look down upon the kid whose parents can't afford such clothing and ostrasize him or her from his or her peers. There is no Beatles' White Album in the schools; where the Plain Jane's and Joe's can thrive because they're good little guys and girls regardless of their appearance. The packaging is becoming more and more prevalent, and the parents aren't helping by giving in to their kids to get the pricey duds.

So what to do? Level the playing field. Everyone wears the same thing. One child doesn't look any better than the one next to him, and everyone has to prove themselves without deceiving anyone with the fancy wrapping. This is surely an idea that especially the silver spoon kids will hate. They'll now have to show their own White Album contents without worrying about the visual side. The focus will switch, condescension between boys and girls will be quelled and everyone will have a fair shot at being with the "in" crowd.

Of course, as a kid, I can understand the idea being hated. The argument of not being able to express your individuality, albeit via the shallow avenue of what clothes you wear, will be taken away, and you'll have to look like everyone else. Heck, if I was a kid, that's how I'd feel. "Assimilation": One of the most evil of all words as a youngster! Fact is, though, that the need to wear the best and fanciest clothes and have the most far-out attire is even more of an assimilation than wearing uniforms. "If that kid is wearing that expensive shirt, I will too, or one that's even more expensive." Parents with lower income households might struggle to keep up with the rich Jones's just to keep their kids "in", and thus, unknowingly, teach their kids the wrong set of values altogether. Keeping kids so-called "well-dressed" is a lose/lose situation. It's like having soda pop machines in the schools, where PE and health classes teach kids what they should and should not be eating and drinking yet turn the corner around the hall after class and grab a Coke from the flashy vending machine. But I digress....

Uniforms are a good thing for school, ladies and gentlemen. It's an idea that would require an adjustment period to be sure, but after the winds of change pass over, all would be calm and right with the world.

Except for maybe the Tommy Hilfigers in their glass tower penthouses.

Ssssssmokin'!

One of the public's favorite topics to fight and claw each other about, isn't it? The non-smokers vs the smokers. The good guys vs the bad guys. Clean vs dirty. There aren't a whole lot of people on earth with no opinion on this matter. It's almost redundant to talk about on this page. But I have a point of view that's somewhat different from a lot of others, so I'm getting on the soap box and here I go:

I grew up around clouds upon clouds of smoke. It was everywhere. Just about all of my family smoked. My mom smoked, my dad smoked, most of my brothers did, it was EVERYWHERE. I remember seeing commercials on television with a slogan that said, "Join the majority: Be a non-smoker". No no no no no. Back then I really couldn't be convinced that, at least, the majority of adults were non-smokers. And a lot of kids were into the dirty habit too. I hated the smell of it, the sting it made in my eyes, the way it ruined the taste of food at the dinner table, just everything. You couldn't convince me then, or now, of the validity of 'enjoying' being a smoker when it causes so many problems for people around them.

Say you're a smoker: You go to a restaurant that allows smoking. You want to light up, but you're courteous, so you ask the people at the next table, of whom are not smoking, if they wouldn't mind if you had a cigarette. Freeze. Now, if they say "no, we don't mind", then everything is okay, right? Go ahead and smoke. Not so. Fact of the matter is, when you have to ask someone near you if it's okay to smoke, it's a no-win situation for the person or people you're asking this to. If they said it's okay, then you get to pollute the air they breathe and compromise the enjoyment of their meal. If they actually do say they mind, friction mounts and they become uncomfortable because they removed your freedom to pollute their air. There's tension until one of you leaves the area. This applies everywhere else, not just at restaurants. If you smoke in your own house and you have non-smoking guests over, it isn't fair to have invited them in the first place if you're going to cloud the air that they must breathe to share your presence. Is this a tough argument? Courtesy to guests should be a no-brainer.

The other end of this spectrum is the smokers themselves. I do feel sorry for them. More and more evidence is surfacing about how addictive and deadly a habit cigarette smoking is. One of the sorriest things about it is most smokers realize this information and choose to ignore it because they enjoy their habit. Fact of the matter is, they've been conditioned by tobacco companies to believe they "enjoy" the habit. Whistle blowers have surface in recent years (see the Russell Crowe movie The Insider) to educate the public on what exactly cigarette manufacturers are doing to their product to ensure their customers remain addicted to it. Yet it just doesn't seem to be enough. Thousands of people every year are quitting, and more and more people are seeing the dangers of this deadly habit. Yet some insist on hanging on, some to the point of verbally militant defensiveness.

I say to you that smokers are not to blame for this. Sure, you will hear them say "I smoke because I choose to" or "I'll smoke if I want to because I enjoy it!" Don't you hear people from a vast array of addictions say the same thing? People are sometimes quick to lend a hand to those who are suffering from alcohol or drug addiction, but the fact of the matter is, cigarette smokers have been blindsided for years. They knew what they were doing was addictive, but they had no idea how addictive, especially when they started. If you offered cocaine to someone who was educated enough to know its cerebrally enslaving power, of course they would turn it down and not even give it a thought, because of its reputation for repetitive, and deadly, use. Cigarettes, in their own way, are worse. They've been masquerading for years as the safe alternative to hard drugs. They're legal, the government willingly takes your tax dollars so you can have them; but out of the other side of their mouths they will tell you that you are evil to be buying them. Fact is, nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs known to mankind. More than cocaine, more than marijuana, more than alcohol, and tobacco companies have been slipping smokers spiked cigarettes for years now to hold on to its share of the market. My guess is they have shares in sleeping aids as well, because I don't know how these ghouls can sleep at night.

Struggling alcoholics and cocaine abusers who are not yet trying to quit will tell you that they're doing nothing wrong and not hurting anyone else, and onlookers will realize that it's their vice to these evils that's doing the talking and not the people themselves. Why is smoking any different? Smokers adamantly defend their habit. Perhaps we should all realize it's not the smokers themselves that are defending their actions as much as it is the drug in their systems that are pulling the strings.

Too-Fast Food

What a loaded topic this is. Loaded with fat, cholesterol, sugar, and ingredients lists that you wouldn't even begin to be able to pronounce. Granted, it seems everything these days is like that, doesn't it? It seems like you can't pick up anything without there being a mile-long ingredients list on it with several unmentionables included. It would seem that it's become more accepted over the years, but lately that seems to be changing, thankfully. More and more people want to know what it is that they're putting into their bodies. After all, people seem to be more careful of what they put in their own cars than what they put in themselves.

In grocery stores, we all have the ability, and I would say if we have kids, the responsibility, to pick up a product and read its label to find out what the contents are in the packages that we buy. More of us are doing this now than there used to be, but not enough of us. A fair rule-of-thumb to use in grocery stores for the most part is to buy most of your food around the perimeter of the store, and take care of what it is that you buy that's available in the aisles. All the processed foods are largely located on the store shelves in the unrefridgerated sections, and vigilance should be exercised as to what it is that's keeping your food fresh.

The tougher thing to do in watching what you're eating is regarding the fast food chains. If you ask for a list of the ingredients in the food that they serve (which, by law, they are responsible to provide), you likely won't get it, either because not enough people ask for such information, or perhaps they have something to hide. I'd be most suspicious of the latter.

There are a lot of very shady things to observe in the world of fast-food chains. Kids are getting fatter every year, and we seem to be raising what looks to be a future of obese adults with shorter lifespans. There are plenty of suspects to point fingers at, most of which serve very cheap food in very large quantities. Super-sizing your meal is commonplace now, and burger joints make it enticing, offering a 30-50% bigger meal for just a few cents extra. Adults know better though, don't they? After all, there are a lot of us adults who are not obese, have healthy kids and we eat at these "evil" burger chains from time to time. But there are others. Why not take a closer look at this very big picture?

Wendy's.....perhaps one of the least offending of the burger chains, yet still a minor offender when it comes to pandering to kids by offering toys with their kids' meals. However the food has less fillers than most fast food places, but still a lengthy ingredients list replete with plenty of processing agents and preservatives to warrant some concern if you choose to eat out with any real frequency. In the advertising department, they offer respectable commercials - for as 'respectable' as a fast food outlet can be - and do not "sell" to kids quite as blatantly as some of its competition does. When it comes to eating out at a burger place, though, this is my place of choice to take my family.

Burger King......clearly they should be concerned with somewhat-non-offending-to-health food chain Subway, having usurped their #2 position over recent years (#1 being McDonald's). BK's problems with their food lie in the fillers in their hamburgers and pre-cooked food, also known as heat-rack grub, and their distinct taste is certainly suspicious of additives. And this food is dirt cheap to buy too. Interesting to note, their new BK Backporch Broilers selection of burgers, the "homemade" style kind which taste most like homemade (so they'd better make it more of the ground beef that it's supposed to be and less additives and filler), are definitely of the more expensive variety; if you're looking at trying them, make sure you bring the cash for it. And if you can't somewhat replicate a taste at home, you should be concerned as to what it is that's being added to food to make it taste the way it does. Burger King once was a prime offender of kid-pandering with their lame-ass "Burger King" mascot many years ago, and still are with their toys and movie tie-ins to go with their kids' meals, and like every chain, offer the Super-size feature for more cheap food for a cheap price. Despite their claim to "flame-broiled" food, this does not increase the nutritional level of it or decrease the danger of its consumption, should it be consumed habitually.

McDonald's.......Oh Lord, where do I begin with this one?! This is clearly the trend setter, the prime offender, the most devious of all food outlets, 'fast' or not. McDonald's is in the hearts and minds of almost all of us as a nostalgic place to go with the family to have a quick bite to eat before we go to the movies, or the zoo, or just drop in for a treat. When I was a kid, it was a big treat to go to McDonald's. I saw the commercials....Grimace, the Hamburglar, the Fry Guys, and 'Rotten Ronnie' himself, Ronald McDonald. I loved them! Seeing those creatures on my Saturday morning cartoon commercial breaks was almost like watching a thirty second television show, because they were characters that appeal to kids. That sticks in the mind of a youngster. When mom or dad says, "we're going to McDonald's for dinner today", kids will FREAK. "WE'RE GOING TO MCDONALD'S!! Where Grimace, the Hamburglar, the Fry Guys and Ronald McDonald come from!"

Nowadays, the stakes have definitely been raised. Now there is more competition. Many more places you can bring your family to get a burger and fries and God knows what else, along with that damned next-to-worthless toy. Mickey D's has gone above and beyond the heads of everyone classwise, however, in shamelessly and defensively exploiting children. Yes, I said "exploiting". What's that supposed to mean? Stop and think. We've all seen the McDonald's commercials. The cute kids that are all sad until the Golden Arches come up in the conversation, or until Double R shows up, spouting catchy phrases like "put a smile on" or "you deserve a break today". How many McDonald's commercials have you seen without kids in them? The advertising department at McDonald's headquarters are geniuses. The commercials ARE cute. They ARE catchy. And you really do fall for those kids that are making those pitches for this miserably made food. Now, do you really think all this doesn't start in a boardroom in a high rise somewhere at a hardwood table, surrounded by suits, brainstorming about how they can hook kids to eat their food and how they can get their parents to con them into coming? It's a perfect strategy. The kids learn to love McDonald's through the prostitution of other kids via their commercials; the nostalgia is built in the early years, and before you know it, those kids that love going to RR's are suddenly bringing their kids to eat there. The food gets cheaper and cheaper, and they buy more and more, and the rate of obesity skyrockets with every passing decade. There are even massive playgrounds built at a lot of these restaurants to make a visit even more enticing! What on earth should a playground be doing at a restaurant?? You eat at restaurants, you don't play in them. Ask doctors what they think of running and jumping around in a playground after eating a fat and cholesterol filled meal, complete with liquid sugar to wash it down. I say SHAME on McDonald's for being the genesis of this trend to begin with, and shame on their outright exploitation of children to sell their suspiciously cheap product. "Well what about all the things they DO for kids like the Ronald McDonald House?" You might counter. Interestingly enough, McDonald's will make absolutely no secret of its charitable donations. It's good advertising. So you can feel good about bringing your kids to these restaurants and buying them this disgusting food and know that you're supporting a company that has charity-inspired aspirations!

Why is their product so cheap? How can they offer burgers and fries and soda at such ridiculously low prices? Like every other burger chain, it's because the food is just not pure. If that so-called 'ground beef' is pure, then how come no one else on Earth can make hamburgers that taste that way? What are they adding to it to make it different? How come we can't see them preparing this 'food'? Well here's 'food'...for thought: Recently, a man of Indian descent, who was vegetarian for religious beliefs, got his order of fries from McDonald's, knowing full well that fries are a potato product, so it would be inoffensive to his practices. This man later found out that he'd been unknowingly consuming fries that have a beef bi-product additive for flavor. This wasn't presented in any of the food information that McDonald's supplies its customers, because they felt that the amount of this additive added didn't warrant notification to its customers!! Now you stop and think...if they felt you didn't need to know this was in their fries...what else do you think are they putting in their food that you don't need to know? Does this make you think of the recent successfully filed lawsuits against tobacco companies?

I used to be a frequent customer of McDonald's myself, just about all my life. Four years ago, I came down with mould poisoning from an apartment that we had been living in, and when we moved out I decided to take health-concious measures to hasten the process of re-acquiring my well being. One of these measures was to cut out the burger joints altogether, for at least a while. "A while" turned out to be over two years. A local McDonald's restaurant here in town was organizing a promotion where they were going to attempt to break the record of the most people served at a drive thru in an hour. They advertised that they'd be giving away coupons for the next meal to some customers. "Great", I thought, "I'll try one of those burgers again, it's been a long time, and maybe I'll get lucky and get a free meal out of it". The burger I bought was a Big X-tra. It was quite good, really, but I couldn't see why I went to eat at this place so much a couple of years ago. An hour later, on the job, my stomach felt queasy, and I wound up vomiting the meal right back up. I'd spent so much time away from McDonald's that my body could not recognize what it was being fed and ultimately rejected it. I wasn't sick; I didn't have e-coli or any other food poisoning, no stomach flu. It was the food I ate. I have since never eaten any hamburgers from McDonald's and never will.

Well, McDonald's does have some food that is healthy, you might counter. They have this new 'healthy choices' menu for all of us health concious consumers. TRUST them.

Wouldn't you say their legendary Filet o Fish is one of their healthier choices? What about those milkshakes? Hey, milk does the body good, right? Hold on a second. Take a deep breath and recite these following ingredients lists of said-products:

Filet o Fish: calcium silicate, monosodium glutamate (hydrolyzed plant protein, autolyzed yeast), sodium hexametaphosphate, sodium tripolyphosphate, modified corn starch....the following "may or may not be present" in the flour of this product: acetone, amylase, ammonium persulphate, ammonium chloride, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, benzoyl peroxide, bromelain, calcium carbonate, calcium sulphate, chlorine, chlorine dioxide, dicalcium phosphate, glucoamylase, lactase, lipoxidase, 1-cysteine (hydrochloride), magnesium carbonate, potassium aluminum sulphate, potassium bromate, protease, sodium aluminum sulphate, tricalcium phosphate, monocalcium phosphate.

Milkshake: artificial flavor, calcium sulphate, carob bean gum, carboxymethyl cellulose, calcium chloride, carrageenan, citric acid, cellulose gum, color, disodium phosphate, guar gum, lactic acid, lecithin, lipase, locust bean gum, microbial enzyme, mono- and diglycerides, polysorbate 80, pepsin, propylene glycol, potassium sorbate, rennet, sorbic acid, sodium citrate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium benzoate, xanthan gum. (information from: Additive Alert, The Pollution Probe Foundation)

Yeah, that's healthy to me. Perhaps you'd be better off eating the toy in the Happy Meal as dessert.

Take the challenge of eliminating eating at burger places altogether. See how much weight you'll lose, if you're overweight. How much better you'll feel. Most of all, if you eat at home, you will KNOW what it is that you're eating, because you'll have a say in it. You also have a say in whether or not you should continue any unhealthy habits of eating at fast-and-fried food places. Originally, these restaurants were meant to be a treat, somewhere to go to eat a bite on the run or on the way to do something else. This is how people should be seeing these places again.

The least they could do is offer a discount on your near-future angioplasty surgery if you eat at their places more than once a week. Have stamp cards. After so many stamps within a week, you earn Rotten Ronnie's Rotten Heart points, and with X amount of points comes the discount!

Now THAT's heart-warming. And clearing.

Sunday Shopping................

What is there to say about Sunday shopping that hasn't already been said? I'm a fierce opponent to it. I know that makes a lot of people angry. Most people angry, apparently, if you were to believe the polls, which say about two thirds of the population at least here in my home province of New Brunswick are all for cruising the markets on the Sabbath Day. There are lots of reasons I'm opposed to it.

Of course the most obvious being that I don't believe that shopping should be allowed on the Sabbath Day. I myself do not attend church, but certainly consider myself Catholic, and support anyone who does want to go to mass on Sundays. It's a Sunday tradition in thousands of families that has passed down through the generations as time has gone on. But now cities are getting bigger, religious views and followings are getting more diverse, populations are growing, and the voices for more and more people calling out for more shopping on Sundays is getting louder by the year.

For the record, I have to work on Sundays. For just about all of my working life, I've had to work them. There are a lot of fields of employment that necessitate that fact. Many will say that Sunday can not be a day of rest for everyone or else the world would stand still, and if that happened chaos would ensue. Of course! Why on earth point out the obvious? Hospitals DO have to stay open, power companies DO have to keep their employees on hand, phone operators DO have to keep lines connected, heck even convenience stores, which some view as miniature grocery stores, have to be open. So why should they all have to be open and working while the supermalls and downtown stores get the day off? Where's the logic and fairness in that?!

Let me explain where the logic is in that. Convenience stores are open on Sundays, very true, because there does need to be some marketplace where the essentials are still available, like most groceries and gas at fuel stations. A good lot of these businesses employ the younger workforce who are out to earn extra money for college or just spending money, and don't yet have the qualifications to work the big jobs yet. I worked in the convenience store business for several years. I know that the chain that I worked for depended on the fact that grocery stores were closed on Sundays, thereby giving them their own little niche to do business with. People would go on Sundays to get their milk and bread and maybe that missing ingredient for dessert, and enjoy the fact they didn't have to walk in a grocery store for ten minutes and stay in a lineup for another ten to do the same. Now the convenience stores have the rug pulled from under them. The government has granted Sunday Shopping year round as another straw on the backs of convenience store owners in addition to taking away their video lottery terminals and jacking up their cigarette prices; of which both subjects are a completely different ball of wax, which I'd like to comment on in the future. Suffice to say, the big grocery stores being open Sundays will hurt their minature counterparts.

I don't like the fact that Day of Rest Act keeps getting tweaked to accomodate the almighty dollar. That one Day is of less and less Rest as time goes by. Whatever happened to calling it the Sabbath Day anyway? What, not all people believe in God? Well I'm afraid that our beliefs in God is what our country was founded on, along with our neighbours to the south, so if there's a problem, there are lots of other places in the world to live in. Either that or let us have what we've always had and leave well enough alone. No one should have to be forced to believe in their own spirituality, but no one should have the right to take away one's right to practice it either. But yet that very right to freedom of religion is being eroded more and more as time goes by.

What is Sunday Shopping all about? What does it mean to you? I won't accept the answer of "well, it gives me the freedom to go out and shop on Sunday if I want". Nonsense. There are six other whole days to do that. Or maybe it's "I can go out with my friends now on Sunday and enjoy my shopping then." If you're really that much of a shopping buff, you've got a whole five hours tops on Sundays to do your shopping. Think you're going to really enjoy your shopping in that tight of a time frame? And if you really do enjoy shopping and buying things that much, how about doing something really creative with your money.....like not spending it? Before Sunday shopping people were forced to use their minds to do something useful with their time, or God forbid, their hearts. On Sunday, instead of doing your part for the economy, you could do your part for your family. Go out to one of the parks in your town with your kids or a loved one, or if you're alone, grab a book and sit on the front porch and read, go for a walk, visit your relative that's been waiting for that long awaited visit, see your old friends you've neglected to see for so many years, prepare that classic Sunday dinner for your family that your parents used to cook for you..........the things to do are endless, and you don't even have to spend a cent at the money-hungry shopping malls to do it. And believe me, the majority of the people who are working at the malls on Sundays would love the opportunity to do any of this stuff. Where there is no Sunday shopping, everyone wins. Where there is, though, a lot of people lose.

It more or less comes down, to me, to worshipping the new god on Sunday: Money. At the risk of sounding a bit much like a Bible thumper, the Book does say that the root of all evil is indeed in money. It also says that people will turn away from God and worship a new god which will bring promise to cure all that ills the world. We're looking in the near future at a tightened currency in the world. Who's to say that the currency is eventually to wind up being the Beast that the Bible talks about towards Armageddon? So many people will do anything for money, including selling out their own honor, trust and even their love to get it. There's even talk of a computer chip embedded in the skin to get access to your cash in ATM's...The mark of the beast? Would you be able to resist it if there was no other way to get money? Think about it.

So in the end, Sunday shopping isn't necessarily the biggest evil of all; after all, it's been going on in different parts of North America for the past couple of decades now, and is steadily growing in popularity. But to yours truly, it certainly does signal times of more ominous things to come.

GRRRRR...........

Oh yes, there's plenty to grumble about, and everyone has their pet peeves. Here's just a few of mine, which I'll add to as they come to mind. And I bet you can relate, or maybe even completely and totally and rabidly disagree with me.

Frankenfoods --- I want to know what the hell it is that I'm going to be eating, and most importantly, what my kid is going to be eating. There's an awful lot of talk about genetically enhanced foods these days that has me worried, because there just hasn't been enough time to genuinely put them to the test. No one knows the long-term implications that these 'experiments' will have on the general public, and until we do know, we are all going to be unknowing and/or unwilling guinea pigs. In the meantime, I want this information on the labels of the foods in which they are altering!! At least give us a choice as to whether or not we want to put ourselves at risk with this issue.

Perceptions on overweight people --- This has to be one of the last acceptable prejudices in the world. Someone who's overweight (I refuse to use the term "fat", because it's almost always used in a derogatory manner) has judgment on them compromised as soon as they're seen by someone who doesn't have enough brainpower to realize that there's more to anyone than meets the eye. As soon as some people see someone who is overweight, immediately the insults fly in their heads as to what they could say if they had a chance to. Just as bad, they think "oh, they're not taking care of themselves" or that obese people are gluttonous. This couldn't be farther from the truth. Most heavily overweight people are predisposed to their condition at birth by genetics, and have trouble controlling their cravings and how to tell when they're full. As hard as that is for thinner people to understand. It's like blaming someone for being black, Indian or white, even; it's how you're born, and in a lot of cases, there's not a lot that can be done about it. And if something can, patience and utmost understanding need to be exercised if someone is to find their way around the problem.

Women Drivers --- Hey....I have EVERY right to bitch here! I've been on the road for a living for the last six and a half years of my working life, and 99 times out of a hundred I'm cut off by either a woman driver - or see below this. The way I see it, guys are not perfect drivers, they tend to drive too fast. But women drivers tend to be reckless and careless. Not ALL, mind you. But my experience dictates that there are more careless female drivers out there than male drivers.

Senior Citizen Drivers --- Alas, this group may most certainly be the biggest danger to public health as we know it. But a larger percentage among this group is troublesome to the road compared to women drivers. To put it a little more nitpicky, senior women drivers are a HELL of a lot harder to deal with than senior men drivers. But both should really be re-tested for their license at least every five years after they turn 60.

Music --- To paraphrase the mighty Kinks....Where have all the good times gone for crying out loud? Can't anyone have fun making music anymore? My whipping girl these days has to be that Avril Lavigne/Axl Rose hybrid girl. She's pretty down in the dumps and bitter about life, ain't she? Hey....next album she puts out, if she's still that bitter and unhappy, do her a favor and don't listen to her music, because that can't be helping matters. I guess there's hope though, as the cover of Rolling Stone this week says there's promise in the new rock and roll. (the Sept. 7 issue, thereabouts)

Canadians --- I've got a pickle with my comrades lately. The polls here lately say that US President Bush should not be looking to invade Iraq until there's more proof that Saddam is really that bad of a guy. Cripes all friggin' mighty. What's it gonna take, folks?? Another September 11?? Another Persian Gulf war?? The detonation of his alleged weapons of mass destruction?? Get onside with our brothers once and for all, kids, because we're living in the same building here. And if someone breaks into the building, if we're not on good terms with our neighbours, it's gonna be "too bad, so sad".

The Canadian Alliance Party --- This has to be a misnomer. Let me get this straight....at the genesis of the party, they were actually TWO parties, the Conservatives and the Reform parties, respectfully. Then there was this big deal with the Reform party who said they want to "unite the right", and they found a handful or so of PC's who would defect over to their side. So the Reform are now "allied" with the Conservatives, but the Conservative Party still exists and is just as or more popular than the "Alliance". Confused, non-Canadians? Canadian politics is, probably more than a lot of democratic nations on earth, more of a power struggle - who can get the top spot and the highest paying seat in the House - than it is a means of bettering the nation as a whole. The Alliance Party is racist and elitist, and there's proof they look down on anyone who lives anywhere southeast or far east of Quebec. Martimers, at least according to Alliance party leader Harper, are more or less a bunch of welfare bums looking for a handout. Now that's how you endear yourself to Canadian voters, Harper. You duschebag.

more to come I'm sure!

Unknown Gem Type: tlx.tlx.forms

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