Rational Radical

Unfortunately, my job makes me have very little faith in the average person’s intelligence.  Throw in the fact that most people do not have the psychological or emotional strength to be critical thinkers and you have the ingredients for “the perfect storm.”  We have seen this recently in most local, federal and international elections over the past few years.

The most damaging peiord in Ontario history was clearly during the years of Mike the Axe Harris, a failed golf pro and pathetic teacher who could not hack his real job for long, so he went into politics and guaranteed himself a very rich future by selling out 99% of Ontarians to developers and other scumbags whose only goal was profit, no matter how many people or animals they devastated with their wonton destruction of the planet and various social services.  Toronto and most of Ontario is still reeling from the devestation that Harris and his incompetent, evil, mean-spirited, divisive, petty pieces of shit wreaked during their “common sense revolution.“  Most of Harris’ gang who are still involved in politics some way continue to screw up in their jobs and hurt anyone they come in contact with.  Scum are scum are scum.

Unfortunately, Dalton McGuinty and his Liberal crew have proven me correct in my assessment of them years ago: McGuinty may not be evil like Harris, but his policies are very similar, if slightly softer.  And the greed, corruption, graft and incompetence shown by Harris and his gang is just as bad as in McGuinty’s own gang.  EHealth is only the most recent example, as is the chronic shortchanging of the TTC.  And the NDP have disappeared into obscurity since Bob Rae fucked up the province—and then defected to the Liberals, where he thankfully lost the leadership bid; not that I’m a fan of Ignatieff, but Rae did not deserve to lead any party after his debacle as Premier of Ontario years ago, which directly led to Harris being elected with a majority TWICE.

With David Miller and his left-leaning city council proving to be more greedy, “entitled,” out of touch with reality, incompetent and just plain assholes than ever before, Toronto residents are at risk of ignoring the destruction of our city and province under Harris’ Conservatives, which the new leader, Tim Hudak, wants to emulate.  This just goes to show you how mean-spirited and self-serving Conservatives truly are, when they give the boot to a stand-up guy like John Tory, and then embrace a scumbag like Tim Hudak, who was in Harris’ cabinet during his raping of our province.  Sadly, scumbags of a feather fuck together, as Hudak’s wife is Deb Hutton, one of the most vile members of Harris team back in the day.  She has absolutely no morals, ethics, compassion or integrity.  She and Hudak were made for each other.

I’m not even going to bother printing the story.  You’ll get enough of it in the coming months, as Hudak and his unprincipled minions head toward victory in the next provincial election.  Ontario and Toronto especially are fucked.  Seriously.  Fucked.

Mike Harris protégé wins as Tories turn right

TONY BOCK/TORONTO STAR

Tim Hudak gets a hearty handshake from former premier Mike Harris after winning Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party leadership, June 27, 2009. With him is his 20-month-old daughter Miller.

Miller has done nothing for the city–well, nothing GOOD–and is now bragging about paying an extra $400 million dollars that we cannot afford to build a bunch of streetcars because he screwed up the funding request and gambled on the venture.  I nearly threw up hearing him say how this was the proudest moment of his life as mayor, in the midst of an ongoing strike that he’s proven impotent to do anything about. 

The COMMENTS section contains the rest of this pathetic story. On a side note, unlike BLACK AND WHITE thinkers, my contempt for Miller and his gang does not blind me to the reality that Premier McGuinty continues to screw Toronto by continuing to criminally underfund the TTC, just like the worst Premier in the history of Ontario, Mike Harris. And of course, Harper’s Conservative federal government is equally guilty, as were his Liberal predecessors.  In short, they are all fuckers…

Council votes to double spending on new streetcars — But councillors slam mayor for gambling on federal funding for new fleet

CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR — Mayor David Miller, with TTC chair Adam Giambrone in the background, addresses the media after council’s vote to spend $834 million on the purchase of 204 new streetcars for the city. The province is contributing $416 million.

Okay, I’m sure that headline has been used over a million times in the past few days, but I’ve got nothing better…

I am not one for celebrity gossip or anything like that.  I believe in living life in the real world, caring about people close to you, rather than expending emotions on people who don’t know you and who aren’t really worth your tears or other feelings. But I have to admit that MJ’s death has shocked me.  I’ve felt this way when truly great people have died or have undergone horrible traumas, even if I don’t know them.  But I’ve never thought twice about most celebrity experiences.  I mean, I grew up loving Farah Fawcett but felt nothing when I heard she died.  But MJ is different.

In fact, he’s so different that I allowed my judgment to get clouded by my emotions when I would hear about his pedophilia charges.  If he had been anyone else, I would not have questioned most of the stories–although the one by the child with cancer was iffy because his mother was so untrustworthy–and would have presumed he was guilty, based on the evidence.  But for MJ, I kept hoping that he would be proven innocent.  Of course, he was never found guilty, but that’s because of pay-offs and a damn good legal team.  But make no mistake: he was guilty of some form of highly inappropriate behaviour.

And now that he’s dead, you can bet that more people will be coming out with their stories; these are people who did not want to lose their seat on the gravy train that was MJ.  It will be hard to figure out how much is real and how much is false, but there will be some undeniable evidence presented.  We’re already learning (this has actually been known for a short while already) that much of MJ’s freakish persona was a ruse, designed by MJ himself for a variety of reasons.  Yet people will continue to believe many of the stories, even after they’re proven false.  Why?  Because people need consistency in their lives, and thier image of MJ is one of those things.  He truly was such an important part of our (pop) culture that it’s going to be hard for many people to see him in any different light than they’ve seen him for so long.

I won’t go on beyond this for now.  I am only going to say that the next few weeks to years are going to be as bizarre re. MJ as they were for the past 10-20 years.  And pretty soon, “MJ sightings” are going to overtake “Elvis sightings” in the tabloids and minds of many…

As we undergo this latest strike by city workers, let’s reflect on yet another scandalous waste at City Hall, which will not get addressed now, thanks to the strike:

It’s time for parking meters to pay the piper

Jack Lakey

City councillors finally have a chance to ask hard questions about the Toronto Parking Authority’s $10 million purchase of credit card readers for parking meters, a deal the city auditor says was of “no significant benefit.” Council’s audit committee meets today (barring a strike by city workers) to discuss a just-released audit of the TPA’s deal with Precise ParkLink Inc. to upgrade credit card readers in 2,600 pay-and-display meters on city streets. The new readers were supposed to reduce card fraud, but uncollected and declined card transactions nearly doubled in 2008, the audit found.

Auditor general Jeff Griffiths’ report is critical of nearly every aspect of the deal. A key question not dealt with in the audit is whether the cost of the readers (about $3,840 each) was too high. This was the basis of a series of Fixer articles in 2008. We couldn’t find any card readers that cost even half that much.

In an interview Friday, TPA president and pussy Gwyn Thomas would not talk about the criticisms. Starting today at the audit committee, councillors can ask for a further investigation of the deal. But will they? We’ll let you know in tomorrow’s column.

I’ve written a number of times before about the infamous “bathtub sisters”, aka “Recent Arguments for the Death Penalty by Drowning.”  Since this is Canada, of course they will be released early, despite murdering their mother and showing absolutely no remorse.  Yes, folks, these two sociopaths will be going to school with you or someone you love very soon, and you will never know who they are. Read the Comments below to get the most recent update on this sick story.

I’ve worked all my life and never had the luxury of a sick day.  If I don’t work, I don’t get paid.  Or, I have to make up the time missed.  I’ve rarely missed a day of work, partially because of this.  My type of work also doesn’t grant me holiday pay: I go on holiday, I don’t make money.

So fuck the Toronto unions who are bitching about not being allowed to bank their sick days.  If I’m not mistaken, these workers aren’t losing their sick days–on top of paid holidays.  No, they’re being asked to not be able to bank those sick days so that they can retire early or have certain extended vacations.  Fuck them.  If I’m not mistaken, I believe those who have already accummulated a certain number of sick days woud not lose them.

As much as I despise the union, I also despise the City Council, since they awarded themselves a pay raise recently, which the union will use against them.  Fuckers all around.  On a final note, since the union is now in a position to strike, does that mean the city is in a position to fire anyone who does not like the changes that would reflect the realities of today?

One of the most important elements of a democracy is a FREE PRESS, which means that journalists and others can write about the government autonomously.  That is, they can inform us of what the government is doing without interference or influence by said government.  Well, the following snippet from a story last week (by Royson James of the Star) is one of the scariest pieces you will read.  It’s a reflection of how pathetic Toronto City Council truly is.  I don’t care who is running against each councillor, but we all need to vote out any asshole–including the horrible Mayor Miller–who supports this banana republic shit.  Read on:

The current crop at Toronto city hall is soft, thin-skinned and hypersensitive – a crybaby class of pampered whiners plagued with the millennial sense of entitlement.

How else to explain their latest push to sue media, fellow politicians – and you, the taxpayer – if an adversary dare utter comments the chosen councillors find defamatory? It’s one thing to provide a legal defence fund, as is current practice, should someone launch a lawsuit against a councillor; it’s another to provide a legal offence fund – so councillors can go after perceived enemies. This is unnecessary. It gives councillors the legal muscle to strong-arm citizens, media, even fellow councillors, who offend them with what they consider defamatory remarks.

The weasels have concocted all manner of reasons to back the request. The real reason? This group of city councillors wants to intimidate the media, make constituents cower and club would-be challengers into submission. And they would use the courts, backed by the enormous weight of public dollars, to do so. City council should stop the proposal next month. But because Mayor David Miller and his party members on the executive committee have endorsed it, that might prove difficult.

I have not had a chance to write about things for a number of days because my schedule has become even more insane than usual.  However, as updates on some of the stories I’ve been following become available, I’ll try to blog about them.  In the meantime, for those who send me stories, please keep doing so and I’ll try to post them.  In the meantime, I hope you’ll type a word or name into the SEARCH box on the left and find a number of blogs on a wide variety of topics.

I should have jumped over this story earlier, since it involves one of the most horrible, “entitled” women you’ll ever meet, Lisa Raitt.  I was appalled at her arrogance, narcissism and mismanagement when she was head of the Toronto Port Authority.  Well here are two stories about this scumbag (please see the Responses section for the rest of the stories):

Injunction sought to prevent story about Raitt

and

Baird facing allegations over Port Authority appointments

THE CANADIAN PRESS — Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, followed by her press secretary Jasmine MacDonnell, leaves a news conference in Ottawa, May 28, 2009.

Thank you to CM, FTP, and CT for sending me updates on some of the stories I’ve been following on this site, as well as some other stories.  The RESPONSES section below contains updates on:

VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

- eHealth (the CEO did the right thing and quit, although I’m sure she got a really sweet deal out of it)- Racist Little Girl (more details on how pathetic the scum who produced her were; they don’t deserve the title, “parents”)

- More Secrecy from Canadian Politicians (they may be trying to change the system so that we are prone to the same scandal that just fucked up UK politics)

- The Just-Ass System Keeps Getting More Corrupt (prosecutors broke the law by searching for things about potential jurors that contravene privacy laws; as a result, I’m sure many truly guilty people will be set free, while a few innocent people likely got a raw deal)

- Always Watch out for DOUBLE-SPEAK (George Orwell knew over half a century ago the dangers of language use and misuse; this story is just one more example)