Rational Radical

I’m no jingoist and I know that Canada has many serious problems.  But this is plain rubbish.  If you haven’t already seen it, “enjoy” this whine-fest from a failed British songwriter who decided to try his hand at journalism after fleeing to Russian:

Far from being a question of sour grapes, Russian commentators were already expressing their reservations as to the integrity of the Vancouver Lobby being able to host the Olympic Games weeks before the start. After all the IOC was starting to fire off in all directions before the first aircraft arrived.

We already have the case of a Russian skier being hounded to produce a urine sample after qualifying for a race, and if she had given the sample, she would not have had the possibility of entering the following round. Natalya Korosteleva was asked to provide a urine sample during a half-hour pause between the quarter-finals and semi-finals of a skiing event. “This seems against all the rules,” she stated, as she refused to have the sample taken, alleging that if she did, she would not have had time to continue in the next phase. Why her?

We all know Canada has problems with the future lines drawn on Arctic maps and we all know Canada lives in the shadow of its larger neighbour to the south. The abject cruelty shown by Canadian soldiers in international conflicts is scantily referred to, as indeed is the utter incapacity of this county to host a major international event, due to its inferiority complex, born of a trauma being the skinny and weakling bro to a beefy United States and a colonial outpost to the United Kingdom, whose Queen smiles happily from Canadian postage stamps.

Maybe it is this which makes the Canadians so…retentive, or cowardly. So it is not exactly a huge surprise to have international skating experts from the four corners of the Earth criticising the decision to award the Men’s figure skating Gold medal to the US athlete Evan Lysacekv over the reigning Olympic Champion Evgeny Plushenko, whose superior performance was inexplicably ignored.

As Plushenko explains, “I did a great short program but did not get the marks I deserved. When I asked why, they told me I was skating early and they had to retain top marks for the last group…Then in the free program, I was the last to skate, did everything clean and still didn’t get the marks”.

Everybody who knows anything about Olympic skating, Winter Olympic sports and international politics will infer from the pitiful and dangerous conditions provided by the Canadian authorities, which already caused one death, that Vancouver is mutton dressed as lamb. Take off the outer veneer and the stench is horrific.

It is a surprise that any Russian athlete would wish to remain in that sort of environment for a second longer.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

I am not a big fan of the Olympics, as I’ve stated a number of times, especially due to the sappy coverage.  However, I have to admit that I was captivated by Alexandre Bilodeau’s achievement of being the first Canadian to win gold on home turf.  And now I just got choked up watching him and his family–including his brother, who is his inspiration for greatness–being interviewed by the human sleep-inducing machine, Brian Williams (I think that’s his name).  If anyone is deserving of such an accomplishment, it’s this apparently upstanding young man.  He has warmed this jaded man’s heart…

(ANDRE FORGET/QMI AGENCY)

Lily has been commenting in the previous thread about Adam Giambrone’s fall from grace and questioning whether it’s fair to taint his professional life with his personal misdeeds.  I don’t care what he does behind closed doors but I do care about his lack of judgment.  And since day 1 this guy has demonstrated nothing but arrogance, as he refuses to listen to others while displaying poor judgment.  His numerous affairs are just another symptom of these unfavourable traits.

In fact, judging from what I’ve seen and read about his girlfriend, I would say his being with this stupid young woman is a sign of poor judgment.  Okay, we’ll ignore her collagen lips (she does look like Octo-mom, no?) and unflattering pictures that I’m sure she uploaded herself to http://www.drinktheglitter.com/search?q=kristen+lucas .

I agree with Lily that we should question this young woman’s motives in exposing Giambrone.  Her supporters claim she’s bright but how smart can one be when she says something along the lines of “Okay, I’ll stay with you as long as you tell your real girlfriend about us.”  Really?  You think he’s going to tell his girlfriend about you?  And you think she was going to say “okay, Adam, you can keep your girlfriend on the side and I’ll continue to be your “political wife”…”  Idiot.

And yes, some will think I’m being too harsh on the young woman and maybe judging a book by its cover.  But as always, all I can say is that my “spidey sense” has never been wrong thus far and I stand by it again.  My spidey sense tells me that this woman is messed up.  Not just desperate but messed up.  Not psychotic and not psychopathic but just messed up.  Trust me…

On a side note, Giambrone showed how much of an incompetent robot he is when he literally ran out of his press conference after realizing that his scripted apology was missing a page.  Everyone claims that this guy is so bright.  Well, most researchers, clinicians and theorists alike recognize that an important component of intelligence (especially among non-elderly people) is fast “processing speed,” at least with respect to the kind of intelligence they ascribe to Giambone.  He’s not fast on his feet, can’t think for himself and is not flexible minded.  Giambrone, you’re simply a “bright” suck-up with dangerous ambition.  You have yet to prove your worth as a politician in any capacity, other than your ability to kiss Miller’s ass and land plum assignments because you’re such a sycophant.  Shame on you.  Douche.

Kristen Lucas decided to come forward about her relationship with TTC chair Adam Giambrone after reading that he was married. (Feb. 7, 2010) (CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR)

There’s poor judgment….

As I always say, when I come down on a person, it’s not usually because of one particular action but because something about that person’s demeanour or the story itself suggests there are more issues lying underneath.  Adam Giambrone is one such person.  The most recent news is one more example of his lack of judgment (the COMMENTS section below contains the Star story):

Adam Giambrone says sorry for affair with young woman — Woman shows Star text messages, purportedly from politician, and says she was shocked to learn he had a live-in partner

Kristen Lucas, left, learned about Adam Giambrone’s partner, Sarah McQuarrie, seen with him at right on Feb. 1, 2010, in late December 2009. Lucas says she and Giambrone began dating a year earlier. (CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR)

Finally, someone caught one of these jerks doing his personal crap while on duty, causing everyone to wait for him. This happens ALL THE TIME, whether it’s for banking, coffee, or pizza slices (I’ve seen them all).  I hope everyone clicks more pix like this one and these guys get heavily reprimanded.  This sense of entitlement really needs to stop and the TTC Union boss–Constant Argument for Birth Control, Bob Kinnear–needs to piss off.  The COMMENTS section contains the full story (yes, it’s the Sun, but again, I have a reason to be here…):

Riders see red as streetcar driver takes break — TTC employee halts Red Rocket, gets off and does his banking (By DON PEAT, Toronto Sun)

This link takes you to a funny clip on how to report the news (thank you, MM):

http://www.break.com/index/how-to-report-the-news.html

My apologies to Lily, who sent me three links to show how these horrible monsters “manage to be obnoxious and out of line” during tragedies such as the earthquake in Haiti.  “Enjoy” these examples of evil (not Keith Olberman; he just ripped into Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson at their “best”):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1HO1bdMnwQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5TE99sAbwM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi55Uxl0mMA

Not that I would ever brag about being right <ahem> nor revel in a horrible person’s downfall <ahem ahem>, but CM sent me a link to the story mentioning that PM Harper severely demoted that “entitled” Argument for Birth Control, Lisa Raitt, for her incompetence, arrogance and all-round no-goodness (okay, that describes Harper too, but I never said he wasn’t a hypocrite…). Here’s another post I wrote a few months ago.  If I had this blog during this scumbaguette’s hey-days as the corrupt head of the Toronto Port Authority many years ago, I would have been attacking her then too (I

Former natural resources minister Lisa Raitt is demoted to labour in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s shuffle. ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO, CHRIS WATTIE/REUTERS

At the end of 2009, I wrote about an amazing young woman, Sophia Gran-Ruaz, whose charity gives young arrivals at GTA shelters gift bags to ease their transition.

Now I would like to direct your attention to another amazing group of young-ish people who melt my jaded, cynical heart…I saw one of them–EMILY PILLOTON – Senior Editor–on the Colbert Report last night and checked out her site, Project H Design.  She is also part of inhabitat, which I hope some people will check out and spread the word about.  This link gives you a list of the very admirable people working for the organization. I am duly impressed…

The first time I saw Tre Smith in action in his Humane Society costume (yeah, I said costume), I could tell be his demeanour that he was a wannabe cop.  I also had the misfortune to have seen him on that failed Toronto experiment a few years ago–I forget the name of the show but it was a pathetic attempt to imitate MTV’s already pathetic “Real World“–that told me everything I needed to know about him.

In any event, Tre proved me right a few years ago when he handcuffed a scumbag to his car after rescuing that scumbag’s dog.  The scumbag was beaten up by a mob.  I don’t have a problem with the principle of this, in light of the circumstances; I thought Tre did the right thing.  But when I saw Tre’s body language and smirk when the scumbag was being taken away, my impressions of the wannabe cop were confirmed again.

For anyone who thinks I’m patting myself on the back based on my own impressions only, by chance I also happen to know someone who knows Tre quite well and has seen him in action in various contexts.  And this person said that my depictions of him were bang on.

So why am I bringing him up now?  Well, as you can read in the COMMENTS section, he’s been arrested for continuing to wear his costume and act as an investigator for the Humane Society while he was under suspension.  He then perjured himself when asked about his illegal activities–two counts of impersonating a peace officer.

Here’s an excerpt from the Star story:

With a defiant sway to his gait, Smith said nothing as he was taken out of the THS headquarters at Queen and River Sts., wearing just jeans, a T-shirt and a ski vest, and put into a 52 Division police car.

Tre and his fans will say that he was compelled to save animals and would not allow an unwarranted suspension to stop his quest.

The reality is that Tre has narcissistic and histrionic tendencies and needs to live out his power-trip fantasies.  It’s as simple as that.  Oh, and not to over-work the concept, but he obviously has very poor judgment…

In this 2007 file photo, Tre Smith cuddles Cyrus, a Rottweiler he rescued from dehydration after handcuffing the dog owner’s to his car while he gave the animal water. The owner was attacked by a crowd during the incident and later pleaded guilty to animal cruelty (TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)