Personal

I Can't Sing

Mulder

I can carry a tune, I just don’t have the voice for it. In grade school, when the teachers walked around the gym listening for good singers for the school choir, I was inevitably tapped on the shoulder to go sit down. Some years I purposely made my voice go south when a listening teacher (or Mrs. Pilkey, the singing Librarian) walked by, but most years it was just my terrible voice that got me dumped.

But last night, for some reason that will probably befuddle me for decades, I was asked to kick off the singing of the national anthem at a dinner hosted by our EDA for our MP and Minister of Defence, the Hon. Gordon O’Connor.

My nerves were pretty shot. I found myself simply focussing on the words while I stared at the ground for most of it. I would hate to goof up and look like one of those singers at a baseball game who doesn’t do their homework on the lyrics.

Surprisingly, once I got going the whole room joined in and I think (or hope) that I was just another voice out of the 125 who sang along.

I do remember looking up at one point and seeing Minister O’Connor turn to face the flag that was behind me and I remember thinking “do I keep singing while I face the room or should I turn my back on everyone and face the flag two feet behind me?”. I probably made the wrong choice and just kept singing into the mic while I faced the room.

I am still not sure what the official protocol is for someone at the podium, but if I was wrong I sure picked a good time to be wrong. Sitting beside the Minister of Defence was Laureen Harper, the Minister’s wife Carol, the Minister of Finance (Jim Flaherty), the Minister of Heritage and Status for Women (Bev Oda), the Parliamentary Secretary for HRSDC (Lynne Yelich) and my ridings MPP (Norm Sterling).

We've Been Jynxed!!

Mulder
Jynx 9 weeks 2
Jynx 9 weeks 1

The above pictures are of our newest family member. We named him Jynx and he is the cutest little dachsund/shih-tzu cross. No nasty overbite of the shih-tzu and no long body of the dachsund. He actually looks like a black lhasa apso to some extent.

His 4.1 lb frame has a nice little white beard on his chinny chin chin, a white ascot and a white spot on his belly that makes him look like he is wearing a little tuxedo.

The vet check last Monday came out clean and the vet thinks he is pretty darn healthy and that he already has a great personality and demeanour. The personality really shows through when he is romping around the floor with T-Bone and Cookie.

This story has no nasty political dog remarks. It’s just a peek into my personal life.

Can't Get Sex Out Of Your Television? Stop Watching Those Cheese Commercials

Mulder

I just saw a commercial that really got my goat.

A young lady, sort of trashy looking, reorganizing a bathroom medicine chest to add her own products which then cut to that annoying old lady from the cheese commercials talking to a guy in boxers in the doorway of his bedroom and she says:

Can’t get your one night stands to STAY one night stands? Stop cooking with cheese!! Don’t put Canadian Swiss in her grilled cheese. Next she’ll have you buying a minivan!.

Call me a prude, but does this need to be in a commercial? I mean really. It’s a cheese commercial that is tying in one night stands. I can understand it if they had a couple of pieces of cheese talking about relationships going bad or getting old and moldy, but one night stands??

Come on folks. Stop using sex to sell things.

CTV Jumps On Sexual Innuendo Bandwagon

Mulder

When it comes to the MSM, I am usually pretty fond of the CTV when comparing them to other choices out there. However, I woke up this morning to watch my recording of the Daily Show/Colbert Report and forgetting to skip through a commercial I noticed one for the new Tina Fey/Alec Baldwin TV show called 30 Rock.

I like Alec Baldwin in straight faced comedic roles, and being Greek, I am also a big fan of Tina Fey and her writing for Saturday Night Live. I have no beef with the show or the actors.

But in the commercial, there is a clip of Alec Baldwin saying:

Five inches … but it’s thick

It is obviously meant to be a wisecrack about the size of the rise in his Levis.

As the commercial was being aired on a late night program, I smiled at the overall commercial and thought that I will probably enjoy this show.

And then they announced the time this show would air.

730pm EST, 10 Central.

730pm? Are they serious? It reminded me of hearing the term “Cleveland Steamer” on The Family Guy, a show no child should be allowed to watch.

What’s going on with TV these days? It seems that sexual innuendo has taken over every single comedy out there.

I’m all for good parenting and I keep a close eye on the TV shows my kids watch, but I just have to say that I am disappointed at the CTV for airing a show with comments like the one above at a pre 8pm time slot. Call me a prude but shows with comments like that shouldn’t be on before 9 or 10pm.

The Pencil Commies Get Bitchslapped In BC – Is Ontario Next?

Mulder

I took a bit of a beating from the moonbats on my view of forced pencil sharing in public schools, but thanks to Sara from Choice For Childcare, the story about the lawsuit in BC forcing schools to pay for all items related to the curriculum and graduation of students has been resurrected in the Toronto Star today.

The ruling is a welcome one. And while applicable only in B.C., it should serve as a strong reminder to schools, boards and education ministry officials in Ontario that fees have no place in public education.

Officially, Ontario schools cannot charge fees for anything, including basic supplies, that is required for courses under the provincial curriculum.

But after years of budget cuts, many schools appear to be quietly and unofficially skirting the rules. A 2005 study by People for Education, a parent advocacy group, suggested nearly 75 per cent of Ontario’s high schools levied lab and material fees. According to the group, those charges ranged from $5 to $100 and included science supplies, musical instruments, woodworking materials, photocopying and workbooks.

…

To rectify the situation, Queen’s Park should remind school administrators that fees are not allowed for basic courses or class materials. At the same time, it should ban the practice of levying student activity fees and give schools the funds they need to offer full programs for all without cost.

Wow!! It looks to me like schools in Ontario should provide that box of pencils, not to mention art supplies, that compass for math, and even musical instruments. Considering we rent T-bone’s trombone annually, I am starting to wonder just how much money we are paying directly for our children’s education for items that the school should be providing.

I wonder if Afghani children pay for their pencils?

I Think I Hit A Nerve With The Pencil Commentary

Mulder

I think I must have hit a nerve at Kinchblog and where’d that bug go blogs with my forced pencil sharing commentary. At least jeff at bug agrees with me that school items that are needed for the curriculum should be funded by tax payers.

As I commented on jeff’s blog:

Thanks for agreeing with SOME of my post. I want to clarify that I am all for our education system buying everything until 9th grade. That’s the way it was when I was in school, and I think it should continue.

I don’t like the fact that teachers FORCE the kids to do it. As I mentioned, my daughter does know well enough to share when it’s needed. But it isn’t the teachers place to force it. Sharing comes from the heart, not from a whip.

But thanks for trying to paint me as a tyrant. I’ll remember that (and laugh) when I give to the food bank or donate to the Canadian Cancer Society, or walk door to door with my daughter to raise money for gymnastics equipment for children who can’t afford it as I do yearly.

Did I mention sharing comes from the heart and not from a whip?

I have no clue what changed, but I do know that everything was paid for until I started 9th grade. At that point I remember going with my friends to Grand And Toy and getting our school supplies, binders, paper, etc. It was a big day getting out there on my own to buy supplies. Text books were still supplied by the school at that point and I didn’t have to buy a text until grade 13 (in Ontario) and again in all my post secondary endeavours.

Funny, that when I was in university I gave my old texts back to the school for less fortunate kids instead of selling them.

Ohh….did I mention that sharing comes from the heart and not from a whip??

Travel Propaganda Leans Left

Mulder

Last Wednesday I took off for San Jose, California on a work excursion. While travelling I began to notice the trend that left leaning MSM propaganda is everywhere.

Over the last three years, I have probably been on about 40 different business trips and stayed in dozens of different hotels. While on all these trips I can conclude the following.

1) The TV station of choice for displaying in American airports is CNN.

and

2) The newspaper that inevitably sits on my hotel room doorstep each morning is USA Today.

This doesn’t usually irk me until I sat down for my 3 hour layover in Toronto, looked up and saw that the Greater Toronto Airport Authority has partnered up with CBC to propagandize our travellers.

Maybe the fact that I saw as many people on laptops as I did watching the TVs was a good sign of the way things are moving in the world.

If anyone out there knows what is on other Canadian airport monitors, please feel free to comment. Since most of my travel was to the US, I am not as familiar with other Canadian airports outside of the TV in the smoking lounge at the Ottawa airport which was flexible. (I would consistently change the station to CTV newsnet whenever I had a chance)

As an aside, on this trip I got to run into Tim Powers, the Conservative pundit who is on Mike Duffy Live a couple of times a week and on CFRA weekly. I took a few minutes to say hi and let him know I enjoyed watching him spar with the other party pundits.

Lowell Green And I – The Red Friday Video And The Idea To Sell Prints Of The Parliament Hill Photo

Mulder

The one benefit I have when I work from home is the luxury of recording my calls to Lowell Green whom I respect to no end for his service to our community.

Today, after hearing how Le Droit Newspaper in Montreal was reporting only 2000 people on parliament hill and the CBC and CRV reporting that there was only 3000, I called Lowell to

a) tell him that the number was far greater. (He confirmed that the official count was close to 30,000)

b) tell him about the hundreds who had viewed my video already over the internet

and

c) resuggest that CFRA sells prints of the photo with proceeds going to the Legions or to some sort of fund that supports the families of soldiers who have died overseas.

Lowell thought it was a great idea. He also was incredibly generous and let me say my website name online.

As many of you are here specifically to view the videos, I have put a set of links to the right under the Red Friday’s ribbon so you can view the 7 parts. The granularity of the video is not that great as I tried to keep the file size down for those who may not have a good high speed connection.

I do want to take this opportunity to apologize about the shakiness in the videos as well. I had no tripod with me and with the crowd, it wouldn’t have done me any good anyway so what you see is basically the camcorder on my hand being held up in the air for approximately an hour straight. (my arm paid for it the next day)

What My Red Friday Was Like

Mulder

After taking all the video footage that is in the previous 7 posts, and working for a few hours to get it online, I discovered that I had not quite explained what my Red Friday was like.

After leaving the office I started making my way downtown an was listening to Lowell Green on CFRA the whold ride down. I managed to find parking on the top floor of a lot in the market and made my way towards the Hill. While walking up Sussex I noticed police motorcycles strategically placed …ummmm….everywhere. As I got to the corner where the Chateau Laurier sits the armoured cars and armoured SUV’s with full motorcycle entourage started coming around the bend and took off down Sussex behind me towards the PM’s residence. I am 99% sure this was Karzai’s motorcade.

The number of people milling around wearing red was about 1 in 5 or so but as I got closer to the Hill it was pretty much everyone. I knew I was feeling good when I stepped on the Hill and the first thing that stood out was a guy dressed up in a Santa Claus outfit. (Either that or the big guy showed up himself).

Because I arrived around 1145 and because the traffic was probably holding up a lot of folks I managed to get a decent spot about 20 meters in front of the stage, and as you can see about 10 or 15 feet to the right of Private Michael Spence (when looking off the stage).

I really enjoyed a bit of gabbing and smiles with the people around me and I enjoyed thanking man of the folks from the Legions. The video tells you what I saw.

After the event was over I managed to run into mayorial candidate Larry O’Brien again but my digital camera was dead on batteries so the photo his assistant tried to take did not happen. I also ran into Kanata North Council candidate Matt Muirhead (who I actually saw at the Carp fair again today).

Outside of that, I really just absorbed it all and felt the pride oozing from everyone. The positive vibes coming from every part of the Hill was great. I was also very pleased to see so many MP’s behind the PM and others while the speeches were on. It was quite a treat. Even Peter Stoffer was there. (I think he should run of leadership of the NDP one day!!)

I guess that covers it. If I can think of anything else, I will add it later. I want to thank Lowell Green, Steve Madely, CFRA, the Legions, the police force, the Hill staff and everyone else who made the day happen. I know it will make a great show for the troops.

Now for my one suggestion. I think that CFRA should make some sort of nice print of the photo and sell it to generate money for the local legions or for some fund for the families of those lost in the Afghanistan war. I would buy one, frame it and display it proudly if they do.

In fact…I just came up with a new Poll idea…

Red Friday – Part 7

Mulder

In the final part of this video collection the armed forces chaplin says some words, and then the red sea photo is taken. I am sure it will be a doozy and when the troops overseas see that so many people gathered just to show them a bit of support they will get a big morale boost.

I am one who was ecstatic that I could take part in such a gathering and I hope that everyone who made it gives themselves a big pat on the back. For those that could not make it, have no worries. You can show your support by wearing something red on Fridays. A shirt, a jacket, a hat, a ribbon, an armband, a tie… whatever. Just do it. It’s the least we can do to tell our boys overseas that we care and it’s the least we can do to show the loved ones of these soldiers that we care and that their jobs matter to us.

God bless all of them and may they all return home safe and sound when their mission is over.

If you can’t see the video above, try clicking the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu3VEQ8ap08

View Part 1
View Part 2
View Part 3
View Part 4
View Part 5
View Part 6
View Part 7