Business

My Second Ever Email To Stephen Harper

Mulder

Just before Christmas I dropped a note to the Prime Minister to pass on my Christmas and New Year’s wishes to him, Laureen and the kids. It was the second time I have ever written Stephen Harper and the first time I ever received a response from his staff.

On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to thank you for your e-mail, in which you raised an issue which falls within the portfolio of the Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry. The Prime Minister always appreciates receiving correspondence on subjects of importance to Canadians.

Please be assured that the statements you made have been carefully reviewed. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your e-mail to Minister Bernier, so that he too may be made aware of your comments. I am certain that the Minister will give your views every consideration.

P. Monteith
Executive Correspondence Officer
for the Prime Minister’s Office

In my email I also suggested that the government look into getting a Tesla Motors auto production facility in Canada siting the a) environmentally friendly aspect of the car, b) the positive job creation aspect of a new auto plant and c) the awesome photo ops that an announcement of this kind would make because the car is just smoking hot!!!

Tesla

I hope the Honourable Maxime Bernier follows up with my request.

Good Morning Viagra Ladies, Goodbye Societal Morals

Mulder

Some of you may have noticed the Viagra commercial where the ladies are singing the Good Morning, Good Morning tune. I am sure you know the one I am talking about. It appears on TV at all hours of the day and has four ladies singing their hearts out about how nice the morning is the day after their husbands have taken Viagra.

Today while watching Mike Duffy Live, the commercial came on again and I noticed something I have never noticed before. Since I tape Duffy, I thought I would slow down the video and see if I was right. Let’s look at this one lady at a time.

Viagra Lady number 1 is the blonde in the red sweatsuit. Viagra Lady number 1 isn’t wearing a wedding ring either that naughty girl!!! Take a look.

Viagra Lady 1a

Let’s zoom in.

Viagra Lady 1a zoom

Nope, no ring.

Viagra Lady number 2 is the classy looking business woman who hops off the streetcar swinging an umbrella on her way to work. Let’s take a closer look at her ring finger too.

Viagra Lady 2
And now for the zoom.

Viagra Lady 2 zoom

Nope, no ring.

Viagra Lady number three is the crossing guard. Let’s see if this grey haired lady is wearing a wedding band, shall we?

Viagra Lady 3

Hmmmmm, let’s zoom in here too.

Viagra Lady 3 zoom

Wow, that’s three for three without a ring.

How about Viagra Lady number 4, our favourite dancing man’s girlfriend/wife who is riding her bike home from the grocery store.

Viagra Lady 4

Could it be? Does she have a ring on??

Viagra lady 4 zoom

Nope. It looks like it is just part of the bike’s brakes that appear to be a ring.

So there you have it. Our famous little blue pill is, apparently, being used by ladies who are not lawfully wedded. Now I am not a huge prude by any means, but if my old eyes are able to spot little things like this, I am pretty sure the youngsters out there are too.

I guess I was just hoping that in the commercialization of erections, we could expect to at least have it marketed with married women. Am I asking for too much here? Let me know what you think. Should Viagra have at least made it appear like they are part of a society with a bit of a moral backbone? Have we digressed as a society this much?

The King Is Dead

Mulder

Who will stem the tide of minimum wage activists?

Who will stop the price ceiling and price floor socialists?

Who will stifle those who stifle ingenuity?

Who will step forward and explain to us why the free markets need to be truly free?

Who will we look to for sanity in an insane world of economics?

There is always the video. And this is one that is well worth the 30 minutes.

4 month old H/T.

TSX Closes Higher Than Before Income Trust Announcement

Mulder

On October 31st, 2006, the TSX closed at 12,344.59 (if my math is right from this article). This was the last close before the Conservative government announced the plans to tax income trusts.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 294.2 points or 2.4 per cent to 12,050.39 after the announcement late Tuesday that trusts will be taxed more like corporations — the biggest single one day drop in the index in two and a half years.

The market dropped dramatically the next couple of days as investers sold frantically.

Today, November 15th, 2006, the TSX closed at 12,425.37, over 80 points higher than it was before the announcement.

I know that the value did not come back in the same places, but it just goes to show you that if you are diversified enough in your portfolio, you probably are richer than you were the day before the announcement.

Is Kylie Minogue Really Worthy Of All The Press?

Mulder

Or is CTV Newsnet pimping itself?

When I was attending the University of Western Ontario, I remember the re-release ofkylie minogue Locomotion by Kylie Minogue. I didn’t hear boo from the Australian pop star for 15 or 20 years until a week or two ago.

CTV newsnet ran a piece on how she had recovered from cancer and was expecting to be back on tour soon. Considering I didn’t even KNOW she had been touring or heard boo from her since the Locomotion release, I found the story odd.

Today, the CTV has done it again. They had footage of Kylie on stage kicking off her new tour. They even went so far as to say that she would be doing 20 or so shows in Australia before heading overseas but no Canadian dates have been announced.

Is it me, or is this shameless promotion? What are the odds that the CTV is getting paid to promote Kylie Minogue in an effort to see if there is enough interest for her to come to Canada?

I know this is a very cynical view of the press but TV shows and movies have gone to integrating advertising into the background for extra income. So why wouldn’t a network that lives on news stories like CTV Newsnet do the same by integrating some advertising into a story?

If this is the case then it crosses a line as a news agency goes from reporting the news to promoting and creating via a news broadcast. It’s a fine line that the press should not cross. I’ll be watching this because I am really curious if Bell Globemedia is going to sponsor her tour in Canada.

Your opinions and comments are welcome.

Income Trust Teaches Us The Meaning Of Diversification

Mulder

Every investment advisor teaches new investors the meaning of having a “diversified” portfolio. This is a way we hedge against a particular sector being hit too hard and wiping out our savings. It involved looking at how risky you are willing to get and then balancing your portfolio to ensure a proper distribution between growth funds, income funds, sector funds, bond funds and any others you may want to be invested in.

I myself started my RRSP when I got my first full time job because I read a great book called The Wealthy Barber which taught me a lot about investing. It taught me the value of life insurance. It taught me the value of dollar cost averaging and it taught me the value of diversification so that when a particular sector gets hit for ANY reason, the savings don’t get completely wiped out.

If you held a big percentage of your savings in Income Trusts or if your financial advisor had you do so, then shame on you and shame on him or her. You should have been better diversified.

CBC WeatherBimbo Claire Martin Goes Too Far

Mulder

Tonight on The National, Claire Martin, the British accented weatherbimbo, not once, but twice, alluded to the Income Trust changes announced by the government. The first time, she even called it the Income Trust debacle.

For Claire’s information, the Income Trust debacle was when Ralph Goodale’s Ministry of Finance leaked the Liberal announcement in October of 2005. To call the current government’s decision to debaucle is just wrong. And weather reporting eye candy has no place commenting on the governments decision anymore than a sports caster.

The CBC has gone too far this time. No matter what your opinion on the governments decision, this was a further blatant attempt at the CBC trying to influence the viewers against the government and is simply wrong.

Claire Martin should apologize and the CBC needs to get their act together.

I highly urge you all to visit their ombudsman’s website and register a complaint.

The broadcast took place November 2nd, 2006 at approximately 10:55pm EST.

ADDENDUM I took the liberty of recording the rebroadcast from CBC Newsworld at 11pm to 12pm and got the clip on YouTube. You can see it by clicking the link below.

If the above image does not work for you, then you can try visiting the YouTube page by clicking the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brAjzoMW0xE

Jeff Skilling Will Rightfully Die In Shackles

Mulder

After bilking the shareholders out of billions, Jeff Skilling, ex CEO of Enron, will die in jail. The 52 year old got sentenced to 24 years and four months in jail for his part in the Enron scandal. It feels good knowing he will be some prisoner’s beeatch for the rest of his years.

Considering Andy Fastow, the CFO (Chief FUBAR Officer in this case), only got 6 years and probably has millions sitting in an offshore trust or Swiss Bank Account and Ken Lay died of a heart attack pending sentencing, I think Skilling got the toughest sentence out of the big three.

Fastow got of lucky for turning over on how inept he was. If you have read Kurt Eichenwald’s book on the subject, you would know that Fastow was the driving force in the financial scandal that rocked the markets. But Skilling was the man in charge so rightfully deserves a harsh sentence for letting it happen on his watch.

So ends the Enron affair as far as the major players go.

Good riddance.

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.