Smackdown – Minister Oda Discredits Stronach's Feminism

Mulder

Last Wednesday in Question Period, there was an exchange between MP Belinda Stronach and the Minister of Heritage, Bev Oda. It starts out with Stronach giving a bit of a low blow to Minister of the Environment, Rona Ambrose, and it ends with Minister Oda laying the smackdown on Stronach.

Hon. Belinda Stronach (Newmarket—Aurora, Lib.)
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of the Environment drives a car with a bumper sticker which says, “A woman’s place is in the house, the senate and the oval office”. That is a great sentiment if we were all Americans, but it is too bad that she did not advocate for rights and equality for Canadian women within her own cabinet.

In fact, the six women in cabinet sat back, said and did nothing, while equality was dropped as part of this government’s mandate.

…

Hon. Bev Oda (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, I shared with you an experience this morning of honouring some very significant women and in fact these women are with us today.

I would suggest that the member opposite who had the opportunities, at one time being recognized as the most powerful businesswoman in Canada, did very little about it. Consequently, when we look at her board at Magna, there is no female representation on that board.

Ouch!!!!

Bravo to the Minister from Durham for pulling this one out. Considering the statement, I find it hard to take any comment on women’s issues seriously when it comes from the mouth of Stronach.

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.

Media Bias Blatant In Coverage Of Polls

Mulder

A few days ago, a poll came out announcing that the federal Liberals and federal Conservatives were neck and neck in the eyes of Canadian voters.  The press coverage of this poll was in every newspaper and on every news station I turned on.

Two days ago, Environics released a poll that indicates the Tories are 9 points ahead of the Liberals yet no one covered it.

This morning I heard about this poll on Lowell Green’s show and was simply shocked that no one covered this poll in the press.  Apparently this poll was over a three week period and the poll indicating a tie was over a two day period at the tail end of the Environics poll. I agree that two polls can have different results depending on the period of time and length of polling time, but for two polls so close together to have such different results is rare (albeit possible).

My main beef is that the press chose to cover the one that that puts the Liberals in a better light and ignore the one that has the Tories a full 3 percentage points better off than on election day last January!!

Environics Poll

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.

Say Goodnight Garthy … Goodnight Garthy

Mulder

What many had predicted has come to pass. Garth Turner was suspended from the Conservative Caucus today and will sit as an independent.

I know I have had a few different views than Garth and made them clear on my site.

Ironically, Stephen Taylor has located a changed blog post that may be the key to what caused the break up. Apparently it had to do with broken party confidences (i.e. the camel’s back). But considering it refers to the billions of unauditable dollars going to Indian Affairs, one has to wonder if this being public is really a bad thing. I, for one, am appauled that this money from the public purse for IA cannot be audited.

One might put Indian Affairs in with a group of Senators milking our tax dollars to the tune of $150,000 for a week long vacation in the middle east.

In any case, I am very curious what is going to happen with the Halton nomination.

Liberals Misinterpret Anti-Israeli For Anti-Jew … There IS A Difference

Mulder

Late last week Prime Minister Harper made a comment that virtually all the Liberal leadership candidates are anti-Israeli.

In the ensuing days, the same candidates are all defensive about the comment. And in EVERY defence I heard, the candidate in question made allusions to the Jewish religion and how the comment was blatantly false. But was it??

I have some news for the Liberals out there. Israel may have been formed as a homeland for the Jews, but it is also a holy place for people of Christian and Muslim faith. Jerusalem is a holy city to all three religions. Christ was born in Bethlehem.

So when the PM makes a statement that the Liberals are anti-Israel, it should not be misinterpreted by anyone as anti-Jew. To do so would just insult those of us who know that the two are different. It is in fact a statement against a nation, not a religion. And for people like Bob Rae to play the sympathy card is simply wrong.

If you don’t believe me, try reading more about the differences at Jews Against Zionism.

Ottawa Light Rapid Taxpit … errr … I mean Transit

Mulder

A couple of weeks ago, I was down in San Jose for a couple of days for work and I managed to snap a couple of cell phone photos of the LRT system used. This is similar to the system that is planned for the city of Ottawa. It is based on electricity with train like street cars that get their juice from the overhanging wires. Like we had last century.
Let’s take a look at the San Jose LRT and see what we can expect from our system.

San Jose LRT 1

Notice the overhead wires?? How lovely for our city to have such nice wires strung across our view of the lovely blue sky.

Can’t see them? Look at the picture below. They are much nicer. Think of how many kites our city will be able to catch and resell at a profit!!
San Jose LRT 3

See how they contrast so nicely on the blue? It will give our eyes something joyful to focus on. Who would want to stare at that lovely blue sky all by its’ lonesome anyway.

Oh, and in case you just can’t get enough, check out this lovely rat’s nest that happens where routes split. We will have lots of these as spurs as the system grows. It’s such a nice pattern. It reminds me of a spider’s web. And our green environmentalista ridership will appreciate the natural artistry of a spiders web won’t they!! And if they can’t appreciate that, they can appreciate the system not using diesel electric trains. Instead they will run on juice provided by the power grid that supplies our homes. We all know how reliable that system is. It means our city of Ottawa will not get those noxious diesel fumes. Instead. we can now slough it off on the area surrounding the coal fired power plants in some other part of the province. How nice of us to have clean air at someone elses expense. Mayor Bob was a genius with regards to this aspect of the plan.
San Jose LRT 2

Below is a picture of one of the stations for posterity. It looks pretty harmless. I also noticed that much of the LRT route in San Jose had lovely trees lining it to try to hide it from the view of the public. But lucky for us in Ottawa, those overhead wires will not have the foliage to hide them with our long winters. Oh joy, oh bliss!! We get to look at the spider’s web of wires!!

San Jose LRT 4

I hope my sarcasm came through in the above info. I am very thankful that Minister Baird is putting conditions on the federal funding for this money pit. The city has apparently overhestimated ridership.

Check this out. The route runs North South. The bulk of traffic is East West and our East West highway is packed during rush hour and the city decides to implement a “no idling” law for people who sit in cars that are not moving. The irony is astounding.

I, for one, am glad that Minister Baird is holding this LRT up for our new city council to decide on. The whole plan was shrouded in secrecy and I have a feeling that cost overruns are going to cost us all a hefty tax increase to compensate for the lack of ridership.

Premier McShifty Shows Two Faces Again

Mulder

In today’s Toronto Sun, Yellow Bellied McShifty is asking protesters expecting to be at the Caledonia rally this weekend to show up at Queen’s Park instead:

Premier Dalton McGuinty is encouraging the organizers of a controversial Caledonia rally to protest on the front lawn of Queen’s Park rather than on land occupied by Six Nations protesters.

McGuinty is concerned about public safety if this Sunday’s “March for Freedom” rally goes ahead as planned on the disputed land.

So let’s get this straight. When Natives want to protest the lack of response in the land claim settlement they can protest by taking the land in question hostage, destroying roads, burning bridges, beating up citizens and media, tossing cops around and they won’t have a problem with OPP harassing them or stopping them from breaking the law in order to protest.

But when the taxpaying citizens whose tax dollars have purchased the disputed land decide they want to protest at the same site, the Premier asks them to come to Queen’s Park and protest instead. I don’t remember hearing McShifty asking the Natives to come protest at Queen’s Park. Do You?

Liberal double standards at work again.

Hey Dalton….get stuffed.

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?