Sheila Copps - Multicult-tourist.

For those who reside outside our fair country you no doubt have a politician like our own Sheila Copps. Sheila represents her hometown of Hamilton a working class steel city a stones throw from Toronto. Once the home of high ranking Canadian mobsters like Johnny Papalia and known for being a grimy dirty city Hamilton has tried mightily to shed its image of late and has met with some success.

Sheila who is the daughter of a well-known local politician is known for being loud, brash and aggressive. She's a lot like those middle aged real estate agents who have terrible fashion sense and too much money - in a word annoying.

Copps promised to resign a few years ago if her party reneged on a promise to scrap the GST ( a form of VAT tax). When she backed off media outlets pressured her and she resigned her seat only to run immediately in the by-election (which she won handily).

Of late her star appears to be waning. Once the deputy Prime Minister she now presides over a vast sinkhole known as the "Heritage Ministry" one of those feel good ministries that no one seems to know what purpose it serves other than to give jobs to windy old gasbags like Ms. Copps.

Now word comes to us (via Neale News) that Copps managed to offend the Muslim community in her riding by barging into a local Mosque and demanding to be allowed to make a speech despite the fact that prayers were ongoing. She then held court in the parking lot and conveniently mentioned that her opponent for the Liberal leadership had some prominent Jewish backers.

Its hard to put into words what one should feel. Obviously Copps blatant attempt to play the race card is despicable. Especially since she seemed to be counting on a wave of anti-Semitism sweeping the Muslim vote her way.

The problem is this isn't new behaviour for Copps or her party. The Liberals have long played race themes to the hilt screaming accusations of racism at other parties while bribing various ethnic groups for their support. One of their oldest tricks is to remind immigrants that only the Liberal party is a friend to immigrants and if it wasn't for the Great White Father - Pierre Trudeau no immigrants would be allowed in Canada.

The funny thing about Copps behaviour is that she had no chance of beating her opponent (Paul Martin) in the race. This is something she was well aware of yet she went ahead and made her ridiculous comments anyway. You can't help but feeling that Copps is losing whatever marbles she has left.

I guess the shame of it all is that Copps is one of the few high profile women politicians in Canada. Because of this she will probably get a free pass on this one. The story is only coming out now - long after the leadership has been settled.

One can only hope that Copps will soon fade into obscurity like that other Liberal wingnut Hedy Fry (who once claimed with a straight face that the KKK was burning crosses in British Columbia). Better yet Copps should defect from the Liberal party and join the NDP which is much better suited to her lunatic ideals.

Full story here.

Guns don't kill people - Doctors do.


Here's a fascinating tidbit that you might want to pull out of a hat the next time someone is nattering on about how many people are killed by guns or the body count in Iraq or whatever.

"Somewhere between 44,000 to 98,000 people die in hospitals each year from medical errors, according to the Institute of Medicine, At the low end of the estimate, errors would be the ninth leading cause of death in the U.S. At the high end, they'd be sixth."
Kinda makes ya think doesn't it?

Source: Fortune.com - Tech At Work - IT Takes On the ER (Results May Vary)

Give Thanks

Lots of thanksgiving posting happening south of the border. This one struck a real chord with me.

Damn!! No Webcam???


Practical Penumbra who blogs braless:

I am a lingerie junkie. Silk, satin, cotton, flannel--name a fabric, I have half a dozen nightgowns made from it. In winter I layer them--a long sleeved flannel gown over a thin satin-and-lace one. I have several drawers full of panties, chemises and teddies. And I have probably two dozen bras--not one of which is comfortable to wear.


I am a lingerie junkie as well. Except my wife gets to wear it. Personally none of it looks comfortable to me. High heel shoes? Ouch. Thongs? Man I would have to continually rearrange that thing. Stockings: I can't even wear long underwear unless it is really really cold, the itching just drives me crazy.

Elaine Benis on Seinfeld once commented on the male appendage by saying "I don't know how you guys walk around with those things" (or something to that effect) As for women's clothing in general I feel the same way, I don't know how you gals can wear that stuff. I'm thankful that you do but boy it looks hard.

And yet some women seem to enjoy wearing it.

I once knew a tall woman who was so glad when she found a man who was taller than her because "now I can wear high heel shoes" I am still scratching my head over that one (although she looked great in high heels).


As for bras - I read some where that most women wear the wrong size. Maybe that's the problem.

Its Funny Because Its True!!

Rocket Jones comes up with a New Ad Campaign from NORML

"15) Got Buzz?
14) Pot: When you care Enough Not to Care At All.
13) A Day Without Pot is like School
12) Weed My Lips!
11) Hemp: the World's Practical Solution to making, like, paper and rope and necklaces and stuff.
10) It's Not Just For Glaucoma anymore!
9) Help eradicate Road Rage in our Lifetime
8) Official Sponsor of the NBA
7) Because the waste is a terrible thing to min....Dude! I totally fucked that up!!
6) When Was the Last Time You REALLY looked at your hand.
5) SMOKE POT! ( Did We Just Say That Out Loud? Or Did We Just Think It?)
4) Recommended by 5 out of 5 deadheads
3) Just Doob It
2) It's the all-the-time smokey, skunky, sticky, greeny, seedy, stemmy, doobie so-you-can-get-high medicine.

And the Number 1 Slogan for Legalized Marijuana.....

1) Skull shaped bong: $12.00, Primo Maui-Grown Bud: $100, Watching Teletubbies with your Buddies: PRICELESS"


I used to get ripped with a friend of mine in college and we used to watch Coronation Street. If the buzz was just right you couldn't understand a word they were saying. Man that was funny.

Shopping in Suburbia

Moving out of Toronto to a more rural surrounding has for the most part eliminated a lot of shopping options. Gone are the days when we could take the dogs down to Queen Street East in the Beaches and meander through the various shops whilst sipping a Starbucks latte.

Now if we want to shop we have to drive, (although nothing is really that far and traffic is light) we don't have a main street to browse but we do have an IKEA fairly close, lots of Canadian Tire Stores, a Home Depot and that symbol of suburbia: COSTCO

I was looking forward to having one so close to me because I am a real bargain hunter and if you are a bargain hunter Costco (or at least the theory behind it) is like a Holy Grail. Here you can by supersize portions of consumables for wholesale style prices you save money and if you have room to store the stuff you don't have to shop so often.

I remember when Price Club ( now owned by Costco) one of the pioneers of the concept opened a store in Vaughan (just north of Toronto) a friend of mine was eligible for a membership so he went and signed up and I got an associate membership through him. I didn't have a vehicle so I only could go when he was going but I certainly got my moneys worth from the membership.

13 years later and I entered a Costco store again for the first time, bought a membership ( 50.00) and went shopping.

My first impressions were as follows:
1 Costco still is an ugly store. The warehouse concept is not meant to be pretty - that's ok they pass the savings on to you.
2 Costco is still crowded all the time. I have been there in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week and the cash lines were still frantic.
3 It's hard not to buy something there - those ultra huge packages are so hypnotizing. You never know when you might need 100 lbs of nutmeg!!

After a tour around the store some interesting revelations became apparent.
1 Costco is a good place to go on the weekend if you want to eat. There are tons of free samples from pizza to seafood to cheese being given away - I like snacking!!
2 Costco is not as cheap as you might think. In fact you might not be getting the best bang for our buck if you shop there exclusively.

Let me expand on this. When I moved my sister who is a Costco devotee in Newfoundland told me to check the prices carefully because not all the stuff is as cheap as you think. Sure enough walking around the aisles I realized that some things were cheaper but some were not. In fact most Supermarkets are now very competitive price wise in a number of areas.

So I started thinking - why shop at Costco? Number one they charge you for the privilege of shopping there. So your savings first have to compensate for the 50.00 annual membership. Then the ambiance is fairly crappy, and you have to show your card to get in, at the cash and also you have to show your receipt when you leave - nothing like making the shopping experience easy for the customer!!!

So you would think that Costco is heading for a fall. Fortune Magazine doesn't seem to think so. In fact they have just written an article about Costco based on the fact that Costco is beating Wal-Mart handily in the "warehouse club" category. According to Fortune Costco's customers are richer and spend more than Sam's club customers.

Fortune feels that Costco customers continue to shop there because they get a combination of basics at low prices and luxury items as well. Sam's Club cannot attract those customers because they feel it is 'down market" at the same time Sam's customers don't want to buy brand name items like Polo even if they are cheaper than department store prices.

I find this somewhat hard to believe. For one thing the shopping experience at Costco is as miserable as it is as Wal-Mart. Crowded, noisy, and frustrating. And all the ID flashing and checking your receipt business doesn't make you feel great either.

In fact I would be wiling to bet that Club stores overall face a bleak future if they don’t improve a couple of things: Price and the shopping experience.

Not far from my local Costco is a Fortinos which is a large supermarket - part of the Loblaws chain. The store is bright cheerful and full of a stunning variety of foodstuffs. In addition they have a full-fledged pharmacy/drugstore and you can buy electronics there as well (DVD player 79.00).

Not only that the prices are competitive with warehouse stores if you want to buy larger items. So called "club packs" (which require no membership) are as cheap and in some cases cheaper than what you can find at Costco. The store is roomy, beautiful to look at and you don't have to fill out forms or show id badges. In short shopping experience is enjoyable - I find it quite relaxing.

Just up the road from Fortinos is another branch of the Loblaws chain called No Frills. A bare bones supermarket with mostly no name products No Frills prices are the lowest around. We go there to buy basics like milk, juice, tissue etc. The shopping exp isn't as pleasant as Fortinos but it is better than Costco.

So why shop at Costco? Well they do have some non-grocery related items like garage supplies and office equipment that are well priced. Also their return policy is supposedly quite good. But it's hard to believe that the warehouse club concept will last in its current form if they don't respond to competitive pressure and by that I don't mean Sam's Club vs. Costco. I mean the increasing reaction from other types of stores like supermarkets.

Mean time I will still shop there - but I don't know if I will renew my membership next year.

Tax Evasion

It's ok when left wing pressure groups do it. Or at least it is ignored when they do it. As Joel Mowbray reports.

Essential Reading

Watcher of Weasels points us to an excellent summary of Iraqi blogs of all stripes.

No matter if you support the US led regime change you have to admit one thing. There weren't ANY Iraqi blogs under Saddam Hussein (well at least not until the war started).

Now I am cooler than Kathy Shaidle!

Because I have comments on my blog. I always wanted to add them but thought I couldn't have them on Blogger. But then I saw an Iraqi blog with them and thought.

Wait a minute they were liberated like five minutes ago and now they have blogs with comments? And I am here in safe Canada like a sucker with no comments!!

So I have added comments via Holoscan it was so easy!!

Much easier than home renovations.

Now start commenting you pricks.

I think the most appropriate comment would be "What?!! No eropuri? What a rip!!!

Semantics

CBC news tonight on Dalton Maguinty's breaking of a key election promise "The Liberals are being ACCUSED (emphasis mine) of breaking a promise to cap electricty rates"

Accused eh? Makes it seem that there is some doubt to the story.

Ernie Eves (who let's face it was pretty spineless) was browbeaten into keeping electricity capped because seniors and welfare mothers would feeze in the winter.

Now the moral and intellectual giants at the Toronto Star and CBC are lauding Dalton's promise breaking because it will force people to conserve electricity.

Personally I beleive that prices should be allowed to float at market value because it will force people to understand that electricity is not free, it costs money to produce and people should look carefully at their energy use - if only to save money.

Meantime Dalton's promise breaking will continue unabated with little or no pressure from the media that were complicit in getting him elected.

None of his policies were every questioned with any rigour during the election campaign as the media was too interested in so called "American style attack ads" that the Tories used.

All I can say is "don't blame me, I voted for Kodos"

Monkey Linkage.

Communist Blogger Frank J. hates monkeys.

He also has a lot of readers. Do you think if I write a lot of entries about monkeys he will notice and link to me? Frank got most of his readers by getting links through Instapundit using similar methods.

Here are some monkey stories that might get Frank's attention

Chinese cops stop monkey business This story is about a monkey smuggling ring that was busted in China. I don't know if Frank will be for this or against this. On the one hand the monkeys aren't being imprisoned. On the other hand they aren't being imported as pets. I give up on this one.

Fredericksburg.com has a story that I think Frank J. will be very upset with. Apparently people have strange feelings about former president "Abraham Lincoln"


Frank would not like to live on Bukasa Island where Monkeys outnumber humans. But I think he would be happy with the solution.

Now here's a story that has Frank J all over it . It has monkeys and smelly hippies and all sorts of stuff. Activists declare war over new monkey lab. This is the money link - if this doesn't get his attention nothing will.


Monkey Diet? HAH!


Ok that's enough for now if you want to help just send Frank an email saying something like "OMIGOD I just discovered some important news about monkeys that you HAVE TO LINK TO IMMEDIATELY.

Heh heh heh. I am so brilliant.

Echoes.

Tim Blair reports on a phenomenon that occurs in his country as well as our own.

Read the piece and substitute Canada for Australia and you will find that it is eerily reminiscent of the tripe that idiots like Friends of Public Broadcasting shovel on us in this country.

Here's a thought. If your culture is so weak it needs government money to keep it alive, you don't have a culture.