Guest Column

Wrong Date, Maybe

A local newspaper ("The Australian", March 31) had an article headline I never thought I would or should see "Who do you believe, the President or the porn star?" Surely this would be more appropriate the next day - April 1.

Children, listen up. Do you know the meaning of hypocrisy?

Children, listen up. Do you know the meaning of hypocrisy? It means insincere or hollow. Your "March for Our Lives" was your cry for school safety, or at least I thought so. You think the 2nd amendment is a bad law, You want restriction placed on the right to bear arms. You feel that would keep you safe. Here's the hypocrisy part, if you were truly concerned about your own safety, you would welcome a rule requiring clear backpacks. But you don't like that rule, do you? It infringes on your constitutional rights, you say. Critical thinking is necessary to understand that constitutional rights belong to everyone, not just you. I think some serious civics education is in order. We, as Americans have rights. This is a free country. As long as people can move about freely and are not (hypothetically) subject to undue government interference or restriction, there could be danger. But, taking away freedoms is a slippery slope. And, the fact of the matter is that the Constitution reads like this: Amendment IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. That means they can't search your backpack without a reason. It does not say that the school can not require clear backpacks or ban backpacks all together. And, it doesn't say that school can't have rules. They have lots of them and we should be glad they do.

Switched off

Julian Assange has had his Internet access cut off and the world knows about it, although obviously not from him. He has made the use of the Internet his tool or weapon to spread information that others don't want spread and this has made him a number of enemies but seemingly few friends. With the spread of so much fake news there is a need to spread real news even if it is confronting, although there have been concerns that he may have endangered a number of people as well.

Small Business Reaction to 2018 Ontario Budget

TORONTO – The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is disappointed that the provincial government missed another opportunity to directly offset the rising payroll costs for small business as a result of the recent minimum wage hike and labour reforms. Instead, the province has decided to embark on a pre-election spending spree, abandoning any spending restraint and fiscal discipline.

Dough lost in translation

A recent discussion with a friend from the Bakery industry reminded me of the line from the classic British comedy 'Fawlty Towers' - He's from Barcelona!

State, local income taxes, property taxes and sales tax all hit record highs in 2017

State, local income taxes, property taxes and sales tax all hit record highs in 2017. It is easy to understand why. More people are employed, businesses are growing, new homes are being built, and people are spending money. Yet even with all this, governments want more. They have an insatiable appetite for money, our money. There is never enough. They build facilities which need maintenance. They permit housing developments without the infrastructure to support them. They give tax breaks to encourage more development which then saps services. They run buses with no passengers and buy fleets of higher-priced vehicles. The ways to cut spending are numerous and obvious. As voters and citizens, we must not be fooled by the emotional pleas. Take a good look at budgets, both income and expenses. I bet you'll find, historically, government will spend whatever it takes in and ask for more - more school taxes, more local sales taxes, higher property taxes. Well, guess what? This economy has given them all of those just by being vital. And when the next downswing happens (and it will), there won't be a penny saved and they'll be crying for more.

Bill 71

Mr Goodale, if you wish the general law abiding Canadian citizen not to be in possession of firearms for what ever reason you, your party or the United Nations can come up with, why then don’t you just come and take them ? You have the entire Armed Forces and RCMP not to mention the Ex-Officio (armed) departments of this great country at your disposal, so why not use them? It would be quite decisive and at a much lower cost and a more or less complete disarmament of the honest citizenry. The liberals, etc, could then proceed with whatever nefarious plans you may have for ultimate control over the people of Canada. Are you afraid that we won’t like what you have planned for us? At this point, Mr Goodale I really do not believe you are a honest Canadian with the good of Canada and its people at heart. I believe you and the Liberal party are a huge lot of cowards bowing to the wishes of the UN. There is still time to correct this mistake, we were screwed once by the liberals but we will not be screwed twice. You will notice that I have not mentioned the PM in this letter because he is of no consequence just someone who was pushed to the head of the line to take the heat. The sad thing is he is too simple to realize it. I feel sorry for Sophie and the children. Please sir, give us good reason to vote Liberal in the next election.

Disturbing that our children are being subjected to adult biases, in the guise of education

The story about the California school teacher who, back in January, told his class that that members of the U.S. military are the "lowest of the low" has finally been put on administrative . His remarks were inspired by a 17 year old boy wearing a Marines sweatshirt. There is so much wrong with this picture that we must question what took so long? In one statement he insulted the student, disparaged the military, and displayed distain for other members of the community. We appreciate our teachers but we expect them to keep their personal biases to themselves. I remember the worse argument I ever had was with a teacher who said, "Doers are not thinkers and thinkers are not doers". I was insulted for my blue collar family members who could also wipe up college graduates at Trivial Pursuit. I was defensive of my grandmother who was one of the most thoughtful and well read people I knew but who also was a hard worker. It was, as was the incident in California, an elitist self important attitude by a teacher. I have never forgotten it. Frankly, I find it disturbing that our children are being subjected to adult biases, in the guise of education.

The Senate proposal to ease some of the Dodd-Frank rules will help stimulate the housing market,

The Dodd-Frank Banking Law was designed and enacted after the 2008 boom and bust of the housing market. It was created to protect the public from continued taxpayer bailouts of failed banks. It greatly tightened regulations on the banking industry. All the current hoopla about loosening those regulations overlooks a critical point, that under Bill Clinton, banks were forced to make bad loans.

It might be easier to believe some news stories if the hypocrisy wasn't so blatant.

It might be easier to believe some news stories if the hypocrisy wasn't so blatant. Have you seen pictures of Al Gore's 9 million dollar mansion which is reported to use nearly $3,000 worth of energy a month? Kind of hard to listen to him tell us to reduce our carbon footprint. Or how about Bernie Sanders showing up at an anti-gun event while being escorted by armed guards?

Facebook faces a drop in it's book value

The drop in stock market prices is now being attributed to Facebook's value or lack of value. Why is my retirement fund taking a drop because of facebook which is designed to keep you in contact with people you don't know or don't want to and show you ads for products you didn't know you needed? There should not have been a surprise that a company such as Data firm Cambridge Analytica was a user of Facebook that collected, collated and considered and potentially corrupted the political system. It 's time to face the truth and turn Facebook off so that we can live our own lives and not an online one.

The breaking news that Vladimir Putin has won the election - again - should not surprise anyone or really be a news item

The breaking news that Vladimir Putin has won the election - again - should not surprise anyone or really be a news item. He has used a number of effective strategies that are not available to most politicians including jailing your opponents although declaring them ineligible does seem to occur in a number of countries. For true leadership to occur it must be with the support of the people and not with rigged election - a number of African countries, not with a family tree - North Korea nor appealing to mainly the disenfranchised - the USA. If readers have the time, they could count on their fingers the number of countries that have leaders that are freely elected with the support of the masses and that are making their county better. Don't worry - you won't run out of fingers.

Einstein’s long career filled with the pithy quotes of a skeptic!

PRINCETON, New Jersey — Albert Einstein would almost certainly have been a global warming skeptic if he were alive today. Many distinguished, contemporary scientists are skeptics too.

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was a great scientific that helped in our understanding of the Universe even if most people couldn't understand his work. He was also a very successful author. His work included Black Holes which may be symbolic as he did not wallow in a personal black hole when he became ill but rather fought it and showed that handicaps do not stop you. His humor and wit was shown through his cameos on Big Bang Theory. A piece of trivia - he was the only person to appear on Star Trek as themselves. A great role model for all.

Twisted Twitter

Wikipedia gives 'Bushism' as linguistic errors in the public speaking of former George W. Bush and I wonder if there will be a 'Trumpism' in due time as I heard a similar error on the radio concerning President Trump. The announcer misread 'a Trump from President Twitter' even though there may be some truth in this expression as he has appeared to pull a 'Trump' card from his pack with accepting the proposed talks with North Korea and announced it on Twitter. Some in the media have suggested that the President overuses Twitter as an 'official' means of communication and that not all of the tweets have met with approval. What we need is clear communication of a clear message.

Freeing the accused?

There has been concern when Malka Leifer, a Melbourne principal accused of child abuse was released from custody to home arrest on the word of a Religious leader. Putting aside the question of guilt or innocence till it is resolved in court it is still important that she face court. The issue in this case is that she left Australia 10 years ago when she was to face trial and has avoided court for the 10 years on various medical issues, and the worry is that she will still avoid facing her accusers. With the number of events that have come to light recently it is important that no accused escapes their trial and that they have an opportunity to prove their innocence or face the consequences of their actions.

There is no reason to encourage or facilitate illegal workers

On the subject of immigration, I feel like we are having a ridiculous argument. For example, there are jobs that we need immigrants to fill. But they do not have to be illegal. They can come in on work visas, be tracked, and go home when the work is done or their visa expires. This allows the work to be done, it keeps prices in the moderate range and it allows for keeping or bringing back jobs to our shores. All the systems are in place. There is no reason to encourage or facilitate illegal workers. The same basic premise works on the subject of securing our borders. Doing so does not make us anti-immigration, it makes us pro-national security. We welcome those who enter through our lawful channels, if those channels are not adequate, revise them. Finally, on the rights of illegals. They have the rights to humane, fair treatment as we would hope all human beings enjoy. They do not have the right to our welfare, education, or vote. Those are things afforded to citizens. Otherwise we are not a country. None of these are difficult concepts nor are they illogical.

Gun Debate

A logical solution to the gun debate would be this: Put desired outcomes into the bill along with an expiration date. If the desired outcomes are not met ie: 50% (or 25%) reduction in gun deaths, the bill would sunset and we would go back to business as usual. That is the only way to satisfy both sides and to determine who is right on the issue. The time needs to be long enough to actually gather statistics and those statistics should be adjusted to reflect other influences such as changes in school security, reduction of gang members and the like. Further, the study should be done by an impartial 3rd party, not the government.

Let it go?

Do we 'Count our cents and the dollars will take care of themselves' - take care of the small stuff or as in the song 'Let it go' - only worry about the big stuff? A trivial, petty incident provoked thought on the matter - 'that' hamburger joint had run out of 5 cent coins so they couldn't give me all my change and seemed initially surprised and then annoyed that I actually wanted my change. The coin was irrelevant but I thought if it was their fault then they should be the ones 'short changed'. As I waited there quietly at the front of the quickly building queue they found the needed coin.

Hopeful lies or Hope full of lies

It was once 'lies, dammed lies and statistics' when it should be 'the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth' but this was before the time of fake news. It is sad to see that the retiring White House communications director, Hope Hicks has admitted thst she was at times required to tell white lies. There are no such things as lies of any color - a lie is a lie. There may be times when answers cannot be supplied for a number of reasons but this should be stated. The Pinocchios in government must have trouble keeping themselves balanced with the length of their extended wooden noses.