Whew...its almost over. Big rumour is that Neil Young will play the closing ceremony. That is probably to get people like me, to whom Neil is one of the great Lords of the Axe, to watch. Fat chance. Im going to be watching "The Pining" tonight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubbz41zQR6s

There was a rumour that Feist was coming to Hillside Inside, these things always dropped to get people to come (and they do) but she never showed. I wasnt at that one either. I was more excited when Feist breezed by me at Hillside Outside and flashed a big smile at this somewhat shlubby electrician...                ~sigh

My friend Stretch summed it up best for the Olympic closing ceremony..."maybe a hologram of Terry Fox will exchange a fist bump with a hologram of John Lennon"

Imagine!

The true legacy will play out in time.  Shiny gold medals are a great distraction from the prorogue and killing Afghan kids:

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=ce5e24b3-61f7-467d-9111-771cc90d6f1e

Went to my first third step grievence meeting - wow what a cliche that was! Since it was my first encounter with them I guess "Labour Relations" as they are called now had the presence of mind to Google me and find some stuff out, the best reveal being my life story in Our Times...thanks Derek!

Funny enough I tried the same with them as that's life these days - and I couldnt find ANYTHING. Not even a pick up hockey team list or wedding announcement, nothing! Now that was scary. The best part was when they started spouting all of the things that they read on google as if they had the goods on me - oh boy, Im really scared now - got that Chris? Tremble like an aspen. HA!

They didnt ask me about my time as a cameraman for CNN or as president of the Pez company. Now that would have been truly hilarious.  Wait until they find out what my alter ego has been up to...

     That title will only mean anything to Canadians of a certain vintage. So, trying to be green and supporting our railway system can be a trying experience - two hour delay on the train on the way here (Ottawa) because freights and passenger traffic share the same rails and freight takes priority every time.  The heater is going full bore on this one, everyone is half naked (whoo hoo!) even though it is minus 5 C outside. The only other thing puzzling me is that why are there no assigned seats? I am seated in 9A but it was a free for all - everyone piled on to this car until the seats ran out then they had to trail into the next car etc etc down the line and now we are late! You'd think we'd have figured that out by now...... if you have 7 minutes watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfM_cqOLnE8

Living on stew and drinking bad whiskey dammit!  ps - he's not dead yet

(bonus the internet is free - makes up for all the little things...)

   The rails built this country in popular myth but they have been left to twist in the wind - the  fact the train is sold out should be indicative of something...I'll put money on it too that the so called "first class" car is half empty. They get to pay extra to be delayed 2 hours. This could be my whinest rambliest post ever but Ive spent the past 3 days as a union delegate so Im tired,  ever so slightly hung over and wingey. I will say one thing...the Scone Witches Rule!

http://www.yelp.ca/biz/the-scone-witch-ottawa

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm clotted cream!

..and there are other incidents mentioned in this article

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/767935--worker-plunges-to-his-death

nothing learned two months after the last scaffold incident. Another swingstage, more balcony work, another dead worker.

By all accounts this guy was wearing a harness but if it isnt attached to anything, it isnt worth a shit.

Another incident in Kitchener (closer to us, not Toronto) was a friend of a co-worker; brother electrician but not electrocuted:

http://news.therecord.com/article/671558

"There's never a dollar of all your wealth but marks the workers dead"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1251006/MARTIN-SAMUEL-Canadas-lust-glory-blame-senseless-tragedy-Nodar-Kumaritashvili.html

This was a bit harsh but it pretty much sums it up:

"...Canada wanted to Own The Podium at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. This morning they can put their maple leaf stamp on something more instantly tangible: the nondescript little box carrying the lifeless body of Nodar Kumaritashvili back to his home in Bakuriani, Georgia.

Made in Canada, it should say. Made by the perversion of the Olympic movement for national gain; made by a culture of worthless aggrandisement and pride."

I thought it was just me thinking these things and I'm (mostly) Canadian!

Oh and  our first gold on the soil winner made a stop at McDonalds as they helped bankroll him, the 74 million pounds that Samuel is talking about...the medal is getting commerative stamps and coins. NOTE: not the athlete, the medal. You have to be dead for a while or the Queen to have that honour. THE MEDAL. They must have had the presses primed and ready - but it's not a political thing, no not politics at all even though the mint and Post Office are controlled by the state

-for now....

Who will be getting the movie made about them when these Olympics are through? My favourite has to be the 1996 made for TV "Golden Will - The Silken Laumann Story". No golds at the Olympics but her spirit was golden.  I have been passively listening to the commentary by the CTV talking heads - the worst so far being their intro of the Georgian team coming in to the stadium for the (botched) torch lighting

something like "well its been a great tragedy but the Olympic Spirit will carry them through..."

and the Star says this morning that the lower start on the luge track will "hurt the Canadians"

Mogul woman from the US has a "habit of choking" and then she proceeds to clean everyones clock and beat out the Canuck for the GOLD. But her dreams were golden

man, we are petty little Olympian dweebs! Sorry world, we haven't growed up yet (polite and apologetic though)

http://www.archive.org/details/EasierWa1946

I stumbled on an archive of great old training movies. This is a General Motors production that talks about how time and motion studies will make everyone more productive.  One hell of a dinner party and a reminder of how much I miss smoking...woe to the poor wives of 1946!

Also in the archive "Duck And Cover!"

http://www.archive.org/details/DuckandC1951

Regarding the tumbling torchbearer:

http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/594745

last line:" On Dec. 28, a group of protesters ran into security personnel surrounding a torchbearer during the relay through Guelph’s downtown. Cortney Hansen, who was carrying the torch, fell as a result."

I think if she really was tripped by the protesters, they would have had some great footage. Every inch of this ridiculous run has been covered ad nauseum by CTV. They show a reel of runners EVERY NIGHT.

Somewhere there is film. Buried.

In the meantime here is a crystal clear shot moments before:

Note where the legs of the security are...and the torchbearer's legs.  This is the last I will speak of it.

Love the tone of this one:

http://www.guelphtribune.ca/news/article/201963

Titled: "Unions nix pay plan, service cuts due"

Yup, you read it right It's the city worker's unions fault that the services are getting cut. It just so happens that the amount they are attempting to save is almost the exact amount that our city has spent acquiring property to build the new mega library see:

http://www.unionbook.org/pg/blog/labourshow/read/19937/family-thrift-store-the-long-lost-article

The building is empty and the heat is off - its been almost a year now and it may sit for at least another five! A functioning popular business in the downtown was kicked out by the landlord and the new landlord is the city.  Left to rot like downtown Brantford.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/759021--in-brantford-heritage-treasures-or-hopeless-hovels

The Tribune is our flyer wrapper free paper and the city is one of it's largest advertisers. Many read it,  others not,  but every home gets a copy and most will parse the headline not hearing the full story. Enter the Angry Red Bloggers!

Short version is the city workers backed most of the members of the current council in the last election who are now imposing this new deal on them. Screw your collective agreement folks, you're getting furlough days whether you want them or not. Its for the best. The people love it when we spoiled public service brats get shat on. Beat on the brat the Ramones said. Oh yeah!

They are calling them "Karen Days" after the mayor:

http://news.guelphmercury.com/article/594564

But the events in our teeny tiny town have got nothing on Glasgow these days:

http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/SSP-Trade-Unionists/labours-war-against-public-services.html

How do they keep calling themselves the Labour Party? How is our council Progressive?

Maybe its time to take a run at it in October...

Another boneheaded Republican Reform a Tory move:

http://www.cepal.ca/?p=695

And the habit of stacking EVERYTHING with whackjobbery:

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/759582--harper-s-new-grim-consensus

An exerpt from this:

"...In a phrase used four years ago by Michael Van Pelt, one of Harper's new appointments to Rights and Democracy, the agency is part of the older "pan-Canadian consensus" that the present government wants to change.

Writing in the magazine Policy Options, Van Pelt (who heads the evangelical Christian think-tank Cardus) and associate Ray Penning argued that this old, small-l liberal consensus – which both Liberals and Tories ascribed to for years and which emphasizes "an aggressive rights-based polity that identifies with tolerance" – is ending."

I would say "has ended" actually.  We have been blessed with the worst kind of idealogues. Granted there are many on the left too but COME ON! The Tories are the only party that could make an "earth is only 6000 years old" believing dropout the President of the Treasury board. But he is handsome though. Wow I feel confident! You betcha!

http://www.stockwellday.com/EN/stockwell_day/

Stockwell is " identified as one of Canada's leading voices in advocating democratic reform, and presently serves as Vice Chair of the International Democrat Union. "

Truth about that gang here:

http://www.idu.org/history.aspx

Margaret Thatcher as Champion of Democracy?! I threw up a little bit in my mouth writing that.

Now...there are stellar dropouts and fantastic Christian people. You know who you are. Hearts.

Please run for office if only to proove that the current regime does not represent you. Back somebody that isnt a balloon.

Folks, they have to go. I have accepted the fact that our riding will be Liberal and Im only just okay with that because it isnt the Tory and I also accept that the electoral system is damaged goods.

So do what you have to - the coalition wasn't so bad an idea, was it? Is that not how we got Universal Health Care? A national pension plan? The Tory wags keep calling it the attempt to "seize control", as if Castro was backing it.

30% + 10.5% + 17.5% = 58% (of seats) is a D on an exam but a true majority nonetheless. Add in the Green vote and I believe its a "C".

37.65% is a failure in anybody's book.