News Hound

Today's song is: Paint it Black .. Stones

Even before covid, I was a bit of a new's hound researching news around the world to keep myself informed.  It used to be that news anchors (think Walter Cronkite) reported the news and let the consumer decide what to make of it.

Today's anchors color the news with their own beliefs and their respective employers can be ranked on the political spectrum form left (liberal) to right (conservative). There is much talk on the media that the US has become a divided nation and I would argue that the media is much to blame.

I came across the following 2 charts that rank news media on their political biases. Five years ago I really liked CNN but not so much lately. Ditto for Fox News as it was the counter to CNN. I find both of them too far left and right respectively.  I now tend to watch US Today, the BBC, and CBS News (Cronkite's former employer). The reason being, they are more neutral in their opinion.

I believe that free speech is endangered as it is getting drummed out by universities and social media. If you dare say something that is politically incorrect, your life will be ruined. Universities, when they try to bring bring a speaker in that is not PC will find that the speaker is shut down by the protestors who do not that person's airs viewed or discussed intellectually.

People who have a high profile have lost their jobs through an ad hoc, off the cuff comment, off tape, but overheard. It seems our current PM Trudope is immune to this which perhaps shows how shallow these protestors can be when it comes to a pretty face.

History is now being rewritten by these protest groups and statues are being torn down and even Aunt Jemina is in the trash heap. The Boy Scouts are gone and the boy's hockey change room is no longer just for boys.

An interesting trend is for transgender (men to women) athletes being permitted to enter the female events and they are cleaning up at the expense of real females. It appears to me that the situation is out of control.

It is also not good to be white today as whites have white privilege and it is their fault. For quite a few years, white males have been denied jobs as society played catch up with quota systems for women and visible minorites in jobs, university admissions, etc. I am not saying this is a bad policy but you have to understand that the best person for the job may not get the job. Black people have argued for years thay they got overlooked by the color of their skin. Flipping that is not the answer.

Some people argue that education is the answer. I would argue that education is part of the problem. Educaion has become feminized. According to Stats Canada:

It appears that males are not really represented in education. Perhaps it is no wonder that many more males drop out of school and don't go on to college and university. One could argue if education is failing our youth then women are to blame as they are running the show.

The new Math curriculum in Ontario shows this influence. The last 10 years brought communication into the evaluation process in Mathematic. It was no longer good enough to get the right answer, but now you had to be able to explain to the whole class how you got that answer. 20% of your final mark was on communication. Now the province has added:

Social-emotional learning skills and mathematical processes

Social-emotional learning skills help students develop confidence, cope with challenges and think critically. This learning reflects current research and the government’s commitment to student well-being and skill-building to help students see themselves as capable and confident math learners.

Touchy feely stuff. I wonder where that came from.

In summary, the past, was far from perfect, but it was the past and is history. If we fail to learn from history, then history will tend to repeat itself. Removing history is not the answer. The answer is to discuss history in it's time and place and learn from it to apply what we have learned to this day and age.

Data plays a huge part in the process. Being objective and not subjective, and not jumping on the traditional media or social media band wagon is not the answer. It leads to a divided country and anarchy.

Anarchy - Wikipedia

Anarchy is the state of a society being freely constituted without authorities or a governing body. It may also refer to a society or group of people that totally rejects a set hierarchy.

TTYL

More of the Same

Today's song is: Kiss and Make up ... Dua and Black Pink

How You Like That .. Black Pink

Not too much in the way of posts these covid days as not much changes from day to day. canada is slowily opening up which is a good thing. Younger groups seem not too willing to isolate much longer.

My own observations is that traffic back on the road is normal, so Canadians are travelling, if not working. I still see signs all over the place advertsing for workers so I personally believe it is time to stop the handouts, especially for students who are the younger age group and seem not to be concerned with self isolating.

I am starting to visit family but they self isolate as do I so I believe it to be save.

No one in the rural area that I live in wear masks when visiting the food stores. In Canada it is the large cities, the old folk homes, and the returning snowbirds who mostly caught covid. The States are staring to experience a second wave of covid as they try to return to normal. It will be interesting if the Canadian government will let snowbirds flock south this coming winter.

We still eat too much and I also suspect we will see a rather large increase in the birth rate due to staying at home. Thavorn's older sister is already pregnant in Pangna, Thailand.

There is lots of programming for me to do as it is the school year end and reports to the Ministry of Education are due.  In one way, it is good, as it keeps me busy and engaged in a boring time period in my life.

TTYL

Cashiers

Today's song is: Dance Monkey ... Tones

It was time to get out and buy a few groceries and it was a busy friday afternoon heading into the weekend. The unusual thing I noticed is that of the 8 cashiers, 6 were young males of high school age. This was something new.  Could it be that the older, previous cashiers were laid off temporarily and the younger males hired to replace them.

That seems a win win for everyone but the Canadian tax payer. The older workers can collect the $2,000 CERB, the younger workers get a summer job, and the grocery store gets to save on salaries. Could it be? I guess I won't be sure until the CERB disappears and the older, previous workers show up again.

It appears that Trudope has figured out the CERB is a problem and is trying to extracate himself from and claw back the money that was fraudently claimed by some Canadians.  However, the grocery cashier scheme would pass muster and would be hard to go after.

There are signs all over the place advertising jobs that need filling.  The CERB is free money for sitting at home and doing nothing. A good gig if you can get away with it.

Not much else going on and I believe it is time to get back to business, albeit with proper social distancing and face masks. I finally get a tooth looked after with a dentist appointment at the end of the month.

TTYL

Games Room

Today's song is: The Times  .. They are a Changing Bruce not Bob

The games room is finally complete with the big screen install today.

I must admit that my pool game has not been stellar the past 2 days as Thavorn is 4 and 1 against me and she has played well.

I managed to get 6 local OTA (over the air) digital channels and that means free TV and local programming. Of course I have NetFlix, Amazon Prime Video, CBS ALL, and CBC Gems over the net so I have lots to watch. I still need to decide on a sports package but there are no sports, so no rush :-)

I have made contact with some former University football team members and we will have a zoom video this Friday. It should be fun to see how they have changed in 45 years.

TTYL

Yippie

Today's song is: We are the Champions ... Queen

Today was a banner day because it was June 1st and our pool table person could come and level and recover the pool table. All is good and the table plays well. The side rails are very lively and the pockets forgiving. I played my first house tournament against Jordan today and won 2 out of 3 so I am the Champion of the House ... at least for today.

Meanwhile, life goes on and we have more things to do in and around the house. Today the hot tub was wired up by the electrician so I suspect Jordan will be in it tomorrow.  It has been too cold to swim lately with  a high of 13 degrees today and 12 degrees yesterday. It is dropping down to 5 at night.  So much for global warming, covid rules.

I am busy at work writing a report engine and bringing the last two schoolboards uptodate with the latest version of our software whic is now in its 19th year of production.

Thavorn has been exercising twice a day now for the past two months and is in terrific shape.  I, not so good and need to lose about 10 pounds. Cheesies are my downfall.

TTYL

Trudope Doling out the Cash

Today's song is: We Reserve the Right ...  Kinky Friedman

Our current prime minister is Justin Trudeau, the son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau who used to hold the recodrd for the largest budget deficit but has lost that record to his son Trudope, the drama teacher.  The leftist elected him, primarily Toronto and I am hoping they will be happy paying for his largess with their future earnings.

Trudope's biggest blunder is the CERB $2,000 a month to anyone who answers 4 basic questions online. It is bascially supposed to help anyone who was laid off a job due to covid.  BTW, it is more than miniumum wage so I suppose all of those folks are in no rush to get back to their minimum wage jobs. It is better to hang out in a park socializing and having a few beer.

The recipents are supposed to be brought to account next year if indeed they are still working and income tax is being deducted at source. Time will tell.

However Trudope just anounced that he is going to give the CERB to non Canadians. The 2 categories are foreign workers brought in to work and our now out of work. I would have thought it better to buy them a plane ticket and send them home. I am sure they are tickled pink to get paid for doing diddly squat. Canada is indeed the land of milk and honey.

However, the biggest beef I have is that Trudope is giving the CERB to all foreign students whether they are in the country or not. They only need a Canadian bank account. I have worked in international schools where many of these stidents come from. In Canada, these students pay about $25,000 CDN in tuition. They come here because it is much cheaper than the US. They are far from poor. I have talked to them in the elevator of the building that I rented in Vancouver for $3,000 a month. They all seemed to be wearing Canada Goose (expensive) winter coats. I doubt it is much different in Toronto.  So, my question is, 'Why is Trudope giving my tax dollars away to non Cnadian students who certainly do not need it, and are probably back in China living with their parents during Uni break.

There are 40,000 foreign students enrolled in Canada. At 2,000 per student that is 80 million dollars a month.  That would buy a lot of PPE for front line workers as well as ventilators.

I just shopped at Home Depot and they along with many other stores are advertising help needed as they can't get anyone to work. I admire the folks working there rather than living off the CERB.

I can't help to think, that Trudope is hell bent on buying votes. One must remember that you have to be elected in parliament for 6 years to qualify for that golden pension!

Canadians will pay for this stupidity for many years to come. 80% of Canadian deaths are in senior citizen homes. Young people working as frontline workers are probably not going to die of covid and they are certainly not exposed to as much risk as the party crowd in Toronto this past Saturday.

History will judge Trudope by his record, not his performance on the cottage steps.

TTYL

Ground Hog Day

Today's song is:



It is really starting to feel like ground hog day. If you have not seen the movie, the lock down is probably a good time to watch it. Bill Murray is excellent.

Another great movie to watch at this time is 'Life as a House' which is available on Amazon, probably free with Prime.

Apart from movies and 'The Last Dance documentary about Michael Jordan there is not much to do. Today I ripped apart one of the Lego Technics cards we built and rebuilt it and it is now the fastest car by far. It is all about gears (and patience) and there is lots to learn.

I find I am knocking back about 5 coffees a day which is probably not good thing. Not that falling asleep is a problem, but wow, talk about dreams. My brain seems to have a life of its own these days during sleep.

We did a Costco run 2 days ago so we probably have enough food for the next 3 weeks. I am awaiting a warm (20+) day to wash my car which should be the highlight of my day. It would appear some early bugs reached their demise on the front of my car at 100+ kph. It is hard to feel sorry for a bug.

It is still falling below zero degrees and night and seldom breaking 10 degrees. It appears someone forgot to tell Mother nature it is mid May. Bad year to spend money on a motorcycle but I suspect there may be some deals arriving.

TTYL