Monthly Archives: January 2004

Poverty?  Right.

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More proof that throwing more money on a problem usually just makes a bigger bureaucracy.

By David Reid’s estimate, Canadian taxpayers spend between $6 billion and $10 billion a year, fighting child poverty.

He doesn’t think they’re getting their money’s worth.

Governments, as monopolies, are by nature inefficient.  That is human nature and cannot be changed.  Why not let parents keep more of the money they make and let them stay home and raise their own kids?  I can’t think of a better “social” program.

Sell yourself

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An amusing story making the rounds today is an online school teaching you how to sell yourself, well your fluids anyway.

Sell your body to science and live to enjoy the profit. The Body Bucks course is the fastest and easiest way to start earning money by selling your renewables and by participating in medical studies.

Small crack

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Things can hardly get worse in Zimbabwe, but it’s good see its dictator threw a tiny crumb to its media starved serfs.

Zimbabwe’s only independent daily newspaper hit the streets Thursday for the first time in nearly four months.

Now if they could only get some food…

The Good Wife’s Guide

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I just got this email today – it’s good for a (feminist to) laugh.

Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have be thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they get home and the prospect of a good meal is part of the warm welcome needed.

Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

Shock TV

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I do like Howard Stern (known for his honesty), but having him on prime time TV has just added one more show for parents to censor from their children.

Move over Barbara Walters, here comes Howard Stern.

ABC has just inked a deal with the shaggy-haired shock jock to do a prime-time interview special this spring, The Post has learned

Considering the things that they say and do on TV these days, his show will probably be fairly tame – or it will have to be extra raunchy to get the bigger ratings.

Bloody wolf

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I really do get tired of Canadian Blood Services constantly crying wolf. 

Hospital officials fear a medical crisis, natural disaster or a major car crash could dangerously deplete the blood supply across Greater Toronto.

Like all monopolies, they are never very innovative when it comes to getting blood.  Never once have I heard of an emergency clinic being set up anywhere near where the donors are.  The clinics that are set up are never open for enough hours.  Everyone in the clinics is paid – except the donors.  Why can’t they give $20 for the donors’ time?  If their blood is so valuable, why aren’t they compensated?  The clinic caravan comes around my area 4-5 times a year.  How about 12 times a year?  Whose convenience are the clinics for, anyway?  How about coming to my house to pick up the blood?  That way they’d have the added benefit of seeing just what kind of conditions the donor lives in – perhaps helping them verify the quality of the blood they are getting.

Hopefully the vampires have will give these ideas some thought – before the next crisis.

Back to the past

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There was a lot of things right about the 1950s – including this transportation plan.

The 1966 Official Plan called for a balanced transportation system of roads and transit. It included making the arterial road system continuous by filling in missing links and the construction of a grid system of expressways to take through traffic off local streets.

Wither the family unit

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The lawyers and the government are working away feverishly in the background redefining and minimizing the role of the family.

The postmodern creed du jour is Close Relationship Theory, according to which families are just one of many “close or primary relationship[s]”, an interchangeable and dispensable social construct rather than a universally embraced paradigm and the foundation stone of every civilization in history.

Got a name

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They need a name for the new ferry to Rochester.  I have one: The Boat to Nowhere.  I give this service less than a year to go belly up – and I have relatives over there.

What do these names have in common? They’re not likely to win the top prize in a contest to name the newest ferry to hit Toronto’s shores.

McAmazing

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Who says letting people get filthy rich doesn’t help the poor?  Not the Sally Ann, that’ for sure.

In one of the largest individual charitable gifts ever, the estate of McDonald’s heiress Joan B. Kroc is about to drop a one-time cash donation of $ 1.5 billion into the Salvation Army kettle, Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal reported.

Please don’t

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I don’t have a preference of the three Conservative Party candidates.  I do know that if Ms. Stronach portrays herself as a working mom that it won’t work.  Why do I hear the song hurry Nanny, don’t be late, sincerely, …

Stronach, 37, will be portrayed today as a busy “working mother” who can relate to less-affluent Canadians because she faces similar challenges juggling career and family, a source said.

“That’s what she is. She has a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old and she has to balance things like that off with Magna.”

I hate to say it, but more Canadians can relate to Chretien’s bumbling, guy next door act then they will be able to relate to hers, although we’ll have to wait and see.

Update: Jim Coyle agrees.

Youth Justice

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An interesting article on an alternate youth justice program, called PACT. The system seems to be run by a private businessman (someone outside our criminal justice business).

Still, to the 14-year-old girl awaiting her fate in Committee Room 1, it’s far better than the courthouse. The girl is here to answer to an assault charge, but in a process that will spare her a criminal record, guilty though she is.

I’m don’t know why a school yard scrap would even end up in the court system – in the old days, unless someone was really hurt, a talking to would be all that was required.  But these days…

Dr. Laura’s back

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Dr. Laura has a new book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands ($US orders), so she’s back in the news.  I have always liked Dr. Laura’s message, and her abrupt way of getting to the point with her otherwise clueless callers.  Dean pointed out a very good article on Dr. Laura, one that also really sums up my view of her as well.

She is no longer on Toronto radio – which is too bad – as I did used to listen to her now and then.  No matter what you think of her credentials, she does have a core message that rings true in most parents: you must sacrifice your own selfish thoughts, and do whatever it takes to keep your family unit in tact so your kids can grow up right.

She has a way of cutting right to that point with every caller with kids, and I appreciate it.  Most western governments facilitate broken families, I suppose only because there is such a demand for the service.  Since most have no church to back up their moral compass, most broken units look to the government to help them out, and out of their marriage as well.

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