Month: March 2021

Quote of the Day: “Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.” Thomas Sowell

O.K. – what’s up? Two op-eds by Jay Goldberg of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in just four days? One on last Saturday and now one today? I don’t mind – but… This article is about how the Ford government is expanding the way that the Ontario government funds political parties based on the number of votes they get – instead of letting ordinary people financially support the part they want. Great article, but…

Oh my – another column by News Media Canada and their hysterical, completely inaccurate position that somehow Google and Facebook are stealing news articles and columns from newspapers and publishing them wholesale on their news feeds. This time, it’s Jamie Irving who is spouting propaganda. Same old, same old. Just when is any TorStar newspaper going to have to guts to print an op-ed from someone who completely demolishes this nonsense once and for all? There have been plenty of rebuttals to the various op-eds from News Media Canada and their little pawns – so, why not publish just one point by point column that takes the other position? Cowards.

Quote of the Day: “Racism has never done this country any good, and it needs to be fought against, not put under new management for different groups.” Thomas Sowell

A good (but kinda sad) article today by Jeff Outhit regarding the grad rates for high school students in the Region. They fell in 2019 a percentage point to 84% from 85% in 2018. The rates are also below the overall Ontario rates of 87%. But I had a couple of questions after reading the article. First of all, he mentions the WRDSB (public) and the WCDSB (Catholic) rates of graduation, but does this also include all of the private schools in the area. I don’t believe it does. Why didn’t Outhit reach out the various schools and get their grad rates? I think that would be an interesting comparison. Also, why are we just now getting the rates for 2019? Shouldn’t these rates be available right after summer school and not 19 months later? If huge corporations can post their profit and loss statements to the world in a few weeks after each quarter, why does it take a school board over a year and a half to publish graduation rates? Silly.

I’m sure I’m not the only one sick of all of TheRecord reporters (like Josh Brown today) whining about working from home and not from their offices down on King Street East in Kitchener. Get a life…

Quote of the Day: “If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago and a racist today.” Thomas Sowell

Hey – here’s something totally new – both the Editorial and the Editorial Cartoon are criticizing Erin O’Toole. That’s something you don’t see everyday. (Just every other day…)

Good op-ed today by Jay Goldberg, interm director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Worth the two minute read.

Practically the only one or two people worth reading from the just awful Community Editorial Board is Simeon Kibaalya. I mentioned his CEB op-ed back in January. I like his writing. Today, he also has a good piece where he talks about volunteering and how this will help during and after we get through COVID-19. Good stuff. Oh course, he should have explained, instead of just stating, why “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer”, (think government forced lockdowns…) but still – I’ll take any good column that comes out of the CEB since they are a rarity this year…

I could write for days on why the op-ed by Henry Giroux is so wrong on so many issues, but why? The only thing I will say is that he writes a lot – but says almost nothing. Every one of his conjectures in his column today is not backed my one single reference, a single article, a single citation. Why? Because it appears, that for all of his assumptions, there is very little substance.

On Page A10 today, there is an article by the Canadian Press on how retailers are running our of sports shoes. And right beneath that article is an ad for a sale on sports shoes. Too funny…

I always read and look forward to the Books page on Saturdays. But I’m not exactly sure why TheRecord doesn’t have a regular reporter or columnist who is in charge of this section. Budgets,. I guess. Deirdre Baker (who teaches Kid’s Lit at UofT) writes the main section, while Rabia Kokchar (a teacher in Toronto) writes the Children’s section. Oh good, two academics writing about books. Baker tells us that “renowned journalist and activist…” (gee, in TorStar land, aren’t these the same thing???) Naomi Klein has written a book on how to fix stuff. Nice. (Hey – ever notice that left wing writers are “renowned” while right wing writers are always “controversial”?) O.K. Whatever… And Kokchar tells us about some kid’s book that “teaches about civic action”. Notice that it doesn’t teach civics – something that is totally lacking in today’s classrooms, just civic action. Oh boy. And “At the Library” today, we have Nancy Croth from the Harper Branch of the WPL who recommends a book about: “A closeted Syrian-American trans boy…” I stopped reading after that.

Quote of the Day: “The black family survived centuries of slavery and generations of Jim Crow, but it has disintegrated in the wake of the liberals’ expansion of the welfare state.” Thomas Sowell

Three interesting items in TheRecord today. First up on the Editorial Page is Fred Youngs, a former “journalist”. He talks about the proposed merger between Rogers and Shaw and suggests that “Small telecom operators may be Canada’s last hope for reducing wireless bills”. Ummm… no. Competition is basically the only avenue that will determine a fair market price. But since Canada restricts the type of company that can complete in the marketplace (NO FOREIGNERS!!!), then we will continue to have high prices. Not sure why former journalists can’t see that… Next up, we have, oh my… some second year UofW student named Michelle Angkasa who is “Standing up for Mother Earth” or something. She takes a half page to tell us almost nothing. Oh wait. She wants us to know that: “To mitigate the worst effects of climate change, the Region of Waterloo needs to increase its targets from a 30 percent CO2 reduction by 2030 to a 50 percent reduction.” Seriously, how does such nonsense make it past the Editors. And how does some silly second year university student actually get to spread this nonsense on half of the Insight (Huh?) Page? Blindingly stupid. And these are the leaders of tomorrow. My heart aches. My mind aches. My hope for the world aches. And lastly, we have on the very last page – B10, (wow, two sections today!!!), TheKit that asks a very interesting question: “Are my sneaker choices uncool?” I’m just kidding of course. I haven’t found anything interesting at all that these 30-somethings (or is it 40-somethings) pretending to be 20-somethings authors write about. Total waste of space.

Quote of the Day: “The word ‘racism’ is like ketchup. It can be put on practically anything – and demanding evidence makes you a ‘racist’.” Thomas Sowell

Last Thursday, both the Editorial Cartoon and the Editorial itself had some made up stuff about Erin O’Toole’s “problems”. On Friday, we had an article (actually, an op-ed disguised as an article) by the Canadian Press regarding the upcoming Conservative Convention this weekend and some whining about some resolution supporting LGBTQ rights didn’t make the cut or something. On Monday, the Editorial Cartoon pretended that General Hillier who Doug Ford hired to handle the Ontario COVID response was somehow walking away from the job – even though we all knew that he was leaving in March for other projects. The Cartoon has Ford with an IKEA set of instructions implying that the vaccine distribution system is a mess. Yesterday, both the Editorial Cartoon and the Editorial, again, had some issue with Erin O’Toole and reaching out to Canadians. Today, Luisa D’Amato is whining about the recent nomination of Carlene Hawley as the federal candidate for the Conservatives in Kitchener Conestoga because, umm… well, the area is growing or something. And on the Insight (Huh?) Page today, we have an op-ed titled: “Conservatives are in danger of becoming irrelevant”. Gee… Anyone besides me notice a pattern? Pathetic.

Quote of the Day: “I have never understood why it is “greed” to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.” Thomas Sowell

Christians, who strive to be more like Jesus Christ, must abide by a certain set of tenets, specifically those set out in the New Testament of the Bible. You just can’t pick and choose the ones you like and disregard the rest. Catholic Christians rely on what Pope Francis says (and Biblical lessons) for their faith teachings. Again, you just can’t pick and choose the ones you like and disregard the rest. For example, homosexuality is mentioned (I believe) only seven times in the Bible – and each time it is condemned. Paul in his letter to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 states that idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. Again, you just can’t pick and choose some passage from the New Testament and ignore the rest. On the Insight (Huh?) Page today, Joan Grundy, a retired Catholic School Vice-Principal pens a letter to “Catholic LGBTQ+ youth” where is states that because “We are all created in the image of God” therefore God loves you and does not reject who you are. So, since she chose the homosexual lifestyle, everything is O.K. because God loves her. In an email from TheRecord promoting this op-ed, the email states that “This piece, written to assure young LGBTQ Catholics of their innate worth, may bring you to tears.” It did, but I don’t think in the way TheRecord thinks it would.

Quote of the Day: “Economics is a study of cause-and-effect relationships in an economy. It’s purpose is to discern the consequences of various ways of allocating resources which have alternative uses. It has nothing to say about philosophy or values, anymore than it has to say about music or literature.” Thomas Sowell

A half page today on the Insight (Huh?) Page by Donalee McIntyre from the just terrible Community Editorial Board to tell us about her friend who is a farmer where her “work and journey are connected to the histories and futures of Black people globally who contribute to the agricultural sector”. Seriously – a half page on the Insight (Huh?) Page for this.

And because of McIntyre’s CEB nonsense today, a rather serious article on COVID-19 and what this has done to women in the workplace was shoved off to the last page in Section A. Bailey Greenspon and Nia Brown, in an op-ed they talk about a “she-cession”, (cute), and how it’s disproportionately effect on women in Canada. But, as always with op-eds, data and statistics are cherry-picked to prove a point. They claim that “according to the Canadian Women’s Foundation… women accounted for 63 percent of the one million jobs lost as of March 2020.” Now, I’m not sure why the authors would repeat a stat from this organization when they can simply go (and cite) a StatsCan report on this very topic. If you go to StatsCan here: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action table 14-10-0287-03 gives you a very nice customizable page that you can use to grab monthly unemployment and participation rates by province and sex. Comparing February 2020 and February 2021, we get an entirely different picture than what the authors are trying to paint. Here is a table I pulled from the site that shows exactly the employment numbers. Notice that in February 2020, the unemployment rate for women was 5.4% while the men’s rate was 5.9% – something they forgot to mention. Now, notice that the percentage of full time employment for men and women are also different. Full time men’s jobs dropped by 2.6 percent between the two periods while women’s full time employment rate only dropped by 1.6 percent. Another glaring stat that they forgot to publish. Of course, the huge difference is the drop in part time employment – women’s rate is down a whopping 10.3 while men’s rate in (only!) -7.4 percent. So, out of the 630,000 jobs that were lost, almost 40 percent that were lost are part time – again, something that the authors forgot to tell us. Gee, I wonder why???

SEX	TYPE	FEB20	FEB21	DIFF	%
M+F	Total	19,130.3	18,531.2	-599.1	-3.1
M+F	Full-time	15,555.5	15,220.5	-335.0	-2.2
M+F	Part-time	3,574.8	3,310.7	-264.1	-7.4
M+F	Unemployment Rate	5.7	8.2	+2.5
M+F	Participation Rate	65.5	64.7	-0.8
M	Total	10,047.8	9,797.6	250.2	-2.5
M	Full-time	8,787.8	8,563.1	-224.7	-2.6
M	Part-time	1,260.0	1,234.5	-25.5	-2.0
M	Unemployment Rate	5.9	8.2	+2.3
M	Participation Rate	69.9	69.2	-0.7
F	Total	9,082.5	8,733.6	-348.9	-3.8
F	Full-time	6,767.7	6,657.4	-110.3	-1.6
F	Part-time	2,314.8	2,076.2	-238.6	-10.3
F	Unemployment Rate	5.4	8.3	+2.9
F	Participation Rate	61.3	60.3	-1.0

Jasmine Mangalaseril reviews the Red House Restaurant in Waterloo today – I’ve always loved this place. Good review.

Quote of the Day: “No government of the left has done as much for the poor as capitalism has. Even when it comes to the redistribution of income, the left talks the talk but the free market walks the walk. What do the poor most need? They need to stop being poor. And how can that be done, on a mass scale, except by an economy that creates vastly more wealth? Yet the political left has long had a remarkable lack of interest in how wealth is created. As far as they are concerned, wealth exists somehow and the only interesting question is how to redistribute it.” Thomas Sowell

A rather long quote from Dr. Sowell today – but something that I think is about as close to the truth as you will ever read.

When Luisa D’Amato is wrong, she is really wrong. Just look at any of her columns regarding Wilmot Mayor Les Armstrong, or my favourite column on 11 September 2020. But when she is right, she is really right. Today is one of those days. She fills in some details about the article by Gordon Paul that I mentioned yesterday about the woman who was fined $2,600 after she released part of the transcript of her sexual assault court case. Her closing two sentences sum up her column perfectly: “This crime victim was assaulted once, and now she’s being assaulted again. Only this time, it’s the judge and the lawyers that are doing the assaulting. How tragic. And how shameful.” Exactly. But I’d like to know why the woman’s own lawyer suggested the $2,600 fine along with the Crown? Did the Crown threaten jail time or even a much higher fine? Isn’t her lawyer also part of the problem?

The Editorial (oh, and Editorial Cartoon as well) talks about the Rogers / Shaw deal and bemoans cell phone prices. The Editorial uses some rather questionable facts when comparing cell phone prices between Canada and the U.S. The Editorial strangely suggests that: “One of the problems industry analysts consistently point to is the lack of competition for providing wireless services in Canada.” Well of course it is. So, why doesn’t the Editorial suggest the most obvious solution – let foreign players into Canada like Xfinity / Comcast, Verizon, AT&T etc. Oh wait, I can just hear the screaming from the TorStar editorial desks now about the sellout of Canadian companies… Stupid.

Quote of the Day: “The greatest moral claim of the political left is that they are for the masses in general and the poor in particular. That is also their greatest fraud. It even fools many leftists themselves.” Thomas Sowell

What an interesting article on the Front Page today by Gordon Paul. He tells us of a woman – a victim of a sexual assault, was fined $2,600 for breaking a publication ban prohibiting her from releasing her own name after she obtained a copy of her court case and passed it to friends. Something is wrong here and I’m not sure what it is. If the story is completely true and what Paul has presented is the complete picture, then this is less than disgusting. I’m sure there is going to be a follow up on this story.

The Editorial and Editorial Cartoon today deal with the upcoming Conservative Convention this weekend. Once again, the liberal (or is the Liberal) media is trying to drum up some fake issue regarding Erin O’Toole leadership and “social conservatives”. This is the same, old, tired strategy that has been around 2004 when they tried to pin that on Stephen Harper. To some degree it works and since this is about the only thing that the Liberal, TorStar Media has to offer, then why not go big. Hence the editorial and cartoon. I know that this isn’t the last time we’ll see something like this…

Another op-ed on the Editorial Page by Mohamad Fakih. I wrote about him back in October when he had just a dreadful op-ed on these same pages. Today. Mr. Fakih tells us about his troubles collecting money from a libel judgment that he won against (Mr. Fakih didn’t mention his name, so I won’t either…) a person who defamed him. Ummm… O.K. Well, I guess if you’re in court often enough, you will see some ugly things – just look at the front page today.

Susan Koswan talks about how bad “Our cavalier attitude towards local freshwater” is in another op-ed on the Insight (Huh?) Page today. After giving us the “we’re all doing to die” future stats on drinking water, she introduces a new (at least I’ve never heard of it) term called WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) and poo-poo’s the fact that we take clean water for granted. I’ve always talked about societies build on the CCC principles – a strong Judeo-Christian foundation, a strong, property rights Constitution and a society with it’s economy based on a Capitalist system. She states that 50% of the population will be “water stressed” by 2025. Again, how many of these societies are CCC? And isn’t it just typical of Koswan to suggest that our society is WEIRD, you know, “rich”, while the rest of the world, caught in the ravages of socialism and Communism are not WEIRD at all.

TheKit finally solves the most pressing First World Problem Ever by answering the question: “Can I still wear blue eyeshadow over 40?” No words…

Quote of the Day: “What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people—like themselves—need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose those decisions by government fiat.” Thomas Sowell

TheRecord is a mere 20 pages today. Take away the six pages of adverts and the horoscope etc. and you’re left with 14 pages of news – and that includes the obits and the comics. But today, half of one of those pages is devoted to a reprint from the LA Times that dumps a truck load of sugar on FLOTUS Michelle Obama. It seems that she if the host of a kids program on Netflix called Waffles and Mochi what looks to be a ripoff of Sesame Street. Really? I pay $25.20 a month for my subscription to TheRecord. Am I getting my money’s worth?