Wild Bill

http://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/tdsb.html " Province of Ontario renews infamous contract with trades council that gave Toronto taxpayers $3,000 electrical outlet jobs and $143 pencil sharpener installationscomments" http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2011/02/28/ford_to_clean_house_at_tchc_after_spending_spree_exposed.html ""Mayor Rob Ford called for the resignation of members of the Toronto Community Housing Corp. board on Monday, hours after the citys auditor-general blasted the housing agency for wasting millions in untendered contracts and lavish employee expenses." "9 Million Dollars unaccountable? Only at Toronto City Hall." http://thestar.blogs.com/thefixer/2013/05/torontos-ballooning-computer-costs-has-an-eerie-ring.html "City councils audit committee heard this week that costs for a computer project called the Financial Planning, Analysis and Reporting System (FPARS) have escalated from $7.9 million to $69.9 with almost no scrutiny from councillors." http://www.articleupload.com/about-our-new-streetcars-coming-to-toronto/ "In 2005, Toronto Transit Commission handed over an order to Bombardier for 234 new subway cars. It was a closed order negotiated with the company, with no public tender. TTC came under a strong criticism. Biggest competitor Siemens claimed that it could have saved TTC at least $ 100-million on the purchase." Ran out of time. Have to catch a bus. There are still some very BIG examples I would need to research! Oh, almost forgot! When you said "eye of the beholder" are you giving carte blanche approval to grants to theatre groups while streets are flooding? If so, then we have no room for discussion. Also, Toronto has no hope of ever becoming fiscally responsible.

How could the police have possibly known they were drug dealers if the police never saw the video? Only some reporters from the Toronto Star supposedly saw the video! I demand you spend a few hours researching cites to prove your point! Of course, when you are done I will refuse to believe you anyway.

Who told us they were drug dealers? How do we know this is actually true? It may have been all part of the act. There has been zero possibility of authenticating anything to do with the video, including its very existence. Still, if you hate a man enough why should that stop anyone from hanging him?

"Not like it?" I knew exactly what I did when I did it and was waiting to see specifically WHO would pick up on it! What I am smelling is a whole bunch of "rabble" style debaters. I am beginning to think this board has gone so far as to just not be worth it anymore. I had hoped for more when I came back. I don't demand any changes. A group is what it is and I understand that I and a few others are the exceptions. Up until a few years ago it was different. I don't enjoy debaters who make personal attack style rebuttals. I do not find those of "righteous" views entertaining. Perhaps I can find a board where people are more polite and informed with their arguments. MLW seems to be getting to be more and more of a "rabble" board of symbolism over substance, with a lot of shouting. Perhaps if I just reduce my posting to an absolute minimum posters like yourself can avoid getting upset with someone who doesn't share the same views. I may not totally leave. If I stick just to the science and tech threads I seem to upset far fewer people. I wonder why that is so? I suspect that the only people who know the answer are the ones who participate in the science and tech threads!

"Faith-based belief in Rob Ford"? How about YOU research ALL my posts and show where I have ever even CARED if Rob Ford is guilty? He IS the mayor of a foreign city, as far as I'm concerned. I just don't respect witchhunts, no matter who was involved. I would even defend YOU! In such a situation, I am not at all confident that you would return the favour. I don't come across as left wing enough for some folk's standards. Therefore I am not entitled to the same rights. While you are admiring my "epic bail", I am sitting here wondering if some people actually have any sense of reading COMPREHENSION at all...

I'm still not convinced it's him! It could be but with modern digital techniques, who knows for sure? There are also very convincing doubles we have all seen for years and years and years. They have been a staple on late night shows. I remember a Bill and Hillary Clinton couple that could have been clones of the real people! I could see some Ryerson students, out to save the world by being a smartass, finding someone who looks very much like Ford and putting out the effort and money for a great makeup job. Anyone who has watched Saturday Night Live these past few decades has seen this many times and the results can be amazingly accurate. They make a phony video clip and start their hoax with some reporters. They choose the Toronto Star because it's much easier to pull a scam when your mark WANTS to believe you! Then the situation gets out of hand. Things blow up to be a far bigger deal than they thought. People are actually coming up with what they had thought was a ridiculously high price, that no one would ever actually fork over. They start to panic. Next thing you know, the video and the so-called drug lords disappear, nowhere to be found. Possible? Certainly! Probable? We will likely never know. No one would be looking for these guys, if my theory is true. Most players want to crucify Ford, not deal with hoaxers and probable embarrassment to themselves. Still, I think my scenario has a bit of Occam's Razor to it. Maybe some day it will all come out and we will know.

Exactly! Smell the irony? It's the same old, same old. Like I keep saying, with some folks it's like arguing with a Jehovah Witness. Sooner or later you realize that nothing you can say or no evidence you could ever show would make the slightest bit of difference in changing their minds. However, they can and do at any time pull something out of their butts that is either not relevant or totally unsubstantiated and they demand that you swallow it whole, on the spot. It's as if their brain is hardwired. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own set of facts. It's actually my fault. I knew what would happen and I wasted my time anyway. I should have just ignored the postings.

Why should I bother? You won't accept it anyway. Goes against your catechism. This is pointless. Like arguing with a Jehovah Witness. Looks like I need to start an 'ignore' list again.

"crushing a teenager's windpipe"? Out of what butt did you pull that one? Got a cite for that? You are directly contradicting everything that has been reported in the MSM and offered in the courtroom during the trial. So I ask you again to support your claim.

Well, dragging in indigenous peoples is not relevant to my point. Are you saying that because of problems with how the natives were treated immigrants have the right to force us to give up the monarchy? Seems often when we debate about apples you start crying "What about the oranges?" As far as making changes, I would cheerfully support a poll of how native people think about high numbers of immigrants forcing cultural changes in Canada, any day of the week! You might not be happy with the results.

I am stating that Fantino did not respect the idea that the law should not be racially applied and that the protection of the law is something that EVERY Canadian is entitled to receive! I described EXACTLY what happened! Fantino was an enthusiastic enforcer of this travesty. You are entitled to a differing opinion but you don't have to convince me. Why don't you go to Caledonia, sit in a Timmy's and listen to the bitterness? You have an entire town who experienced what Fantino did that you have to convince.

You know, my mother's side has been in Canada since the 1690's, since the good ship Hector landed in Pictou, Nova Scotia. Like most other Canadians, we were very welcoming of newer immigrants. However, if we had known then that allowing so many in would mean that we would be forced to change not just our national culture but our very political system and no longer bear allegiance to the Crown I am certain we would have had a much different attitude. You welcome people into your home and they want to throw out your furniture and change the whole decor. Screw the lot of them! Their attitude is presumptuous, arrogant and rude!

At Caledonia, Fantino only acted for the safety of the natives. Townsfolk were often the victims of intimidation and outright violence. One old man was whalloped with a 2x4 and left with permanent brain damage. So Fantino's idea of Public Safety specifically exempted the townsfolk of Caledonia.

Derek, the big problem I have with Fantino is how he handled the Caledonia native protest. He basically let the natives do whatever the hell they wanted and then defended them against any reaction by the townspeople, for political expediency. In effect, he took the protection of Law away from an entire town! If you are not already aware, you might do some googling. There was also an excellent book by the journalist Christie Blatchford. I have a relative who is an OPP cop stationed in the Caledonia area. He was there from the start and some of the things he told me would curl your hair. He also confirmed to me, personally but of course, privately, that he and the other cops were under specific orders to allow the natives free rein and to blow off any townsfolk complaints. Unless there was an actual threat of loss of life (and even that was rather vaguely defined) the police were not to intervene. The man put in charge by Dalton McGuinty was Julian Fantino. In my opinion, the man applied justice according to race and had no problems with throwing all the townspeople under the bus. His actions were dispicable. Harper and his crew, being westerners, almost certainly had absolutely no idea of what was going on at Caledonia and looked at Fantino as a "law and order" candidate. To many of us here in Ontario Harper could not possibly have made a worse choice.

Isn't that what I said? The Koebels were not responsible for being drunk all the time and falsifying tests. The Town of Walkerton was not responsible for gving the job to untrained and unreliable individuals and never checking up on them. It was all Harris' fault! There should have been inspectors to check the inspectors! There should have been provincial inspectors to make duplicate tests of the town inspectors! Actually, to be even more safe, there should be federal inspectors to watch both the town and provincial inspectors and who would take triplicate tests! There! I have 100% agreed with all the inevitable ramifications of your argument. What more do you want? Oh, and as for your bleach example, don't you think the CONCENTRATION of bleach in the water is an important factor? You do realize that if a baby ingests a tablespoon of salt at one swallow it will likely kill him? That a cup full would certainly kill you or me. Obviously by your argument, we should have nothing to do with salt! Perhaps there should be salt inspectors, municipal/provincial/federal that would all check each other. The point is that some substances are not only harmless but necessary to life in the proper quantities. To not specify how MUCH is dangerous, as you did with your example, is about as precise as a one-armed fisherman trying to show you the size of the one that got away. Dammit! Is nobody actually responsible for what they DO anymore? As far as I am concerned, Stan Koebel and his brother are murderers - plain and simple. That baby died because THEY falsified their tests! There is no way you can convince me that they simply made honest mistakes. THEY were responsible for the testing and they committed criminal negligence. They got their jobs in the first place by political pull with the town council. So the council shares some responsibility as well. If you put it ALL on Harris then you let these murderers off scot free. I simply cannot do that.

Well, then you got a completely different impression than I did. I agree that she preached we should do as we please but she also insisted on respect and responsibility. She saw the rights of individuals as paramount - no one should be allowed to steal from another. She was one of the first to recognize that when someone said they were taking from you for the public good it was usually a lie. My experience has been that she was quite right. However, you are certainly entitled to your opinion.

Again, mea culpa! Damn I'm getting old. I have a rock and roll brain - I had misremembered you as John Bonam and of course, that couldn't be him who had posted! You are still among the living... I presume?

Thanks for straightening me out, Boges. I plead an old man's memory of something he should have paid more attention to years ago. I can never keep all those different quarks straight - with up and down, strangeness and charm. I really should have read that James Joyce book - I always seem to put it off.

No, you do not need energy to creat a force! At least, not a Basic Force of the way the Universe works! No energy is involved in creating Gravity. Nor is any involved in creating Magnetism. Certainly, the earth is never going to run out of energy and we will all float away. A basic force is a basic force. It is an intrinsic part of reality. It is because it IS! If it wasn't, we all wouldn't be here. There would be no Universe. If these arguments were true, there would be no need for so much skull sweat to be expended by Hawking and his peers in seeking a Unified Theory of Everything, tying all the Basic Forces together. We could just wait long enough for everything to run out of energy!

Not at all! We do need SOME rules, I would agree. It's just that after a certain point you have more than enough rules and it is usually a waste of time to add more. I'm certain Mulcair has no idea of how many rules or inspections are already in the railway system. He just sees a convenient target on Harper's chest. It doesn't have to actually be useful in improving safety or even make sense! Claiming there were insufficient inspectors is one of those unanswerable claims. How can you EVER have enough inspectors? Sooner or later crap happens and the call for more inspections will start up again. Anal-retentive thinkers usually think in terms of quantity. It is much better to always examine QUALITY first! A hundred minimum wage poorly educated security guards at any of our airports are less effective than a handful of highly educated, well trained professionals with guns at an Israeli airport. People move quickly and with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of courtesy at an Israeli airport. So far there has never been an incident. Flying out of one of our airports is always a pain in the ass! This morning a Toronto talk radio station had a caller relating how he and his family were tied up at an American airport for several hours and treated like they were criminals. It seemed the problem was that his daughter had a similar name to one on the "Do not allow to fly" list. His daughter was only 8 years old! Again, we have enough rules. We need better quality in applying them.

Pliny, what you seem to be missing is that magnetism is a FUNDAMENTAL force! Like gravity or electricity. It is a basic force of the Universe. Physicists for decades have been trying to better understand the fundamental forces and come up with a Unified Theory that ties them all together. You seem to have no problem accepting gravity as a fundamental force but somehow you ignore magnetism as being the same. So you somehow believe that things must be explained WITHOUT magnetism! That a magnet on the fridge is somehow defying gravity because what else is involved? It's like trying to explain how a gas engine runs when you ignore or don't believe that gas and oxygen vapour will explode in a cylinder. If you try, you are left with what appears to be an anomaly in physics. Your magnet stays there because Magnetism is a fundamental force of the Universe and at the macro level we all live in that magnetic force is stronger than that of gravity, for the power of your magnet and it's amount of magnetic strength compared to it's weight. To argue against it would be the same as arguing against the Force of Gravity. At the sub-atomic level we see examples of another force, the Weak Force. It is what keeps atoms from flying apart. If you read up on such stuff you will better understand the example of your fridge magnet. The magnet stays there because that's the way the Universe works! Magnetism is a fundamental Force the same as Gravity. You can't accept an argument like McCutcheon's which allows Gravity to be a basic Force yet not Magnetism. It is simply unfair to rig an argument that way!

What is it about the NDP folks that makes them so anal-retentive about having rules for everything? In the real world, you just can't have 100% certainty. When it comes to safety, even an infinite amount of rules to idiot proof something will not protect against idiots, or simple bad luck as a result of Murphy's Law. That's because foresight is dim and only hindsight is 20/20. It is impossible to predict everything perfectly in advance but any yammerhead with hair in his ears can criticize something after the fact. Tom's approach seems to be to assume that this tragedy happened because of a lack of rules and sufficient inspection which again is an anal-retentive approach. So he feels he should criticize the government and demand more rules and more inspectors. This might generate more judicial and inspection jobs but it likely just won't make us any safer. Me, I have always championed trying to make PEOPLE smarter! You give more and more rules if you have children or morons working for you. What about common sense? What about a sense of duty and dedication? If someone was negligent or simply dim there is no point in making more rules, or hiring inspectors to inspect the inspectors who are inspecting the inspectors. A friend of mine made an observation decades ago that I have never forgotten, because I am so constantly seeing examples that tend to prove it right. He said "Our society is becoming more and more complicated while we ourselves are becoming less and less capable to maintain it". Sadly, I suspect negligence or idiocy will come out as the major factor in this disaster.

Why do you say this is a "randite" belief? I've read Rand several times and never saw anything like that. Have you actually studied the philosophy or are you just slagging Rand as some left wing strawman, or perhaps strawwoman would be more appropriate? Could you cite where Rand said that, or even had that as a result of her philosophy? One basic tenet of her philosophy is the idea that no one may steal from another. Seems to me a lot of common men and women in western society today could use better protection in that area.

I never liked Vic but he wasn't a "real scumbag". A dillhole maybe, of the first degree, but not a scumbag. He was just one of those guys who thought that being emphatic could substitute for being right! IOW, if he smashed that square peg into the round hole it would fit because dammit! It was SUPPOSED to fit! To me at least, a scumbag is dishonest and perhaps even evil. Vic wasn't one of those things, at least in intent. Still, I always felt that the result of his approach WAS evil because he had no respect for the views of others and was frankly, a bit too dim to properly think out his own values. I guess the word I am searching for is "righteousness". Righteous people have always scared me because if in their world view it is necessary they would cut off YOUR arm! I think Vic had the misfortune to be raised by one of those evangelical churches. I am not attacking Christianity but we all know that some churches do have a streak of "righteousness". Worse yet, they think their way is the only way and that they "know it all" already. Good hearts but bone heads! I have similar views towards many lefties. I never liked the EFFECTS of Jack Layton's approaches to government but I always felt he was at heart a good person. I felt the same way about Bob Rae. He never wanted to destroy Ontario's economy when he was premier. I don't believe he and his NDP party had a "secret agenda". He and his people were just inexperienced and unprepared for government and did some bonehead things. Other NDP provincial governments such as in Winnipeg or lately, Nova Scotia, have done quite well. So the difference obviously must be the people involved and not the name of the party. So I will not call Vic evil or dishonest. I am sure you could forget your wallet on the table and Vic would not steal it. That being said, I am very, very glad he is gone. Now his peer Julian Fantino - I suspect he IS evil! Certainly, he is dictatorial and shows no respect for the rights of ALL Canadians!

Are eggs good or bad for us this week? I've seen it change so often that I can no longer keep track.