Put a steak in the Kane rumours

I first heard the rumour about three weeks ago. The story goes: Evander Kane was at Hy's Steakhouse with a group of people and tried to leave without paying the bill. When challenged by the waitress, he said something to the effect that he shouldn't have to pay because his presence there was a benefit to the restaurant.

I never mentioned this story before on social media because I had my doubts that it was true, and there was really no point in spreading a negative rumour anyhow. But then this happened:

Which led to this being written.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that the flashy-dressing young Kane did what the story says he did, but there are many other possibilities as well. Maybe there was a misunderstanding among the group about who was going to pay, and maybe Kane has a deadpan sense of humour and made a joke about not paying, even though he fully intended to. Maybe a waitress was just pissed about the tip she got, or maybe nothing happened at all and somebody with a bone to pick concocted the rumour out of thin air. Maybe he stopped at Co-op for a fill, and by word of mouth that turned into "stiffed a waitress on a bill."

You can't really blame Winnipeggers for believing that there's fire when they smell smoke. The rumours about the Jets coming back were obviously true, as were the rumours about IKEA coming and Tim being gay. (Inside joke. Please disregard if you don't know Tim.) However, whether it's true or not, we need to drop this whole thing ... as soon as I'm done writing this post.

If he didn't do it, then obviously it is wrong to imply that he might have. If he did do it, I am pretty sure he learned a lesson here and will not do it again.

Word gets around quickly in a small city like Winnipeg, and you just can't get away with that shit. Besides, he should get a second chance. He has a ton of potential, not just as a player but as an ambassador of the sport, and he's still very young. It is counter-productive in every way to anchor him to this story. It would also be unfortunate if the lesson that he took away from all this was that Winnipeggers are nasty and unforgiving.

That is all.

Yes, I am aware that this post may seem somewhat hypocritical.

By the way, if you haven't checked out my Oduya comic strip yet, click here.

Pin the cell phone on the Wowchuk

Just when I was wondering what to blog about, I get an email from the PC party of Manitoba promoting their newest money-making strategy.

Apparently trying to put the "fun" back into fund raise, they have set up a new website to "block NDP hypocrisy". You do this by buying virtual cell phones which will then be stuck onto a photo of NDP Deputy Premier Rosann Wowchuk talking on her phone while driving. See for yourself.


By show of hands, who is impressed by this innovative and sophisticated method of fund-raising? Anyone? Since I can't see you, I will assume that you are either not raising your hand or you can't raise your hand because it is busy doing something else. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Rosann can have that effect on some people.

Seriously, how much brainstorming did they have to do to come up with this turkey? Is this a Thanksgiving prank or something?

Yes, Wowchuk is a hypocrite for talking on her cell phone after announcing a ban on that exact same thing, but this little game seems very amateurish to me. Besides, that cell phone photo is over six months old now. Couldn't they come up with something a little more timely? Like, pay $10 to shoot deadly enhanced ID cards at Andrew Swan as he runs around your screen?

This is worrisome because it tells me that the PC party's brightest minds still have to resort to gimmicks and insist on insulting the intelligence of their audience. This is the exact same stuff that got them crushed in the last election.

just for fun:
Thursday, 7:00 pm...............2 cell phones
Thursday, 10:30 pm .............2 cell phones
Friday, 8:45 am ....................still 2 cell phones
Friday, 4:10 pm ...................46 cell phones. we're cooking now! are these tax deductable??


Update: It appears that Curtis beat me to it by about 5 hours. Dang. I'm going to have to start blogging on my lunch breaks.

Dial "A" for Arbitrary

Drinking and driving should be legal.

Not all drinking and driving though. I'm not some kind of radical libertarian, you know. I recognize the need for restrictions. No, only certain types of drinking and driving should be legal...

It should be illegal if you get all hammered up on Canadian whiskey, bourbon, blended scotch, domestic beer, red wine or tequila, and then get behind the wheel of a car. However, it should be perfectly legal if you drive after getting shit-faced on Irish whiskey, single-malt scotch, imported beer, white wine, gin or vodka.

If that doesn't make sense to you, it's only because you don't know "the reason". It's a very reasonable reason, but a lot of people don't know it. I know what it is, but I don't feel like telling you. Minister Ron Lemieux knows what it is too. He used the same "reason" when he drafted Bill 5: the new bill on cell phone use while driving.

Bill 5, if you're too lazy to click on the link, prohibits cell phone use while driving (among other things). But not all cell phone use. Ron Lemieux isn't some radical socialist you know. He recognizes the need for personal freedom. No, only certain types of cell phone use is prohibited...

specifically, cell phone use is prohibited unless the phone "is configured and equipped to allow hands-free use as a telephone and is used in a hands-free manner."

Is this because hands-free cells phones are safe to use while driving? No. Far from it, in fact. Numerous studies show that hands-free cell phones are just as dangerous as hand-held cell phones. In fact, I suspect that they're more dangerous because you're more likely to get involved in lengthier conversations. There are even studies that show that talking on a cell phone -- handheld or hands-free -- is just as dangerous as drinking and driving.

So why are hands-free cell phones excluded from the ban? Oh ... there's a reason. "The Reason". I'm not telling you what it is, and if you ask Ron Lemieux what "the reason" is, he probably won't tell you either. You'll just have to figure it out for yourself.

*****

Question for those of you here in Manitoba: how many of you know that this legislation passed in June? I didn't know. I had a vague memory that this was planned from last year's throne speech coverage, but then ... nothing.

I searched the Free Press website for stories and found a lenghty story about similar legislation that was passed in Ontario, courtesy of the CP news service; and another one about legislation proposed in BC, also from the CP news service; but the only thing I could find in our trusty local rag about the Manitoba legislation was a tiny little footnote in an unrelated article.

Shouldn't our one and only non-tabloid newspaper report this kind of thing? Just today, a douche-bag talking on a cell phone made an illegal left turn in front of me. Maybe that douche-bag reads the Free Press. Maybe he wouldn't have been talking on that phone and would have been paying attention had the Freep reported the passage of this legislation in June. Just sayin' ... it would be good to know these things.

MPI: How to pay for all that overhead?

MPI loves to talk about how it is always reducing auto insurance premiums (example). Well I have two things to say about that:

1. My basic premium went up even though my car is one year older and worth less money.
2. What the hell is with that registration charge?

119 BUCKS? To process my registration? It was $99 last year, and $58 in 2003. Are you telling me the cost of registering a car has more than doubled in the past 5 years?

MPI is after all a bureaucracy, and there is after all a free-spending NDP government in power. I suppose it is possible that overhead costs have doubled in 5 years. But then again, I don't see any new office buildings going up on Main or Portage for MPI pencil pushers...

That leads me to conclude that this is nothing but tax increases through the back door. Something we're becoming accustomed to around here. MPI should be transparent about it: fold the registration charge into the basic premium so that they don't mislead people into thinking they're getting a break when in fact they're getting screwed.

Cute fuzzy Friday night thoughts

I don't have the energy nor the proper amount of stewing rage built up to discuss the nonsense that's going on with Upper Fort Garry. Maybe I'll tackle that later. Maybe not. The guys on my blog roll have it covered anyhow. Instead, I saw over on the Hack's web site that the seal hunt is on, so I think I'll talk about clubbing baby seals.

Clubbing baby seals is bad. So bad that I think I'll go join the protest .... or the hunt ... whatever this girl is doing:


A tip of the hat to OMMAG for finding that one.

Like I was saying, the seal hunt is brutal and inhumane, and it must be stopped because baby seals are cute and fuzzy. It is absolutely outrageous that cute fuzzy animals are being killed! Just look at those big black eyes. If you really really need to kill something, make sure that it is ugly and nasty-looking. That's okay. I know that it's okay because I have never seen Paul McCartney protesting the killing of ugly, nasty animals. Go cut some fins off a shark and throw it back in the water to die. That should be alright. After all, a shark with no fins can't eat the cute fuzzy baby seals that you are saving from the hunt, right?

Nothing but the best will do

It seems CBC execs have been living the high life courtesy of you:

Executives at Canada's public broadcaster have run up huge bills staying at luxury palace-like hotels in Europe where rooms go for a staggering $800-plus a night.

including a $4,377 trip to Istanbul for a conference by former president and CEO of the taxpayer-funded CBC, Robert Rabinovitch at the "posh" Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel:

The hotel's website entices potential visitors with the promise of "a personal butler for each guest, award winning cuisine" and "luxurious facilities." <canoe>

I did a little checking on Expedia, and found several hotels for less than $100 per night, including a Best Western, and the Berr Hotel (3.5 stars) that will run you a very reasonable $47 per night -- and that's without my corporate discount.

Mr. Rabinovitch and his colleagues should be thankful that the tax payers allow them to have a job. Assuming the trip was justified to begin with, which is a bit of a leap, the least he could do is not screw us by staying at the most palatial palace in town. I mean, what's wrong with the Best Western? Well, ok .. besides the lack of a personal butler.

meh ... I guess this will do:

Hey Mom, look at the Liberals!

Watching the federal Liberals tumble down hill from one day to the next like an armless legless Lucien Bouchard chasing a "yes" vote is becoming quite amusing. The newest amunition for Conservatives comes with the announcement that Stephane Dion would consider rescinding the Tories cuts to the tax that the Liberals once vowed to eliminate. (CP) I believe he said something like this:

We do not respect the Canadians who voted for your cuts to the GST, nor do we oppose the tax like we used to, so we will increase it back up to the levels that Mulrooney originally set, although we still think Mulrooney is evil, except that when we say we will rescind the tax cuts what we really mean is that we will actually do nothing because we are impotent.

Yes, that's right. It is all posturing and hot air, as Dion also announced that the Liberals will once again sit on their hands and not vote on the mini-budget. I am so happy that my MP is representing me by not voting in parliament. He deserves a raise.

Spirited Offshoring

We read today that Bob Silver, owner of Western Glove Works, co-chair of the Premier's Economic Advisory Council and co-mastermind behind the Spirited Energy Campaign, is moving the last of his Winnipeg garment production to some unspecified country in Asia. The Free Press, also co-owned by Bob Silver by the way, paints Bob as an inevitable victim of the the rise of the Cdn $ and the elimination of import quotas, saying that most everybody "knew the writing was on the wall."

Bob:

Over the last three to five years I have tried everything I could think of to justify continuation of production... But it is just no longer possible.

Never mind that three to five years ago, the exchange rate was between $0.63 and $0.77 US.

I understand the implications of exchange rate changes, and I'm not saying that Western Glove Works should forgo profitability because it's owner is on a high profile government economic advisory committee, but I can't help but notice the irony that Mr. Spirited Energy is giving up on trying to compete in our province.

Phil Fontaine thinks Indians are racist

I can't help but draw that conclusion after reading this article in today's Freep. According to the column, Phil thinks it is racist to question how Native recipients of the residential school lump sum payment will spend their money. However, very recently, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation does just that. Therefore, the members of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, who are primarily (if not entirely) First Nations People, must be racist. Simple logic really.

Of course Phil was only referring to non-natives. It's not racism if you talk about your own race (I don't think). However, his point of view is troubling and hypocritical nonetheless.

The AHF report documents many of the troubles that result from the sudden influx of cash:

Increased drug and alcohol abuse was among the more commonly cited consequences of LSPs by recipients. This impact on people’s lives seemed to be felt almost immediately: “When I got the payment, I was sober for 12 years overall. After I got the money, I drank for four days in a row.”
...

Overall, while not every participating recipient worried that LSPs would inevitably usher in widespread alcohol and drug abuse (“some will drink it up, but not all”), others could scarcely recall more than a handful of Survivors who did not indulge in such abuse when the payments came.

So we know we have a problem. Is it racist of us to acknowledge it? How do we deal with it if we aren't allowed to talk about it? The report also suggests that "government money" is particularly damaging because "money is often viewed with suspicion as an instrument which government will use to manipulate and undermine Aboriginal people."

So do you want the damn money or not? Yeah ... that's what I thought. To put words in Phil Fontaine's mouth: "Give us the money you racist pigs, and look at all the damage you're doing to our people."

I suppose at some point in the future we'll have to give compensation payments for all of the hardship caused by our compensation payments.

Heh, good thing nobody reads this blog.

-- update --

Darcey has a good a good post on this over at the Broom. I should have known ...

I also should have know that the Free Press is two days behind in it's reporting.