Canadian Thinker by Freddie P. | January 2009 Archives

January 2009 Archives

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Comments We Like - Michael Coren

January 10, 2009 @ 10:30

Category:

Surprise Surprise

January 10, 2009 @ 09:58

I've always been against Toronto hosting the Olympics games because I'm convinced in Southern Ontario it would be a recipe for disaster.

Cost over-runs are pretty well guaranteed, but when you couple that with a socialist city council that's become entrenched in Toronto, a city council that's proved they can't run a lemonade stand let alone hold the Olympics, having the games come to this part of the country would be downright punishing.

It doesn't matter how they're presented, the Olympics always carry baggage that remains long after the games have been held, the medals have been awarded and organizers have patted themselves on the back.

Unfortunately, most of the baggage isn't revealed until commitments have been made, contracts have been signed and the games approach.

Vancouver is a prime example.

The people of that great city were slapped upside the head this week when they were told taxpayers are now on the hook for an Olympic Village that originally was estimated to cost 750 million dollars, but will now cost 875 million dollars.

And you can bet your sweet ass that's only the beginning. Already there are rumblings that it will eventually balloon to over a billion.

It's the result of a financing plan gone wrong.

I hope nobody in Vancouver in surprised by this. It's part of the game when you host the Olympics and its only going to get worse, and to go back to the top of this fascinating piece, the extent of the damage won't be known until long after everybody's gone home.

Between now and the people of Vancouver can expect to keep hearing about cost overruns and other problems that weren't anticipated, and from there will become not only their problem, but our problem as well because somewhere along the line the federal government will be expected to help out.

Meanwhile, like most other deals of this type, there are a select few on the inside who will get rich.... or richer.

Olympics? No thanks.

Category: Stuff

Today With Neil Morrison

January 9, 2009 @ 18:22

Poligamy and Sundin..

Category: Radio

Today With Matt And Craig

January 7, 2009 @ 08:57

World Junior and 2009 dead pool.

Category: Radio

Full Steam Ahead

January 7, 2009 @ 08:56

If you've got eyes in your head and you have the opportunity to read the Toronto Star on a regular basis, you know the paper is on a mission.

Over the past month, the Toronto Star has kept a negative tone to their economic reporting and I'm convinced I know why.

It's aimed directly Stephen Harper and his upcoming budget and subsequent vote of confidence.

It's amazing how you can look at the Sun, the Post and even the Globe and there's an air of optimism in what they write. Not all of it, at least they attempt to look for a bright side.

Not in the Star. It's a steady stream of doom and gloom spiced with a good measure of anti-Conservative pleasure.

The Toronto Star doesn't want the economy to get better because they don't want Stephen Harper to remain in office, and by maintaining a tone of negativity in their economic reporting they're hoping it sticks to the Prime Minister even though he's got relatively nothing to do with it.

Today is another blatant example. Yesterday the TSX had its sixth consecutive day of positive growth but there headline is this. "TSX rising, but bear lurking."

Through the month of December the Toronto Star provided a steady stream of bad news that is some cases was literally over the top. All it served to do was freak out people who had no reason to be freaked out.

But that's the Toronto Star for you and you can expect more of it right up until the end of the month because this paper is on a mission.

A mission to remove the Prime Minister.

Category: Politics

Ruutu The Rat

January 7, 2009 @ 08:55

When the Ottawa Senators acquired Jarkko Ruutu this past summer I thought it was the perfect fit.

A repulsive player joins arguably the most repulsive team in the NHL.

To begin with the Senators were stockpiled with gutless underachievers, so it was fitting they added a dirty rat to the lineup.

Earlier this year he was suspended two games for delivering a vicious and dirty elbow to the head of Montreal's Maxim Lapierre.

Last night, he scraped the bottom of the barrel. He bit the hand of Buffalo's Andrew Peters.

Ruttu denies it, but that's what rats do, but it's plain to see on the video below and it'll be interesting to see what the league does about it.

Granted, Ruutu, despite being a professional creep and the perfect Ottawa Senator, doesn't have a long history of suspensions.

But he's got a reputation.

A disgusting one - and that's a lot worse.

Category: Sports

Today With Bruce Barker

January 6, 2009 @ 08:50

The World Juniors.

Category: Radio

World Wide Radio

January 6, 2009 @ 08:49

It was the most joyous of Christmas's thanks to my kids.

Every year they become mildly annoyed when Christmas approaches and I don't give them any ideas about what I want for Christmas.

I usually come up with the usual dad thing and say "nothing, save your money for something important."

This year was a little bit different, while driving back and forth between Brampton and Peterborough I kept hearing a Bay-Bloor Radio commercial on the Edge talking about "internet radios'.

I found this intriguing and I wanted one and I let it be known.

I spend a lot of time checking our radio stations on line from all over the world. I think it's so cool to be able to call up any station anywhere, and within seconds be listening to it.

The problem is, or was, that do this you have to be by a PC or have your laptop open. Even the mobility of a laptop made listening to internet stations a bit of a chore because you have to find the station, then click on the listen live feature and then stream the player.

With an internet radio, there's none of that.

It sits on your night table and remains ready for action either manually or with a remote.

For it to work, you have to have wireless capability in your house, but that's the extent of it.

You simply configure the radio like you would your laptop. You lock onto your network, punch in your WEP and the radio is ready to go, and when I say ready to go, I mean ready to go.

You can choose a country by scrolling through literally every country on earth, and then you can choose a genre. Thousands of radio stations are at your disposal without having to use a computer.

Somehow this wonderful little box by-passes everything and takes your directly to any radio stations streaming system. It buffers like it does on a computer but in makes cases it takes mere seconds and offers eight pre-sets which allows you to move quickly and freely between your favourite stations.

I love the bloody thing.

Since Christmas I've listened to live talk radio out of Jerusalem, following the on-going conflict over there.

Saturday night I found a sports radio station out of San Diego that was celebrating the Chargers victory over Indianapolis.

I enjoy listening to talk radio out of New York on WABC, the Fox Radio Network and hundreds of other stations spread across this earth.

It's also handy for my work situation. While in Brampton I can listen to The Wolf and The Kruz, and while in Peterborough I can listen to Toronto radio stations. Every stinkin' one of them.

When I opened this wonderful package on Christmas morning I was "tickled pink" to begin with, but since then my love for this contraption has increased tenfold, and sometimes I just look at it and stroke it without even turning it on.

And sometimes I wonder where the saying "tickled pink" came from.

Anyway, if you're a radio junkie like I am, and you love to surf the radio net, this is the thing for you, and from what I understand, Bay-Bloor Radio is about the only place you can get them right now.

Mine is a Sanyo.

Thanks Mel, thanks Dan - you made Christmas the most joyous occasion.

Who uses the word "joyous" anymore?

Category: Family | Radio | Stuff

Today With Jeff McArthur

January 5, 2009 @ 09:55

Fighting in hockey.