Troll Under the Bridge

Remember the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff you were told as a kid? It was about a troll under a bridge. Toronto has its own troll under the bride, his name is Chris Gardener.

Chris Gardener has taken the spotlight recently. You see, he lives under the Gardener expressway at Spadina. He has done so for the past 8 years. He built a makeshift house under the highway in which he stole electricity and payed no tax on. He even has his "property" fenced in. Gardener's career choice to support his "house" is drug dealer. Gardener (as he has named himself, after his place or residence) hasn't been a major problem until recently. The city of Toronto needs to make repairs to the highway. He needed to be moved as his choice of residence would pose a safety hazzard to himself and construction workers.

The political fallout has been over Gardener being moved. Gardener recounted the story that eight years ago, while he was in Montreal, God came to him and told him that landlords have no right to charge rent. Thus Gardener travelled to Toronto and set up his shack under the highway. Judging by this statement alone, we can safely assume that Gardener is a frosty chocolate nut bar with a brain turned to nouget. The city has repeatedly offered him welfare, affordable housing, and treatment for his mental issues. All of which he has refused. Gardener simply does not want to be a part of our society, though he won't go as far as moving to a cabin in the woods, which would be a far more appropriate place if he wants to drop out.

Of course, OCAP has to get involved in all of this. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, a radical Toronto based anachist group, was attracted to his story like flies on cow pies. More alarming is that they tend to agree with Mr Gardener and "God" that people should be allowed to live for free. OCAP is simply getting more comical as the days go on. Perhaps they should host their protests at Second City and get some money out of making people laugh at them. This is a group that has failed to attract the attention of political parties due to their beyond communist, extreme far left tactics. Today, they attempted to block Mr Gardener's eviction. Fortunately, they were peaceful, but not without giving people a hard time. Mr Gardener's shack was rightly demolished and work can now proceed on the highway safely.

The story doesn't end there though. It brings about some questions about the true nature of poverty in the city of Toronto. The question is, should we allow this type of behaviour? More low income housing seems to be the magical cure-all that OCAP is proposing. The fact is, there are already tons of low income housing projects in Toronto. One must be making an income first though. Homeless do not. They simply choose to live on the streets even though there are plenty of safe alternatives. I don't buy the mental issue argument either Despite what OCAP wants, nobody can, nor should live for free. That's the nature of most societies. If everybody is going to get things handed out to them, well, who is going to produce and manage those things? Even in communist countries, that type of behaviour is unacceptable. Sorry Mr Gardener and OCAP, you loose and you always will.

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Time To End Air Travel Restrictions

This is getting more silly by the day. Since last week, it is now illegal to carry liquids and gels onto a plane. Seniors and children even are not allowed to bring water or juice with them.

Restrictions on what can be carried aboard a plane is simply a sign of how flawed the security at airports is. It has long be known that explosives can be made in liquid for, yet they have just been banned. The big question is if this ban is really justified. I say it isn't. We are punishing an entire population of innocent people. We are not protecting them, but are simply taking away their civil liberties due to the incompetance of security officials. It won't be long before we won't be able to fly with anything in the cabin, including our clothes. Yep, we'll all be nakid.

El Al Israel airline doesn't have these bans. You'd think they'd be terrorism target #1 but they don't suffer from these problems. Why? They are carful of who they let on board. Yes, they profile. That seems to be a dirty word, profiling. However, it is a step we must take. We cannot keep punishing those who have done nothing as a few would choose to turn airplanes into weapons of murder. It is unlikely a 90 year old grandma from Saskatoon is going to strap a bomb to herself in the name of Mohammed and Allah. The odds of being involved in a terrorist attack are less than that of being hit by lightning.
The least disruptive way is to monitor those who get on board the plane, not by what they have on them, but rather who they are. More hightech security is also needed at airports such as chemical sniffers. Rather than ban stuff, just check for things that could be used by someone who might be a terrorist, and leave the rest alone.
Perhaps we should also redesign the planes while we are at it. Buses in Britain in the mid 20th century had a separate driver cab. We should do this with planes. Have cockpit and cabin separated by a solid bulkhead with separate doors. Make it so the cockpit can only be accessed from outside the plane. This would most certainly prevent hijackings. Systems such as gas could also incapacitate attackers in the cabin without harming them. This would be far more effective than simply taking away each and every right we have when we fly.

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Big Problems

This is a BIG day for MMN. It's a BIG milestone, the 100th post. Today I'd thought I'd tackle a BIG issue. That being, how BIG a problem our kids are getting, because they are so BIG!

That's right, 26% of children are considered obese. Roughly 1 in 2 are overweight. That's a huge number of huge kids. Off these kids, only 8% of their parents consider then to have a weight problem. This has created a health care crisis. It is estimated that this current generation of children will not live longer than their parents, the first time in over a century. This problem will likely end up costing the health system billions.

Kids are inactive. That's the problem. I don't see many kids playing outside as I did when I was a kid, which wasn't that long ago. The government and the entertainment industry usually get most of the blame. The government is targeted because they supposedly are not providing healthy lunches in cafeterias, physED, and nutritional programs. The entertainment industry is accused of feeding an inactive lifestyle due to television and video games. It's all well and good to play the blame game. Though cafeterias in schools should provide healthier food, physED programs are adequate as they are and nutritional classes are unnecessary. Healthy active living is something that needs to begin at home. The majority of parents of overweight kids are overweight themselves. They also pack so much into their scheduels that they have no time or don't even know how to make healthy meals. Many children these days are brought up on frozen, pre-cooked food. This food is loaded with saturated and transfat, as well as unhealthy doses of salt. Parents simply let their kids sit around the house or are so afraid that a pervert is going to snatch them if they go outside. Quit worring, statistics show that's no more likely than it was years ago. Kids need unstructured play to stay healthy. Peewee sports can also be a good idea but not all kids like sports. They need to be encouraged to be active in other ways. If we get our kids outside, we will eliminate this preventable disease.

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Halton MP Makes National News: A Rouge

Back in January, the people of Halton region voted Conservative party member Garth Turner into office as their representative. He is one MP that has not been without controversy. Particularly his refusal to tow the party line. While I don't agree with some of his decisions, I find that Mr Turner has finally brought a voice to Halton region after Liberal MP Gary Carr was voted out. Mr Carr being the ever silent and loyal back bencher, a sleeze, just what Paul Martin wanted. The Liberal MP before Carr also showed dignity by leaving the party after the sponsorship scandle.

This debate over Mr Turner has sprung a vote within the conservative party that will ultimately decide who gets to represent Halton. Turner has frequently been at odds with Steven Harper who can best be described as Bush Light. Though his leadership on the home front has been good, foreign policy has been questionable. What Turner is trying to do is hold his own party leader acountable, as was promised in the 2006 election. People don't like this because they fear an ununified US based system. Surprisingly this would actually work better, though democracy would be slower. A republic is still better than our antiquated system steeped in useless pomp and pagentry. Canadians however fear change. We need more MPs to speak out on citizens behalf rather than simply towing this silly party line concept. That's what democracy is supposed to be about. Halton citizens should support Mr Turner.

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Harper No-Show at AIDS Conference: Who Cares?

The big thing in the media this week was why Prime Minister Steven Harper did not show up for the AIDS conference currently being held in Toronto. I guess it's been a slow news week. There's only so much one can talk about petty issues such as wars between Hezbolla and Isreal, and terror in the UK.

Socialists like to try to find every single fault in their right of center buddies. Fortunatley for us on the right side, we don't have to look for the faults of those on the left because they are so obvious, even blind people can see them plain as day.
Federal health minister Tony Clements has attended to conference to my knowledge. He is in charge of the portfolio that administers treatment for the disease. Does the Prime Minister really need to attend as well. According to non-Canadian Richard Gere, he does. Mr Gere probably had to consult Buddah, or more likely Google Maps to even find where Canada is so I hardly think he's in a possition to criticise our government. Typical Hollywood smug but unfortunately this demi-gods of tinsle town carry a lot of pull amoung the idiotic socialist proles. Now everybody has jumped on the bash Steve bandwagon, including, I believe, former US president and non-Canadian Bill Clinton. I'm sure if his wife wasn't running for president in 2008, he wouldn't be there.

The last time the AIDS conference was held in Canada was 1996. Apparently, then Prime Minister Jean Chretien did not attend either, yet he didn't receive the same amount of criticism. There is a huge double standard in the way we treat our politicians in this country. We should hold all government officials accountable yet it is simply not fair to criticise one leader for not attending, but not to criticise another.

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The Danger of "Safe" Injection Sites

AIDS is a 100% preventable disease. Except in cases of rape and deception, most people who get it are unsanitary or careless.

The latest solution to help limit the disease is are these safe injection sites. Vancouver has them. What these sites do is provide clean needles for haroine addicts to use. A protest to be held later today will lobby the federal government to legalize these sites nation wide, with particular focus on Toronto. Stupid people in large groups are dangerous indeed.
The common argument against these sites is that it will encourage illegal drug use. It certainly will but this is not the problem. What it does is it gets government into the business of peddling drugs. An extremely dangerous precident.

It is estimated that up to 46 million people are infected with HIV. Though a horrible disease, it pales in comparison with the pandemic of drug addiction. Yet another 100% preventable health problem. Both ruin lives and kill. Though one cannot live relatively normally with drug addiction to the extent that people with AIDS can, thanks to new treatments.
This is what's wrong with safe injection sites. The bigger problem is not encouraging drug use, but rather encouraging people's addictions to them. Heroine is one of the most addictive known drugs. Giving them a place to inject is not going to solve the problem, it's only going to make addiction appear more socially acceptable. We must never get to that point. The only solution is to encourage these people to get off their addiction. Most probably do want to get off the junk, but don't know how. We need more money for addiction programs, not this crap that these protesters are proposing. If you still think there is nothing wrong with government's administering mind bending drugs, I can suggest several distopian books and movies in which that is the central theme, both real and fiction.

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Protect our Children

I have to blast both the Liberal and Conservative governments for this. The problem is the sharp increase in the number of sex offenders in our society, particularly those who victimize children. I sometimes wonder if buggering kids is still a crime anymore.

This week's big story was the kidnapping or a young boy out west by a dangerous child molester who has been convicted of that crime numerous times. Seeing the tears in the father's eyes and the trembling in his voice, I knew this pervert had his way with the poor man's son. This was something that didn't need to happen, it shouldn't have happened.

I think our government is afraid of sex offenders. I don't think I can target any particular party because they're all guilty of this. They just don't seem to want to act to toughen laws that would keep in jail, or at least restrict the momement of pedophiles. These people are sick, pure and simple. They are criminally insane and should be locked in mental institutions indefinately. It is not a sexual orientation as some would like us to believe. How many more kids need to be hurt before the people in the halls of parliament and the halls of justice put an end to it.

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Pesticide Bylaws Ludicrous

Toronto people are funny. They try to get as far away from the city as possible, yet they try and make their new home exactly like Toronto.

Some new residents to Milton, most likely former residents of Toronto have been pushing for a pesticides bylaw. This proposed bylaw would ban the use of synthetic chemical pesticides in town. This sort of thinking makes little sense, as do most things that come out of that putrid city. These bans simply don't work.

Anyone been to Toronto lately. Take a look at the weeds. They're everywhere. In the sidewalks, on lawns. Everywhere. Due to the pesticides bylaw, there is no way to control them. So called organic methods such as pouring boiling water on them don't seem to be working and there are far too many to pull out. In turn for supposedly saving the environment a bit, the weed problem is making people sick. Toronto has forgotten that many of these weeds produce allergens that can make summer miserable for many. Many of the pesticides used are considered safe by the federal government. I think a bad case of hay feaver is a lot worse than the smell of pesticides. The law would likely also include pesticides used to control harmful insects, which I'm sure local farmers wouldn't be too pleased with.

Do we really want Milton to end up like this. The weeds here are bad enough as it is because the town does not control them on their property, due to budget cuts. If we cut pesticide use all together, the town will be a virtual jungle of dandylyons, ragweed, and hawthorn bushes, just like Drumquin park. Toronto people, if you like Toronto's way of doing thing, get out of Milton and go back there. Milton is a farming community. Farms used pesticides, people use them. We use them to control harmful pests to feed you.

Here are a few tips for people worried about pesticides. First of all, apply them yourself using the bottles that connect to your hose. Weed and pest control companies often use way too much. Doing it yourself is cheaper and you can control how much goes on the lawn. Sprey only a light application during the peak time of year, or whenever pests start to cause major problems. Spreying more than once or twice is often unnecessary, even though pest companies would have you think otherwise. This will help control the majority of dandylyons on your lawn. From then on, it's simply a matter of pulling stragglers. Mow your lawn often to remove dandylyon flowers before they go to seed. Insects and diseases can be controlled with the same method of light spraying. Insecticidal soap can be used after. Try and plant insect and disease resistant varieties.

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When to Draw the Line on Hate Crime

Well, looks like the media has grown board of Israel's scuffle with Lebanon. This big story this week is Mel Gibson's DUI. Conspiracy theories are out in full force, claiming Mel is in bed with the cops. The police spokesperson stated that he was arrested without incident, but the leaked police report tells a different story. Apparently the "Road Warrior" (as the media has dubbed him) resisted arrest and shouted slurs at the cops. This is something you expect from a drunk person, and Mel has suffered from alcoholism for some time.

You may be asking why I'm bothering with this idiotic Hollywood celebrity. It's because Mel has re-opened a can of worms that definately needs to be sorted out. This time Mel has taken the roll of the character Pink, from Pink Floyd's classic "The Wall". In a drunken haze, Mel alledgedly shouted racial slurs, anti-semitic slurs to be exact. It has long been suspected that Mel doesn't like Jews. Whether that's true or not is undetermined.
What can be determined is Hollywood's anger about it. Many of those that run Hollywood are Jewish. The rest are Scientologists, making Jesus loving Mel a bit of a minority. Mel's father Hutton Gibson is a extreme fundamentalist Catholic. He is well known for his Holocaust denial. Some are beginning to wonder is Mel takes after dear old dad. Mel's biggest movie, the infamous Passion of the Christ, is said to be anti-semitic.

Hollywood now wants to take their revenge on Mel. They want him to be black listed but also charged with hate crimes. This begs the question. How does one define a hate crime, exactly? Lets use Mel as a case study. Mel alledgeldy said hateful things about Jews. Was he hurting Jews? No, as the arresting officers were not Jewish. Was he spreading hate? No, he was drunk so it's unlikely anybody would take him seriously. So did Mel commit a crime? No. In the United States, freedom of speech is protected under the first amendment. You can say what ever you want no matter how idiotic. That's the way things should be in a democracy. California is slightly different. Hate speech in the workplace (only) is not prohibited, but it is not protected, meaning it is considered reasonable grounds for termination. How California skirts the 1st is unknown. The state is almost a different country and they seem to get away with having their own rules. However, under California and US law, Mel cannot be black listed and he cannot be charged with a crime.

Here in Canada we are a little different. In the US, freedom of expression and speech are god given rights. In Canada, not so much. Sure, our media has more freedom here. The CRTC is less likely to censor offensive material than the FCC does. However, if Mel had done the same thing here, it would have been a crime. You can be arrested, and jailed for making off the cuff remarks. Technically, your constitution is little more than a piece of paper. The SCOC gets to decide what reasonable limits it can put on you, and they get to define what's "reasonable". Doesn't seem quite right, does it. I don't condone hate speech as I like to follow the "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" ideology. However, I don't think our government has the right to tell me what I can and can't say, and they certainly should not have the right to imprison me for it.

Here's where the line is drawn. You say you hate Jews. That should not be a crime. You say the Holocaust never happend. You're an idiot and obviously never paid any attention in school, but that should not be a crime. You harass Jews, threaten them, vandalize their property, beat them up, and/or kill them, well then those are hate crimes and should be punished accordingly. We have to put our democratic values over people's feelings. As long as nobody is being hurt (hurt defined as being directly targeted, not simply offended), we cannot deny people the right to say what they want to. End of discussion.

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