Hey Riders! Remember, math is for winners!

"It's hard to imagine not being able to count." Err, unless you're a Saskatchewan Roughrider. Not only can they imagine it - - it haunts them still! For they learned the hard way last year that there's a price to be paid "If you can't count it, [cause] then you don't know how many you've had, how many you've got, or [most importantly] how many you need."

So recognizing that "the ability to count is a culturally learned skill" here's hoping Regina's locker room culture has beat into, driven home, and drilled into the minds of every member of the Green Machine one simple fact: All will be forgiven if only they can remember that a gridiron is no place for a baker's dozen!

As the Globe & Mail has noted, today's Grey Cup gives the Rider's a "chance to quell the bitter bile that rises in their throats when they think back" on one of the biggest boneheaded plays in football history. Here's wishing them the best of luck!

GO RIDERS GO!

Two Big Guts with Shit Eating Grins: Harper & Sopuck

Harper: Okay, remember we could get a fucking turnip elected in this riding if we slapped a PC sticker on it. You're the turnip we chose so enjoy!

Sopuck; Yes Steve.

Harper: Guns and Crime, that's all you gotta talk about. Got it?

Sopuck: Yes Steve.

Harper: Don't talk about nothing else, got it?

Sopuck: Yes Steve.

Harper: If somebody asks you about the rigged nomination - just talk about Guns & Crime.

Sopuck: Yes Steve.

Harper: If somebody asks you about the Indians... err... First Nations, just bring it around to Guns & Crime... okay?

Sopuck: Yes Steve.

Harper: Your riding is one of the least diverse and most poorly educated parts of the country - so just talk about Guns and Crime; Crime and Guns; Guns and Guns; Crime and Crime; Guns and Crime... nothing else. Got it?

Sopuck: Yes Steve.

Harper: We're gonna have Shelly give you our PC mind-shrink indoctrination. Just do as she does. Absolutely incapable of self-generating a singular critical thought on any issue, she's exactly what we look for at PC Central. Follow her lead and you'll be fine. Got it?

Sopuck: Yes Steve.

Harper: Any questions?

Sopuck: {dead silence}... err... Nope.

Harper: Good, that's the way I like it.

Spuck: Yes Steve.

Harper's Senate

There's this guy... AND...

"A review of Harper's appointments shows 21 of the 36 have strong partisan links either to Harper personally or the Conservatives (federal and provincially) and their predecessor parties — the Reform party, the Progressive Conservative party, and the Canadian Alliance."


Stephen Harper's own words criticizing Paul Martin Senate appointments (Mar 25, 2005): "He's stuck to the same old ... patronage routine. And worse, he's using the Senate, at taxpayers' expense, to play political games."

My Prime Minister - What a fucking hypocrite!

5 Stupidest Things I Have Read Today - pt.1

Okay, here goes... a listing of the 5 stupidest things I have read today. Enjoy.

1. - "In oral cultures, the most significant historical information is found in oral sources, particularly stories."
* MacKinley Darlington, "Captain Death Strikes Again: Tuberculosis and the Stó:lõ 1871-1907", (MA Thesis: University of Saskatchewan), 2010. p.3

2. -"World-class news commentary from the most authoritative news source in Canada" * Globe & Mail's banal banner boast on their "Commentary" section webpage (devoid of hubris)

3.- "If Prime Minister Stephen Harper had the oratorical style of a Barack Obama, the nuanced elegance of a Pierre Trudeau, or the fire of a John Diefenbaker, his speech last week on anti-Semitism and Israel would be put on a pedestal." *Toronto Star, Nov. 15, 2010 (editorial)"Stephen Harper is exactly right on Israel" - UTTER BULLSHIT!

4.- "Winnipeg, Manitoba, March 31, 2010 – Premier Greg Selinger and Mayor Sam Katz today joined Ken Hildahl, Chair, Board of Directors of the Winnipeg Football Club, David Asper, Executive Chairman of Creswin Properties Inc. and University of Manitoba President, Dr. David Barnard to announce a plan to accelerate construction of a new community-owned football stadium at the University of Manitoba. ... Beginning this summer, Creswin will construct the $115 million facility with an opening in time for the 2012 CFL and Bison football seasons" *Government of Manitoba News Release - Jesus, that's always good for a laugh!

5.- "Harper said his government's budget forecasts are ... already forecasting modest economic growth in the years ahead." *Vancouver Sun, Nov. 15, 2010, "Global trade imbalance serious, but not an urgent issue, PM says" - "already"?

Asked and ... Answered? Futility and the Pembina Trails School Board

So, speaking of futility - a buddy of mine who cares about such things was over this fine eve lamenting what one hears at School Board meetings. To wit, he showed me something on his Blackberry that illustrates what happens here in Winnipeg when a member of the public deigns to ask a School Board a question:

"Questions from Members of the Public in Attendance"
"A. Filewich noted that during the Auditor’s report, the Auditor stated that the Division was maximizing all of its Provincial Grants. She asked if the Division was maximizing the Equalization Grant.

The Secretary-Treasurer responded stating that the Equalization Grant increases as spending increases. He said that the Equalization Grant in Pembina Trails increases only 3¢ or 4¢ for every additional $1.00 in increased expenditures. He added that, since the Division is on the 2% Formula Guarantee in the Funding of Schools Program, any increase in the Equalization Grant results in a reduction of the 2% Formula Guarantee Grant so that increased expenditures result in a zero increase in Provincial grants."

[from: PEMBINA TRAILS SCHOOL DIVISION - Highlights of Board Meeting of November 9, 2010, p.4]

REALLY? I mean c'mon, was that a real answer? Am I missing something? Is the "Equalization Grant" real? Was the question misguided? Cripes, if that's the kind of nonsensical jargon one can be subjected to at their local Board meeting, it's small wonder more of us don't participate. Further, an answer like that makes one wonder what the Board, Trustees, and the Provincial Department of Education are smoking? I mean in what alternative universe could that answer be seen as a faithful and logical depiction of our current educational funding formulas here in Manitoba? Anybody?

If the guy below was right in the 1850s, I'm willing to bet that Trustees, School Administrators and Department of Education minions and their ilk have probably been part of the group smoking "something" for at least the last century and a half - how else do we explain an answer like that!

Guess which one's the Crazy?

One of these men professed last night that he'd rescue Manitoba from "the merchants of fear and falsehood(s)" and that he was against the practice of "rewarding car thieves and low level gangsters with slurpees and baseball tickets." - the other is just plain nuts! Care to guess who is who?

Dear Premier, Our Premier, My Premier: DON'T FUCK THIS UP!

Sources say the price is more than $160 million and the stakeholders are now huddling to determine what comes next. The project will require extra money or the design could be altered to make the stadium fit the $115-million budget used to put together the existing funding package.


Dearest Greg,

Oops, where are my manners? May I call you Greg? No? Am I being too personal? Really? If so, I apologize... err... (ahem) let us start again.

Dear Mr. Premier,
(The same one who promised all Manitoban's we would only be on the hook for no more than $90 MILLION of our hard earned tax dollars to fund yet another Asper vanity project... i.e. a new Winnipeg Football stadium),

Must say sir, I was quite disheartened to read the this news. Forget about the insipid calculated timing of the release of this story mere days after our recent civic election... how odd? Wow, what a coincidence? I mean who knew this was in the pipe? Did you? Did Katz? Did Asper? I bet one of you "True Blue" knew? But as that fat corrupt mafia guy on TV used to say: "fogetta-bout-it". Who-knew-what-when-was-convenient-for-them is not my point here.

My point here, and what is bothering me, is that I fear you, our Premier, my Premier, our Dear Premier, are about to break our trust. I fear that you, our Premier, my Premier, our Dear Premier, may soon succumb to the most debilitating Manitoba political disease of all ... aka: "The AKA's" ("The Asper-Katz Appeasement Syndrome").

I fear that even now this affliction, the "AKA's", may be taking hold of your person and senses and causing you, my Dear Premier, to lose your bearings, good judgment, and moral compass. Please, my Premier, our Premier, ... our Dear Premier, ... please say it isn't so! Please confirm for us that you are healthy. Please confirm, in no uncertain terms, that you are not afflicted. Please confirm you are immune to the "AKA's" by announcing that you refuse, ABSOLUTELY REFUSE, to enter into any further discussions regarding a rejigged/re-vamped funding agreement with either of these these boldfaced opportunists.

You made a deal with Asper... a deal is a deal. Cost overruns are his responsibility. Further, it is his responsibility to deliver the product originally promised (amenities and all). Anything less is a deal breaker. Surely, my Premier, our Premier, my Dear Premier, you don't want to be seen as one who breaks either deals, or the trust of the people - certainly not at this juncture. Not when so much is riding on your integrity. So, my Premier, our Premier, our Dear Premier: NOT ONE MORE RED CENT for the AKA's! Not now, not ever - - A deal is a deal!