If you are in Toronto

Go to this tonight. The boys need your help to take down the Evil Empire... evil empire of sports that is.

The tickets are less than $10, if you go after the first pitch has been thrown you can get some really good deals from the scalpers.

Ralph Goodale is a big idiot

Ralph Goodale has officially gone off the deep end on bank mergers.

He might as well go stand in front of the TSX/NYSE and scream: "Hi.. folks.. yeah you guys running around in ties, the government of Canada is thinking about nationalizing the banks.. wait.. I didn't actually say that.. go on.. just ignore me."

Bankers hate uncertainty more than they hate socialism. Goodale's recent remarks that the guidelines on bank mergers will not be ready in time and that when they are ready they will not address the all important cross-pillar deals, between big banks and insurance companies, are really, really stupid.

Here is what one analyst said about Goodale:

"He's being extremely irresponsible with his remarks," Mr. Zivic said of the Finance Minister. "He's sitting on the fence here . . . Why doesn't he just shut up?"

Seriously. Goodale needs to either come up with the guidelines or say nothing. Every time he comments on the issue Canadian banks and insurance companies, especially BMO and Manulife Financial, take a hit. Everyone knows that these mergers will eventually happen, all the Finance Department's foot dragging is doing is taking value out of the M&A. What used to be a sweet deal for the bankers is becoming less and less sweet every time BMO takes a hit.

Someone needs to fix this situation. Forget the politics of it, all this uncertainty is going to harm our financial market.. and our market is not big enough or strong enough to be able to withstand it.

Dogs vs. Moose

This has got to be a joke:

"Using ships and dogsleds, the Danish navy patrols Greenland's roughly 40,000-kilometre-long coastline, equal to the length of the equator."

Now apparently these ships and dogsleds are being send to Hans Island.

They are going to invade us with dogsleds??? How are we going to respond? What would be a porportionate response to a dogsled invasion? Do we let our beavers and moose loose on them?

Today's Moron: John Samuel

I don't know who John Samuel is and I don't know what his group, People's Forum or Peoples Forum as it says in The Star, does.

But I do know that saying the the PM is ignoring visible minorities in his appointments right before the PM appionts a Haitian born GG to replace a Chinese born GG must make you feel as dumb as a cow.

This is the danger of playing politics with race. With one move you will be left looking like a complete moron.

Today's moron: John Samuel.

PS Doesn't Peoples Forum sound like the Human Fund from Seinfeld? From now on I will sign all letters as the Founder of People for Better Humanity.

Improve your golf score and memory!

Be like Kim!

Here is an article that my housemate sent me.

According to this, Kim Jong-il has a superbrain and is a super golfer.

He is, according to those around him, an expert horseman and golfer, having shot 11 holes-in-one during his first-ever round.

Now, I always knew golf was a sport for liars, but I didn't knjow it was a sport for communist dictators.

I guess GPA's attempt to broaden the reach of the sport has succeeded- first into the inner cities, then into harems and palaces!

Next time you wear fake jeans,

or buy a fake purse, just remember you helped bring this about.

There is no moral difference between supporting an organization that counterfeits designer purses and supporting one that counterfeits medicine.

In fact, the odds are that it is the same bunch of thugs doing both. For your own sake, for sake of your children, for sake of our society STOP buying fake designer clothes.

Biometric Systems: Not So Cool

Here is an article about the recent hackers convention in Las Vegas.

For sometime now, I have been casually studying various uses of biometric security systems. They are becoming more and more common, and it seemed to me that their extended use provided no greater security to anyone.

Here was my thinking:

Asking someone to do retinal scan before going into a bank site or anywhere else is like putting a billion dollar lock on a simple house door. Sure the theif may not be able to break the lock, but he can simply unhinge the entire door and go around the lock.

What we really need is a more secure backbone before we worry about securing the front door.

The other thing that is not so cool is the RFID. (Read about them in the article.) But can someone explain to me why we they are using RFID's instead of Bluetooth? It seems to me that te latter would be a lot safter.. and lot cooler too!

Who is racist now?

Back in the days of Reform/Alliance, the media used to always hint that we were nothing but a bunch of racist, rednecks. (As an immigrant who is not white, I found that particularly odd.)

I remember thinking at the time that if the main reason we are racist is that we don't have enough people of colour in our party, then what does that say about the media? After all, the only organization more white than the Ottawa Press Galary is the Federal Liberal's senior campaign team.

As late as early 2008

That is when Israel will bomb Iran.

According to the IDF "Iran will probably have a nuclear bomb by 2012, but could have the capability as early as 2008 'if all goes well for it,'." So I’m guessing Israel will bomb the facilities about three hours before they are due for their grand opening.

Of course, some believed that since Iran had volunteered to not enrich uranium, the IDF would not worry itself with a supposedly independent civilian nuclear application.

Even these people ought to be worried today, since Iran announced that it was ending its voluntary suspension and would assume processing uranium immediately.

It doesn't feel so good now, does it?

Helen Thomas is claiming that she will never talk to a reporter again. (This is odd because she is a reporter and most of her friends, one could assume, are reporters as well.. as is her boss.)

She says:

"We were just talking -- I was ranting -- and he wrote about it. That isn't right. We all say stuff we don't want printed,"

I remember a while ago when a certain Alliance MP was a bar trying to drain some sorrows and some reporter was there at the bar as well. Suffice to say this MP was not giving an interview, he had just had a bad day and was drinking a few drinks. Anyway, what he said to that reporter ended up on the cover of a national paper. The MP ended up losing his critic position over it.

So to all future reporters, remember this from one of your own: "That isn't right. We all say stuff we don't want printed."