Everything I Needed to Know About Public Sector/Union Jobs I Learned At Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons Coffee & Bake Shop (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everything I Needed to Know About Public Sector/Union Jobs I Learned At Tim Hortons.

This one.

Update: If that one didn't grab you, maybe this one will: "Tim Hortons with $26/hour servers putting Windsor hospital $265k in the hole".

$20/hour for pouring coffee. Plus benefits.

For any holdouts who think Big Unions'/NDP's insistence on publicly-funded, publicly-run healthcare is altruistic, this should dispel such notions.

John Sununu - Soledad O’Brien Smackdown - Video

LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 28: Chairman and President of the Trump Organization Donald Trump  created media waves by questioning whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

The USA is facing an existential threat to its existence as a prosperous world power, and its media focuses on trivialities.

Maybe CNN wants to turn political news into entertainment, hence the interest in Donald Trump?

At one point Soledad turns it into a tag-team match. That doesn't work either.

Soledad takes the beating pretty graciously.

Worth a look.

h/t Mark Steyn

Canadian Judges Get It Right On 194th Try

A guy who has been involved in not one or two but six police car chases and who has been convicted -- not charged, convicted -- one hundred and ninety three times has finally, finally had his license permanently suspended and sentenced to life in prison (which in Canada means he has to serve at least ten years).

Too bad somebody had to die for this to happen.

A relative boohooed that the sentence was too long and wouldn't work to rehabilitate him.

To which my first inclination, in light of the death involved, is to say, "tough".

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Great Moments in Google Ads...

(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

I once did a search on tooth whiteners and got Google ad offers for about a year. I think if I had taken them up on their offers my teeth would be translucent by now. This morning, I got this: "Meet Arab Singles". I just cannot imagine what I did to warrant this ad. I just had to click.

Any other Google ad stories out there?

PS. If you make a love connection as a result of this post, I want an invitation to the wedding.

Should rapists and heroin smugglers get reduced sentences if they're aboriginal?

One sentence if you're white; another (reduced) if you're aboriginal. And this from judges screaming "equality!".

For a crime that might normally bring 12 to 17 years in prison, the Crown sought eight; Judge Hill gave Knockwood six years, citing “serious state misconduct” through the Gladue delay.

Let me see if I've got this straight. In one case a man robs and rapes a woman; in another, someone smuggles heroin. And the judges are outraged not by the crimes but because some slip of paper or report was not available to them at the time of sentencing? What kind of distorted leftist world do these judges inhabit where they are more outraged by non-compliance with paperwork than with the crimes themselves? And what exactly is wrong with sentencing based on the crime rather than the race or background of the perp? A lot, apparently.

“When sentencing an aboriginal offender, courts must take judicial notice of such matters as the history of colonialism, displacement, and residential schools and how that history continues to translate into lower educational attainment, lower incomes, higher unemployment, higher rates of substance abuse and suicide, and of course higher levels of incarceration for aboriginal peoples. [the "it's all our fault" principle] 

“To the extent that the application of the Gladue principles lead to different sanctions for aboriginal offenders, those sanctions will be justified based on their unique circumstances — circumstances which are rationally related to the sentencing process.”

By "different sanctions" I presume they don't mean harsher. Here's a question: what kind of educational attainment did aboriginals achieve before colonialism? What were their income rates? What were their employment rates then? You can't insist aboriginals remain in their isolated cultures on reserves and also expect they attain the same outcomes as integrated Canadians. It ain't gonna happen.  And if you suggest integration would be good for aboriginals you get slapped down as being racist. Meanwhile, according to the courts, aboriginal crime rates are our fault and we should expect less from aboriginals. What's that going to do for aboriginal self-esteem?

We should be just as outraged by more lenient sentences for aboriginals as we would be if judges were giving harsher sentences. There should be one law, and one standard of enforcement, for all Canadians.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

"We Own UQAM!": Social Justice Has Been Good To Quebec Student Protesters

UQAM à Montréal (Photo credit: racineur)

"They chanted, 'Who owns UQAM? We own UQAM!'">

Plus, they think they deserve free tuition.

So, they "own" an existing institution they didn't pay for in the past, and think they have a right to free tuition in the present and future. What does that make the rest of us, who actually pay for all of this? Slaves. Their slaves.

Which is entirely consistent with the basic instincts of socialism: my rights at your expense.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

PS. Protesters who wear masks in public are cowards.

Please comment but keep the language decent. Any defenders of the students out there?

Quote of the Day: Liberalism After Liberalism

Liberalism After Liberalism - How can we affirm human dignity when liberalism no longer can? -Wilfred M. McClay - First Things

So yes, I concluded, that is “how it can be love,” as we understand love, to tolerate error in others. Not because we are postmodern liberals who believe that all truth is pragmatic and subjective, and that no one can be sure of anything at all, so that we must all therefore live in a state of complete epistemic suspension, lest we become fanatics who cruelly impose our subjective beliefs on others. Not because we are Millian liberals who believe in the free marketplace of ideas as the only place where truths can be warranted. Not because we are people of feeble faith who confuse what is politically or socially convenient with what is required of us by God. But instead because the commitment to noncoercion flows from a theologically grounded commitment to the fundamental and intrinsic dignity of each individual person and thus to the necessity of letting that person come to God freely, in a disposition of love, in the manner of God’s desiring. 

Nice.

AZ Plagiarism Case: "Green, Who Is Black, Denied Any Racial Motives

The professor in question was black so, of course, he denied any wrong-doing and played the race card.

The money quote: "Green, who is Black, denied any racial motives."

Well, of course, she would. Because she's a feminist hating man!!!! This poor soul was picked on because he was black and because he was male. Oh, the humanity!!!

What do readers think of plagiarism? Is it a problem? Is it widespread? Does it matter?

Why Are Occupiers Coddled By Police And Pols?

"In San Francisco, when the mob smashed the plate-glass window of a small business shop, the owner put up some plywood to replace the glass, and the mob wrote graffiti on his plywood. The consequences? None for the mob, but a citation for the shop owner for not removing the graffiti."

I hope this isn't true.

But, it sounds about right.

The Occupiers must be excused and coddled; remind me again, why is this? Because they are "protesters" protesting something? Is that why they have the presumptive right to engage in unlawful actions that would result in swift retributive action if any of the rest of us engaged in them? Is that why they are excused and coddled by police and pols alike? Or is it because the pols want the youth vote and assume that youth are essentially lawless in outlook and behavior?

The liberal West: straining at gnats and swallowing camels.

Joe Biden: Rex Murphy's Towel Boy

Official portrait of Vice President of the United States . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rex Murphy mops the floor with the Obama Admin:

"Joe Biden, the administration’s all purpose towel boy, was heard at a fund raiser to praise Obama’s decision to authorize the raid as “the most audacious in the last 500 years.”.... History and Joe Biden must not be on speaking terms."

Indeed. And we used to think Winston Churchill was something!

Bumped into Rex a couple of times. Last sighting was down by the Toronto waterfront a year or two ago. My wife and I were too politely Canadian to bother him, but I think he noticed we spotted him. What a great guy.

BBC End-of-WWII Quiz

BBC End-of-WWII Quiz

12 questions.

I only got five right. Can you do better?

Breaking: Canada's Watergate Moment

The Toronto Star jumps the shark:

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may have used Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale's cell phone!!!

The Toronto Star has suggested mayor Rob Ford may have used Daniel Dale’s cell phone after the reporter dropped it during a confrontation between the pair Wednesday evening — an act that could be considered illegal. 

Toronto CSI are on the case:

Toronto police told the Star they did not search Mr. Dale’s phone, as they would need a warrant to do so. Police also said the battery was partly charged when they received it, although Mr. Dale said it was dead when he dropped it.

There you have it. The battery was partly charged!  But, it was dead when Dale dropped it!!

Mr. Mayor: did you or did you not charge Mr. Dale's cell phone??!! It's not the crime, it's the coverup. Canada's Watergate moment.

Meanwhile, Toronto Mayor Rob "I am not a crook!" Ford

... expanded his threat to say he won’t speak to any media if any reporter from the Star is present. 

Toronto has just become a better place.

Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

'Fraidy Cat Toronto Star Reporter "Offed" By Mayor: Canada's Grassy Knoll Moment

Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto, greeting a nun at the Mayor's 2011 Levee at City Hall. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's taken Canada almost 50 years to have its Kennedy Assassination moment, but, here it is. Thursday May 3, 2012, a day that will be etched in Canadian minds forever. Who will forget where they were and what they were doing when they heard about Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's offing of a 'Fraidy Cat Toronto Star Reporter?

OK, it wasn't exactly an offing. But the mayor did come out with guns ablazin', well, not two guns, one gun; OK, not an actual gun, that would be uncanadian, but he did come out with his finger and thumb ablazin', looking' like a gun (about as close as Canada gets to an actual assassination). Toronto's mayor was packin' Canadian heat! OK, maybe he had his hand clenched into a mighty mayoral fist. Whatever it was, it was mighty Canadian!

Mighty enough to cause the speak-truthiness-to-power Toronto Star reporter to freeze and cry "don't shoot!" before running off like the 'Fraidy Cop in Monk.

As the photo accompanying the article shows (read the article here) we've even got ourselves a grassy knoll with a wooden fence behind it. OK, it's not real grassy, but it is a knoll, or, if not an actual knoll, it certainly looks knolly or, at least, has a knoll-like quality to it in a Canadian kind of way.

Thursday, May 3, 2012. A day that will live in Canadian infamy. More Canadian than Wayne and Shuster. As Canadian as an ice cream sundae with a Don Cherry on top.

Already conspiracy nuts are asking, "was there a second reporter", and, more ominously (Dr. Evil finger in mouth moment), "a second mayor?".

Gotta ask you: where were you when you heard the shocking news?

Got Her Cosmic Bases Covered...

“As I opened my hand, there was a huge gasp,” she said.... Scientists have told her what she had in her hands could be 4 to 6 billion years old."

“I was lucky, blessed, good karma,” Brenda said. “It [a meteorite] was sitting there at my toes like an Easter egg.”

Well, that says it all -- darwinian, Christian, Hindu, and pop-culture. 


Pop philosophy in action.


The meteorite Brenda found is worth 20,000 bucks. Meanwhile, over at the Ball Bounces, I found myself a dime this morning and consider myself... blessed.


And that's the way the Ball bounces.

"Social Justice" Has Been Good To Macchiato-drinking Quebec University Students

Mark Steyn/Margaret Wente:

They’re currently striking, and rioting, violently, to protest a proposed tuition increase of $1,625. Spread out over seven years. Or about 232 bucks per annum. Or about the cost of one fair-trade macchiato a week. Nevertheless, they’re not gonna swallow it:

Students in Quebec are like no others, we’re told. We need to understand that tuition fees are not the real issue. The real issue is social justice. The real issue is the promise made during the Quiet Revolution that universities would eventually be free. The real issue is the fight against the ruling class, the greedy corporations, the tar sands, and the entire capitalist, neo-liberal elite. Of course, since universities actually do cost money, somebody will have to pay. Who? The greedy corporations!

Social justice would be where everybody gets what they pay for and pays for what they get. Somehow I don't think that's what the student's have in mind.

Social Justice in the Liberal State (Photo credit: Wikipedia)