Road Trip Toronto to Phoenix: Day One - Toronto - Indianapolis

On our way 7am. 401 to Windsor to Detroit via the Ambassador Bridge. Nexus cards in hand. No line-up. Breezed through Nexus, declaring our dog food, US cash, etc. Paid bridge toll -- $5 US or $6.25 CAD.  Opted for Canadian to get rid of some change and preserve US dollars.

I-75 south out of Detroit down to Toledo, OH. Got a couple of take-out dogs at a Tony Packos in Sylvania -- delish, and, boy, are their pickles strong!

Drove southwest to Fort Wayne. 70 mph with cars making right turns onto the highway -- definitely rural! Then down to Indianapolis. Got a coupon-rate at the Drury Inn, Indianapolis. When we stay at Drury Inns, our goal is to arrive in time to enjoy evening Kick-back. We arrived around 5pm -- in lots of time.

Ontario - Michigan - Ohio - Indiana. So far, so good.

Tomorrow's goals: IMO's pizza in St. Louis and Lambert's Home of the Throwed Rolls in Ozark, MO. Stay in either Springfield or Joplin MO. There's a time zone change that works in our favour tomorrow.

Road trip Toronto to Phoenix: The Plan

We leave with our two dogs leave tomorrow morning for Phoenix. Travelling in a 4-wheel drive 2006 Toyota Matrix.

Day one, heading for Indianapolis via the Detroit bridge. Plan to stay at an Indianapolis Drury Inn at their coupon rate. Would like to get some Esther Price chocolates if I can find a Kroger that sells them.

Four culinary highlights on the planned route: IMO's St. Louis for thin-crust pizza. Lambert's, Ozark, MO - "home of the throwed rolls" for pulled-pork, throwed rolls, and fixin's. Cattlemen's in Oklahoma City for a T-bone. Turquoise Room, Winslow AZ for Arizona green chile eggs breakfast.

I'll try to do nightly updates.

Enjoy the ride!

BallBounces' Plan to Save Ontario

Ontario is drowning in debt. Meanwhile, government employees enjoy job security along with salaries and benefits that are higher than the private sector.

Here's my plan to save Ontario: 

* Reduce all civil servant/public employee salaries/benefits by 3% a year until the budget is balanced. (If you want to be aggressive, make it 5%.)

* No bonuses whatsoever paid out in fiscal years that run a deficit. Bonuses tied to amount of fiscal surplus.

* Any future deficits result in a 5% reduction in salaries/benefits in the next fiscal year. 

This would encourage better planning and responsible use of scarce funds. As it is, governments just keep blowing the debt balloon ever bigger while the worker-beneficiaries hope they are no longer around when it all goes pop.

Editted for clarity and content 11/7/2015.

CBC: This bad place called Canada

I had the misfortune of listening to CBC radio on a drive to PEI on election day. Within an hour, this is what I heard:

* Canada is bad because there are permanent residents who can't vote because they haven't been granted citizenship. They found a Filipino nanny who complained she had lived here for 11 years but didn't get to air her gripes via the ballot box.

* Israel is a bad because settlers killed an innocent person they mistook for a Palestinian terrorist. The Palestinians who go around stabbing people, not so bad.

* Canada is bad because it hassles women wearing nijabs at citizenship ceremonies. The guest speaker, a taxpayer-funded academic, provided a litany of past oath-taking controversies and ended with a faux-apology asking the Muslim lady to forgive us because Canada is bad and we always get things wrong. What he really meant was non-progressives are bad while enlightened progressives feel your pain.

* Canada is bad because it requires photo IDs to vote and this is a hassle for people without photo IDs and, get ready for this… transgendered persons.

All this within a single hour.

The CBC is so drippingly ideological. I wish they would have the decency to acknowledge their bias and insist they have no right to expect others to fund them.

Toronto Is Going To The Dogs

Vegans take over Toronto steakhouse. Hilarity ensures.

Enjoy!

Is This Justin Trudeau's Finest Moment?

David Suzuki says Trudeau called his views on climate change 'sanctimonious crap' in heated call.

I'm gobsmacked.

Is this Justin's finest moment? His most astute observation? Will he build on this moment of lucidity -- or is it all downhill from here?

The Fishy Mohammed Clock Caper…

"Naming your kid “Ahmed Mohamad” and sending him into school with a ticking briefcase is just asking for problems."

No kidding.

Was it really an invention? Or was it just a re-hashed clock from Radio Shack? If so, what was the purpose of this caper? Was it a set up?

http://louderwithcrowder.com/exposed-ahmed-mohamed-never-even-built-a-clock-new-video-emerges/

http://libertynews.com/2015/09/boy-genius-ahmed-mohameds-digital-clock-invention-is-a-hoax-he-didnt-build-it/

Did he not realize that taking a ticking box filled with loose wires and electronics could be misconstrued? What about his parents/dad -- in this day and age would you innocently send your kid -- muslim no less -- off to school with what looks like a bomb without at least notifying the teacher ahead of time? Is this civil, civic-minded behaviour, or is this wilful provocation?

Did the police over-react? (Answer: yes -- but that's what liberal-left zero-tolerance policies gets you.)

He got the knee-jerk invite to the White House. Would he have got this invite if he were a white kid?Why does he get to go to the White House, but a kindergarten kid who gets expelled for eating a pop tart into the shape of a gun does not? Obama rarely misses a chance to "make America look bad" and fan the flames of racial/ethnic/religious animosity. 

Provocation, meet the provocateur-in-chief.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Great Moments in Global Warming: "Gas Prices triple by 2015”

Daily Caller:

ABC News ran a news special in 2009 called Earth 2100, a program warning its viewers about the dangers of climate change. ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff says the show “puts participants in the future and asks them to report back about what it is like to live in this future world. The first stop is the year 2015.” A Harvard University professor says, “We’re going to see more floods, more droughts, more wildfires.”

Gas prices triple by 2015. Suburbs abandoned. Don't miss EthaHAUL --  it appears at the end of the video.

Don't expect a retrospective boy-were-we-duped retraction from ABC.

Warning: PG. Scary, apocalyptic scenarios. Could frighten children.

Great Moments in Environmentalism: “In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death"

In 1968 a man called Ehrlich published a book called the Population Bomb. He thought the number of people on earth was growing so fast that there soon wouldn’t be enough food to feed everybody, He said in the book.

“ In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate”

h/t  Watts Up With That

Folks, we have five years to save the planet. So, get busy. Here are the top five practical steps you can take to save the planet:

5. Write your Congressman or MP.

4. Shut off your air con/heating.

3. Ditch the car and get out your bike.

2. Install solar panels and wind mills in your house/condo/apt.

1. Stop breathing.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Mann Bites Dog Mann

Most of you are aware of the litigation-media war between Mark Steyn and Nobel Piece-of-a-Prize winner Michael Mann.

This is a review of Steyn's latest salvo, the book-length "A Disgrace To The Profession: The World's Scientists, In Their Own Words, On Michael E Mann, His Hockey Stick And Their Damage To Science - Volume I" (Compiled and edited by Mark Steyn, with illustrations by Josh). So there.

I expected the book to be on the dry side compared to Steyn's usual joyous romps. I was wrong. It was a pleasure to read. I was laughing by the time I reached the Table of Contents. Steyn organizes scientists' criticisms of Mann by theme and keeps the "plot" moving. Criticism, meet witticism.

The book's organization is brilliant: each section begins with an overview by Steyn, followed by a series of two-page, bite-sized critiques of Mann. They're like a Pez dispenser, you finish one, another pops up, staring you in the face. Daring you. OK, just one more. Just one more. This is definitely the last. No more Pez today!!!

What a compendium of biting criticisms. As the litigation proceeds, we'll see how these Mann bites dog Mann.

Two bristlecone pines, way up!

Get the book here.

Greece: The Greasy Slide Down (and the way Up)

Greek financial/capital markets are tanking.

Greece is a festering sinkhole of dishonesty and corruption. It is reaping what it has sown. It is a capital repulsion force field.

Ever notice how western nations characterized by corruption are either Roman Catholic or Orthodox? I say this not out of enmity or bigotry; as far as I can see it is an observable fact. Greece needs a Protestant Reformation; one that upholds the Ten Commandments as a societal obligation before God.

Look to Singapore for an example. It started from scratch after WWII (actually started with a Confucian-Protestant British cultural heritage) and prospered through integrity, hard work, and good decision-making. It became a capital magnet. It prospered. It took a generation. There are no quick fixes -- especially when the problem is cultural and moral.

May God bring enlightening, uplifting moral reformation to Greece.

And that's the way the praying Ball bounces.

Reading the Koran at the Vatican

Reading the Koran at the Vatican -- is this passes for "contending for the faith" these days? Does the present pope really believe that the Koran is an authentic revelation from God, or is he just playing nice, some kind of evangelism-by-stealth?

Apparently Francis -- if that's his real name -- said: "It is my hope that this meeting will mark the beginning of a new journey where we seek the things that unite, so as to overcome the things that divide".

What divides Christianity and Muslims?

* The divinity of Christ
* The saving death of Christ
* The resurrection of Christ
* The inspiration and reliability of the Old Testament
* The inspiration and reliability of the New Testament
* Christ, Saviour and Lord, 
* Christ the fulness of God's revelation, i.e., no need for a Mohammed.

Sure. Let's set all this aside -- the guts of the Christian faith -- and focus on what unites Muslims and Christians. Which would be what?

Pan Am Tickets? -- Fuggedaboudit.

I thought since I was in Toronto I might as well check out Pan Am tickets for tomorrow.
Went to the main site.

As far as I can tell, it is impossible to know what events are on tomorrow -- the ticket site simply won't cough up this information. Must have been designed by someone who doesn't stand to lose or gain based on ticket sales.

Guess I'll just stay home.

And that's the way the Ball doesn't bounce.

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The British Legal Mind -- a Dying Breed?

A woman in the UK gets jail for distracted driving that killed a cyclist. Here's the UK judge's reasoning:

… Judge Lord Kinclaven said driving while using a mobile phone "has the capacity to wreck lives and literally kill". 

 Check.

He said: "Use of a hand-held mobile phone is in itself an unlawful act. 

He says "unlawful act" as if it were a bad thing?!

"The fact an offender is avoidably distracted by the use of a mobile phone when committing an offence of this sort will always make an offence more serious."

Check.

This judge thinks the way I do. I attribute it to my Canadian British Judeo-Christian upbringing, rooted in the notions of personal responsibility and respect for the law.

Compare/contrast this with the wooly thinking that passes for left-wing compassion these days in much of the west. Illegally in the country? No prob. You're just "undocumented". Committed several crimes/felonies? No prob. We feel your pain. Catch and release.

Can a nation that jettisons its own Judeo-Christian roots and despises its own Law long survive?

We'll see.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

My Big Fat Greek Crisis

Coat of arms of Greece since 7 June 1975. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Crises like this one usually have one of two root-causes: structural or moral. Greece has both.

Structurally, it leans towards communism/socialism. Retirement at 50. Socialism is de-moralizing; it sucks the moral fibre out of people.

Morally, Greece is a de-moralized, corrupt country. Dishonesty and evasion are the norms -- everyone's on the take, and no-one's a giver. Well, the countries that loaned Greece money were givers. That's about it.

Here's a great example of Greece as a structural/moral problem that I came across in The Telegram:

I am 52 years old, and get a Pension of €1,400 per month, and dont know if i will get the next payment. I would vote NO, i have been retired since the age of 50 and get the money sent from Greece, and can use the council Gyms in London for free, free meals on wheels from Hackney Council, it is a good life.

Free, free, free. A good life = one that someone else pays for.

Greece's problem is not financial; it is moral. It never had a Protestant Reformation.

It needs one.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Did the US Congress Exempt Itself From Obamacare?

Harry Reid (D-NV), United States Senator from Nevada and Majority Leader of the United States Senate (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This Forbes article gives the answer: not exactly.

* Prior to Obamacare, Congress enjoyed subsidized healthcare provided by the federal government.

*The Obamacare bill as passed into law required Congress and its staff to purchase their health insurance through an Exchange at full price.

* In 2013, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), (apparently under direction from the President) issued a rule allowing federal subsidies to continue.

* Republican Senator Vitter subsequently introduced a bill to reverse the OPM rule and "require the President, Vice President, executive branch political appointees, and all Members of Congress and their staff to purchase health insurance through the Exchange and without subsidies from the Federal Government". The bill was blocked repeatedly by Democrat Harry Reid.

There is no law that prevents a US employer from subsidizing a US employee's healthcare. So, there is nothing wrong with an employer subsidy per se.

However, Congress was, by a law they crafted and passed, required to purchase their insurance through an Exchange, without subsidies "as it is written in the original bill which no one read and a majority signed". They then flouted this law with the help of a ruling from the OPM, apparently at the urging of the US President.

Which is about par for the course for the Obama era.

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Easter Sunday: We Have A Winner!

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Good Friday, everybody (with the exception of the disheartened disciples) was sure they had come out on top; they had won.

The political-religious establishment was sure it had won, because it had proved victorious over the One who challenged its power.

Mankind was sure it had won, because it had silenced the accusing Voice.

The Devil thought he had won, because he had killed the Holy One, his archenemy and nemesis.

But God, largely absent as an overt actor on Good Friday, knew he had won because what went down went down according to his plan.

The cross is a fascinating intersection of competing interests, all of whom, according to their own terms, thought they had "won". But on Easter Sunday, after Evil had thrown everything it had in the Son of God's face, God played his hand. He raised Christ from the dead.

A singular act in history. Trump card. Game over. God wins.

God took everything Evil had and triumphed over it. That, by itself, is an incredible message. But, there's more. He didn't just triumph over it; he used evil's power to effect his win. Because of the crucifixion of Christ, mankind in Christ had been justly punished for its rebellion; an acceptable sacrifice to God had been made. Now God could justly and freely forgive and declare innocent whomever he chose. As the apostle Paul put it, God proves through the cross to be both just, and the justifier, of those who trust in Christ. God used evil's power to destroy evil's power.

It wasn't just a win; it was  a complete and utter rout. The message that God used evil to overcome evil is too sublime to be of human origin. It has the earmarks of the divine. It is worthy of belief.

* * *

As humans we tend to think that the death of Jesus was the easy, natural, thing, and the resurrection the hard, spectacularly supernatural thing: Christ -- easy to kill; hard to raise. In fact, the opposite is true. Christ was sinless. He could not justly be put to death. God, who cannot perform an unjust work, needed some help. He needed injustice to do the evil work of killing Christ. And evil's malign intents played right into His hands.

In fact, the resurrection was the easy part. How hard could it be for God to raise up the divine, sinless One whom Scripture says death not only did not hold, but could not hold (Acts 2:24)? While the cross is the strange, if sublime, work, the resurrection is simply God being God, albeit an unparalleled display of his power.

There are two streams at work in human life. The stream of evil, sin, and death. And the stream of resurrection life. The person without Christ operates in the first stream only. The end-game is death. The Bible calls it "perishing". It's an end-game from which there is no escape. Apart from Christ.

The person in Christ operates in both streams. The power of the cross cancels sin, renders sinful human nature inoperative, and negates the devil's sublimely evil influences over our lives. But we also pivot to the new life offered in Christ. As Scripture puts it, if we were reconciled to God through Christ's death, how much more shall we be saved by his life (Romans 5:10).

Because he lives, we shall live also. At Easter, God won -- and so did we!

Good Friday: Everybody Was A Winner

The Devil and Evil won, because they succeeded in killing the Holy One, the Devil's archenemy, master, and tormentor.

Mankind won, because it succeeded in silencing the Voice accusing it of sin.

The political-religious establishment won, because they were victorious over a major pain in their butt.

God won, because things went according to his plan.

The cross is a fascinating intersection of competing interests, all of whom, according to their own terms, "won". The question: can God use the greatest display of evil to achieve the greatest display of good?

Stay tuned…

It's Friday, but Sunday's coming.

“A Senator’s Job Description is Public Service”

A Canadian Senator has huffed and puffed that “a senator’s job description is public service”.

Unfortunately for tax-payers, "public service" is now progressive-speak for "massively entitled".

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Militant Islam And the Language of Appeasement

President Obama excels at exculpatory language when it comes to militant Islam, as do most quisling European political leaders.

Western politicians' unwillingness to use honest language regarding the threat of Islam in general and militant Islam in particular is perhaps driven by an unwillingness to differentiate between "us" and "them". As such, it amounts to a cultural death-wish.

Mark Steyn, as always, is one of the best sources for clear-headed analysis.