Saturday, February 27, 2010

In the News LXVII

Obama appoints Washington Insider as Social Secretary
Wasn't this supposed to be the administration of change.

Don't look at Turkey as a source for moderate Islam
Its really a shame as the country now seems to be turning its back on its Kemalist past.

David Cameron turns up the rhetoric on Gordon Brown
The hope of course is that he doesn't blow it by going soft in the run in.
Although why is William Hague still the shadow Foreign Secretary? I thought he was a political has-been.

Could Israel be inviting an Israeli attack?
Seems ridiculous but then again.... look who is in power in Tehran.

California in an economic shambles....worse than Greece
Even the Terminator looks impotent here.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Forty Football players that I have enjoyed watching

...when of course they were not scoring goals against Liverpool...All are retired (not in any order). Although I didn't see all playing live I have enough info to reach this positive conclusion.

1. Gianfranco Zola
2. Kenny Dalglish
3, Bryan Robson
4. Alan Hansen
5. Eric Cantona
6. Matt Le Tissier
7. Frank Worthington
8. George Best
9. Jimmy Greaves
10. Diego Maradona
11. Andy Gray
12. Trevor Francis
13. Tony Woodcock
14. Kevin Keegan
15. Steve Heighway
16. Emlyn Hughes
17. Mark Hughes
18. Roy Keane
19. Liam Brady
20. Peter Beardsley
21. John Barnes - one of my all-time favourites
22. Stan Collymore
23. Denis Bergkamp
24. Franz Beckenbauer
25. Peter Osgood
26. Marc Overmars
27. Johan Cruyff
28. Zinedine Zidane
29. Marcel Desailly
30. Michel Platini
31. Roger Milla
32. George Weah
33. Gerd Muller
34. Graeme Souness
35. Ian Rush
36. Gary Lineker
37. Paul Gascoigne
38. Chris Woddle
38. Hristo Stoichkov
39. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
40. Glen Hoddle

My England Squad - South Africa 2010

Goalkeepers: David James, Joe Hart, Robert Green

Defenders: John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole (if fit else - Wayne Bridge), Wes Brown, Matthew Upson, Glen Johnson, Lleyton Baines

Midfield: Gareth Barry, Steven Gerrard (should be captain), Michael Carrick, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Jamie Milner, Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright-Philips

Forwards: Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Theo Walcott, Gabriel Agbonlahor

On Standy: Ashley Young, Paul Robinson, Phil Neville, Stephen Warnock

Sunday, February 14, 2010

13 Hypocrites

1. Toronto TTC chief Adam Giambrone - As a hardcore NDPer Giambrone wore the Women's right sleeve on his jacket. Unfortunately this did not extend into the realm of cheating on his live-in girlfriend with a 20 year old student....Ethics courtesy of such other Women's rights champions as John Edwards/Ted Kennedy/Bill Clinton and others.

2. Toronto Mayor David Miller - Was vaunted into power as the NOW Magazine mayor. Miller championed transparency in contrast to the perceived Lastman era. After a disastrous tenure as the City's chief Poopah, what was left of Miller's self righteous pose (of clean government) dissolved in his uncritical backing of his buddy Giambrone.

3. The loathsome Paleo-conservative movement- as exemplified by Pat Buchanan and his cronies - who rally against immigration and the coming of a 'non-white' America but have no problem offering lip service to 'non-white' groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah in their killing of Jews.

4. Naomi Klein, Code Pink and other wackos on the far left - Claim to be a Women's right champion - but have no problem bashing Israel (which has an exemplary record on both women and gay right issues) while at the same time doing damage control for the various Islamist organizations that detest Western Civilization and would be the first to abolish both systems of right should they ever seize power.

5. Chris Matthews - Claims to be a serious journalist - but continues to act like a juvenile grade school reporter with comments of the following ilk:
'I forgot he was black.....' (after Obama's State of the Union Address)
'thrill in my leg'..........) referring to the sensation he felt after another Obama speech
Not to mention his comparison of Republicans to the Khymer Rouge with this moment of emptiness

What's going on out there in the Republican Party is kind of a frightening, almost Cambodia re-education camp going on in that party, where they're going around to people, sort of switching their minds around saying, if you're not far right, you're not right enough.

6. Robert Kennedy, Jr for calling Rush Limbaugh an 'idiot' - for doing the same thing he did.
Read Hypocrite

7. Conservatives who champion family values but then rally against the notion that corporations should give more leave to their employees to spend time with their families.

8. Liberals who oppose discrimination but then have no problem championing injustice when it is crouched in the pc language of affirmative action.

9. Death Penalty advocates who claim to be Pro-Life.

10. Various Atheists - Who Claim that G-d doesn't exists as there is no scientific proof for G-d's existence...however any understanding of the true nature of science would realize that science does not extend into this region of philosophy as science is by its very nature materialistic.

11. Libertarians - Often Rally against government intervention in business to the point of championing anarcho-capitalism while negating the rule of law as exemplified by government that makes the platform for fair business possible in the first place.

12. Liberal such as Michael Moore - who castigate George Bush for not anticipating 911 but then rally against intelligent efforts (such as the Patriot Acts) that would allow for a mechanism that would thwart terrorist events in the first place.

13. The Canadian and Australian Governments in the 1980s - they opposed South Africa's apartheid policies despite the ongoing, less than satisfactory treatment of their respective native and aboriginal populations.

The Winter Olympics are off...

The Winter Olympics in Vancouver are up and running and despite the unfortunate death of Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, the games are set to promise much. As always the Canadian media are gearing up for double medals in both the men and women's hockey event. Since women's hockey is generally a two-horse race this is entirely probable. On the Men's side the calculus is not as simple - I wouldn't write off the Yanks, Swedes or Russians, nor the Czechs, who proved the value of a hot goalie when they emerged with the gold in 1998.

American Hannah Kearney (who has a Canadian mother) edged out Canuck Jennifer Heil in the freestyle moguls, but it was still great to see a Canadian on the podium. Further congrats to South Korea for picking up a short track skating medal (they really have emerged as a powerhouse in this event).

The Olympics offer a much needed sanity break from the regular sporting calendar and despite the protest of some of my friends - who see it as all pomp and circumstance - I am looking forward to embracing this celebration of the human spirit.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Obama takes more heat from the once faithful

It had to come....but I suspect that if he heeded the advice of some of these critics he would most likely further worsen the situation

President Barack Obama is starting to look like the second coming of Jimmy Carter. If he's going to avoid that fate, the president had better take radical action -- and fast.

That means doing more than offering belated talk about jobs, or waging ineffectual on-again, off-again bank warfare. What, after all, is the point of bashing Wall Street only to then blow bonus kisses to JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. head Lloyd Blankfein?

Obama needs to ditch his professorial, community-organizer mien and start cracking some heads. Unless, that is, he is intent on paving the way for a Palin presidency in 2013.

Supporters are crying out for Obama to pull out of his tailspin. In an article in Politico, Douglas Wilder, the nation's first African-American governor and an early Obama supporter, urged the president to get his act together.

"Getting elected and getting things done for the people are two different jobs," Wilder wrote

Source: Delaware Online

More Stupidity from Chavez

Chavez says U.S. occupying Haiti in name of aid

Chavez is the quintissential meddler himself - look at Colombia and Honduras. He also would be the first to make a comment if the US had not acted at all...like his supporters amongst Western Radicals the man is overflowing with BS.

"I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that's what the United States should send," Chavez said on his weekly television show. "They are occupying Haiti undercover."

"On top of that, you don't see them in the streets. Are they picking up bodies? ... Are they looking for the injured? You don't see them. I haven't seen them. Where are they?"

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60G2DW20100117

Saturday, February 06, 2010

40 Great Songs

Time – Pink Floyd
Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie or Bauhaus version
London Calling – The Clash
Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits
The Wall – Pink Floyd
Lust for Life – Iggy Pop
Electricity – OMD
Highway to hell – AC/DC
Satisfaction – Rolling Stones
Spanish Train – Chris De Burgh
Sunday Bloody Sunday – U2
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
True Faith – New Order
Bizzare Love Triangle – New Order
Suburbia – Pet Shop Boys
Boys Don’t Cry – The Cure
Bullet the Blue Sky – U2
People are Strange – The Doors
Lovecats – The Cure
Space Oddity – David Bowie
China Girl – David Bowie
Riders on the Storm – The Doors
We are the Champions – Queen
Our House – Madness
Goodnight Saigon – Billy Joel
Sometimes - Erasure
Angie – Rolling Stones
All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin
Nena-99Luft Balons – Nina Hagen
One Night in Bangkok – Murray Head
Rock me Amadeus – Falco
Shout – Tears for Fear
A Little Respect – Erasure
Rebel Yell – Billy Idol
Me and the Farmer – Housemartins
Break on Through – Doors
Hotel California – Eagles
Eye in the Sky – Alan Parsons ProjectStarman – David Bowie