NASCAR gets Politically Correct

NASCAR just noticed why so few black folks attend their stock car races; it's that gosh-darned Confederate flag that's been virtually synonymous with the sport since its very inception! It's about time they noticed!

And there's more good news; the newly enlightened NASCAR brain trust is also taking steps to make hispanic fans feel more comfortable. Yup, no more playing footsie with blabber-mouth bigot Donald Trump! That should pack the stands at future races!

Hopefully these are just the first baby steps in NASCAR's new age of sensitivity and inclusiveness. Here's a few suggestions that are sure to broaden the appeal of stock car racing even more:

• replace hotdogs with soydogs at the concession stands, because no living critter had to die to make a soydog
• introduce measures to make NASCAR more LGBT friendly
• cut out those Air Force flyovers in the pre-race ceremonies; it's offensive to pacifists
• eliminate national anthem because it makes Canadian fans feel left out
• get rid of that benediction before the race; it excludes atheists and people of other faiths
• award Cup points for trying hard, because winning isn't everything!

Our elected representatives need to curb Uber before somebody gets hurt

And people are already being hurt.

People who worked a lifetime to pay off a taxi license, because they were playing by the rules, are being tossed overboard because Uber is being allowed to poach the taxi business.

Mayor John Tory has come out for Uber.

Where does that leave the people who have played by the rules all their lives ?

How US bullying is turning the world against America

It's not just the egregious bullying of a former child soldier.

The Americans are really throwing their weight around. In spite of all the Beltway squawking about Russian aggression, it's really hard to ignore who the real bully is on the world stage.

Compare US weapon spending to Russian weapon spending and you'll see what I mean.

But we're supposed to fear Russia? I think the Russians have good reason to fear the US.

The US does not confine its bullying to nation-to-nation conflicts. Nope, that "city on a hill" has it in for foreign banks as well... maybe just because those are deep pockets to pick.

And after all, since the big US banks are too big to fail, too big to nail, and their executives are too big to jail, the US goes after foreign banks instead.

Here's the story of a French banking house fined billions by the US justice system for breaking US sanctions on Iran.

It's a French bank, but apparently they are beholden to American law.

Because the US says so.

Chuffed by the success of that extortion exercise, the Americans have now gone on to demand 13 billions from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

America is for all practical purposes a failed state. The US has no hope in hell of ever paying off its national debt. It's in far worse shape than Greece.

But it does have an ace up its sleeve; the biggest most lavishly funded military apparatus in the world.

So fuck the Greeks, fuck the French, fuck everybody... America gets what it wants.

US court fines Afghan child soldier $134 millions for defending Afghanistan

Get real!

This is an obscenity.

Whatever slim case America may have to make about its "exceptionality" is greatly diminished by this bit of judicial bullying.

Omar Khadr was a fifteen year old kid when American troops stormed his home town in Afghanistan.

In the first place, that makes him a child soldier. He is due all the considerations due any child soldier. For the most part, we in the Nations of Virtue have lobbied for the rehabilitation and reintegration into civil society of child soldiers.

Secondly, this opens the door to all manner of frivolous lawsuits. If US soldiers can take legal action against Afghan citizens for defending Afghanistan, can WW II Wehrmacht soldiers take legal action against Poles and Danes and Russians for injuries incurred as they were invading those countries?

Can IDF troops sue Lebanon for resisting the various Israeli incursions into that country?

Maybe there's a few Japanese vets who can launch lawsuits against China for resisting their occupation of Shanghai?

This decision is just monumentally stupid.

Real estate moguls of Rundleridge Drive

I remember back in the day, I had a couple of buddies from Guelph who bought a house on Rundleridge Drive out in Calgary.

Terry and Barry. Two brothers who went west to make their fortune.

They're still out there, and they're still working on that fortune.

That place on Rundleridge was a crash pad for many visitors from Guelph. That's back when Neil Young had a album out about going to Alberta.

Seemed like everybody in Guelph was heading to Alberta.

They bought that place for 60 and turned it over a couple years later for 80. After all, that would have to be pretty much the upper limit for a raised bungalow in Rundle.

Back in Guelph, I remember my pal Doug Johnson selling his little place near the university. He and Vicki had bought it for 28 thou. Turned it over a year or two later for 40. I remember him saying he couldn't see anybody ever paying more for the place.

He got out while the gettin' was good.

Two thousand miles west, so did Terry and Barry.

My few months lodging at Rundleridge were an up and down kind of time. I envied how Barry and Terry had scored such a great property deal. They were well on their way to getting rich if they could do that a couple more times!

I was out there to snag a welding gig at the Fruehauf plant, because those were the days when Fruehauf still had a plant there, and they paid good.

Alas, I was forced to mosey on, as was Fruehauf.

I've actually outlasted them!

I went back to Calgary for a visit twenty years later. Drove down my old street in the Rundle subdivision. When I lived there it was all white trash punks like us fixing cars on the front lawn.

Twenty years later it was all young Paki punks fixing cars on the front lawn.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

But one thing that didn't stay the same was real estate prices.

The house Barry and Terry sold for 80 thousands because the market had topped out can be had for
 400 thousands today.

Same with the place Doug and Vicki sold in Guelph.

I guess if there's a lesson in that, it's don't ever call the top of the real estate market.

It'll just leave you bitter...

BP share price up almost 4% on day as company gets slap on wrist for destroying Gulf of Mexico ecosystem

BP, the environmentally sensitive oil major, today agreed to a 18 billion dollar settlement to end litigation over the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

The stock markets responded by goosing BP shares up almost 4% on the day.

The settlement means that folks around the Gulf are SOL on collecting more compensation for lost livelihoods and catastrophic health repercussions that are bound to haunt them for generations.

The market obviously thought this was a good news story for BP.

By definition, that means it was a bad news story for the millions of regular folks who used to make their living from the Gulf.

That's justice in America...



 

Welcome to the Gig Economy

I see where Todd Hirsch over at ATB Financial has fired up his bong, given his crystal ball a good rub, and uncorked another pithy insight into the future of work, which you can see on page B2 of today's national newspaper of record.

We've complimented Todd in the past for being a glass-half-full kinda guy, but today he sets a new personal best for unwarranted optimism.

Real jobs with decent pay, security, and pensions... hey, millennials don't care about that shit! They're "less interested in accumulating physical assets," which is a good thing, because they're not going to be accumulating much of anything other than debts and eviction notices with their part-time minimum wage paycheques!

Which is hunky-dory with them, because they're like way more into a sharing vibe. That's why you'll find four or five of them sharing a one-bedroom apartment... it's got nothing to do with the private sector and the market's abject failure to provide affordable housing and living wages!

And it's a good news thing!

Stringing together a series of tasks or "gigs" makes interesting new demands on workers. Skills must constantly evolve...

Yup, today you may be peeling carrots. Tomorrow you could be learning how to wring out a mop!

And it's gonna be sayonara to Manic Mondays, because Monday's gonna be just another day of working long hours for shit wages, just like the other six days of the week!

But it's all good!

We're in the liminal space after all!

Well, TTFN... gotta head out for my Thursday afternoon gig at the car wash!