Kyle Rae Retired?

Nah, porky has just decided to take six, YES six weeks vacation. Read this bit in the National Post and keep it so you remember NOT to vote for this loser in the next election. Thanks to my faithful reader Alex for pointing this article out to me. I originally wrote about my letter to Kyle Rae in this post: Click here to read it.

Councillor Kyle Rae left town in mid-July and is not expected to return until the end of August, a six-week holiday that is permissible under city rules but raises the eyebrows of council colleagues.

"I can only say that in my ward, if I were to take six weeks off, I might as well take the election off," said Councillor Adam Vaughan (Trinity Spadina). "Even two weeks is hard to take off."

Mr. Rae, chairman of the economic development committee and councillor for Toronto Centre Rosedale, is vacationing in Spain, and did not return for either a council vote to end the 39-day strike nor a regular meeting to deal with outstanding business. His office confirmed yesterday his trip does not involve city business, and said all "media calls" are being deferred until Mr. Rae returns to comment himself.

Argentina & Legal Pot

The supreme court in Argentina has ruled that it is unconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana for personal consumption.

The decision follows a case of five young men who were arrested with a few marijuana cigarettes in their pockets.

But the court said use must not harm others and made it clear it did not advocate a complete decriminalisation.

Correspondents say there is a growing momentum in Latin America towards decriminalising drugs for personal use.

The Argentine court ruled that: "Each adult is free to make lifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state."

Supreme Court President Ricardo Lorenzetti said private behaviour was legal, "as long as it doesn't constitute clear danger".

"The state cannot establish morality," he said. Source: BBC News

I think this is a good decision. Although they have not made dope completely legal they have made it so that police and court resources can be freed up so they may be put to better use solving more serious crime.

As always we appreciate your comments, just click the link below.

65% of China's Organ Donations From Death Row Prisoners

About 1.5 million people in China need transplants, but only about 10,000 operations are performed annually, according to the health ministry.

The scarcity of available organs has led to a thriving black market in trafficked organs, and in an effort to stop this the government passed a law in 2007 banning trafficking as well as the donation of organs to unrelated recipients.

But in practice, illegal transplants - some from living donors - are still frequently reported by the media and the Ministry of Health.

Click here for the full story from BBC News.

As I've often stated, I do NOT support the death penalty. NO government has the right to take any person's life, no matter how much we may dislike that person or what crimes they may have committed. There is also the inconsistencies in how the death penalty is applied to various racial groups, such as in the United States where the majority of those on death row are blacks. And finally there is the always present and very real possibility that the condemned person is actually innocent.

Michael Jackson Sock Puppet Theatre

Boy Dies As Tornadoes Ravage Southern Ontario

An eleven year old boy who was camping with his family is reportedly the only fatality after several funnel clouds were spotted throughout southern Ontario yesterday causing severe damage in some areas. CTV news reports that a funnel cloud was spotted in downtown Toronto at the intersection of Yonge and Bloor, which is only a couple of blocks from my home so I'm happy that I am not in Toronto right now.

For more on this story visit the links below:

CTV Toronto

The Toronto Sun

680 News

The Big 'O' Coming to TIFF

The Toronto International Film Festival has always welcomed big-name stars for the 10-day fest, but this year there's a touch of royalty in the mix: the queen of daytime TV, the king of after dark and a former member of Britain's royal family.

Oprah Winfrey, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York are among the hundreds of fest guests announced yesterday by TIFF as it released its final line-up. Source: Thestar.com

Oprah is just one of the big names scheduled to be at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. Other stars scheduled to appear are:

· Clive Owen
· Colin Farrell
· Colin Firth
· Danny DeVito
· David Duchovny
· Demi Moore
· Drew Barrymore
· Edward Norton
· Ellen Page
· Ewan McGregor
· George Clooney
· Hugh Hefner
· Isabella Rossellini
· Jack White
· Jeff Bridges
· Jennifer Connelly
· Jennifer Garner
· Jimmy Smits
· Julianne Moore
· Keanu Reeves
· Kevin Spacey
· Kristin Scott Thomas
· Kyle MacLachlan
· Lisa Kudrow
· Marica Gay Harden
· Mariah Carey
· Matt Damon
· Sir Michael Caine
· Michael Cera
· Michael Douglas
· Miranda Richardson
· Natalie Portman
· Neil Diamond
· Nicolas Cage
· Oprah Winfrey
· Peter Sarsgaard
· Ricky Gervais
· Sir Ridley Scott
· Rob Lowe
· Robert Duvall
· Robin Wright Penn
· S. Epatha Merkerson
· Sarah Ferguson
· Sarah Polley
· Sissy Spacek
· Snoop Dogg
· Steven Soderbergh
· Tilda Swinton
· Tom Ford
· Tyler Perry
· Willem Dafoe
· Woody Harrelson

Passport's extra T stands for trouble

When Miriam Steinberg opened the express mail envelope yesterday, it contained a surprise: her spanking-new passport, a day earlier than expected, and a typo.

OTTTAWA. Her place of birth had been misspelled with an extra T.

Steinberg, who was hoping to travel south of the border this weekend, called an accompanying 1-800 number and explained her predicament.

"I was told as long as my name hadn't been misspelled, I was fine and that (passport) was valid."

She also says she was told she would have no problem travelling.

Steinberg was shocked.

She has been following the story of Suaad Hagi Mohamud, the Toronto mother who was marooned in Kenya for three months after officials said her lips didn't match those in her passport photo, and couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"In this age of rampant forgery, who would not flag this passport?" said Steinberg, a retired provincial civil servant in her 40s. "If I was a border agent, I definitely would (flag it). And I would not want to be stuck someplace like that poor woman was in Nairobi."

She said she will not travel on this passport.

Get the full story at thestar.com

I find it offensive and quite irresponsible that the passport office would tell this woman to go ahead and use this passport. Considering what just happened to the poor woman who our government left languishing in a Kenyan prison, all while she also had a valid passport.

I think it is time for our useless federal government to start addressing some of these issues.

Starburst Berries And Cream

B.C.'s billboard pokes fun at Toronto

A new billboard campaign in British Columbia for Coors Light declares the beer is "Colder Than Most People From Toronto."
The slogan caught Newmarket resident Kathryn Morton by surprise.
"That's pretty insulting to such a large group of people," she said. "We hear stuff about Toronto people all the time but we couldn't believe anyone would put it on a billboard."
Morton, who grew up in Kamloops, where she said it was common for people to make fun of Toronto, saw the ad on a camping trip a couple of weeks ago. Her 16-year-old son Stuart spotted it first.
"He realized the political incorrectness of it. What bothered us was we saw the Olympic logo on the billboard. This isn't a great way to bring in people to the province."
But marketing expert Paul Cubbon said it's likely the people behind the billboards wanted to generate talk.

Get the full story at thestar.com

As someone who used to live in a rural area, but has now lived in Toronto for ten years. I understand the inferiority complex this type of thing is addressing. The sad thing is that an inferiority complex is all it is.

Those of us who live here don't think we are at the centre of the universe, but those who don't live here seem to think we do. And to those people I say to you, don't feel to bad. At least you are still in Canada!

Pet Shop Boys Music Causes Israeli Freakshow

A DJ hired to spin tunes at a Bedouin wedding in Israel was beaten up for playing Western music which some guests felt encouraged lewdness in the women, the Maariv daily reported on Monday.
The DJ initially put on Arabic tunes for the hundreds of guests attending the event in Aroer village in Israel's Negev desert region.
At one point, he decided to stir things up and put on a song by the British electronic music duo Pet Shop Boys, causing some women to "dance exuberantly to the foreign music," angering some of the men present, the daily said.
"The fact that women were dancing at the wedding goes against tradition and is a dishonour to their husbands," it quoted one guest as saying.
Several angry young men gave the DJ a "severe beating" after he refused to go back to playing Arabic music. Police later arrested two men in connection with the incident.
This is just one more example of how religion does more harm than good. I'm surprised they didn't beat the DJ because he was playing 'gay' music!

Poll Results

In our most recent poll related to the Toronto city workers strike we asked, "Do you think Mayor David Miller managed the strike and subsequent deal well?"

We had the most votes ever and here they are:

Yes: 1% (1 vote)

No: 86% (13 votes)

Don't Know: 1% (1 vote)

Michael 'sober' at crash arrest

Singer George Michael has said he was "stone cold sober" when he was arrested after a car crash.

The 46-year-old singer was held by police after his silver Land Rover hit an articulated lorry in Berkshire in the early hours of Friday.

He was questioned on suspicion of driving under the influence of drink or drugs, but released without charge a few hours later.

In a statement, Michael said he did not want his family and friends to "worry".

'Insurance fight'

Michael, who was back behind the wheel after completing a two-year driving ban, said: "Neither of us was charged because we were both stone cold sober.

"We both think the other is to blame so this is just an insurance fight.

"I don't want my fans or my family worried by what they are reading all over again."

Police were called to the crash on the A34, two miles north of the M4, at about 0100 BST.

In June 2007 the singer was banned for two years after pleading guilty to driving while unfit through drugs.

He was accused of colliding with three parked cars and driving off without notifying the owners.

He was also twice cautioned for possessing cannabis after being found asleep at the wheel of his car on two separate occasions in 2006.

This story is from BBC News.

'Miracle' fresco find in Italy's quake-hit village: officials

People in the quake-hit mountain village of Onna, near l'Aquila, are talking of a miracle after officials announced Wednesday the discovery of a 15th-century fresco during work on a church.



I saw this on Yahoo! news today and my first thought is how stupid it is to consider the destruction of not just a church, but an entire town a 'miracle'. A surprising find perhaps, but a miracle is a bit much. Ah Christians, so entertaining.

Former chief of Khmer Rouge torture centre in Cambodia asks for 'harshest punishment'

The former chief of the Khmer Rouge's main torture centre, being tried by a U.N.-backed tribunal on genocide charges, asked the Cambodian people Wednesday to give him "the harshest punishment."
The statement from Kaing Guek Eav, who headed the notorious S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, came as a widow wept before the court, demanding justice for the death of her husband and four children during the communist regime's reign of terror.
"I accept the regret, the sorrow and the suffering of the million Cambodian people who lost their husbands and wives," the defendant told the tribunal. "I would like the Cambodian people to condemn me to the harshest punishment."



I am happy to report that as Cambodia has no death penalty this guy will have to spend the rest of his life thinking about what he has done. I think executing him would be an easy way out for him, at least his surviving victims will know that he is locked up and hopefully can get some satisfaction from that.

Strike-plagued Lever factory declares bankruptcy

For 36 years, Jim Smith has reported to the old Lever Brothers soap factory at the foot of the Don Valley Parkway. For 14 months, a padlocked gate has kept him and more than 100 other striking workers outside.

Today, Smith and the other workers will dismantle the picket line – actually a shantytown of wood panels and tarps – and he'll walk away from the now-bankrupt plant for good.

To where, he doesn't know.

"A lot of us have been trying to go out and get jobs, but we don't have much skills," the 59-year-old said of his fellow workers, many of whom have been working at the plant for more than 30 years with little more than a high school diploma. "We just know that factory. That's it."

The drawn-out strike is to end today. The plant's owner, Korex Don Valley, has filed for bankruptcy, leaving the 110 remaining workers – members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada local 132-0 – searching for work. Full story at thestar.com

This story just reaffirms what I have always said. A union will see a business go under, rather than settle. I'm sure they are all quite happy to have gained absolutely nothing and have lost everything. Idiots! You can't imagine how much sympathy I have for the moron who has to live off his poker winnings now!

Urge Tim Hortons to Stop Supporting Anti-LGBT Group

The doughnut franchise Tim Hortons has agreed to co-sponsor an anti-gay marriage rally in Providence, Rhode Island sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage. The National Organization for Marriage is fiercely anti-LGBT, and has organized campaigns to take away the civil rights of gay and lesbian couples in numerous states throughout the country. Is this the type of politics that Tim Hortons wants to support?

Please CLICK HERE and sign the petition.

UPDATE: Tim Hortons has posted this message on their website.....

Tim Hortons responds to inquiries about Rhode Island event sponsorship

Recently, Tim Hortons was approached in Rhode Island to provide free coffee and products for a local event, as we do thousands of times a year across Canada and the United States.

For 45 years, Tim Hortons and its store owners have practiced a philosophy of giving back to the communities in which we operate. As a company, our primary focus is on helping children and supporting fundraising events for non-profit organizations and registered charities.

For this reason, Tim Hortons has not sponsored those representing religious groups, political affiliates or lobby groups.

It has come to our attention that the Rhode Island event organizer and purpose of the event fall outside of our sponsorship guidelines. As such, Tim Hortons can not provide support at the event.

Tim Hortons and its store owners have always welcomed all families and communities to its restaurants and will continue to do so. We apologize for any misunderstanding or inconvenience this may have caused.

Excuse me, Princess!

Woman, 56, dies after sidewalk crash with cyclist

The pedestrian-cyclist collision that claimed a woman's life on Thursday is a "stark reminder" that bicycles should not be used on sidewalks, police say.

At about 3:30 p.m., the 56-year-old woman was walking south on the west sidewalk of Kennedy Rd. near Sheppard Ave. E. while a 15-year-old boy was cycling north on the same sidewalk, police said. The cyclist may have made a move to avoid the pedestrian, while the pedestrian made a move to avoid the cyclist. The two collided head on. Full Story at thestar.com

I will be very surprised if this death doesn't move our generally useless city council to action. I'm not sure but I would bet lots of cold hard cash that there are no bicycle lanes on Kennedy Road. Are you listening David Unionass Miller?

Woman struck by bicycle on sidewalk

Police say that a 15-year-old boy could face charges after striking a pedestrian this afternoon in Scarborough, sending the woman to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Emergency crews were called to the crash at Kennedy Rd. near Sheppard Ave. E. at about 3:30 p.m., Toronto police Sgt. Tim Burrows said.

A 50-year-old woman was walking south on the west sidewalk of Kennedy Rd. while the teen was cycling north on the same sidewalk. The two collided head on.

The woman was rushed to hospital with head injuries, while the boy was not injured.

"Adult-sized bicycles are not to be on sidewalks," Burrows said, adding that it's too early in the investigation to determine whether charges will be laid.

The above is from thestar.com

I can easily see this incident becoming a cited example when tougher new laws and regulations on cycling come into effect. Which will also lead to licensing, etc. But what we really need is better and more bike lanes so everyone will be able to get around the city safely.

Green Bin Program A Mess

Toronto garbage workers have been routinely mixing green bin organics with regular trash that is trucked to a Michigan landfill, say city employees interviewed by the Star.
The workers – who return to work today after a five-week strike – say this occurs at those transfer stations where all types of garbage are first brought after collection from homes.
A former manager in a transfer station confirmed he had seen this happen and that some managers allow the practice to get rid of the enormous amount of green bin waste produced by Torontonians.

"It is wrong," says the man, who, like the other workers, asked that his
name not be used for fear of losing his job. "The public is separating their food and doing all this work and here we are, tossing it all in the garbage anyway."

Get the full story from thestar.com

It's a sad day in Millers Toronto when these, greedy garbage workers aren't even doing their overpaid jobs properly. Way to go Miller. Enjoy your last year in office.

Gay Israelis rally after shooting

Hundreds of Israelis have joined a rally organised by the gay community after shootings at a gay youth centre.

Two people died and at least 11 were hurt when the gunman opened fire at the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association before fleeing.

The city's Mayor, Ron Huldai, said the motive was unclear and police declined to comment except to say a Palestinian link was not suspected. Full Story from BBC News.

New HIV strain discovered

A new strain of the virus that causes AIDS has been discovered in a woman from the African nation of Cameroon.

It differs from the three known strains of human immunodeficiency virus and appears to be closely related to a form of simian virus recently discovered in wild gorillas, researchers report in Monday's edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

The finding "highlights the continuing need to watch closely for the emergence for new HIV variants, particularly in western central Africa," said the researchers, led by Jean-Christophe Plantier of the University of Rouen, France.

The three previously known HIV strains are related to the simian virus that occurs in chimpanzees.

The most likely explanation for the new find is gorilla-to-human transmission, Plantier's team said. But they added they cannot rule out the possibility that the new strain started in chimpanzees and moved into gorillas and then humans, or moved directly from chimpanzees to both gorillas and humans.

Full Story at thestar.com

the Daye... Poll

In our most recent poll, which was to run for several more weeks, we asked; "Do you support the striking city workers". Due to the fact that Mayor Miller and his cronies at city hall caved to the greedy, money grubbing union we've decided to stop this poll early.

For the record:

85% of respondents did NOT support the workers.

1% DID support city workers.

It should go without saying that this is not a scientific poll.

Take a look to the right for a new poll which asks; "Do you think Mayor David Miller managed the strike and subsequent deal well?" Vote now, this poll will end on August 15th.

Gunman shoots up gay club in Tel Aviv

Israeli police say a gunman entered a youth club for gay teens in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night and sprayed the interior with automatic rifle fire, killing three people and injuring 11.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said it was “most likely a criminal attack and not a terror attack.” Tel Aviv has been a target for Palestinian militants in the past.

He said the gunman burst into the basement of the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association and opened fire on a support group for gay teenagers.

Get the full story from the Globe & Mail.

Here is a link with video from the BBC. It should be noted that this 'club' is a gay community organization for gay teens and not a gay dance club.