Rational Radical

I love watching how American conservatives distort reality so much.  There are literally thousands of examples to choose, but I’m taking this one.  Forget about what you think about infidelity.  Just take a look at the conservatives’ argument here–which you may agree with–and then see how they become all flustered when confronted with reality.

Now, the fact is that this is not a simple black and white issue without extenuating circumstances.  However, just watch the conservatives’ tactics, childish behaviours, and inability to produce cogent, coherent arguments (although Hannity almost comes close at the very end–too bad he had to resort to the idiot school-boy taunting, which ruins his credibility).

What am I talking about?  This…Enjoy… 

Did anyone ever believe that PM Dolt McGuinty or Mayor Milquetoast would have the brains, guts or heart to fix a problem that has plagues the health of Ontario cities and all of their residents since Mike the Axe Harris fucked up the province during two successive majority governments?  I didn’t.  And now we have the evidence:
Cities back to begging for crumbs

Ontario cities are now doomed to fiscal ruin – locked in a paternal relationship that forever binds them to their masters, the provincial government. That’s the inescapable conclusion after Premier Dalton McGuinty yesterday failed to deliver the promised freedom that seemed so possible two years ago. McGuinty went to the gathering of Ontario reeves and mayors and councillors bearing gifts, as usual. He received thunderous applause when he delivered $1.1 billion in goodies for infrastructure, a windfall possible when the provincial surplus netted out higher than projected. But the room fell silent when McGuinty said, in effect, that this could be the end of the gravy train.

Already, McGuinty had dampened expectations by saying the results of a provincial-municipal review of the funding relationship between the two would not be released that day. It needs more work, provincial officials say. The economy is tanking. Don’t expect that the province can do much repair any time soon. Lower expectations. Yes, the Liberals promised to fix all the dastardly damage former premier Mike Harris inflicted on municipalities, but his hands are tied.  And the municipal politicians swallowed it. They took the crumbs when what they need is the loaf. They did what their predecessors have done; what the province was hoping they’d do.

Yesterday was supposed to be Emancipation Day, a municipal celebration greased by a permanent plan that would see the province take back at least some of the financial burdens dumped on cities in the 1990s.  The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) pegged the required take-back or upload at $3 billion across the province, if Ontario is to treat its municipalities like they are in the rest of Canada.

Relief was not pegged to a definite date, only a timetable reasonably outlined by the premier himself.  Now, it might never happen. For sure, the relief will not approximate the extent of the download. And, if the economy worsens, it may be abandoned altogether.  So, the cities got snookered. Again. This was their last great chance to fix their fiscal woes. The provincial economy was humming. McGuinty appeared in their corner. He admitted it was wrong to burden municipalities with the cost of welfare and housing and dental plans for seniors. And he was going to fix it.

Spring of 2008 was a convenient timetable to get the issue past the provincial election last fall. Municipalities obliged and the provincial Liberals received a free ride on the issue. Imagine: For years, government of every political stripe cheated the cities out of their tax dollars and, instead of making it an election issue, the municipal politicians kept quiet, hoping that McGuinty would fulfill his promise.  Now, instead of rewarding them by removing the burden, McGuinty put a Band-Aid on it yesterday, sending some much-needed cash to soothe the pain. But it is another one-time grant, subject to the good graces of the masters at Queen’s Park.

Toronto Mayor David Miller accepted the gift yesterday with a prepared statement, unavailable to answer reporters’ questions. Just as well. What’s there to say?  Miller could’ve recalled how he absorbed a political beating last year by imposing new taxes on Toronto ratepayers – a sign of good faith to the province. But what’s the use? On this plantation, once a slave, always a slave.

I know it’s an ugly stereotype and I know that many Americans are as intelligent as people in other developed countries.  But when you see half of the voters being fooled time and again by lies, slander, and other ugliness that the Republicans are masters of, you really have to wonder just how stupid, ignorant, apathetic and/or paralyzed with fear the majority of Americans appear to be.

Only in America could a proven war vet hero be made to look like a coward by a man (well, his team) whose daddy made sure that he never saw any combat or even hard training–and most of Bush’s gang avoided any active military service by similar means.  And now, only in America could some of the richest, most elite, most out of touch old white men make so many of their serfs believe that they are “just one of them.”

I mean, the Republican candidate, McCain, doesn’t even know how many houses he owns–as he proved last week–and has supported every bill that gave massive tax cuts to the rich and penalized the middle and lower classes.  Yet, all he and Karl Rove–a true psychopath by all definitions of the term…a “man” so vile that he actually looks, thinks, talks and acts like the most stereotypical “evil villain” in any 007 story or similar movie–have got America thinking that only Obama is some rich, out of touch “elitist,” whereas Bush, Cheney, McCain, etc. are all just “good o’l boys.”  Only in America will we likely see half of the voters fall for that crap.

By the way, before anyone tries to correct me, I know that Rove’s team and supposedly not Rove himself  is helping McCain, since Rove supposedly resigned last year after being busted for some of the crap he’s pulled.  But I’m certain he’s still as involved as he ever was, and we know for a fact that, thus far, he has faced no repercussions for the evil he has committed and has refused to testify at any of the hearings that Congress has begged and pleaded for him to attend.

And lest we forget, yes, the Democrats have done a pretty good job of blowing most elections they should have won, especially since Clinton’s presidency.  And yes, the Democrats are no better than the Republicans in many ways.  But when you actually listen to the ignorance of so many Americans with respect to the issues facing them and the candidates they have to choose from, you really get a sense that the average American is one of the most ignorant creatures in the developed world.  Of course, the average Canadian isn’t that much better, as has been proven time and again these past few decades…

I know it’s a bit late, but I forgot to comment on that jerk Chretien’s recent criticism of Harper for skipping the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.  As has been pointed out by others elsewhere, Chretien skipped all of the many winter/summer Olympic Ceremonies he could have attended while PM except for one in the US, so what right does he have to chastize Harper for missing one?  More important, Chretien is part of an organization that would benefit from increased trade with China, hence his concern about pissing off the Chinese–never mind China’s disgusting record on human rights, environmental destruction, etc.

I have nothing but contempt for Harper–contempt that grows every day he tries harder to turn Canada into his fiefdom.  But his decision to miss the Opening Ceremonies is the first time I had any praise for our Prime Argument for Birth Control.  Fuck Chretien for his hypocrisy and his record of putting $$$ before humans, both in Canada and China.

The only good thing about the following story (thanks C.M….I already saw it and was the first commenter :)) is that every person who wrote to the Star was as livid as I was that this repeat-offender piece of shit was given only 7.5 years for slaughtering two innocent people.  With time off for good behaviour, this Argument for the Death Penalty will likely serve less than 2 years.  Remember his name.  If you ever see him out in public, do the right thing, whatever you think it is, because obviously our just-ass system obviously wouldn’t know what the right thing was if it came up behind it in a 2-tonne automobile and pushed it into an oncoming train.
A “habitual drunk driver” whose vehicle pushed a Rockwood, Ont., couple into the path of a GO train has been sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison.  Andy and Nettie Miller, who were 66 and 65, were stopped at a level crossing in Milton on July 19, 2007, when Ingram Bakhsh struck the rear of their vehicle, forcing it onto the tracks. The Millers died instantly when the train hit their car.  Bakhsh’s car continued through the crossing and struck another vehicle on the opposite side of the tracks before it came to rest.

Ontario Court Justice Richard LeDressay called Bakhsh, 29, a “habitual drunk driver” who had killed two people after an “egregious” sequence of events.  At the time of the crash, he was awaiting trial for two previous drunk-driving related incidents, including a collision with a tractor-trailer on Highway 401, and was prohibited from being behind the wheel of a vehicle and consuming alcohol under bail conditions.  On the night of the collision, he had been driving at a high speed and had a breathalyzer reading almost four times the legal limit. He pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing death and breach of his bail conditions.

Look at these two headlines from today:

Fewer impaired driving charges laid across province

Hospital stays shorter for mentally ill (thanks, C.M.)

Now, if you didn’t read any further, you might think that fewer people are drinking and driving and that mentally ill people are receiving more efficacious treatment–and possibly getting better help/support in the community.  However, reading a bit further also reveals:

- The number of provincially funded RIDE spot checks have fallen off. Police checked 505,000 cars, boats and snowmobiles last year, compared with 616,000 checks in 2001.

- Robert Solomon, professor of law at the University of Western Ontario, said impaired driving charges may be going down but there has been little change in the number of deaths and injuries at the hands of impaired drivers (estimated by Mothers Against Drunk Driving at 60,000 people per year in Canada)

- Police are laying fewer formal charges because the laws are too complicated and leave officers drowning in paperwork, Solomon said. It takes police almost three hours to process a single case, only to watch the charges get backlogged and pleaded down in court, he added.

- “So basically what you have is a growing de facto decriminalization of impaired driving,” Soloman said. “What is supported by the research is the growing reluctance of police to lay the charge and the incredible burden on Crowns.”

- Other countries, particularly in Europe, do a better job than Canada, Solomon said. Many have lower blood alcohol limits, conduct random roadside breathalyzer testing and automatically test for alcohol following a serious accident, he said. “They take drinking and driving seriously and they enforce it rigorously,” Soloman said. “We don’t do that.”

As for the mental health issue:

- Drop (in hospital stay [for psychiatric patients]) reflects greater pressure on health system and is not a good-news story, officials [physicians and consumer advocates] warn

- There are fewer mental-health patients admitted to hospital per capita than five years ago. For those who do seek treatment, the average stay has plummeted 55 per cent, to 16 days in 2005-06 from 36 days in 2000-01.

- While the report did not include data to indicate levels of patient health at the time of release, it did reflect significant changes in the treatment of mental disorders, which have largely shifted from the realm of psychiatric-specific care facilities, where the most common length of stay is 26 days, to general hospitals, where the most common stay lasts eight days.

- “If people don’t understand what’s behind the numbers, they’ll think this is a good-news story. That worries me,” said Phil Upshall, national executive director of the Mood Disorders Society of Canada.

- Patrick White, president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, said the drop in patients’ length of stay reflects overall “pressure on the system.” Because of hospital bed shortages - or inefficient use of beds allocated for psychiatric care - patients are being discharged more quickly even though they are sicker and more unstable than in the past, he said.

- While 16 days may seem like a long time to spend in hospital…for a patient with chronic schizophrenia who suffers a relapse, it is much too short…It should probably be a least 30 days, but there is pressure to free up the bed for someone else.

- Hospitals and hospital administrators have traditionally discriminated against mental-health conditions and people with them. That’s principally because of, in my view, the stigma attached to mental illnesses,” he said.

- “They’re discharging people into the community without the necessary supports. You would never discharge a patient with a broken back in need of a wheelchair without a wheelchair.”

Check out this morning’s story below re. the TTC union and management agreeing that TTC workers should be allowed to hold the city and surrounding areas hostage (thanks as always, C.M.!).  As I commented in The Star’s comment forum, arguing that essential service arbitration leads to higher costs is another example of our politicians’ limited intellect.  Namely, the only reason they argue this, as shown below, is that the arbitrator may lack the necessary knowledge to arrive at the best decision and instead tends to “split the difference” between the two sides’ demands.

Simple solution–>Create a position in which the arbitrator has knowledge of public transportation, city planning, social services, and any other relevant factor so that he/she can arrive at a fair/reasonable decision.  But such simple, rational thinking is beyond the scope of our municipal and provincial politicians. “Enjoy”…

TTC management and its union can finally agree on something – don’t declare the transit system an essential service.  In a report for next week’s commission meeting, senior staff argue that TTC workers should be allowed to strike, saying labour disputes should be settled at the bargaining table. It’s believed to be the first time that TTC management has taken such a public position.  The report says the Montreal model, which prohibits workers from striking during morning and evening rush hours and late at night, can prolong labour disputes.  It argues removing the right to strike can boost wages as much as 6 per cent, which in the 2005 contract would have been $11.2 million.

If the province were to declare the TTC an essential service – like health care workers or police officers – contracts are often sent to arbitration if there’s an impasse. “What happens is the arbitrator ends up splitting the difference between the union’s request and management’s. More often than not, it ends up costing the system more money,” said TTC spokesperson Brad Ross.  As well, non-monetary technical issues are often in dispute. “To leave it to a third party who may not completely appreciate and understand the system, we feel is a risk,” Ross said.

TTC union president Bob Kinnear said the union firmly believes in the right to strike, and “we’re not about to relinquish it.”  While Kinnear had not read the report yet, he said: “It’s great, for once, the TTC and our organization can agree on something.”

After a weekend strike in April, some councillors argued TTC workers should be prevented from walking off the job because of the public disruption. Riders were surprised when service suddenly came to a halt after union members soundly rejected a tentative deal.  They were ordered back to work the next day under provincial legislation, and the dispute is before an arbitrator. A one-day hearing is scheduled for September.

TTC passenger John Leckie, who was outraged by the strike, argues the TTC is essential to the regional economy.  “We can’t afford to be shut down. We’re already gridlocked when everything is running,” said Leckie, a member of a citizens’ group on essential service designation, organized by Councillor Cliff Jenkins.  “The threat of a strike is almost as bad as a strike. It looms over the public for months,” Leckie said.

At first, Mayor David Miller rejected any talk of essential service designation, arguing it leads to more expensive deals. He then said given what happened in April, the idea should be studied.  City manager Shirley Hoy will deliver recommendations to the executive committee in September.

From all of the doping scandals–the worst fact being that certain athletes had been shielded for many years–to the proven corrupt judging in virtually every sport, to the IOC’s refusal to address these problems, only a hopeless romantic or blind fool would believe that the Olympics are primarily about pure athletic competition. Now, this is not a knock against the honest athletes. But how many more times do we need to read a story such as the one below before someone finally says “ENOUGH! Let’s get rid of the IOC and the Olympics and start a new organization and competition that will stand in its place!“??

And be clear, this is nothing new. I remember all the–say it with me–proven judging scandals even as a kid, many Olympics ago. Anyway, here’s the latest scandal. Make sure to at least read the bold printed paragraph in the middle.  And what do you think about the coach of the athlete, Gonda, who was so obviously ripped off?  A little bit of cognitive dissonance reduction and rationalization, methinks…

Corrupt judging lands cruellest blows

BEIJING–The coach, in the moment, was torn. Shin Wook Lim has devoted 28 years to taekwondo as an athlete and a teaching master, and he carries himself with the quiet dignity the martial arts hand down. But yesterday here at the Olympic dojo, Lim’s star pupil, Ivett Gonda of Maple Ridge, B.C., was, in the coach’s eyes, being ripped off by another instance of the corrupt judging that has long plagued the sport he loves. In the first round of the 49-kilogram tournament, the 22-year-old Gonda looked, to the untrained eye and to the coach, like she was defeating her Swedish opponent. Gonda appeared to land kicks, at least two to the head and a series to the body. With head kicks worth two points and body shots worth one, her coach estimated she should have earned some seven or eight points. And yet the four-judge panel presiding over the match would, in the end, award her zero.

In the midst of what he thought was a robbery, then, didn’t Lim need to set aside the ancient art’s code of civility and make like a baseball manager? Shouldn’t he have stormed the field of play and demanded better for an athlete he’d trained since she was a child? There are five steps separating the coach’s position with the raised fighting floor. Lim didn’t climb one. “I could have done that. But I was thinking to myself, `I don’t want our sport to look bad. … Because of my actions, I don’t want to cut taekwondo off from the Olympics,’” said Lim. “I was thinking twice. Should I do something? … I have a regret a little bit.”

Gonda, who had defeated a Spanish world champion in an Olympic qualifying tournament to announce her arrival as a gold-medal contender, lost 2-0. Lim said he suspected that the Chinese judge, knowing Gonda would have faced China’s Wu Jingyu in the quarter-final had Gonda advanced, engineered a victory for the Swede. There were also judges from Tunisia, Japan and Morocco on the four-member panel. To score a point, three of four judges must press a button in affirmation within one second of an attack.

Canada lodged a protest, which was declined. Officials from the World Taekwondo Federation, the sport’s governing body and the presiding authority here, refused repeated requests for interviews through spokespeople. “(The federation’s) reasoning was they didn’t see the head shots on instant replay,” said Gonda. “I can only laugh about it. Cry or laugh. I’d rather laugh. … It’s not the first time I’ve been ripped off quite bad.”

The Canadian team accepted its fate calmly; not a voice was raised in public anger even after Gonda lost her chance at a repechage when the Swede, who finished 33rd at the last world championship, was handled easily by Wu, who went on to win the gold medal. And perhaps the resigned tone spoke of the corruption that, to an outsider, seems engrained in the sport’s DNA.

In the wake of the 2000 Olympics, after all, the president of the WTF, Chong Woo Lee of South Korea, was quoted admitting to intimidating judges into favouring South Korean athletes at those Games, and to ensuring the elimination of strong non-Korean competitors in the early rounds. South Korean taekwondoers won three golds and one silver in Sydney.

“People were talking about taking taekwondo away from the Olympics because it was so bad,” said Lim. “It’s actually better now than it was before …” Shrugged Niko Kricko, a Swiss coach, at the mention of yet another judging controversy: “The usual. … Something has to be changed.”

There are still Canadians to compete here. Karine Sergerie of Ste-Catherine, Que., a 2007 world champion and a favourite to medal, goes tomorrow, as does Sebastian Michaud of Joliette, Que. The upshot for Sergerie, said Lim, is there is no Chinese competitor in her weight class. Michaud is not so lucky. And Lim theorized that Canada, now, will be seen by some judges in a sympathetic light. “(Judges) are human too. Now, because of what happened to Canada, `Oh, I feel bad for Canada.’ So now (the judges’) heart is more towards Canada. It’s happened before.” Surely it has; history suggests nothing is beyond belief when human judges are the sole arbiters of who wins and loses in sport.

“I’m not gonna be a sore loser and be like, `Well, I quit,’” said Gonda, who lost on a controversial judging decision in the semifinal of the 2004 Olympics. “But it’s hard right now. It’s hard to take it. … I didn’t get the medal this time but eventually there will be a day that I’ll be able to get it. I have faith in that.” Said Master Lim, still agog: “Not one single point? That’s unbelievable. But anger doesn’t do anything. … We are, deep inside, bitter.”

So one of the most corrupt and incompetent organizations around, the IOC, has finally been pushed to take action on a scandal they knew about, as today’s story reveals below.  As mentioned in a previous post, pro-Chinese nationalists and jingoists will of course throw around accusations of anti-Chinese sentiments whenever someone dares point out how corrupt the Chinese government is.  Below the story I’ve also copied one particular jingoist’s idiotic response to the scandal–and this is one of the milder responses!  The only question is: who is the biggest Argument for Birth Control? The Chinese government, the IOC, the athlete and her coaches, or the idiots who call any of the many revelations of Chinese  government/business corruption “anti-Chinese”?

IOC launches investigation into Chinese gymnast — Probe announced after hacker claims to have found official Chinese documents listing gold-medal winner He Kexin’s age as 14, not 16

China’s tiny gymnastics phenom, He Kexin, who has won two gold medals in these Olympic Games is to be investigated by the IOC on suspicions that she is underaged. The official announcement, expected to come within hours, will shock and disappoint the Chinese, but will satisfy a growing legion of critics who have consistently complained that there is simply too much information in the public domain to believe that He is the required 16 years of age necessary to compete.  A number of articles in the Chinese media in the past two years routinely identified her as a 13-year-old.  Rules require that gymnasts be at least 16 in the year in which they compete in the Olympics.

Giselle Davies, the International Olympic Committee spokesperson, told a British newspaper today that because of troubling new developments, the committee had instructed the International Gymnastics Federation, the sport’s governing body, to investigate.  “More information has come to light that did point to discrepancies,” Davies told The Times of London.  “We have asked the gymnastics federation to look into it further with the national Chinese federation. If there is a question mark, and we have a concern — which we do — we ask the governing body of any sport to look into … as to why there is a discrepancy.”

The new information that has come to light is courtesy of computer expert Mike Walker, of New York-based Intrepidus Group, who, using a Chinese search engine, claims to have unearthed official government documents showing He to be 14.  Walker posted his findings on the Internet on the blog Stryde Hax. The online discoveries ratcheted up the pressure on the IOC to investigate He’s age, an issue the IOC had skirted — until tonight.  Mounting evidence pushed the committee to take the uncomfortable step of launching an official investigation into one of the host nation’s newest sensations.

“Much of the coverage regarding Kexin’s age has only mentioned ‘allegations’ of fraud and the IOC has ignored the matter completely,” Walker wrote, writing under the name of “Stryde.”  “I believe these primary documents, issued by the Chinese state … rise to a level of evidence higher than allegation,” he wrote. With suspicion deepening, IOC officials were finally moved to act to protect the integrity of the Games and the values of the Olympic movement.

After winning the first of two golds at these Games, He was asked about her age by reporters.  “My real age is 16,” she said. “I don’t care what other people say.” Chinese officials have boldly defended the young athlete, even producing a passport — issued in Feb. 2008 — showing He to be 16 and born Jan. 1, 1992. But documents unearthed by Stryde showed her date of birth as Jan. 1, 1994, which would make her 14 years and 8 months, well below the required 16 years necessary to compete.

The New York Times and the Associated Press last month both uncovered documents and a string of newspaper references that placed He’s age at 14. Walker’s meticulous step-by-step “how-to” on his blog, for the benefit of his readers, lent greater weight to the documents unearthed.

The Times and AP had unearthed a web page from a city Sports Bureau from 2006 that listed 1994 as He’s year of birth; a report on a November 2007 competition that listed her as 13; and a story in the country’s English language newspaper, China Daily, that referred to her as 14 just three months ago. Since then, Chinese bloggers and netizens have rushed into cyberspace to find many similar references in the Chinese media identifying He as younger than the 16 years Chinese officials claim she is. Many of those references have now been deleted, and some have even been altered to comply with the Chinese sporting officials claims.

Walker concentrated his Internet search on Excel spreadsheets, where he hoped he might discover He’s name on official lists.  Walker used Google, Google China and, finally, the popular Chinese language search engine Baidu. Search engines trawl the web and index their results. They also take individual snapshots of what they find, which is stored in what is technically known as a “cache.” So even if an original page on the web is deleted, the snapshots are usually kept and can be viewed.  On Google and Google China, references to He had been deleted from documents. Their caches had also been “scrubbed,” Walker said. When he did a search using Baidu, all pages and data had also been deleted. But when he examined the Baidu caches, two official government documents were there. Two spreadsheets from the central governments General Administration of Sport in China listed He Kexin’s birthday as Jan. 1, 1994 — making her 14,

The computer expert has sought to head off criticism that he was “anti-China.”  “This is not an anti-China post: far from it,” Walker wrote. “While I may disagree with the effort the Chinese government is making to conceal this young woman’s age, I have the utmost respect for Chinese people, and I believe that united, they will be able to make state-sponsored censorship a thing of the past.” 

AND IDIOT JINGOIST’S RESPONSE: 

I don’t know what the big deal is. Did she not win? Rules are rules. Blah! Even if she was suspected of being a minor. Did the Chinese not produce a legit documented passport to confirm her age and identity? I thinks this is the Americans dirty resort to bump them up to gold status. I’m not sure which is more pathetic. The Americans resorting to this or the fact that a 14y/o blew away the best the Americans can offer.  - Posted by Bossy

I’ve been warning about this for years, ever since I learned that bottled water companies had unfettered access to Canada’s fresh water supplies and were originally paying nothing–yet charging ridiculous prices for their product–for the water (they now pay a tiny fee).  In short, we’re running out of fresh water in Canada, as you can read in this story (while the link is still active over the next two weeks), yet our Liberal and Conservative governments have done literally nothing to remedy the problem.

Next, check out this story and especially the picture of a two-mouthed, mutated fish in Alberta, likely a product of pollution from Alberta’s infamous tar-sands.  More important, the rates of cancer in the area are abnormally high, so you do the math…

And finally, Toronto’s impotent mayor Miller has returned from vacation to tackle the issue of bottled water, as this headline reads: Toronto will consider bottled water ban: Mayor.  I agree that we need to reduce the trillions of plastic bottles piled in our landfills and littering the streets due to ignorant, selfish assholes and/or insufficient city planning and poorly run services–i.e., not enough recycling receptacles or they are not emptied frequently enough.  But what about the many other bottles, cups and cans?  Banning bottled water would merely be a drop in the bucket.  How about educating people re. the fact that bottled water is essentially no better than tap water?  Or how about making sure the few water fountains around the city actually work?  Or how about putting pressure on the federal government to ensure that bottling companies have to pay significantly higher costs for sucking our country dry?