Is our world mad, mad, mad? You bet!

It's been one of those normal days! Conflict and confusion without end. Amen.

President Obama tells us we must all encourage education, especially in technology. So, today, some splendid young woman was the first to get a degree in...Biology? Wrong! Battlefields of yore? Wrong again! BS without end? Meme chose! The academic subject is The Beatles! Seems the city of Liverpool sponsored her.

The Montreal Gazette also advised me in health club etiquettte; don't spit in the water fountain, while the Middle East continues to fall apart in a hurry.

Apparently, even voters lie when phoned by pollsters, so what is their real purpose, if any? I refer to both pollsters and the polled.

Will there be an election soon? Who cares? When do our MPs work, and at what? Who knows!
They scream at each other when Parliament is in session, to impress the voters. What they do interim remains one of the great mysteries of Canada.  They left for Christmas on December 16th, 2010. They start yelling again on January 31st, 2011.

Michael Ignatieff's been taking drama lessons; "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Stephen remains hidden in the washroom while Jack is searching for a hair restorer. As for Ms. May, she is totally preoccupied with finding a famous name she can contest when/if the great day comes and she meets the same fate she did when she "battled" PeterMcKay last time. That woman loves a fight. Win or lose! If she won one, she would look better.

You people have a great day and try to keep a smile on your face. I know it ain't easy. But this brought a laugh - a sign we could put on the front door of Parliament perhaps?

                      ________________________________                       
                               
                               OUT TO LUNCH
                   IF NOT BACK BY 5 P.M.
                THEN OUT TO DINNER TOO
               __________________________

Bad Examples

Ottawa's Parliamentary Question Period is a total disgrace. Shrieking, applauding, thumping desks, stabbing the air with bony index fingers and nodding their silly heads in support of their party monologues.  In addition, the so-called pundits, political experts, seem to have followed suit, now diminished to shouting, interrupting one another and showing not a smidgen of courtesy, good taste - or class.

John Baird's recent violent attack on Siobhan Coady in the Government Operations Committee was nothing less than bullying.  Luckily she gave him as good, or better, than he did to her. His award as 'Parliamentarian of the year' will stand in infamy! The award was, of course, made by the extreme right-wing magazine Macleans.What can one say about the whole negative mess? As for me, I will be sure not to subscribe to Macleans and definitely will not vote for any party that allows a thug like John Baird in it.

Little wonder that our children scream at, fight with, and bully each other. They are being trained by our "best".

Oink! Oink!

Very little is sacred these days. As Cole Porter would have put it, "Anything goes!" Since the Jaffer affair, lobbying has become a hot topic. Nevertheless, no one appears to object to lobbying, in one form or another. It is baffling! In our democracies, Ottawa's Parliament, the USA's Congress or the British House of Commons and House of Lords, it is not a violation to "persuade" people in power to sway their decisions. Persuasion for profit? Influence peddling? More like bribery - and viewed as criminal - outside politics.

What of party politics? Good? Sound? Honest? The great Winston Churchill changed parties twice. In those good old days a child of the elite went to Eton or Harrow; Oxford or Cambridge; short stint in the Grenadier or Coldstream Guards and then...decided which of the parties offered the best chance of a job! Jean Charest is a Conservative. He ran for the federal Conservative leadership in 1993 and lost to Kim Campbell, who got trounced in her first, and only, election. So, Jean became a provincial Liberal and is now Premier of Quebec with three consecutive minority election wins.

Then there is the matter of how many "jobs" an elected Member of Parliament, etc., can hold/manage. If s/he is a lawyer, it is acceptable to continue to practice. Run a construction company, you do not have to quit that job, or sell the company, to work serving the people!

The last straw happened yesterday. The Auditor-General, Sheila Fraser, courteously made a request to audit the expense accounts of the MPs, et al. The members of all parties, (about to embark on a seven-day sojourn of R and R) ran for the exits to avoid the press, and the reply to the A-G was, "No!" Such arrogance is appalling. Who the hell is in charge in Canada? Does the A-G need to ask? The figures spent by parliamentarians, reported by the CBC, is half a billion...that's right, billion dollars. Surely such a huge sum has to qualify for audit. That the members were reluctant to submit is immediately suspect.

The whole rotten bag-of-tricks needs replacing. I don't mean by electing Michael Ignatieff as P.M. That would be more of the same. We urgently require a national enquiry to determine EXACTLY what the duties of Members of Parliament, and their flunkies, hangers-on, lobbyists, etc., etc. are. What, EXACTLY, are their job descriptions, responsibilities, vacation periods (including periods of proroguing) salaries, extras (especially the extras). It won't happen, you say? You are probably right but until we, the voters, tell them what we will accept, you can bet your breeches the greed element in  them will go unchecked. The oinking 'on the Hill' has become deafening....