Any Leaf Fans Out There?

Pretty funny article in The Toronto Star on the sorry state of the Toronto Maple Leafs--and, less directly, on head coach Ron Wilson's big mouth and propensity for insulting his players. Wilson apparently told reporters the team was "a garden full of weeds" after losing badly to Minnesota. The Star goes into more detail about these weeds. A sample:

"MILKWEED (Nikolaiva Antropovora): Not an invasive species and does not pose threat to its environment. Physically tepid despite long frame, may finally be yanked from first and only NHL team for frustrating inability to dominate."

Good for a chuckle. Full thingy here.

Six In The Morning

1. Don't Let America become France: So you're a captain of industry and you've just been promised a big wad of corporate welfare, what's your first order of business? Why, fund an assault on the union movement of course. As reported on Tuesday in the Huffington Post, Bernie Marcus, co founder of Home Depot, participated in a Bank of America hosted conference call with several conservative activists in which he characterized the Employee Free Choice Act as "the demise of civilization" and urged massive donations to the fight against the bill. As of today, you can listen to the entire conversation via Wikileaks.

2. Downsize that Venti Decaf Misto: Starbucks is laying off 6,700 employees and closing 300 stores. Now, if we can just find some way to get the Broad Street Crossing and its Tim Hortons bulldozed.

3. Council Urged to Consider Extending Shovelling Bylaw: Monday's Regina city council meeting wasn't all condo conversions -- oh no, that was just the first three and a half hours -- there were also presentations by community groups and Canada Post criticizing the state of city sidewalks in winter. They urged council to extend the shovelling bylaw to cover residential property. Nothing seems forthcoming as long as city staff are in the process of doing some sort of new snow removal survey. Maybe next year those of us who number among the carless can expect to see some relief from Regina's pedestrian moonscape.

4. Regina the Not-So Cheap: Regina has dropped from the most affordable place in Canada to the 18th. Cape Breton has claimed the top spot.

5. Obama Throws Down Weather Gauntlet: Worried that coverage of American politics will become as slight as TMZ? Worry no more. The Globe and Mail bravely blazes a trail deep(er) into tabloid trivia land by making Obama's coatless winter jaunt a top news item.

6. Wanking Causes Cancer: File this under "Things I Wish I Didn't Know." Apparently, men who have too many orgasms in their 20s and 30s are at a higher risk for prostate cancer. And yes, that means orgasms by any means are a problem. But they're saying that orgasms achieved by "spanking the monkey" (or do you prefer "choking the bishop"? Or something else maybe?) are especially deadly. Well, that's it. I'm doomed.

Is Too Much Schadenfreude Bad For You?

It would appear that the denizens of Richistan are starting to figure out that things are screwed and they may not be able to afford the new solid gold deck chairs for their yachts.

"Money" (if you can call a runaway credit bubble that) is evaporating, China and Russia are threatening to bail on the U.S. dollar and things are unravelling as they should... or perhaps must is more like it.

The money quote:

"Forty percent of the world's wealth was destroyed in the last five quarters. It is an almost incomprehensible number," said Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the leading private equity company Blackstone Group. "Business will be very different."

Read the whole thing here.

This makes me almost as giddy as reading about the Madoff scam.

Oh, and Linda McQuaig lets the banksters, as FDR dubbed them way back when, have it here, in a really interesting piece that ponders the immortal question: "Would the reaction be any different if unions had blown up our economy?"

And... it's always fun to watch a terrified neo-con sell his "convictions" down the river.

This really is better than Christmas. And I didn't even have to rack up the ol' credit card.

Not So Cold

Further to my whining posts yesterday, it is no longer colder than crap outside. It is, in fact, not bad. Minus 11, -20 w/ windchill. Better.

Also, better is this second cup of coffee. My first tasted a little too desperate or something. Mmm. Sequel-coffee.

Wednedsday, January 28

Good morning...well, let's make that afternoon. Here are a couple of brief thoughts from my living room the day after production (which we should probably shorten to just "the day after").

-Budget: Iggy's going to allow Harper's budget to pass. Yeah, it's all up to him. the budget isn't going to go ahead because of consensus in Parliament, it's not going to go ahead because it's just too good to vote against, it's going to go ahead because a deeply concerned, brow-furrowed Liberal leader (or is that king? I don't recall the leadership contest) has deemed it the best course at this time. He shall permitit. At this time. With caveats. Thank you, sire.

Also, I wish Jack Layton didn't sound like such a phony. I think he's far less a phoney than a lot of politicians, but he sure sounds over-scripted and soundbite ready. I heard him on CBC this morning and...I dunno. I expect more from the guy and his party. Passion. Honesty. A willingness to say unpopular things when they're the truth, sometimes.

More on the budget here and here and here and here.

An additional point: is anyone else getting offended by the phrase "working families"? First, a lot of Canadians live alone. Are we not citizens too? Second, many Canadians are unemployed. They're not important because they're not "working"? There's more to being a Canadiana than being a couple, having some kids and holding a job. There is more to Canada than "working families".

-The problem with print: far be it from me to put down my chosen medium but sometime it stinks working on an immutable two-week frequency. Case in point: last night as we're fininshing up tomorrow's prairie dog, Gwynne Dyer files a new column. It's great--an analysis of Obama's (supportive) position toward the so-called "War On Terror", in the wake of the new President's first air strike. Of course, I can't run it. We're on deadline (actually, cough, somewhat past deadline, as usual...). Also, we've already got a Dyer column in this issue that we promoted it on the cover. But it sure would've been nice to run a timely article on Obama right after he orders people killed for the first time. deadlines suck. I couldn't find it online but I expect it to show up here in the next 48 hours, for anyone who's interested.

That's all from me for now, I'm desperately due for another cup of coffee. Talk to you later.

It's Still Cold

Environment Canada says it's -18 degrees C, -29 w/windchill. Better, but not much. But here's some good news on a still-frigid Tuesday: global warming is irreversible.

From discovery.com:

"The study's authors said there was "no going back" after the report showed that changes in surface temperature, rainfall and sea level are "largely irreversible for more than 1,000 years after CO2 emissions are completely stopped."

So should we quit all this green-gab and just pack it in? Not so fast, says the study's lead author, Susan Solomon of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association in the Telegraph:

"Climate change is slow, but it is unstoppable - all the more reason to act quickly, so the long-term situation does not get even worse."

More here.

Hooray?

Don't Eat Blowfish Testicles

Or at least make sure your testicle chef has a fugu license. Otherwise, this could happen to you.

Six In The Morning (Deadline Edition)

A half dozen things you need to know about right now. RIGHT...NOW!!!

1.) IT'S COLD! -28.8 degrees C, and completely horrible. Make that -41 with the windchill.

2.) BUDGET DAY The drama explodes like a birthday cake stuffed with dynamite starting at three this afternoon (Eastern, so that's what, two here?). Will Iggy's Grits let Harper and company's budget pass? Will Jack Layton go all Die Hard With A Vengeance in the House of Commons? Will Gilles Duceppe be smugly inscrutable? Follow the excitement here or here or here or here.

3.) IT'S COLD!

4.) IT'S COLD!

5.) DEADLINE DAY It's Tuesday, the day prairie dog goes to press. There's sure a lot of work to do.

6.) IT'S COLD! Cold! Cold! Cold!!!

Council Cancels Condo Conversion

Following up on this post... At last night's meeting, city council voted unanimously to deny the application to convert 2141 Rae Street, the Viva Apartments, into condominiums. Councillors cited the appallingly low vacancy rate (o.5%) as one of the reasons driving their decision. Beyond that, the key factor was likely a petition presented by a Viva resident indicating that 17 residents from the 24-unit building were still opposed to the conversion and felt it would cause them significant hardship.

Council did approve the 15 Coventry Road conversion. However, the building owner, PR Investments, indicated they intended to only convert four of the building's 12 units into condos. The remaining eight would remain as rental suites, with funds raised from the sold suites going into building maintenance. Also, PR Investments indicated that they were offering all of their tenants lifetime tenancy agreements and would continue to rent out their units at below market rates. Coucillors felt that under these particular circumstances -- i.e., that the bulk of the units would remain affordable rental units -- they could in good conscience approve the conversion.

Expect more detail on the condo conversion issue in the next prairie dog.

I Don't Have Time For This

Our press deadline is 5:00 p.m. tomorrow so I need to be editing, not blogging and reading crap online.

But if I did have time to read crap online, I'd be reading this right now. An excerpt:

"Fortunately, Obama clearly gets it. He devoted more of his inaugural address to clean energy and global warming than even the strongest advocate could have imagined, asserting, "We will work tirelessly to ... roll back the specter of a warming planet." More important, he has assembled a team with unmatched knowledge and commitment to solve the climate problem."

More here." (From Salon.)