Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Payback, Cutbacks, Kickbacks

Have you noticed that Jason Kenney has not been in the news as much lately? 

The Smiling Budha, Curry in Hurry, Minister of Citizen, Immigration and Multiculturalism, who is also considered to be a leadership candidate to replace Harper, failed to step up during the Senate scandal by dumping on Nigel Wright, leaving the heavy lifting in Parliament, to Baird and Moore. It would appear that this, along with Kenney's open dispute with Flaherty over Rob Ford, might not have gone unnoticed been Harper.

The governments multiculturalism budget which Kenney controls was reduced in 2013 by a third and is expected to be reduced further in the upcoming years. Kenney has also had his signature granting program, the Inter-Action budget cut back. Kenney's signature granting program was set up in 2010 to support events approved by Kenney's office that promoted intercultural understanding, respect for democratic values and/or civic memory and pride. 
In 2010-2011, about $14 million was spent under the program to fund 140 projects and events. In 2011-12, about $9.5 million was spent under the program to fund 30 projects and 202 events. For this year, the budget will be scaled back further by at least $2.5 million.
Unfortunately for Kenney, the former king of the local Conservative fundraising circuit, he may be in serious danger of forfeiting his crown. Out of province, political donations to Kenny, have dropped by over $125,000, a sixty four percent drop.
Jason Kenney's Calgary Southeast electoral district association (EDA) netted just $67,149 in donations last year.
The number of donors declined as well  — from 951 in 2012, to just 455 in 2013, of which just 93 gave more than $200, compared to 230 who did so in 2012.
Notably, all but a handful of this year's contributors hailed from the Calgary area
From 2007 to 2012, Kenney's riding raked in nearly $150,000 from outside his home province, including more than $93,000 from Toronto-area Chinese Canadians, augmented by the occasional burst of donations from other GTA South Asian ethnic communities, usually clustered around a single date.
That particular revenue stream appears to have dried up, at least for the moment.
One of the major criticisms of political funding in Canada is that political parties are only required to report the identities of contributors that have given a total of over $200 to one riding association or the central organization. For donations of $200 or less, receipts must be kept by the individual riding associations, but Elections Canada has no way to keep track of them.

And has been noted by Elections Canada, a corporation or an organization can make multiple $200 donations to a candidate by listing their employees or members as the donors.

It appears that the recipients of multicultural grants were, at least in the past, very impressed with the Minister of Citizen, Immigration and Multiculturalism and decided, independently to donate funds towards his elections.

To the tune of about ten percent.



 

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Maybe Merkle and Harper can sing Hey Jude together.

Remember Harper's much heralded EU Trade Agreement, the largest, most historic, trade agreement ever! Well it appears that the largest EU partner, Germany is objecting to the investor protection clause in the Canadian deal.

This is the clause that allows foreign corporations to ignore the laws of their trading partner, by giving the foreign corporations the right to sue if such rights are denied. It is known as the ISDS or Investor State Dispute Settlement clause and was part of the original and subsequent North American Free Trade Agreements.

Further more from the article we discover that the Europeans only consider Harper's so called, historic free-trade agreement as a test for the agreement with the United States.

So much for Steve's analysis back in October:
Mr. Harper too played down the approval process saying the provinces are on side and that he expects the deal to be in place by the next election in 2015.

“The agreement as it now stands is not going to change,” he said. “I am certainly confident of its adoption in Canada. I think anyone who opposes it will lose and will make a big historic mistake in so doing.”
And for those who don't, remember here is Canada's second worse Prime Minister singing with Reagan in an effort to get the original NAFTA talks going and hence the title of the post.

Friday, July 25, 2014

I will see your blitz and raise you one ghetto

Yesterday, Netanyahu compared the Hamas rocket attacks to what Britain endured during the second world war.

"There's only been one other instance where a democracy has been rocketed and pelleted with these projectiles of death, and that's Britain during World War Two. Israel is undergoing a similar bombardment now."

If a seven month, blitz, dropping over 36,000 tonnes of explosives, and killing over 60,000 civilians is similar to seventeen days of aimless, highly defensible, rockets, being fired in your general direction and killing one civilian, then Gaza and the treatment of the Palestinians by Israel is similar to the Warsaw ghetto and the treatment by the Nazis.

At least in the latter comparison the numbers are closer.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

No where to run, no where to hide

We are lead to believe that there is a moral difference between bombing an abandoned hospital that snipers took cover in and bombing a hospital that you ordered to be evacuated before the snipers took cover.
   
Unfortunately, the end result is the same, Gaza looses a hospital.
   
A similar tactic was used today to destroy a UN run school sheltering displaced families seeking shelter from the onslaught. Unfortunately not enough time was allowed for the evacuation and as men, women and children (families) waited in the courtyard for evacuation the Israeli bombs started falling killing over a dozen people and wounding an undisclosed number.
 
That should teach the UN, to suggest that Israel might be guilty of war crimes for not taking enough care to avoid killing innocent civilians (families).

Friday, July 18, 2014

How to fry mushrooms

Late one night, in the declining years of the seventies, after watching a midnight episode of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a tiny, bearded gnome of a chef, I believe from the west coast, appeared on my television screen, giggling, joyously hopping up and down and exonerating in a high pitched voice, that what he was about to demonstrate, would not only, change how I forever looked at the common mushroom, it would also change my life.

Being unsure if this truly was a cooking show or possibly some imagined, reverberating, continuance of Mary Hartman, I watched, as the tiny chef carefully snapped the stems from the caps of plain white mushrooms.
"It is very important that, no part of the stem remain within the cap, nor that the cap itself, is damaged or cracked during the removal process. Any poorly disembowelled caps should be discarded to the side with the now dislodged stems.", he warned.
"For the novice, long narrow stems are more easily, removed and should be considered preferential, when selecting your mushrooms, if you purchase them in bulk.", he continued.
As an aside and as an expert mushroom de-stemmer with over thirty years experience, with practice, speed and the right angling of the mushroom even the shortest and chubbiest of thumbs can cleanly snap the shortest and chubbiest of stems.
"It does not matter the size of the mushroom cap, other than the larger the cap, the greater the growth of gills that will release the nirvana-like nectar that we are trying to create, transcending the mushroom from a tasteless fungal growth that is added to salads or pizzas as bulk, into a delectable, mouthwatering, vial for its precious bodily fluids.", he giggled.
For which I assumed he was Hindu and like myself, a fan of Peter Sellers movies.

As a second aside, although size does not matter, in this case, caps of a similar or consistent size are best, as the cooking time varies greatly between large and small caps and the point here is to eat the mushrooms as soon as they are ready.

"In reality, when the aroma of a perfectly transcended mushroom cap hits your nasal passages, you cannot stop yourself from drinking its sweet nectar and devouring it's now deliciously, meaty receptacle. So have all of them ready at the same time." in his words.
"Place the mushroom caps upside down in a heated frying pan containing a light, preferably unseasoned, cooking oil with a setting of medium to slightly medium/high."
"At this time, one could then slice and dice the discarded stems and if ruined during the de-stemming, any discarded caps and carefully place them in between the cooking mushrooms, being careful not to drop them into the mushroom cap itself, which could then interfere with the release of fluids".

"Standing back, you will, after a minute or so, start to see a honey-yellow daub start to form at the base of the cap which will grow into a bubble and eventually form an clear amber pool of liquid, right to the brim of the cap, at which time the transcendence and cooking time is complete".

Taking over at this time, remove the frying pan from the heat and lets prepare for the most difficult process of the task, which as a reminder, is How to fry mushrooms.
"With the precision and steadiness of hand that is more often associated with a pediatric-neurosurgeon, remove each now filled mushroom cap, one at a time, from the frying pan, placing them onto a plate, without spilling any of the amber, nectar."
Unfortunately there will be a small crust formation on the bottom of the upside mushroom, which will stick to the now cooling frying pan and you typically cannot use a spatula to remove the mushrooms and expect the meet the desired no spills rule.

For best results I would suggest the use of a tablespoon to transport the mushroom and a fork to coax the mushroom on and then off the spoon.


They are ready to sip and eat. I hope that you enjoy.


You will note in the shaky gif above, that there is a reddish spot in each of the sizzling or the transcending, mushrooms. Do not expect this, I was drinking scotch that night and decided to recklessly add a drop of Tai chilly sauce. Luckily it neither added to nor reduced from the delectable, mouthwatering, vial with its precious bodily fluids.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Defining Alberta one vehicle at a time


My guess is that the conservatives in Alberta did not like advertising the Wild Rose Party on the provinces' license plates so they have three new designs that they want Albertans to vote for. Although new and stylish, the designs totally miss the mark in representing the new Alberta. I think the one below better defines the Alberta that the rest of world sees.


Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Get a bucket and mop, clean the bottom and top

Shaw's Global Toronto ran a MacDonald's ad as a news story tonight. Watch the video here.

Global merged a story about, newly, published, research (with no MacDonalds references), by Dr. Marc-David Seidel, a professor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business with onsite interviews, with nice, white, Canadian, teenagers flipping burgers inside MacDonalds.

MacDonalds Canada has taken a major hit to its reputation, after revelations that they have been taking advantage of the Harper's government expanded Temporary Foreign Worker program.

After being caught replacing Canadian workers with lower cost foreign workers, their CEO, John Betts, made matters worse by sarcastically making light of the issue, in a recorded message to his franchisees.

And unfortunately when the big guys, especially the arrogant ones, screw up and light is shone upon their corporation's greed and their own arrogance, we all have to suffer through their ridiculous attempts to restore order. But don't worry Betts, Canadians will keep eating your cardboard imitation of meat. It is your American overlords, that you need to worry about, not for hiring of the indentured employees, but about how you handled the response when you were caught.