Trans Mountain Pipeline Approved

...but far from built.

 I've talked about this  before.  My opinion is that Trudeau did the right thing by approving the pipeline.  You can't really rule this country if the entire middle bit hates your guts because you took away their one salable product.  (Well, that's an exaggeration: Sask has wheat; Alta. has pig shit; and Manitoba has Winnipeg, the Miami of the frozen tundra, for tourism.  But I digress).  And the upcoming election basically Libs vs. Tories with the two hippy parties as possible spoilers.  Who would you prefer on the climate file, the guys who instituted a National Carbon Tax or the guys who are taking Doug Ford's climate plan national?

But I don't think it should be built, and am pretty sure it won't be built.  And this is due to the lawsuits various FN and other actors will launch, and the mass protests outside of Vancouver that will happen if the lawsuits fail. Which means that today's announcement is a sideshow at best. But I'm betting we don't even get to the "George-Clooney-chains-himself-to-a-bulldozer" stage of things.  I suspect the reason "consultations" with FN groups have failed in the past is that if they were ever done property the result would be too expensive for the oil companies to proceed.  I suspect that will be the case in the future.   But the point is there is more than one way to skin a cat and we shouldn't expect the Trudeau government to have to skin all the cats all the time.

Mann Wins!!!! Frontier Centre for Public Policy FOLDS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Mann for successfully putting the boots to Winnipeg's Frontier Centre for Public Policy.  They defamed him; he fought back and won.  See their grovelling apology below.  Bask in their tears.   Not much to say other than  note the dates when the first lies were told: 2011 and 2012.  Seven or eight years between the time someone allegedly defames you and the time some court says they did or didn't, is about average in this country.  You have to have a sticktoitiveness to carry the whole thing through to the end that not many people possess.  Good on Mr. Mann for hanging in there.

And there's still Mark Steyn's ass left to kick.  I so look forward to the day.

PCPO Budget Is Mild Stuff

I don't like the directions taken; cutting healthcare spending below the rate of inflation, and etc.  But this government in this budget is definitely no Mike Harris Mark II.   Mind you, they'll never meet their deficit reduction targets at this rate, but they've probably figured that nobody really gives a shit.  So the PCPO has learned something over the last 20 years.  Mind you also, they're still on course for a battle with the OTF and a possible teacher's strike, maybe as soon as the summer (I think the contracts come up July 2019).  Open battles with Ontario's teachers are a losing proposition, which is another thing Mike Harris never learned.  People say they love their kids but actually raising them through their school years is a pain in the ass.  They get resentful if the government makes them do it.  We'll see if Ford and co. figure this one out as well.

Doug Ford's OHIP Changes: A Bummer, or Not?

I'm especially wondering about his plan to cut back on pain relief for colonoscopies.  I've gone through the procedure twice.  First time around they hit me with a General and I still didn't pass out.  I watched on a B&W TV screen as they maneuvered the probe up and down my ass.  It was like watching a guy wandering through a big sewer system with a cheap flashlight.  I pointed at the TV and asked what's that and the doctor said motherfucker you're awake you must really know your way around narcotics!  But I don't remember any actual pain, so maybe I'm with Doug on this one.

Mind you, they also want to cut funds for pain relief when they remove the polyps they find during the colonoscopy.  I didn't have polyps, but from what I hear what they do is they stick the end of the probe in some liquid oxygen so its really cold, they nail the polyp with the cold end so it freezes/burns like a wart, but one that's up your ass.  And then they send another probe with snippers at its end to snip the thing off. 

So I think Doug loses me here.

Life In Scarborough: The Fried Pork Rinds of Scarborough

Was inside the Jian Hing market at Markham and Lawrence on Family Day, looking for Filipino  Pork Rinds.  They have about 40 different varieties at Jian Hing.  I'm not kidding, there's a whole aisle devoted to nothing but.  Filipino  Pork Rinds are basically deep-fried pig-skin; you can get them either  "fat on" or "fat off", which means there's chunks of deep-fried pork-fat still stuck to them, or not.  I usually buy the "fat off" kind.  I prefer  the "fat on" version, but if I eat too much my sodium level spikes and the water in my inner ear backs up and I get the bed-spins for a week.

So I'm in the cash-line behind this old Filipino guy.  He looks at my 2 big bags of Chicharron Old Fashioned Fat Off Flavor and asks.  "You like those?"

I say: "Yes.  They're good, not good for you.  I know that."

And he laughs and tells me how they eat them back home.  Apparently, they dip them in vinegar, which seems redundant to me, like stuffing an H-Bomb full of gunpowder.  And  they also dip them in some kind of red or black pepper sauce.

When we have both gone through the line  I say "take care" and he says "stay healthy" the way Stanley Tucchi says "be careful" to Zach Quinto in that scene from Margin Call.

Flying Today

Horrible behavior but  it wouldn't have happened 50 yrs ago because everyone would have had enough leg room.  I flew Air Canada Rouge (@AirCanadaRouge) in 2018 and it was  like being crew on a WWI submarine.  Something has to change.

Toronto The Unready

WTF happened?  Did the dispatcher pass out just before the storm hit?  Did the plow-guy bust a leg trying to smuggle a hooker into the barracks through a back window?  Or did they stop at VP and say Fuck it its Scarborough lets turn around and plow The Bridle Path twice?  The city's East-end this morning is a snowy hell-scape with near impassable roads!  But the thing is, as soon as you get North of Steeles the streets are bare, even the side-streets...even the arena parking lots.  So it can be done.  And yet Markham Road, the main drag out this way, is like the trail out of Zeballos.  If I wanted to live in the countryside, I would move there. 

Scarborough should secede and join Markham, or maybe Pickering, whoever gives the best deal on snow-plow services.  I hear there's always something exciting going on in Pickering.