Mook of the Week

The latest Mook of the Week award goes to Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter.

Proving that an NDP government can be just as bad, or even worse, than a Tory or Liberal government he continues to show his stupidity. The latest idiocy sees the Dexter regime asking the Federal government to take $47 Million out of a money being given to Nova Scotia for infrastructure spending and putting it toward the building of a new convention centre in Halifax. That isn't even counting the over $200 Million in Provincial and Municipal money that would be spent as well.

The Federal money is slated to be used for roads and the building of community centres across the Province. Instead Mr. Dexter wants to use it to build a convention centre that is not really needed in Halifax. The convention centres that currently exist aren't being fully utilized and this twit wants to spend OUR money on building another one.

The money would be better spent on the infrastructure it is meant for as well as on Health Care and Education. Nova Scotia needs more long term care spaces for the elderly, hospital facilities, doctors and nurses. The Education budget in Nova Scotia is going to be cut 22%. Yet Dexter wants to pump money into a convention centre that isn't needed.

After expense scandals, donation scandals, and bullshit like this convention centre the Dippers have proven they are no better, and in some ways worse, than the other parties. As the leader of the NDP Mr. Dexter has show how much of a hypocrite he and his party is.

Mr. Dexter, you sir, are a political mook, and if I start a mook of the Month or Year category you will definitely be a front runner.

Access to medical care in Nova Scotia

The other day my mother, 78, slipped and fell. She was helping a friend, who had fallen and broken her foot a week ago, get out of the car after taking her shopping. She turned and caught her foot on the curb and took a tumble landing hard on the right side of her head/face.

She received a lot of help. Some workmen helped her up and put her in a wheelchair. A woman living in the condo is a retired nurse and came to help. Mom was cut above her eye and blood was gushing out like a wildcat oil well. The condo superintendent called 911 and then called me. I got there after the EMT's arrived. They took great care of mom and said she should go to the hospital and get checked out. They were worried about a concussion more than anything else. Her face around the eye and cheek was already bruised and swollen. Since I was there, and an ambulance ride costs $500-600, I drove mom to the Dartmouth General Hospital.

We got there around 11:300 AM and the Emergency Room was packed. Some of the people ahead of mom at triage had injuries such as a bleeding nose that needed to be cauterized, a sprained ankle, a migraine, and other assorted injuries. Mom had a head injury with ;possible concussion. We left the hospital around 6:10 PM without having seen a doctor.

Everyone who was there before we arrived was in AND out of the ER. Lots of people who came in after us were in and out. Mom was still waiting.

I don't want to knock the staff that works at the hospital as I know they do their best with what they have. But if mom's injuries were so insignificant that she was on the bottom of the totem pole, someone with a bleeding nose that was packed and not bleeding got in hours before we left, then why didn't they tell her that and suggest she see her family doctor the next day, or the duty doctor that day? A few hours after no signs of concussion showed they could have suggested that. It boggles my mind that a nose bleed and a migraine were given priority over a 78 year old woman who fell and was possibly concussed.

Why was the wait so long at the hospital? Well, people go there to have things treated that could just as easily be seen by a family doctor or a duty doctor at a clinic. A migraine. A cold. A sprain. One woman came in to get IV antibiotics, at her family doctors request, for an infection. These are all things that should and could be dealt with at a clinic or doctor's office. Yet people go to the ER and clog it up.

One of the things I loved about Korea was the care you could get IN a doctor's office or clinic. Needed a blood test? They drew the blood AT the doctor's office. You didn't have to go to a special clinic that is only open a couple of days a week or the hospital. You needed minor stitches? Clinic. Needed an x-ray? Any doctor's office I was at in Korea had an x-ray machine. Need IV antibiotics? Doctor's office. You didn't have to go to the ER, let alone the hospital, for minor things. Add to that there are enough doctors in Korea that you can walk in without an appointment and reasonably expect to see the doctor in less than an hour. The access to health care in South Korea makes Canada's access seem ... third world.

Then you have another problem making things worse at the ER. No beds in the hospital. A lot of patients who SHOULD be admitted to the hospital have to wait in the ER for days for a bed to become available. The mother of a friend had a mini-stroke last December, at the time they thought it was a full stroke. She spent THREE days in a small room in the ER waiting for a bed to become available in the hospital. When my mother had congestive heart failure 3 years ago she spent over 12 hours in a bed in the ER waiting for a bed to become available in the hospital. That is an insane situation.

A lot of the hospital beds are being taken up by people waiting for beds to open in long term senior care facilities. Twice while we were waiting in the ER a "Code: Census" was announced. Another person waiting went up and asked a nurse what that meant and was told it meant there are NO beds left in the ER and they can't admit anyone else until one opens up. It was over an hour before they took another patient into the ER to see a doctor.

In Nova Scotia there is a shortage of long term care facilities for the elderly, hospital beds, doctors, and nurses. Which makes what the Provincial Government wants to do now obscene. They want to take $47 Million of Federal money slated for infrastructure and use it to put towards having a new convention center built in Halifax. THAT is pretty fucked up.

We currently have a convention centre in Halifax that is NOT being fully utilized, the World Trade and Convention Centre. Also there is the Summit Place, a convention centre that was built to host a G7 meetings in the 1995. Why in the blue hell do we need another centre? One built with government money? If a new centre was REALLY viable the private sector would be ready to build it without government money.

The $47 Million dollars that the Dexter government wants from the Federal government was slated for infrastructure investment, mainly repairing and upgrading the roads in Nova Scotia as well as recreation centers around the province. I could see them wanting to take it away from roads for another infrastructure area, let's say long term care facilities for the elderly or more hospital facilities and staff, but a convention centre that we DON'T need?

I thought things were supposed to be different under an NDP government? The Dippers are more worried about "the people" than business. I guess that was just a lot of bull shit used to get themselves elected. Like any other party. Based on the expense scandals, donation scandals, and bullshit like this convention centre and self congratulatory spending one would think it was the old Buchanan government in power and not the Dippers.

If you HAVE to take $47 Million in Federal infrastructure funds away from from roads you should be putting it in health care and not a white elephant Mr. Dexter.

Smells of Winter

Just like summer has some fantastic scents so does winter. It seems as though the cold air enhances the olfactory sense. There is nothing quite like the smell of a wood fire burning on a cold winter day. Kind of like a mowed lawn and salt water in the summer.

Official Stupidity

They closed some local schools at noon today and others were sending students home 2 hours early because a snowstorm MIGHT hit this afternoon. It is almost 1:50PM and while it is snowing it is not storming. All it could be called is a flurry at most.

Not to sound too old, and I know it does, but we walked to school in snowstorms when I was a kid. Nova Scotia has the MOST days set aside as snow days of any province in the country. school starts earlier here and has more days than other provinces to cover it. Yet parents still piss and moan about snow days and missed school.

Maybe my parents were right, the next generation is wussier. :)

What the ... faggot 2?!?!?

It turns out 2 radio stations decided to protests the Canadian Broadcast Standards Commission (CBSC) ban of "Money for Nothing". One here in Halifax and one out west. Q104 in Halifax played the song for an hour on a Friday night. What happened?

Two asshats complained to the CBSC about it. The CBSC announced yesterdat they will investigate the complaints. If they find Q104 guilty what will happen?

Q104 would receive a reprimand from the CBSC and have to read it on air twice. What the hell?!?!?! That is it? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Is it just me or does the CBSC sound like a bunch of morons with no power?

The CBSC is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with no real power to enforce it's rules. It is a useless tool which, looking at the absurdity of their ruling on "Money for Nothing", is governed by a bunch of useless tools.

What the ... faggot?!?!?

I knew that one culture shock I would face when I moved home would be Political Correctness. You can call Koreans many things but PC isn't one of them. In the West we tend to be too PC. Case in point the recent "controversy" of the use of "faggot" in the Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing".

A complaint to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council by one person in Newfoundland caused them to issue a ban on the use of the song except for versions with "faggot" removed/replaced. The Council didn't seem to expect as many people to be pissed off with their decision. Instead of being greeted as enlightened and proper most people seem to think the Council are a bunch of PC fucktards with more shit for brains than common sense.

In some ways the CBSC reminds me of Hagwon owners. Becaise one parent complained about something, no matter how stupid the complaint, the owners would do whatever to make the one parent happy.

The assholes that ran Ivy School in Cheongju were that type of Hagwon owner. Mrs. Kim once told me I wasn't to converse with the kids in my CONVERSATION class in English, only talk about the book. Why? Because one student, whose level was too low for the class, didn't understand and told mommy who complained to the school. Fucktards.

I can actually see the CBSC's decision doing more harm than good. Reacting the way they did to 1 complaint in the 20+ years the song has been around just gives the homophobes something to point to when complaining about gay rights.

Not to mention that they even missed the point of the song. It was satire showing how some people talk and are intolerant. Reminds me of a website I used to frequent. They turned so PC it makes you want to smack them upside the head. In a post talking about racism in Korea. "If you are white you are American. Unless you are blond in which case you are Russian. If you are black you are from Africa. If you are SE Asian you are poor and dirty. If you are Japanese you are evil." The moderators considered explaining about racism in Korea was too racist and cut it down to "Koreans pigeonhole people by skin colour." or some such nonsense. What a bunch of PC retards. But I digress.

As the South Park episode showed, language does change over time. Fag doesn't have the same derogatory meaning as it used to. Hell, many of my gay friends greet gay and straight people alike by saying "Hi fag." I guess they should be censored too.

It turns out that some radio stations are ignoring the CBSC ban. A radio station in Halifax played the song non-stop for an hour as a way of telling the douchebags at the CBSC to go fuck themselves. Which is a go way to end this ...

CBSC and the lone pathetic moron who complained about the song ...

... go fuck yourselves.

Close Encounter of the Mook Kind

God damn mooks! We should be able to kill them, or at least beat them soundly, when they are too mookish.

I walk our dog 2-3 times a day. We both enjoy it. I try to stick to the hiking/biking paths behind the house or the side walks. Sometimes you want to change up your route and there are no paths or side walks. I trust drivers here slightly less than I trusted them in Korea. There aren't as many mookish ones but it only takes one mook to ruin your day.

Tonight we took a route that involved a street with sidewalks and a street with none. Of course I walked facing the direction traffic would be coming. I also kept the dog between me and the sidewalk.

We were about 20 to 25 feet from the end of the street, it ends in a T intersection. Down the street, to the right of the T, some mook is speeding . He whips onto the street I am walking down and missed me by about 4-5 inches. He continued racing off up the street.

What a fucking mook. The street was damp, and the temperature dropping. Black ice was forming. And this asshole drives like that. I wish I could have 5 minutes alone with him.

Billy Connolly - Journey to the Edge of the World

"I smoke cigars. I'm happy to smoke cigars. I don't give one shit what you think about me smoking cigars. It's none of your fucking business. It's like brown shoes. I don't give a shit.

But if I smoke cigars there is suddenly no place in the world indoors that I can do it now. because of THEM. THEY, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that i am not to do it. Even though I am prepared to pay to do it.

For instance the last time I was in Vancouver my favourite smoke shop legally had to close down. They will not allow us to smoke cigarettes or cigars in this place. They stopped it. And in the same week they opened a place where you can go and fix fucking heroin!

So my attitude was what's next? A special lane for fucking drunk drivers? I can't wait until there is a health warning on a cheesecake box. Fat bastards." - Billy connolly

Yes, it is true and not hyperbole. You can go get a free heroin fix in Vancouver but you can't smoke a cigar IN a cigar shop. A group called SALOME set up a new spot just in time for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. But you can't smoke a cigar IN a cigar shop. What the hell?!?!?

I remember when they changed the smoking laws in Nova Scotia on December 1 2006. At that time there was no smoking indoors anywhere anymore. It really fucked up a lot of bars and coffee shops. not to mention the cigar shops. A lot of these places had just invested tens of thousands of dollars to install smoking rooms with exhaust fans so they would be up to code. That way those who wanted to smoke could without bothering those who didn't. (What the hell someone who doesn't like to smoke would be doing in a smoke shop is beyond me though.) All that money spent and within a year or so the government changed the rules again, your smoking rooms are not allowed, and you out tens of thousands of dollars.

I don't smoke cigarettes, but I do like a good cigar from time to time. I don't care if others want to smoke. If I didn't want to be around smoke I would go to places that I wouldn't find it. It isn't rocket science. People who smoke have just as much a right to mingle as those who don't. It is easy to accommodate both sides ... but the smoke Nazis don't believe in compromise and they seem to have a lobby on par with the NRA.

Free heroin and a place to shoot up for addicts ... but god forbid you have a place to smoke a cigar. Fucktards!

Speaking of fear ...

Talking about how we, as a society, tend to live in fear, sometimes even wallow in it, made me think of the H1N1 scare last year.

It wasn't only Korea that over reacted to it. Most countries did. If you looked at the actual stats more people DIED from the regular flu than H1N1 (Swine Flu or as the Koreans called it New Flu.) And it isn't a close number. A vast number more die YEARLY from regular flu yet it isn't given the attention of H1N1. A vaccine was rushed into place to combat H1N1. People were given medicine (tamiflu) that wasn't meant to deal with H1N1 and didn't help in MOST cases but they were given it anyway. The makers of tamiflu made a bundle out of the scare. In some places, Massachussetts, laws were passed that said kids could be taken from their parents and forced to have the vaccine shot.

Last week there was a minor news story on the flu in Canada. There was an outbreak in Ontario and they droned on about people not getting their shot this year. I made the comment to my mother that no was worried about it until now which is why the weren't getting it. Now, I said, the media will hype it up and scare the shit out of everyone. Then you hear about how everyone is scrambling to get their flu shot.

2 days later ... the media had blown things up so much that people were afraid of h1n1 again and the latest news items were about how people were rushing out to get the shot. Nothing like a little dose of fear to make more news and get people to do something.

My mother is at risk so I got the flu shot this year. This was under the impression that it was only the regular flu shot and not the H1N1 shot. I don't trust the vaccine they created so quickly for that, but that would require another post. I found out a few days after I got the shot that it was a combined shot. It covered regular (but not all strains) and H1N1 flu. I was more than a little pissed off hearing that especially after seeing a news story about the H1N1/flu vaccine. It turns out the stuff the doctors were giving out had EXPIRED. They weren't supposed to still be giving the H1N1 shots without getting a new batch of serum ... yet they had. Morons.

Billy Connolly - Journey to the Edge of the World

I have been watching the series. It is great. One comment the Connolly made in the 5th episode, the travelouge. made me laugh. Then I realized just how true it is. He said

"I'm really fed up with people saying the kids today aren't the same. They play with their computers and they don't go outdoors.

You have ruined outdoors for them that's why they are in there! You have given them, no you have left them no where to go. There is no spare ground. Everyone is terrified that the trees are filled with pedophiles and that they are going to drop on them the minute they go around the corner away from the house."

It is funny but sadly true. We make ourselves and our kids so paranoid it is a wonder they do go out. It is a wonder that people don't have panic attacks when they see a stranger coming down the sidewalk.

It reminds me of arguments I had with one of my uncles about gay men being boy scout leaders. My uncle was active in the scouts in Ontario. The policy was, maybe still is, if they find out a troop leader is gay they get rid of him.

They have taken the fear of strangers and added homophobia to it and then bent it all out of proportion. They ignore the reality of the situation, a gay man isn't attracted to boys he is attracted to men and in my view made asses out of themselves. I am surprised it never led to a law suit. Odds are it would have in the US. Maybe it even has.

It reminds me of the asshats who think any man that likes teaching kids must be gay and/or a pedophile. Ergo no men should be teaching elementary school kids. It is ok for Junior High and High School but not Elementary. Talk about fucktards.

We are a nation of fear. We instill it in our kids and in ourselves. In ways we let it rule our lives. It is kind of sad when you think about it.

Drinking Games

I was at one of my Brother's over the weekend, usually spend Saturday nights there with him, family, and friends. We started talking about drinking games.

My Sister-in-law told me about the drinking game at my Niece's Bachelorette party last year. All of the guests brought a pair of panties. She had to guess who the panties belonged to. If she was wrong she did a shot. if she was right they did a shot.

It reminded me a bit of a drinking game I played on the SNES back in University with a friend. We would load up Blades of Steel. If you scored your opponent had to drink. There was some back and forth then all of a sudden I kept scoring. Dave would give an evil grin as I started a break away and then his goalie would slide OUT OF PLACE. bastard was losing so he could drink! Why didn't I think of that first?!?!?!?

Sign of Wasting Money

In the fall I did a road trip to Kentville with one of my brothers. It was a great trip. All along the highway there, as well as a lesser road that ran through Kentville, we would see huge signs the Nova Scotia government put up crowing about their spending on roads and job creation.

You would see these signs every 10-20km on the highway. On the lesser roads we saw another 3-4 of these signs.

We ended up stopped near one and I had the chance to read it. Premier Dexter had these signs made to crow about spending $200,000 on road improvements. It made me wonder just how much money he wasted making these signs and putting them out just to say "We spent $200,000 on roads and jobs."

Signs like that aren't cheap. Then you add in the cost of transporting and setting them up along the highway. I wouldn't be surprised to hear they spent $20,000 or even more on the signs.

What a waste of money just to pat yourself on the back!

Consumer Debt Advocacy

The phone rings. It is from 1-701-625-5003. You don't know the number but you answer and hear;

"You're not alone -- here in Canada, credit card companies are accepting reduced settlements from people just like you. We would be happy to talk to you about your situation. If you'd like to be removed from our list, then please Press 2 now. But if you are struggling with any type of unsecured debt, and you'd like to find out more about getting completely debt-free, then press 1 now to be connected to a counselor. Press 1 now to be connected."

You press 2 and figure that you will never hear from them again. You fool!

The next day they call again. You hit 2.

They call 3 more times that week. You press 1 and talk to a representative. They tell you that you are talking to Consumer Debt Advocacy. Before they go into their spiel you politely tell them to stop calling. They comment that all you have to do is hit the 2 button when you get their message. You point out that you have already done that, twice at this point, and are still getting calls. They say they will take care of it. Problem solved. Not!

The next week you get 4-5 more calls from them. Sometimes 2 the same day.

The next week 2-3 calls.

The next week you press 1 the 1st time they call and tear a representative a new asshole.

Two days later they call again. You get nasty again. A few days later another call. You get nasty.

A week later they call. You try a different tact and are polite again. The person you talk to says he will make a note for his supervisor who will make sure you are taken off the list. Their supervisors are never around. You hang up figuring nothing will change.

A week goes by with no calls. can it be? It worked? Another week goes by. No calls.

Just when you believe you won't hear from them again ... they call. You explode. Guess what, you aren't alone.

This is pretty much what is happening to me now. According to the last asshole I talked to the company is based out of Florida, but the phone number is for North Dakota.

According to the Better Business Bureau there is nothing you can do. They are allowed to call you. And if you think the No Call list in Canada will protect you ... you are wrong. Being based out of America it doesn't apply to them. Your phone company won't do anything to help you either.

It boggled me that there is no recourse. In this day and age surely to god you could block them. You would think their behaviour would at least fall under some form of harassment since they are asked, repeatedly, to stop calling. With that in mind I called the operator and asked what the phone company could do to help.

We have Eastlink and our home phone provider, out of Halifax. The operator said it is possible to blockthem and put me through to customer care. The rep I talked with said that using *60 we can block up to 12 numbers. Just call it and follow the prompts to block the last caller.

I followed the instructions and called *60 after a few seconds I was told to press the # key then 01 and the # key again. That adds the last caller to the blocked list. It worked like a charm the first time. Hopefully it means we will never get a call from those asshats again. Time will tell.

One thing you can do if you have the time and can't block them is start wasting their time. Get a rep online. Encourage them to talk. Keep them on as long as you can. Then ask them if the enjoyed you wasting their time like they waste the time of so many people and hang up. They need to make as many calls as they can to get suckers who will sign up. By wasting their time they miss out on calls which can mean money.

Fucking Telemooketers. I can understand people needing to make a buck but they don't have to be so obnoxious about it.

Mook of the Week

My mother and I were coming back from Halifax this morning. She was driving, but I didn't have my camera ready. After you come off the MacKay bridge, where Victoria Road merges into main street, we, almost literally, had a run in with one of the mookiest drivers I have ever seen here.

Where their road merged with ours, and they should yield, this asshat, in a piece of shit red Saturn, stayed beside us and then start drifting over into us. Mom knew enough from seeing the idiot coming that they would do something like that and was ready to drop back. Keep in mind there was NO ONE behind us, the mook could have easily come in behind us. Hell, there was no one in front of us. They could have sped up and moved in front. Instead the mook decided they needed to be where our car was.

At this point I whipped out the camera to get some pictures.

Including one of their license plate. Nova Scotia plate ADB03.

That wasn't the end of their stupidity though. As they sped ahead, once almost rear ending another car, they would drift so they were straddling the line between lanes for a while before finally going into the other lane.

There are four lanes in most spots and this idiot managed to straddle every lane for a while, and be in every lane.

If I had a cell phone I would have called the cops because they were definitely driving like they were drunk.

So if you are driving the Halifax-Dartmouth area and see a piece of shit red Saturn check for Nova Scotia license plate ADB03. If it is them you want them as far ahead or behind you as possible. They are a fucking accident waiting to happen.

IRT: Deadliest Roads

Stig, episode 8 would have brought back many mook memories from Korea.

One of the truckers is taking her truck over a bridge that was only made for one vehicle. A mook sees her truck coming and decides he will head towards her ... on the bridge. Surprise, surprise, his side mirror ends up mangled and of course he is blaming it all on the foreign trucker.

He tried milking money out of her for the damage. She turned it around and said she wanted money for the scratch on her truck. He tried being indignant. She left paying him nothing.

Fucking mooks.

IRT: Deadliest Roads

Damn ... different country same lame ass excuses.

When the "foreign" truckers scuff another vehicle, usually the green buses driven by mega-mooks, they have to pay. When it is reversed it is a "misunderstanding". Reminds me of South Korea.

In episode 7 Rick is parked and a bus scrapes him. they track the bus driver down and he runs crying to the police. What do the police do? Send him off, and keep the foreign truckers saying it was all a misunderstanding. What the kimchi?!?!?

Definitely reminds me of one of the Koreans favourite excuses.

IRT: Deadliest Roads

I started watching Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads over the holidays. The Ice Road part is misleading as it is taking place in India. near the borer with Tibet and into the Himalayas.

Jesus H. Mother Fing Christ! I would NEVER go on those roads. Height and crapiness aside the drivers. They make the Shanghai taxi drivers look sane!!!! I find myself cringing from the heights at times and other times from the assholes on the road.

Interesting show.