Speak Out, Canada!

Ex Fan of Fan Expo

Tommy Wiseau Sucks

The Ground Zero Mosque

RIP Dr. Laura -- Wait, she's still alive? DAMMIT!

So right-wing radio nut/fake psychiatrist Dr. Laura Schlessinger is quitting her controversial show, because she wants to be free to express her First Amendment rights, without retaliation from the people she offends, advertisers, or the FCC. Evidently, this is in response to her latest bigoted tirade, where she repeatedly referred to black people as n***ers and -- SHOCK! -- people were outraged over it.

(jeez what took them so long?)

First of all, I'm glad she's finally gone -- it couldn't happen to anyone more deserving. Well, except maybe for Charles McVety, the Westboro Baptist Church, the National Organization for Marriage, and pretty much everyone who's worked for Fox News. Oh, and Stephen Harper, but that's a different matter.

Second, before any neo-cons out there get up my ass about free speech, I suggest you take a look at broadcasting laws in your country. In Canada, in addition to our hate speech laws, we have the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. America has the oft-maligned Federal Communications Commission. While both policies -- and their enforcers -- have their occasional problems and brain farts, they are nonetheless the law of the land when it comes to what you can have on public airwaves. Frankly, anyone who's ever been near the broadcasting industry knows that there are certain words you are not allowed to say on the air -- Professor George Carlin did some seminal work on this subject in the 1970s. This is especially wise, when some of those words are used by various bigots and supremacists in their rants to call for the deaths of everyone who isn't a straight white Judeo-Christian (and sometimes it's even more narrow than that).

Third, if Schlessinger really wants to find a place that frees her to spread her bile, she's going to have her work cut out for her. I doubt that any other mainstream outlet will want her, because she's a defamation lawsuit/huge FCC fine waiting to happen, she clearly hates about half of the country, and isn't above using foul language and slurs to say so. The FCC even has some involvement in Internet regulation, which limits her options there as well (plus that's assuming the best case scenario for her, that she's able to set up her own web site and video streaming service -- after all, YouTube, BlipTV and most other video sites forbid her kind of dreck too).

So I guess that limits her to private functions with the KKK, Aryan Brotherhood, and Republican Party. Well, at least that would be honest as well as open.

Cancer Fraud

Across Ontario, there's been a young woman in the news, named Ashley Kirilow. If you haven't already heard, she conned thousands of dollars off from people (including her closest friends) by claiming to have terminal cancer. It seems like the only people she didn't manage to scam were members of her family, and only because they saw right through it -- evidently she's been a spoiled liar ever since she was a kid.

Sure enough, now that she's turned herself in and confessed, not a single person is willing to bail her out.

People like her make me sick. All her life she has manipulated people to do her bidding or give her attention. Now that she's in a position to finally get real help, I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt, but the fact is that the way she's behaving around her lawyer and the judge is exactly the same as how she's behaved around her marks. Plus, in my experience, liars this pathological very rarely change.

And of course, people like her make life a thousand times harder, for anyone REALLY trying to raise money for cancer treatment or research. I had a hard enough time with my cancer drive, and that was BEFORE this twit came along -- I'd be screwed if I'd tried it now, and no doubt many others are.

Honestly, even though I'm not religious, I suspect that there's a special place in Hell reserved for people like her.

Ti-Cats and Pan Am Stadium

I had to comment on this eventually...

The professional football team in my town -- the mediocre Hamilton Tiger Cats (aka Ti-Cats) -- are so adamant that they will not play in the proposed West Harbour Pan Am stadium, that they are threatening to leave Hamilton rather than set foot in it. Furthermore, the Canadian Football League (CFL) is supporting this, adding that Hamilton will never again have a CFL team if it decides on a West Harbour stadium, which is favoured by most of the people who are actually paying for it and have a stake in the proceedings.

This debacle has drawn out the construction dates so long, that Hamilton has already lost the valuable track and field events in the Toronto Pan Am games for 2015.

So let me get this straight... The Ti-Cats play in a stadium right now that is run down, falling apart, and quite frankly is not in the best or most accessible neighbourhood. The city -- their landlords and main fan base -- wants to move them into another stadium that doesn't seem to be much different as far as I can tell, and the Cats suddenly whine loud enough to threaten our stake in the Pan-Am games. Furthermore, they are threatening to leave Hamilton, if they don't get to play where they want -- this, after Hamilton has stuck by them through many seasons where they barely won any games at all. I am outraged that a bloody football team is trying to hold my city hostage -- and not even a good football team, either! If these punks want to give the finger to a fiercely loyal city, then they can just leave now. Don't let the door hit your tails on the way out.