She/her

So, this is the latest abomination I have to endure.  Women identifying as "she/her" or "they".  This is insanity.

I sent an email to the aquatics director at the local pool to ask why all the lanes were closed for swimming lessons and none left for lane swimmers.  She sent me back an email, with her name and "she/her" underneath it.

Isn't it obvious she's a "she/her"?  I guess not.  When I asked at the desk what this was about, I was told that, "Everyone is doing that now and you have to respect their self-identification".  I was aghast.

I am definitely too old for this sh-t.  And as a grammarian, I vehemently object!

In my old-fashioned world, a woman is a woman and a man a man.

Facts

This is re-printed from another source: 

WHAT DID MARK CARNEY SAY TO DONALD TRUMP?

" World Cup Luxury Box One Day. U.S. Tariffs on Canada the Next.

"Folks,

I can't believe it's happening again. Prime Minister Mark Carney's negotiation strategy appears to have flopped once again.

"On Sunday, Carney attended the FIFA World Cup Final and had a prime seat in the luxury box alongside President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum as Spain defeated Argentina. Between watching the match, handing out medals, and presenting trophies, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to build some goodwill and smooth out a few trade issues.

"We already know Carney didn't bring up CUSMA the last time he spoke with Trump on the phone. He caught some heat for that. I was hoping he would use this opportunity to step up and accomplish something.

"Instead, on Monday, Trump resurrected an old U.S. trade law from 1930.

"According to the White House, Trump invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930:

"…to impose additional 50% tariffs on certain goods of Canada in response to Canada's discriminatory treatment of American products. By doing so, President Trump is offsetting the burden and disadvantage on U.S. commerce from Canada's discriminatory treatment of U.S. commerce and is leveling the playing field for crucial American exports—cars, alcohol, and dairy."

"Interestingly, Mexico wasn’t hit with a new round of tariffs, despite President Sheinbaum attending the same event with Trump and Carney. U.S. and Mexican officials also resumed formal trade negotiations today. That raises an obvious question: Why do negotiations with Mexico appear to be moving forward while Canada is being hit with new tariffs?

"The President is pointing to the eight provinces that removed U.S. alcohol from government liquor stores, along with Canada's dairy supply management system, to justify the new tariffs.

"Most of those provinces removed U.S. alcohol from their shelves back in March 2025. Canada's dairy supply management system has been around since Christ was a carpenter. If those are the reasons for the tariffs, why now instead of last year?

"I want to know what Carney did…or didn’t say…to Trump at the game before this latest round of tariffs. Did he accidentally take a sip of Trump’s Diet Coke or eat the last cheeseburger?

"Carney responded by arguing that the United States is violating CUSMA and saying Canada has put forward “detailed and comprehensive proposals.” Fine. But where are the results? His statement does not name one concession he has won, one tariff he has removed, or one concrete breakthrough with Donald Trump.

"Mark Carney was elected because many Canadians believed he was the most qualified person to negotiate with Donald Trump. He compared himself to Winston Churchill. He promised “Elbows Up.” Instead, Canadians got another carefully scripted statement telling them more talks may happen in the coming weeks.

"But over the past year, Canada has faced repeated trade setbacks involving steel, lumber, the Digital Services Tax and, more recently, the Gordie Howe Bridge. Now we have another round of tariffs.

"If this keeps up, Mark Carney may go down as one of the least successful Canada-U.S. negotiators in modern Canadian history.

Trump stomping all over our "genius" economist PM

"Mark Carney is such a bad negotiator that if this were 1988 and he were managing the Edmonton Oilers, he probably would have traded Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings for a used puck bag.

"Bottom line: Liberals will say Carney is doing a much better job than Pierre Poilievre would have. But I have a simple question:

"Could anyone actually be doing worse than Prime Minister Mark Carney?"

Another look at racism

Re-printed from 'The Catholic League', by Bill Donahue.  As a writer, I am vehemently opposed to this nonsense:

__________________________ 

July 17, 2026

"Liberals love to congratulate themselves for rejecting racism, charging conservatives for tolerating, if not abetting, racism. Yet the policies they favor—opposing school choice, relativizing marriage, dumbing down education standards, defending miscreant behavior—are racist in effect, if not in intent. It is not red-neck racist jokes that blacks need to fear—it is the policy agenda of their liberal “allies” they need to be wary of.

"The latest example of this is the push to normalize “Black English” in California. The goal of Black Californians United for Early Care & Education (BlackECE) is to challenge “harmful language hierarchies and affirm Black English as a legitimate, rule-governed language rooted in Black history, culture, and community.” It offers as an example of “Black English” such words as “she be working” and “they happy.”

"It has long been observed that various racial and ethnic groups have a dialect that differ in some ways from conventional English. There is nothing controversial about that, but it is not only controversial to reject the very idea of “conventional English”—it is downright subversive of academic achievement to insist that “unconventional English” should be legitimatized.

"Notice how those who support “Black English” talk about “harmful language hierarchies.” But there is nothing “harmful” about “language hierarchies.” They exist, and with good reason: they facilitate assimilation, making it easier to reach a consensus on what constitutes proper English.

"Therein lies the problem. Proponents of “Black English” are radical egalitarians who are aghast at the existence of hierarchies. Yet the inequality that marks all hierarchies is normal and there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Age and sex are universal human characteristics, and they smack of hierarchal distinctions.

"The push for “Black English” is also part of the diversity mindset. Its proponents see assimilation as a problem to be conquered, which is why they promote multiculturalism. At bottom, they resent the superiority of Western civilization, which is why they seek to bolster its competitors.

"Ashley Williams is leading the cause for “Black English” in California. A closer look at what her real beef is suggests she is bedeviled by her upbringing—her family insisted on mastering the English language—and is now embarked on a cause that seeks to avenge her experience. She was taught at home that so-called Black English “wasn’t OK at the schoolhouse.”

"Her family did her a favor, but she doesn’t see it that way. She recalls being teased for “talking white,” and says she does not want her son to feel “shame” for voicing “Black English.”

"She has it backwards. Those who teased her are the problem and those who label blacks as “acting white” for succeeding need to be sanctioned. The answer is not to object to those who harass her son for saying, “they happy,” but to instruct her son to say, “they are happy.” To do so, however, would require her to acknowledge the legitimacy of conventional English, and that is too much for her to bear.

"This phenomenon is not new. In the 1980s, black anthropologists John Ogbu and Signithia Fordham found that black students underperform in school partly because those who do well are teased for being “white.” “Why are you working so hard on that school stuff? You think you’re white?” Columbia professor John McWhorter experienced the same labeling growing up as a black student.

"Lowering standards, which is what normalizing “Black English” does, helps no one, most especially black students. No radio or TV station worth its salt would ever hire someone who says, “she be working.”

"Most important, it is racist to maintain that blacks can’t learn to speak correct English when those who struggle to learn it—e.g., Spanish and Chinese speaking students—do so successfully all the time. It matters not a whit if those who advocate “Black English” have good intentions—what they are promoting is racist in effect."

The sky is definitely falling

This is re-printed from an article by Royce Koop, professor of political science, University of Manitoba:

"Mark Carney won the last election by burnishing his credentials as a strong economic manager. The banker was here, and a grown-up would finally be taking charge of the books.

"It was a powerful pitch because Canadians had long since grown weary of Justin Trudeau’s free-spending ways. Obviously, I didn’t vote for Carney. But to be honest, when he won, I thought we would at least get a Paul Martin-style fiscally responsible government from him.

"Fourteen months later, the results are in. It’s far from the first time I’ve been wrong. But, man, this time it’s a doosie.

"Carney has shown flat-out contempt for the Parliament that is supposed to sanction his spending, and he’s burning through taxpayers’ money much quicker than the man he replaced.

"Start with Parliament. For most of 2025, Carney governed without a budget at all, the first time that has happened in decades outside the pandemic. Carney couldn’t be bothered to put together and pass a budget.

"But that didn’t stop him from announcing hundreds of billions in new spending. The House of Commons actually had to pass a motion urging the government to table a budget because Carney was willing to spend, spend, spend without Parliament signing off on a budget.

"The pattern didn’t stop when a budget finally arrived last November. Carney told a defence conference in May that his fiscal framework already covers massive new defence spending of four per cent of GDP. When journalists asked the finance department for any numbers backing that claim, the department simply refused to provide them.

"The Parliamentary Budget Officer has sent the government three letters asking for details on defence spending. Precisely none have been answered. Former budget officer Kevin Page called this a “failure of transparency.”

"Speaking of the budget officer, Canada spent weeks this Spring without one. Carney’s government let interim watchdog Jason Jacques’ term expire with no successor in place, leaving the office unable to publish reports or take new requests from parliamentarians.

"Jacques was the official who had called Carney’s reckless spending “unsustainable” for the country. Draw your own conclusions about why contract wasn’t renewed.

"In the meantime, Carney and his underlings have used their new majority to stack parliamentary committees and shut down any investigations into dubious government spending. It happened again this week when the Liberals moved to shut down a committee investigation into their bailout for wealthy Vancouver condo developers.

"That bailout is only one of several recent Carney spending sprees that will add billions to the already-surging deficit.

"Why does Carney dodge parliamentary scrutiny? Because scrutiny reveals some alarming numbers. Nearly double! Replacing Trudeau with Carney has turned out to be like calling 911 because your garden shed is on fire, only to have firefighters show up and burn down your house.

Canada under Carney.

"It gets worse. Carney’s Spring fiscal update projects deficits totalling $309.2 billion over five years, double what Trudeau had forecast. Over that period, Carney plans to spend $83.2 billion more than even Trudeau had dreamed of.

"Then came June. A new Parliamentary Budget Officer report projects that deficits will run an average of $4.6 billion per year above what Carney’s own spring update promised, with spending $6.5 billion over budget this year alone.

"The spring update came out in April. It took a whole two months (!) for Carney to blow a massive hole through his own projections.
And that’s the heart of it. Carney’s economic credentials weren’t a footnote in the last election campaign. They were the central plank of both the campaign and his own personal appeal.

"Voters who had soured on the Liberals gave the party a fourth mandate because they believed this particular Liberal was different than Trudeau. He had run two central banks. Surely Carney could write a budget and stick to it? He can’t. Or, more precisely, he won’t. The deficits are bigger, the spending is higher, and the parliamentary oversight that might have caught it all has been stonewalled, starved and left vacant.

"Meanwhile, Canadians are struggling as the economy either stagnates or shrinks under Carney. Billions in new inflationary deficit spending will only make Canadians’ situations even more grim.

"So here’s the question that should keep Liberals up at night. Carney’s fiscal reputation carried him to victory once. Now that he’s been revealed as a fiscal phony, what exactly does he run on next time?"

This is how dumb Canadians are

A picture tells a thousand words:

Carney wears the Emperor's New Clothes.

The numbers tell the tale, but evidently Canadians can't count.

Third one!

I see that an elementary school chum of daughter's has a third 'First Person' essay in 'The Globe and Mail' today!  That's three!

I can't get even one!  I have submitted nine, but none has been accepted.  I was close with a Mother's Day piece three years ago, which was accepted until it went up to a senior editor for final approval.  To the embarrassment of the junior editor, the senior turned it down.

I am exasperated!

It can't be because I am not a good writer.  I am.  In fact, that's how I earned my living my entire career.  I have had many letters published and at least five 'I Remember' pieces, but they won't publish an essay.  

There can only be one reason:  My blog.  Google me and it comes up and is definitely not up -- or down -- to the Globe's standards.  Decidedly not politically correct, my blog tells the truth -- good, bad and ugly.  The Globe has no problem with my letters because they like opinions, and no problem with 'I Remember's, because they are personal thoughts about famous people.  But to publish an essay would be an endorsement of my opinions and the Globe cannot do that.

Frankly, it might be a compliment that the Globe will not publish an essay.  So, I will just keep blogging away!

The evils of gentrification

Poor Lindenlea, the magical neighbourhood in which I grew up.  It has been overtaken by the bourgeoisie and ruined.  Gustave Flaubert and Madame Bovary would have a field day wandering along Rock, Rideau Terrace, Rockcliffe Way, Middleton Drive, Lambton and Elmdale Avenues and meeting all the people who have destroyed it with their bourgeoisie-ness.

Lindenlea.

I grew up there in the fifties and sixties.  The first planned neighbourhood in Canada, it has no peer to this day.  My parents bought 8 Lindenlea Road for $6K, before they moved up in the world and bought 24 Rockcliffe Way down the block for $18K.  Now?  Those abodes are worth hundreds of thousands.

Where I grew up in the fifties and sixties, 8 Lindenlea Road.  Seems to small now and whoever did that to those steps and walk should be killed.

I see some residents strolling around on facebook making ludicrous videos of Lindenlea et environs.  Beechwood Avenue?  Back then it consisted of Art's Smoke Shop, the Kingsview Groceteria, Jolicoeur Hardware, a barber shop, the Linden Theatre and Fenton's Bakery -- the latter two now the New Edinburgh Pub.

What I remember about Art's Smoke Shop was the proprietor, Art, a small, mean man who sold everything from smokes to candy and school supplies.  Every day before school started up in September, my Father would run us down to Art's to buy all our school supplies.  We also bought all birthday presents there -- before birthday parties became contests of who could one-up the pretentious gift bag ritual.

Kingsview Groceteria was run by a Jewish couple, whose daughter was a good friend.  Jolicoeur's was run by three haggard brothers, never without a cigarette dangling out of each mouth and a dangerous ash threatening to drop on the merchandise at any second.  If Jolicoeur's didn't have it, it didn't exist.

My Father frequented the old-fashioned barber shop.  As for the Linden Theatre?  We were not allowed to go there because my Mother was convinced we would get ringworm!  Fenton's?  A delight with all sorts of goodies.

Now, Beechwood has been ruined with silliness and gentrification of craft shops and other notional levity and nonsense.  As for New Edinburgh, it was then a dump and anyone who lived on Crichton or Stanley was very lower class.  Now?  It's a status neighbourhood.  

There was also an outdoor city pool on the northwest corner of Beechwood and Crichton.  No clue what happened to that lovely place, to which I used to bike regularly for a dip.     

On the northwest corner of Springfield and Rideau Terrace, there was a completely fenced in and mysterious orphanage.  Walking to Crichton Street Public, I would watch the orphans being marched down Springfield to the school at the corner at Beechwood by the nuns who ran the place.  Now, it is all expensive condos, the orphanage long gone.

My aunt and uncle lived across from Craig's Florist on Rideau Terrace.  No clue why that closed?  The caretaker lived above the sheds and his wife used to be a regular babysitter; she did all the ironing.  

As I trip down memory lane, I mourn the loss of one of the greatest neighbourhoods in the country.  We will never see its equal.