Is it "sleigh" or "sled"?

...as in "Bob".  I'm not sure, but at any rate, who cares and who does it?  By my count, there are six disciplines:  Single, two-man, four-man, luge, skeleton and relay. 

Death wish because....?????

Frankly, who does this in real life?  No one I know or have ever seen, even though we live 15 minutes from the 1988 Olympic track.  A few years ago, two teenaged brothers literally lost their heads when they took a run on that track when it was closed.  A very sad day, but it stopped other kids from trying such a very dangerous sport.

Apart from this "sport", the Olympics have wrapped and I watched snippets here and there.  What it did do, however, was motivate me to switch over and binge-watch the Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir series, 'Tessa and Scott' on YouTube.  Now, there was magnificence!  

Their intimacy convinced me they had to be lovers in real life, but they're not.  Each is married to other people and each has kids.  They were, however, perfection.

Do yourself a favour and tune in to this breathtaking couple making magic on the ice.

The hockey gold match was heartbreaking, as Canada fell to the U.S.  Frankly, I think Canada was the better team, but clearly Crosby was missed.  I think he had to weigh this game in favour of the entire season with the Penguins.  Obviously, he chose the Penguins.

The most insulting and ridiculous part was the presentation to the players of dolls!  Dolls!  WTF was that about?  Absolutely ludicrous and whoever came up with that idea needs to be fired.    

Finally some sense

Re-printed from 'The Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy', a Calgary-based organization dedicated to a civil, common sense approach to public discourse:

"News out this past week that the University of Alberta might be ending so-called Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). If that's true, it's positive. After all, despite the pleasant-sounding words, DEI as policy is an anti-merit, anti-individual, illiberal way of awarding jobs or university student spots based on race, ancestry, or ethnicity.

"However, we've seen institutions announce such things before. What often happens is the name changes but the discriminatory policies stay. It used to be called "affirmative action" and then it was changed to "employment equity." Then it became Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).  A very counter-productive, anti-meritorious policy. "We'll keep an eye on developments at the University of Alberta and let you know what we see in the coming months.  "Also news this past week that the federal government is shutting down its own "Islamophobia" office, one headed up by a former Toronto Star journalist." But it might be replaced with a new office dedicated to tracking what Ottawa considers hate speech.  "The problem with an office dedicated to policing speech is that it injures free inquiry and free expression, which are necessary for getting to the root of problems. You can't solve a problem if you can't critique others' views. That's as true of religious beliefs as it is when it comes to ideological beliefs.  “I’m glad to see a journalist-activist—which is what Ms. Elghawaby’s skillset was—is no longer receiving taxpayer funds to promote a radical, illiberal view of how Canadians should think, i.e., that any critique of Islamic fundamentalism, is wrongly equated with hatred of Muslims.  "We shall see if the new government body is any improvement though. The core issue is that Canadians should be free to critique each other’s belief systems and out-workings of the same, religious or atheist, without being hounded by taxpayer-financed bureaucrats about their views.”  _________________________ If adopted, I agree it would be a positive move.

What a brilliant appointment. Not.

Carney has just made another "brilliant" appointment:  Janice Charette as chief negotiator for CUSMA.  

Charette was the clerk of the Privy Council Office who recommended Trudeau invoke the Emergencies Act during the truckers' convoy -- an invocation just ruled unlawful by the courts.  As I said, what more brilliant person to send to deal with Trump!  Doesn't even know the law.  

I predict he'll take one look at her and walk out of the room, if he walks in at all, which I highly doubt.  Like it or not, looks count to Trump.  

Any hope here?  And that hair!  Please.

He's also leaving Dominic Leblanc in there as another sterling "negotiator" -- the same guy who hasn't been able to get a single thing done in a year.  Charette's appointment and Leblanc's continuing involvement signal one thing:  Carney doesn't want the CUSMA re-negotiation to succeed because he remains committed to his globalist agenda.

It's just one dumb move after another with this gang.

 

I forgot my flip flops

We decided to spend Valentine's Day weekend at the venerable Palliser Hotel in downtown Calgary.  Naturally, we booked the Gold Floor -- which is very expensive.  

I, of course, brought my best outfits, but I forgot my ripped jeans and flipflops.  Can you believe that so many people with money frequent the lounge there in the WORST outfits I have ever seen!  Here are a few beauties:

How do you get that big so young?!

  

At last count, this guy went to the trough 10 times!

Sweats down to the pubic bone with flipflops.  Charming!

Nothing like ripped jeans in the Gold Lounge!

Me trying to look decent. 

Farewell to another Valentine's Day.

What are they eating up there?

 Mark Carney is creaming Mary Simon in the race for who can gobble more goodies on flights.  In 2022, Simon wasted what turned out to be a mere $93,000 on such delights as beef wellington when she took a trip to the Middle East and dragged along her Crocodile Dundee wanna-be husband (Note to Whit: lose the ridiculous hat) and 29 of her closest friends.  Carney, however, topped that excess by a country mile.  He spent $300,000 in the air alone!

Never mind that the governor general is the King's representative in Canada.  Never mind that the Commonwealth has nothing to do with the Middle East.  What the h-ll!  Simon went anyway and gorged on gourmet delights in the air alone.  (Frankly, she doesn't need to eat so much, judging by her ample girth, but I digress.)

Not to be outdone, Carney has relegated her to the bush league.  Last year, his lordship spent (rounded off) $300,000 on inflight catering and another $472,000 gourmandizing when he got where he was going.

He dropped $39,000 in Paris, $48,000 in Washington, $36,000 in London, $133,000 in Rome, $141,000 in The Hague, and $73,000 in Brussels for a grand total of:

$472,293.20!!! 

Wow, that's staggering when you consider that Canada's food banks are struggling to keep up with demand.  Frankly, it's obscene.  As I have said, Carney governs like a CEO, not a PM, with nary a thought to the poor serfs beneath him.

____________________________

A word about the 'fairer" sex.  Women are at in again running to women-only conferences.  "You never went in for that stuff, did you," one DM I reported to said.  I took it as an enormous compliment because I didn't hang around doing "women's issue/feminist/liberated" things.  I hung around the power, which in my day, usually meant men.

The latest 'Globe and Mail' woke conference.  Some women have been at this for 60 years.  I got over it decades ago.

___________________

When I heard a female had been the shooter in Tumbler Ridge, I was shocked.  Women don't do this.  Of course, it wasn't a women, it was a male in a dress, but the CBC couldn't bring itself to say it.  How does this help?  Rhetorical.
And, by the way, what was Carney's wife doing laying flowers?  No one elected her, so please stay at home in New York.

What a piece of work

Years ago, when B was newly-married to his ex, she took a solo trip to Winnipeg.  While she was away, B suffered a near-fatal ulcer bleed on the aorta and was rushed to hospital.  It was so bad, he was actually given the Last Rites.  

"Please let me know if he dies," she said off-handedly when called by a mutual friend.  Click buzz.  That was it!  Didn't return home.  Didn't call B.  Couldn't have cared less.

This has come to mind because my stepson recently fell down a flight of stairs and broke his neck.  The son lives in Ottawa and the mother lives in Ottawa, but when informed of another near-fatality in her family said, "I'll keep him in my thoughts, thank you."

That was it!  Her own son lies in a coma near death and all she can muster up is a perfunctory ho-hum.  Click buzz.

What kind of a mother does that?!  I can't even fathom!  They are estranged, for obvious reasons, given the kind of mother she is(n't).  But still, would a mother not react and immediately visit a son who is close to death in intensive care a 15-minute drive away -- even if only to put on an act?

Yep, folks.  That's the kind of ex and mother I have been dealing with for 46 labourious and relentless years.  This is the same person who claimed she was so devoted to her children she had to have full custody, which forced us to spend tens of thousands on lawyers and psychologists to get joint custody!  What happened to the "devoted mother act?"  

Thankfully, we no longer have to, except in times of emergency when we are contacted by authorities in case we have to pull the plug.  Horrors!  (Thankfully, he is recovering.)  

I consider her a demonic, malignant narcissist; her deeds confirm it.

Underneath the dyed-blonde hair and beatific smile lurks this.

       

He's such a sh-tty writer

I've never understood the reverence and indulgence the hunourless Andrew Coyne is afforded in 'The Globe and Mail' and on 'At Issue'?  The guy is a really sh-tty writer.  Here are a few of today's superfluous examples in italics:

• "The procurement process, what is more, is so bureaucratic....."
• "Notionally, it is in Canada too."
• "I was struck, again, by how often we were -- quantifiably, in many cases -- the outlier.....the most disproportionate and (therefore) regionally divisive electoral system, and so on."
• "Arguably, a political community is formed, in part, by......"
• "Canada, almost uniquely, does not...."
• "As I've said in other contexts:......
• "We have framed the national-security debate, in short, too narrowly."
• "On all these fronts and more, Canada has....."

He writes as if he were defending some sort of complicated scientific thesis, instead of simply penning a garden-variety opinion piece. Talk about turgidity!  The guy has mastered it!

Watching him on 'At Issue', I am always stuck by the juxtaposition of the ludicrously giggling Barton and the dour, morose Coyne.  I know, I know, why read or watch the guy?

The Prince of turgidity.

Can't help myself because I love to edit the h-ll out of him.  If only the late Jean Portugal, the most brutal and brilliant editor who ever had the misfortune of red-penning me, had had a go at him.....sigh.