969...Happy 100th Birthday

It just may happen.

At least to your kids.

A Danish study that Bradley Bouzane of Canwest News Service writes about in tomorrow's papers says that half of babies born in this millenium will live to be 100.

The University of Southern Denmark's Aging Research Center's study looked at The Great White North and seven other nations: the United States, Japan, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the U.K.

The key is increased and better health care, especially in the young and even before birth.

Something like pneumonia, which was a death sentence less than a century ago, is relatively benign in 2009.

WFDS

961...Ode To Mickey Dee's And tic

A cut and paste job from a New York Times blog that tells us that in the lower 48 states the farthest one can get from the golden arches is less than 150 miles. I would guess that in Canada, if one follows the Trans Canada highway, the number is similar.

McSparseness,’ U.S.A.

Today’s idea: The place in the contiguous United States where you can get farthest away from a McDonald’s is in remote northwestern South Dakota, a visual artist and mapmaker figures.

Stephen Van Worley

Commerce “To gauge the creep of cookie-cutter commercialism, there’s no better barometer than McDonald’s,” writes Stephen Von Worley [sic], a blogger and visual artist who says he came to this conclusion on seeing golden arches on a dispiriting drive down Interstate 5 in central California.

And so it dawned on him that to locate the antithesis of such strip-mall sameness, it makes sense to find the remotest point from any McDonald’s in the lower 48 states, as the crow flies. And to do that you need to plot the locations of each of the roughly 13,000 of them across the land, as Von Worley does in the illuminating (some would say alarming) map above.

[No matter, I may be World Famous but I ain't Bill Gates, he hee]

As the map suggests, you then need to go west, young crassness detester. Von Worley writes:
For maximum McSparseness, we look westward, towards the deepest, darkest holes in our map: the barren deserts of central Nevada, the arid hills of southeastern Oregon, the rugged wilderness of Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains, and the conspicuous well of blackness on the high plains of northwestern South Dakota. There, in a patch of rolling grassland, loosely hemmed in by Bismarck, Dickinson, Pierre, and the greater Rapid City-Spearfish-Sturgis metropolitan area, we find our answer. Between the tiny Dakotan hamlets of Meadow and Glad Valley lies the McFarthest Spot: 107 miles distant from the nearest McDonald’s, as the crow flies, and 145 miles by car!

Suffer a Big Mac Attack out there, and you’re hurtin’ for certain! [Weather-Sealed]

WFDS

947...We're Number Ten!!!

More importantly, we are ahead of the Americans who finish fifth from the bottom.

The category is an important one and yet another reason to carry a Tim Horton's coffee mug, a Canadian flag and a hockey stick when travelling outside of The Great White North.

We finished number 10 on the www.OnePoll.com list of best male lovers in the world.

Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

Number one was Spain btw; the Germans finished last in the survey of 15,000 women, a scientific survey I may add, using slide rules, calulators and pie charts. Apparently what did the Germans in was that they are too smelly. England was second worst, too lazy and the Swedes third worst, too fast.

WFDS

918...Whither Elizabeth May?

Like, honestly.

She is still with us, no?

Just thought, as the leader of a major party she might have somethings to say about, well, you know, the country and stuff.

WFDS

917...Huntsville Here We Come

Huntsville, Ontario, the town that was a huge stepping stone in the career of Shania Twain, is going to be on the world stage next June as South Korea and Canada hold the G-20 summit.

Canadian Press has the story that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and South Korean President Myung-bak Lee made the announcement today during the G20 meetings in Steelertown.

Say what you will about Stephen Harper but I think setting this event up for the new Prime Minister, Mikey I, shows a lot of class.

There is also a G-8 summit mixed in at the meetings in late June of 2010.

I don't know why we are co hosting it with the South Koreans but we are and I haven't quite wrapped my head around the difference between G-20 and G-8 but I do know one thing: Huntsville will have more tear gas rounds per capita in late June 2010 and more protesters per capita in late June 2010 and more police per capita in late June 2010 than any other place on the planet.

I am sure that the new Prime Minister, Michael Ignatieff, will hit it out of the park in Huntsville next year.

WFDS

811...Limbaugh Is Right About Cdn Health Care

Socialized medicine, the kind that we have in Canada, is uncaring.

Case in point from Duncan, British Columbia. The Calgary Herald ran a story about a dude's body being found in the parking lot of the Cowichan District Hospital in Duncan. Buddy had been waiting so long for a doctor that he up and died and was decomposing before they called his name for service. Or may be he just up and died before he went into the hospital. Either way, let's blame socialized medicine.

Thank you Rush Limbaugh.

WFDS

713...It Is So Hard To Be A Girl

BBC News drops the story that new 800m world champion Caster Semenya, an 18 year old woman, has been asked to drop 'em and prove that she is a she.

Problem is she is not exactly Miss America, if you know what I mean. She is a mannish girl and the haters in the world want her to prove that she truly is a she. In a statement, the African National Congress condemned the speculation surrounding Ms. Semenya, who won gold at the Athletics World Championships in Berlin on Wednesday, leaving her rivals in the dust.

It is just so difficult to be a woman who has any profile. Refer back to Post 482 where I point out that former minister of the Crown, Belinda Stronach, was hated on while she was in Ottawa because she is hot and rich, the fact that she is super smart, never mentioned. Ditto current Italian minister and love of my life Mara Carfagna who, at 33, is a veteran of Italian politics and a minister of the state but, because she is ridiculously good looking, hate pours down on her like rain.

Flip over to our young running star and her problem is the opposite. A graduate of the k. d. lang school of beauty, she runs fast, can bench press more than the average NFL lineman and therefore is hated because she is not hot enough. Give up already people, give up.

WFDS

645...Flags At Half Mast In Canada

Today is National Peacekeeper Remembrance Day.

Or something like that. Not trying to be flip, I just am unsure of the name of the day, nonetheless that is why many flags are at half mast.

Say a prayer. A prayer of thanks.

WFDS

581...Our Home And Freezing Land

Randy Boswell, Canwest News Services, informs us that Stephen Harper isn't kidding when he says that we are going to assert our sovereignty over the Arctic.

Glad that is settled.

The sitting government's ongoing high profile promotion of the Arctic file seems to indicate that Prime Minister Stephen Harper sees polar politics as a part of a winning strategy in the next election. The new report being reported on by Canwest summarizes concrete action in the four main areas of the government's northern strategy.

The four areas are sovereignty, social and economic development, the environment and governance reform. These are key areas especially with the rapidly retreating sea ice playing a huge factor.

As important as the Canadian electorate is, the real people that Mr. Prime Minister has to get to buy in to our Arctic strategy are the governments of Denmark, Norway, Russia and the States.

WFDS

568...Isn't That Ironic?

Don't you think?

On the first day of a national rail strike, The Canadian Press reports that the Ontario and Federal Guvs have agreed to chip in 305 mill to help update Canada's busiest train station, Toronto's Union Station. T. O. will be throwing 355 large into the project. Hopefully they will keep the reciepts so they can get their 1,300 federal rebate.

When you think about it, a strike is a perfect time to do a reno. No pesky people to get in the way.

WFDS

541...Tim Powers Doesn't Like Mikey I

Tim Powers is an Ottawa based Conservative Party hack, and I mean that in the nicest way.

He is also featured on CFRA [btw, it is a Farm Boy day!] panels discussing politics with Liberal hacks and NDP hacks. No Green Party hacks on those panels; shouldn't what's her name be complaining to the CRTC about that?

I digress.

Tim, er, Mr. Powers, wrote a seemingly thoughtful piece about the future Prime Minister of Canada, Michael Ignatieff's cabinet, buried in yesterday's Globe and Mail.

Le cut, le paste:

Iggy makes a cabinet?
Tim Powers

I know I did have a few beers last night, but when I woke up this morning to read
 Jane Taber's column about Michael Ignatieff apparently offering people cabinet
posts I thought I should have been a character in the movie The Hangover.
You know the one where the main players get so loaded that when they wake
up the next morning they can't remember what they did and how they changed
their worlds.

So a leader whose party has no platform; who at this point according to polls
 has lost what ever momentum he had in polls; who now in a recent Macleans interview
 is found to have trashed his party's Pearsonian peacekeeping traditions;
 is making a cabinet? And oh yes, he is the Leader of the Opposition,
 a mere technicality of course. This latest adventure is either
exceptionally audacious or the height of that Iggy arrogance that drives
 so many batty except it seems the great man himself and a few of his sycophants.

According to Taber's report: "The Liberal leader recently visited former B.C.
 attorney-general Wally Oppal, who was narrowly defeated in the May provincial
election, and offered him the justice portfolio if he were to run federally,
according to a source close to Mr. Oppal." If Jane's story is right
it appears that Iggy and his Liberals still haven't learned that
Canadians hate that entitlement attitude of theirs. Remember that
classic line from former Liberal minister David Dingwall:
"I am entitled to my entitlements." It was that frame of mind
that led to the sponsorship scandal, sank the Martin juggernaut
and put the Liberals on the bench.

Canadians do have this terrible expectation that people who seek
 public office work for their vote and offer some plans on what they might do.
 Presumably Iggy forgot about that while he was away. The Liberals don't have
 an inherit right to govern despite their Leader's current delusion.

In case it also slipped your mind Michael, in
 parliamentary democracies like Canada, there is a process called an
 election whereby those common folk known as the Canadian public
decide who becomes the government.

Not happy one bit, is Mr. Powers. And you thought I was snarky.

WFDS

510...It Is The Border

And Washington doesn't seem to get that the border between us and them and the border between them and them is different.

Polina Levina, National Post, quotes Christopher Sands, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, as stating that yesterday's report on the border "...is about the dysfunctional way the U. S. manages its border...[Americans] need a constructive way to distinguish Canada and Mexico in terms of policy..."

Fluidity on our border with the United States is important and the big fear of the Americans, one of them, illegal immigration, doesn't play so much betwixt Canada and the United States. When we go shopping in Buffalo we cannot wait to get home, that is the difference between the northern border and the southern border.

A tight border costs both sides money, that is the opposite of good, it is bad.

WFDS

494...Would Someone Please Call 911 For Me

Jason Kenney said something that makes sense to me.

I know, I know, but it was in today's Calgary Herald, Minister Kenney said Friday he wants more immigrants in Canada to learn one of the country’s official languages and expects them to better integrate into Canadian society.

That is uber reasonable.

“Our new focus is on integration. We don’t want to create a bunch of silo communities, where kids grow up in a community that more resembles their parents’ country of origin than Canada.”

To that end the man was in Calgary to inject 9.5 million into english as a second language courses in his hometown.

WFDS

493...In The Land Of The Free

It is all about taking away a woman's reproductive freedom.

At least if the poll that conservative website Newsmax.com reported on Friday is truly reflective of the land. A caveat is that the poll was paid for by the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic men's organization, I used to play in their softball league, real pillars of the community but still, very, very much part of the hierarchy of the church, and Marist University, also on Team Vatican, anyhow, the poll mirrored findings of other recent surveys, showing that more Americans identify as pro-life than as pro-choice, and that the vast majority of Americans favor restricting abortion.

Before we get too smug here in Canada, bear in mind that one of our provinces doesn't have any abortion providers, so, pot, meet kettle.

86% of Americans would significantly restrict abortion and 60% of Americans would limit abortion to cases of rape, incest or to save the life of a mother.

Most remarkable to moi is the fact that since the election of the more liberal than the other guy, Barack Obama, as President, more people identify with the pro life side of the debate than before.

WFDS

474...Today On Capitol Hill

CBS's Washington bureau tells us that a Congressional panel will hear today that no one really knows if bottled water is better for you than tap water. Or worser for you. Fact is, bottle l'eau isn't regulated in The Land of the Free.

Meme chose here in the Great White North.

And La Belle.

Americans, and those of us in Canada, drink an enormous amount of bottled water. While there is strict federal regulation of the water that comes out of your tap on all three sides of the border, you generally can't find out where the water in those plastic bottles comes from or what's in it.

Several disturbing reports will be released at the Congressional hearing, focusing on whether tougher regulation of bottled water is needed.

Like, is stuff leaking from those plastic bottles?

Stay tuned.

WFDS

472...You Would Think The Greens Could Do Better

Peter Worthington wrote in all the Sun papers yesterday that Elizabeth May has determined that job one for the Green Party is to elect Elizabeth May.

"Now instead of saving trees and curbing gas emissions, the party's job is to find a riding in Canada where Liz May can win -- not easy, since nature has not made getting elected easy for May, who has an off-putting demeanour to go with her self-confidence."

Note to Greens: you could have picked a better horse to run in that race.

WFDS

431...Animal News

In news that will make Lowell Green and the CFRA Nation happy, Tiffany Crawford and Peter O'Neil report in this morning's Montreal Gazette that the World Wildlife Federation ranks Canada eighth out of the eight countries that make up the G8 in terms of reacting to climate change.

"Nowhere else on Earth do fewer people steward more resources, yet Canada now stands dead last among the G8 nations in protecting our shared home from the threat of dangerous climate change," said foundation spokesman Keith Stewart.

The big bugaboo is the ongoing work in northern Alberta on exploiting the tarsands which has dire consequences for the environment according to the 2009 Climate Scorecard.

May be the Green Shift wasn't such a bad idea, eh?

WFDS

413...Happy Birthday Canada

Staggering to our hundredth and manyth birthday, the greatest country in the world [well, we are in the top four for certain] is celebrating a birthday today.

Canada, A Place People Want To Sneak Into.

Ferget Sea to Shining Sea, that should be our motto.

WFDS

408...Mike Duffy Er Senator Michael Duffy, Maroon

Honestly, how does a sub par TV host who worked cheap become a Senator? Not by knowing the way the Senate works as this cut and paste job from Maclean's illustrates.

The author is uncredited, as is the source but this is right on the money:

Mike Duffy has learned something while sitting in the Senate. Decades as a journalist and decades more as a sentient Canadian apparently did nothing to prepare Mike Duffy for the shocking revelation that awaited him upon being appointed to the upper chamber. As the Senator himself put it while traveling in Kelowna: "Once you get in there, you realize that every piece of legislation passed by Parliament has to go through the Senate prior to adoption. " Sweet bearded Jesus! Do the Fathers of Confederation know about this?? Someone alert the ghost of Adams Archibald! Wait - there's yet more that the intrepid Duffy has uncovered: "And the Senate rules are different than the House of Commons. Senate committees can't sit while the Senate is in session, so that puts you in the situation of having some pretty long days." Holy nutballs! Next thing you know we'll be finding out that, like the House of Commons, the Senate has its very own Speaker, Question Period and pervading sense of futility. But Duffy's trip out west was about more than revealing startling Parliamentary details previously known only to every child over the age of 12. He also talked a lot about wood. In fact, the front page of today's edition of The Daily News in Kamloops features the headline "Use More Wood, Senator Urges" - which is either a direct appeal by Mike Duffy to Canada's construction industry or Viagra's least effective slogan-spokesman combination ever. In the article, Duffy blows the lid off another state secret when he astutely observes, "We're surrounded by wood in Canada." With time to reflect, I'm sure he'd agree this wasn't the nicest way to refer to his new colleagues in the Senate. One final note from the Senator's journey of discovery: Some of you may remember all the way back to last week, when Duffy was going on about how he never really wanted to be a Senator but then, oh well, fine, twist my arm... and then how he was totally determined to sit as an independent because he wasn't the least bit partisan but then, oh well, fine, if you reeeeeeeally want me to be a Conservative... Read the following quote from Mike Duffy and see if you can spot the part where he comes across as a non-partisan, independent-minded member of the upper chamber. "I'm not holding my breath on an early election," he said. "We have to be ready, however, just in case. That's why we need your continued financial support and your help with the ground game. We've got to become born-again Canadians, I think, and explain to our kids, our families and our neighbours why the Conservatives are the party they can count on to work for them and for their values." Born-again Canadians? Um, okay. Makes sense, I guess. To paraphrase Jesus, only those who are born again shall be able to see the glory of government infrastructure projects and festival funding in their ridings

I need a job, I like to travel, I am not that bright. Please, Mr. Harper, may I be a Senator too?

405...Canada Day With Me, 93.1 CKCU

And my good friend Crazy Tyrone Drummond.

For Ty the sky is always falling and this time the evil thing that will be done is some sort of unification thingy between Canada and the United States.

He will explain tomorrow and then tell you where you can meet and protest this awful state of affairs.

Deets complete tomorrow at six a.m., 93.1CKCU.

Plus, of course, tic.

WFDS