Roger Ailes after having been fired for sexual harassment has died. Bill O’Reilly, also having been fired for sexual harassment is now forced out to an even deeper backwater of The Blaze to express his views. Megyn Kelly having fled Fox for greener pastures and perhaps a place that would not have allowed the disrespect she endured with Donald Trump during the recent election campaign. The last big name of Sean Hannity is reportedly either about to be fired, let go or quit Fox over the fake news story of murdered DNC staff Seth Rich, who Hannity has claimed to have been murdered by the DNC as a reprisal for leaking to Wikileaks. This new story having been debunked not only by the liberal media (Like that exists anymore…), but even Fox news itself. Advertisers having seen what happens when they act without conscious in the election of Trump are now using those ad dollars in a more respectful manner to run away from controversy. They ran from Bill O’Reilly because he was been chased with sexual harassment claims. Who wants to be associated with that sort of legal quagmire even if only to be seen by advertising on that persons show? Now word is coming down that Hanity is losing advertisement. Reports behind the scene say that the Murdock Family is facing stiff opposition in their business affairs in Europe over the policed of the American network itself, once the most profitable arm of the family’s empire but now suffering the lowest ratings in its seventeen year existence. People are fleeing Fox for CNBC or CNN and taking their viewing tax dollars with them. The question is why? Or better put why now? The answer is, laughable, Marxist. The internal dialectic having reached open contradiction with itself has cause the system to collapse and new one to emerge just as all economic levels have done before. (Editor’s Note: I cannot believe, for the first time ever, I have found a use for Marxian Dialectics in action!) Fox has always had an older crowd of people. These people were the strong backbone and the secret of its success. They were mostly white males for a long ago era where white males were able to be superiors, racists and sexist. Women knew their place and blacks where openly treated as inferior. All of which is the editorial policy and face of Fox. Whenever they brought someone black on, they inevitable blamed blacks for their own problems. Women were all in skirts and high heels. Men were all in business suits. Even the set designed to show the women and their legs off. Such small things caught the viewer’s attention. This is not to say that people where not tuning in over content. We have to keep in mind that retired people, the same people who watch Fox tend to vote in the 90% plus percentile. So any political message will send them to the polls with the intent of delivering the Fox message to the political class. This has worked for near 20 years. Until now when it does not work. See it was safe to play the spoiler, to act as a trouble maker so long as there are responsible adults in the room. Obama was a mature, respectful leader. Now America has Trump. And on just one issue, out of the overwhelming many issues, we can see exactly why people have fled Fox. Health Care reform. It is one thing to laugh as other groups are picked upon and targeted by Fox and their policies of divide and conqueror but those policies are now turning on the very people who sponsored them. Simply put, if republicans repeal Obamacare, The Affordable Health Care Act, some of the people most in need of its services being the elderly, will see their premiums rise near on 5 fold. Thus making the sheer cost increase too vast to be covered by people on fixed incomes. Suddenly, when for the longest while you have had it so good, and suddenly someone will take that people want to know what is going on. They turn from the cartoon entertainment to real news and drift over to a real news station. Hence, the decline of Fox and hail to the new ratings King of cable TV, CNBC. The only other aside for your consideration, must be the simple aging of the population. As that audience dies off, it is not being replaced. Thus making Fox into a generational phenomena. And like all movements based on a set cohort, when the cohort dies, so too does the movement. Is Fox dying or merely weathering on the vine? Time will tell. Just don’t expect that Fox will fairly report this story in any balanced fashion, any time soon.

Prime Minister

My mother who just turned 74 this year spent her birthday week running around seeking a new bank. Why you might ask would a retiree have to go to such a painful experience? You see, she has been with the Laurention Bank for 50 years. We know this because she opened her account the year before I was born, so a very long term customer. So why would such a loyal customer change banks? And why would I be sending you this email because of it? Well it seems that in St Lambert, you have been here for St Lambert days a few years ago when you walked with the late Jack Layton. The Laurention Bank is not making enough money giving service to people, older people, retires and such, so they are not closing their branch. They are just shutting down their customer service teller part of the branch. So I called the bank asking where she could get her bank book up to date. The nice man gave me a location 2 miles away. Except, I had checked online and that place was also closing. So he apologized and re-looked. Yes there is a branch near buy only 5-6 km away. That would only require her to get on not one bus, but two and then have to walk a fair amount. After all she is young and spry at 74. She elected to find a new bank. She is a real Canadian. She worked all her life and this is how she is being treated by profit driven banks. Isn’t time she earned just a little respect? Yet all over this country, my mother’s story is different only by location. Banks don’t care to serve the people; they are simply focus on the biggest unseemly profit they can generate. See Mr Prime minister, I work for the Post Office. We are not profit driven. Or at least we should not be. We service all Canadians and we try to give them the respect that is their due. Isn’t it time, we added postal banking to that mix? In every community, you will have a post office that is centrally located. Where people who don’t have the ability to travels miles and miles to find the nearest location, so they can use our services. What money we make is returned to the people of Canada. Since the post office has been profitable since 1995, each year but one, so 21 out of the 22 years. In all those years, what money we make is returned to the Canadian people, not to the bank investors as the profit driven companies are. The comparison is stark. Canada Post is community located, profits are returned to the Canadian people, who we are already servicing with their other needs. The banks are pulling out, profits go only to the limited investors on Bay Street and the concept of service is about near as friendly as flying United Airlines. It’s time to give Canadians, all Canadians, Postal Banking. Not just for my mother, but for all the mothers of Canada. This Mother’s Day, please join with the union at Canada Post and support postal banking. Can we count on your support?

What if you ran for the Tory leadership and no one cared? What if you dropped out of said leadership and still no one cared? What if you had multi millions of dollars and all that money could not buy you respect? Or Votes? Or anything in the landscape of political realities? Money won’t buy you votes. It won’t buy much as Donald Trump is learning. So what if you have never run a multi-million dollar company, except one? The Government of Canada seems to be a big enough company. See Kevin O’Leary your run for leadership was not based on ability. You lack political ability. It was not based on charm. You have none. It was not based on personality, you only have money. In the end, it was clear that for all your money, you could gather a miserable 12% of not the population. Not 12% of the popular vote but 12% of the Conservative party? Your so called ‘ideas’, failed set aflame the passion of anyone.  Why? Cause for all the money you have earned, you are still a failure. A mean spirited, little man who thinks that his money is all there is to a measure of any man. All that one needs to have to be a politician is also money. All that is needed to call oneself a success is that same old money. I am sensing a theme in your thinking Kevin. Perhaps in a small, very small, corner of the world, money is all that matters. For the rest of the world, who do not have the money you do, we look for more important measures. Things like compassion, charisma, and a sense of justice that contains mercy at its core. We had Stephan Harper for too many years. Canadians already had to take a collective shower to remove that stench. We don’t need it again. Thanks for applying but don’t call us, we’ll call you. As for that parting, catty, “meow” need a saucer of milk Kevin? That nasty comment, you made about Trudeau? His having not running a company? He is doing a very good job according to the polls. How about you?  Oh wait, that is right you failed. You failed to gather support. You failed to win an audience. You even failed to last the whole race. So as a failure, how does that fit into your grand scheme of things in the world of Kevin O’Leary? All you money could not buy you what Trudeau has. Back to reality TV Kevin, no one in Canada is buying what you are trying to peddle.

Part of the way Donald Trump made his way into the White house was the vote by the conservative Christians in the USA. Some 85% voted for him with a turn out around 80%. They did so knowing who he was. His hateful speeches on Muslims, his rapist fantasy towards women, “Grab’em by pussy,” and his lying, deceitful comments about everything. When asked if he had ever asked for God’s forgiveness, Trump said “No.” And yet they still voted for him. This is more than their anti Hilary, anti female, anti liberal and anti everything else. What they have done, is betrayed their very country to a Russian plant, surrenders their Church, their religion, their faith and tossed Jesus, himself, under the bus, all in the name of political expediency. Thus; “By their actions, they shall be known.” Just as George Wills has left the Republican Party over the nomination of Trump, this was no longer his party, so too many youths are dissatisfied with the evangelicals and their voting for Trump. In the end, this is not a day of triumph and glory for the mockery it entails of their so call faith. This is a day of mourning for the loss of faith in their God. Well, he has not lost his faith in you to think for yourselves and become one with God. You had to vote for someone and Hilary was just as bad. Or so Russian Intelligence wanted you to believe with their release of documents to Wiki leaks and their flooding people with fake news. It not like did not have Trump act all his moronic personality on the stump. It is not like he was shown to be a rapist on tape. It was not like a hundred of other things could have tipped off the evangelical crowd that they were voting for the Devil’s choice. No, they were hell bent to put someone up on the cross, so it might as well be their faith and Jesus, since they sold their soul along with their vote as well. May God have mercy on your soul, is all I can say to the former Evangelic Christians because you can be very sure Donald Trump will have none.

In sum, gun violence is a crime of opportunity. If you have a gun, then I need to have a gun, because I don’t trust you. This makes a third and a fourth person buy their own gun. Soon we all have guns and ownership proliferates. Then something tragic happens, a gun license falls into the wrong hand based not on malfeasance of incompetence but on the sheer number of requests. Call it an error, a glitch or noise in the system but someone who should not have guns, gets one. This is where massacres happen. The violence that comes with a gun culture is not based on the people who have or the laws that restrict ownership. It is based simply on the need, want and desire to use them. The immediacy of the gun and the lethal impact it may have is instantly apparent. Wherefore if there had been any time to cool off, any time for reflection, any time to distance the crisis from the gun, there would not be an event to speak. Thus far by assertion, this has been about their being a combative scenario of man versus man. However, the sheer weight of numbers point not to the danger being me against you but man verses himself. Note the sexist reference to men here. Gun ownership is predominately male. Worse, male suicide is dependent upon gun culture. Again the immediacy of it all is the main cause of death, instantly without pause or reflect, bang you are dead. Poor impulse control, coupled with lethal impact and you have the wasted potential of a failed human life cut down by fatal self harm. All of this points to where the United States is today, in their overwhelming gun violence and maelstrom of avoidable death if only there had been enough time to thing before pulling the trigger. Worse is the two fold, double barrel political situation. Gun owners are single issue voters. They will drop all considerations and vote only based on the issue of guns and gun ownership. The second barrel is the lobbyists who know this and try to exploit this with every turn. They actually don’t care about human life, or at least their actions show they do not. Rather, they simple try to push every chance they get, gun ownership on to the people. Remember the beginning of the post. If you have a gun, then I have to because I don’t trust you alone with one. This the cycle renews as the wheel turns. The last consideration rests on the fearful reputation of the gun lobby, as they have targeted many and supported many others, but with a few notable exceptions, they fail to unseat anyone. They just boost and crow about the few they have as a warning for others. The hard core gun lobby is a small subset of the electoral vote. There are many more issues. However elections are numbers games, and starting off at 40 % of the vote going to the other side, you need to capture as much of the rest of that vote as you can to be elected or re-elected.

The Liberal nomination in the riding of Saint-Laurent, was supposed to be for Yolanda James, the star candidate, former MNA and cabinet minister in the provincial government. She was all but appointed to run for that riding, considered to be one of safest in Canada for Liberals. The Liberal organization practically decreed that James should get it, heavily lobbying people to vote for her. In fact, they turned down long serving St-Laurent borough mayor Alan DeSousa who was blocked for reasons unknown by the party from also running. Conspiracy theorists claiming that he was blocked in order to let James take the seat. It was not long before we heard the painfully repetitive cry of “Shame” without any hint of the schadenfreude underlying the pointed finger. All the while their own hypocrisy is left to slide away. The liberals say they have changed but look the pundits cry, they have not changed at all. Same old back room dealing and same old roughshod over the local people to impose their big bad will on them. Except? For people who are in the news business should they not read the actual facts? Alan DeSousa was blocked, no reason given. How about he was one of the long term mayors that worked around all the corruption in Montreal and did nothing about it? How about the party was trying to distance itself from that same old legacy of being surrounded by the “Sponsorship Scandal” which it could not if even a hint or smell of corruption came with DeSousa? Or could it be they just don’t want to take on his baggage so they let him down gently with a polite but firm, “No thanks.” As for the process; let democracy be the judge is the new policy. Last time I checked, free speech was part of that so called Democracy. So the party saying, “James is a great person who will do you proud if you select her as your representative for your riding;” is very much a long way from parachuting her into the riding without holding a vote. James showing her class when she tweeted her congratulations to the winner. The very same person elected by the riding itself. Same old? Same old democracy speaking perhaps? There is shame to be had here but it is merely the shadow of talking heads mired in a past best left behind by all concerned. Oh and the lady who won? Emmanuella Lambropoulos, a 26-year-old high school teacher who now has a new career and considering how safe her seat is, she may be in politics for a very long while. Good for her. She won by going door to door and rallying the people to her side. She also just happens to live in her riding that she will represent. Who would have thought when the Liberal party said things have changed that they would let some unknown political novice be elected into one of their fortresses. Unheard of. Indeed, even unthinkable. And this act of direct democracy in action is being called shameful? Same old Liberals? Hip hip hooray! Let’s have more of this “Old Song and Dance” again. And let the people decide who they want to represent them. Oh wait, the Liberals already have in this riding. More power to them all! People power.

When dealing with the American election, people are struggling to define the so call economic model that presently exists within the USA. They have called it with such vague descriptors as corporate capitalism, or crony capitalism, but they have thus far failed to grasp the exact nature of this system. They keep reaching for new explanations, when a perfectly good one lies hidden in plain sight, but not from the present, it comes from the past. What other economic system exists where 1% holds 99% of the wealth? Where the religious leaders tell people that this is the divine plan and they should simple hope for better in the afterlife. Where the class one is born to, marks the person for life. This system was called Feudalism. It very much has returned to the land of the free, home of the brave called these United States.
The American case has some specific modern twists. The first leg of this tripod comes from Russian refuge Ayn Rand, for whom we refer to in philosophy as among the groups of irrationals. She has an extensive body of work where she posits that greed is the only good. So long as I am looking out for number one, the rest will follow. The second leg of our tripod is the Protestant system of “Election”, (To be among those elected by Christ.) Not be confused with anything to do with voting. By this we call to mind, that God has ordained people to be the elect, into his grace. Those who have an automatic ticket into heaven, no matter what they do on Earth, they have been elected or chosen to everlasting life. So no matter how much harm, misery or suffering they cause, they have their place reserved for them in the paradise to come. This takes a load off the mind from worrying about what is to come. This also applies to corporations and their fiduciary responsibility to maximise profit no matter the social consequences. So long as they follow the mandates of cooperate election, to maximise profits, they can do no wrong. Lead by executives who also lack any sense of morality, for they are “Elect” of God, the combination is a single minded focus that destroys as many lives as needed to maximise the bottom line for the company and share holders. The last pillar comes from the social aspect of race, specifically that the so called “White Race” which in this doctrine is seen as superior to the again, so called “Black and / or Brown Races.” Selfish greed, elect by God and superior to all people, whatever could go wrong with such a combination? All three aspects tend to be different iterations of the same sort policy goals that the so called capitalistic market place in the USA endorses. I got mine and to hell with you. In this case, literally, to hell with you.
Breaking each aspect down further, we begin with the notion of greed. In Adam Smith ideal economy there is the trickledown theory. The rich can only consume so much wealth and thus in their exuberance, they allow plenty to pass down to enrich the lower classes. Sadly, this is based on the notion that goods and services expire, they break or wear out or in the case of food, spoils. When this happens there is a constant need for replacement so that the lower class that produces the goods and services consumed by the upper class, are then enriched in the making or selling such goods to those in the upper class. This is not the case of modern economy where ideas mean more. They have no time limit or expiration date. By this we call to mind stocks, bonds and other assets that are not tangible, immoveable things. A joint stock company may own immovable’s, like manufacturing plants, buildings, furniture. But the stocks in that corporation are nothing but pieces of paper, on in this computer age, dots on the screen. This is a mental construct of ownership of any given company. The owner of stock need not replace or repair it, as stock will not wear out, or break down. The ownership is constant and so too is the income from profits. They simple accept the wealth and benefits from ownership including unlimited future earnings that are taxed lower than income, as this wealth is seen as privileged wealth that creates jobs. If only this was still the case today. Thus the wealthy are able to amass greater and greater control in their hands while not having to spend any of that capital to maintain their so called “Property”. Whereas a rich person might spend some or very little of their money, they literally are taking the wealth and freezing it away from the economy as they purchase more and more stocks and bonds. A poor person, needing all their money to pay bills and survive, commonly seen as living paycheque to paycheque, dispense all the case they have and are often forced to borrow more money be it on credit from credit cards or worse Payday Loan shops. This in turn creates record profits for both industries that are in this vicious loop, and ultimately returned to rich people. A rich person given a dollar would ignore it as they have many more. A poor person would spend that money as they have none of their own.
Therefore, in order to spur the economy, create new jobs, and grow the country itself, the tax burden must be returned to the wealthy, who simply are not using their wealth, in order to transfer the tax burden from the lower and middle class who will in turn spend this money adding to the economy. What blocks this is the greed of the rich who wish to hold on to what they own. Note that I did not call this selfish, as it might be in some cases, but it might not be as well. We all hate paying taxes. We all hate unfairness and we all hate to be singled out. But when the top 1% of 1% of the American people earn as much as the bottom 20%, it is not a time for increasing tax breaks for the rich or reducing their income tax. When corporations pay a tax rate lower than a poor person existing at the poverty line, there is something wrong with this picture. Sadly, the American dream is purchased and sold to those same rich people. There is no will to assist the poor or the middle class. There is however, a lot of incentive to help the rich donator class, as they will give money to future elections, jobs, and other perks to impress people into enacting legislation that will benefit themselves and only themselves. Because they are the elites. The poor are those cursed by God, coloured people or simple those who are too weak to be selfish in their own right.
Where there is no justice, there can be no peace. This lesson was learned in Europe in the 19th century as the lower class would rise up in rebellion and try to over throw the existing order, and execute the wealthy oppressors. In time, it became clear to the wealthy they might be elected by God, but they might want to live to a ripe old age to not rush to meet their maker, rather than be left swinging on the apple tree in their yard. At some point, the overwhelming majority of people who make up the lower and middle class will turn to violence and they will enact their vengeance. Wake up before it is too late. Make social justice your rallying cry! Not self enrichment, lacking empathy to all who are not as lucky as you. Stocks are made of paper. They burn just as well as factories do, as well as rich people hanging from their gallows. The only question left before us is this, how will America solve its problems? By accord, or by the sword? Time will answer this.

In the distant but cold lands of Quebec, Professor Andrew Potter of McGill University wrote an article for Maclean’s Magazine;(Article be here)  where he all but toss the province under a bus. In it he claimed; “Quebec is an almost pathologically alienated and low-trust society, deficient in many of the most basic forms of social capital that other Canadians take for granted.” His evidence steams from the recent storm where hundreds of people where caught in traffic pile up on a major highway during a very nasty storm. Other evidence includes; “We’re talking here about a place where some restaurants offer you two bills: one for if you’re paying cash and another if you’re paying by a more traceable mechanism.” (Note the editorial change “Due to an editing error, a reference in an earlier version of this piece noted that “every restaurant” offered two bills. We have clarified this to say “some restaurants will offer you two bills.”) And let us not forget: “Since 2014, municipal police across the province have worn pink, yellow, and red clownish camo pants as a protest against provincial pension reforms. They have also plastered their cruisers with stickers demanding “libre nego”—”free negotiations”—and in many cases the stickers actually cover up the police service logo.” By way of conclusion, he writes; “And then a serious winter storm hits, and there is social breakdown at every stage. In the end, a few truckers refuse to let the towers move them off the highway, and there’s no one in charge to force them to move. The road is blocked, hundreds of cars are abandoned, and some people spend the entire night in their cars, out of gas with no one coming to help. Forget bowling alone. In this instance, Quebecers were freezing, alone.” With respect Professor, I would suggest sticking with things you know, like that fantasy quidditch league you are in, or making up thing for Maclean’s magazine to yet again slander Quebec.

Let’s unpack this snowbound snow job and see just what happened. In a recent nasty snowstorm, Quebec was hit with huge amounts of snow, some place 70 cm worth and very high winds 140 kmph, which is a gale force range. So very nasty weather. It happens up here every winter. In this year’s case it was also a perfect storm for government. Or more specifically, the traffic department. While the finger point is going on, it is clear the Transport minister and his department failed miserable to deal with this situation, but the problems can be spread around. Two trucks where stopped by the weather on a highway in Montreal. The tow truck arrived and the tow was declined. Why? If the trucker approve the tow, they have to pay, a fee of 2000$ was mentioned. That a lot of money for a guy making less than a 1000$ gross a week, if that. So what normally happens is Transport Quebec calls in the Provincial Police. They arrive, see there is a danger and order the tow. Since the police ordered the tow, the company pays for it not the driver. And everyone is happy. The QPP, as they are called, never showed up. The tow never happened, and the cars piled up. Now then where is the “Low trust” part of the argument? The truck drivers trusted the police to order the tow. Transport Quebec trusted the police to show up. The Police trusted that Transport Quebec would call them if there was a problem.  But it gets better. The people stuck in cars began to call 911 to get help and were referred to the QPP. However, when it was notified at the city level that there was an emergency, because the fire department was called in to rescue people, the city sprang into action to help and assist those people. Through it all, where did most people stay? In their cars trusting one another to help, waiting, trusting that the state would come to help them, and trusting that they were safer waiting then risking the blizzard. Strange reaction for a bunch of low trusting people. Speaking of those police in clown costumes, it seems they were trusted to help as well. The police seemingly trust the population to not hold it against them they wear different coloured pants because they are protesting government contracts. Why, it seems that the police are also trusting in their Charter Rights to bring grievances to the government demanding redress in a peace manner, if but a riot of colours. In the end, the people were right, help did come, after all it was not the apocalypse. It was only a traffic jam on the highway in a snow storm. Both happen all too frequently in Montreal.

As for “Harry’s” effort to bring in “Facts” (TM), Please note the trade mark for these “Fact” (TM), so not to be confused with alt facts or the more boring, plain and simple, normal facts. Potter writes; “Quebec isn’t just at the lower end of a relatively narrow spectrum: rather, most of the country is bunched up, with Quebec as a significant outlier.” To which any researcher would ask the pertinent question of; “So what, outliers happen?” There is a reason we do focus on outlier. We do not even consider them as part of the study. We report them and move on. For any number of reasons from poor translation, remember Quebec is French, to cultural shifts to simply bad sampling. In statistical research you expect there to be outliers, you do not make your research findings based on them. Sorry no points for Huff(ing) and Puff(ing).

My last point is to a much wider issue. What exactly is MacLean’s problem with Quebec? Seems to me they try to sell as many copies on the back of a scandalous Quebec. No matter how wrong an opinion, how insulting or how wrong head they are, they never yet fail to print an article insulting Quebec. Only now armed with a Quisling, he teaches at McGill, and McGill is in Quebec so he knows… As they pat themselves on the back for having done due diligence. Except they failed to be diligent or give the commentary its due, rather overdue, past due, and that it is really a Do-Do.

“Andrew Potter has resigned as director of McGill University’s Institute for the Study of Canada, two days after writing a controversial Maclean’s column…” (Link)

This was his dream job? Insulting people, make false assertions and soiling the reputation of 6 million plus province? Cause we all eat at restaurants that give two bills? Professor Potter’s next job will be with the American White House where he will investigate the Bowling Green Massacre, The Swedish Massacre; how the audience vanish at Trump inauguration, even though Sean Spicer say’s it is the largest so it must be true, and he will be backing up Kelly Ann Conway by showing us how our microwaves can be turned into cameras that will spy in you. On second thought, best stick to the fantasy quidditch league, I hear tell you have Viktor Krum in your draft.

I share this for information purposes and as a warning to people about scammers.

I received a call from “Officer Paul Smith” of the Canadian Revenue Agency. He got that far into his script before I hung up on him! How rude you might say! So why did I hang up on him? It’s a provincial Holiday, so anyone calling from the government would not be calling here and never on a holiday. Second with my last name being French, they automatically assume I am French speaking and always speak to me in French not English. This officer called in English because he can only speak English. Our Governments are usually bilingual speaking both English and French. Lastly, this is an old scam. CRA only communicated by letter and email but never by a phone call. They are too easy to scam people.

This old con is where Scammers try to warn you about your impending doom, court cases, seizures and arrest should you not send them money instantly. And it must be sent now or they cannot help you with this problem and then bad things will happen to you. Being today is a Provincial holiday it would be very hard to find a place that is open to send money by Western Union. But again scammers don’t know this as they are not even calling from the same country. They can pick up the money from Western Union anywhere in the world. CRA works by checks, bank drafts and gives you many weeks to pay any such bill, as does any western government. Scammers need you to run quickly in a panic and not think of it in any other way then presented. For it you did stop to think about it you would very much reconsider giving money over Western Union. I was watching something on the Large Hadron Collider and that is much more fun to watch than play with this jerk. So I just hung up on him. And yes I do know I am a geek watch such TV, your point being?

Ok, so a little while later the phone just rang again. It was from the same idiot “Officer Paul Smith” of the Canadian Revenue Agency only with a different voice. But the same name. The name is written into their script. If you can believe that. (Face palm) I said very loudly, “It’s a scam, it’s a scam!” The guy kept reading from his script as if that might mean something. So this is over and done with right? Wrong. I get a third and final call only this time it is not “Officer Paul Smith” of the Canadian Revenue Agency; it is an auto dialer with a recorded message from Canadian Revenue Agency telling me I have a problem that must be resolved by sending money yadda yadda yadda. I got online send all three numbers to the CRTC web site to complain about such scammers. It is a shame we do not have a way to contact police about such numbers. I once tried to do that with Bell and they have no way to block calls either. Worse, to report a crime you have to leave a name address and contact number as well as an email address online. I just want to report the crime, not get involved.

Anyways, if contacted by “Officer Paul Smith” of the Canadian Revenue Agency, just hang up the phone.

I was told with sincerity, after Australia confiscated all their guns, the crime rate soared for personal violence such as rape and murder. No gun to protect yourself and other people means that only criminals will have guns and the public at large is in danger for those animals. The thought occurred to me, that if there were no more guns then there would be no guns for a criminal to steal and then turn on people, so I explored the stats to find out that…  dramatic pause clearly stolen from Monty Python “The Adventures of Ralph Mellish”… And nothing happened. Seriously, nothing happened. No spike in crime, No pile of dead bodies. Nothing. Could the same happen in the USA? Well why not study the matter. Oh wait. Sorry, The NRA allied with politicians to legally restrict all funding for anyone study gun crime and or gun violence. Why would they do that for? Well so they can pass off anecdotal evidence as their version of scientific fact. Gun owners are a single issue voter. Just tell them anything about guns that they feel is a threat and they will go nuts.

So what limited research we do have shows a lot of things but most of it bad news. So is there a correlation between gun laws and a lower crime rate? No. Why? Not all gun laws are equal. Just cause there is a law does not make it a good law, an effective law or an enforced law. So a straight count of the number of laws gives no clear indication. What about a reading of the law? Would that help the matter? No. That would allow in subjective criteria to play a role. What you see as being harsh, I see as lenient. In fact, we could list any number of possible criteria and they would all fail due to the same flaw of being subjective. All except one. There is a direct correlation in the number of guns around and their use. Make sense. If you do not have a gun, you cannot use a gun.  For the most part, usage of guns is a crime of passion. Whether it is to harm yourself or others, any time to reflect would drastically give different result. That would, in turn lower violence in all forms. Simply put, to lower gun violence and thus the number of mass shootings, simply make it harder and harder to the point of restricting gun ownership. The key problem being the NRA effectively targets anyone who dares stand up to them. Or at least they proclaim themselves to be that powerful. Imagine this, if 40 years ago the tobacco industry was able to outlaw research into smoking. Where would we be today? Everyone is smoking and people dropping dead from cancer and no one knowing why. Leading to perhaps the most incredible of conclusions; the tobacco industry is more ethical then the gun industry. How incredible is that? That or the gun lobby was smarter then tobacco in any case in their lobbying efforts. In America, it is so nice to know that people are being slaughtered in the name of gun industry profits. 90% of Americans want some greater form of background checks. The NRA says no. Thus the politicians say no. Best of all? You cannot sue a gun manufacturer for their actions in selling a gun as it is a legal product. So sayeth the congress, bought and paid for by the NRA.