Ponderables
How many Justin Trudeau selfies have been deleted since Wednesday?
How satisfying was it for Troy Tulowitzki to hit a home run against the Blue Jays in his first at bat as a Yankee?
Things I Firmly Believe
Odds only have relevance in the long run.
People who ask for advice and then argue against it are worthy of scorn.
The Top Of The List
I’ve mentioned a number of times that the list of current politicians for whom I have any respect is very short, but Jody Wilson-Raybould has moved to the top of it.
New King Of Smarm
First, let’s examine a dictionary definition of smarmy: “Ingratiating and wheedling in a way that is perceived as insincere or excessive, e.g. a smarmy reply.”
I didn’t think anyone could ever match NHL commissioner Gary Bettman when it came to smarminess, but Justin Trudeau may have achieved exactly that. Over the past three days (except when he ran and hid on Friday), regardless of what question he’d been asked, his answer was always about “protecting Canadian jobs.” Had he been asked what time it was he would likely have answered that his main responsibility to Canadians is to protect Canadian jobs. (Actually, his main responsibly to Canadians is to effectively govern the country.)
The fact that every Liberal MP who is asked a question these days, for example Finance Minister Bill Morneau, and particularly Trudeau’s pet puppet, Liberal house leader Bardish Chagger during question period in the House of Commons, does the same cries out for change in two areas
The first is that members of all media need to show some backbone and insist on direct answers. The second is that the speaker of the House of Commons be given the power to require MPs to actually answer the question that was asked, and that the power be enforced.
Quebec Favouritism Is A Liberal Tradition
Prime Minister Just Trudeau’s hypocritical election promise to govern differently notwithstanding, the Liberal party’s traditional Quebec favouritism over the rest of Canada is still alive and well. Otherwise, what possible explanation is there for them to possibly risk their majority in the next election by continuing to bow and scrape to SNC-Lavalin? And how about their decision to scrap the Energy East pipeline because of Quebec’s objection on questionable “environmental” grounds while at the same time the province was allowing raw sewage to be dumped into the St. Lawrence river? And where was the Liberal’s outcry when many thousands of jobs were lost in Alberta? It’s obvious that a lot of money isn’t the only thing Justin inherited from his father.
While on that subject, given that the wealth which Pierre and Justin respectively inherited from Justin’s grandfather, Charles-Emile Trudeau, was founded on a string of gas stations in Quebec, it’s hard to fathom their antipathy towards the oil industry.
Shortening Baseball Games
With spring training in full swing there’s a lot of chatter about ways to shorten baseball games. It’s a fruitless exercise because the main problem is the number of television commercials during games, and the owners will never give up any of that revenue. But there are three changes I’d like to see introduced, not so much because they would appreciably speed up games, but because they would eliminate annoying delays.
First, hitters should only be allowed to step out of the batters box once during each at bat. Watching them step out after every pitch to adjust their batting gloves, tug at their jerseys, and lovingly caress their bats is even more boring than listening to The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
Second, almost as boring is watching pitchers wander around the mound, picking up and tossing down the resin bag, then taking an eternity to get the catcher’s signal, and finally staring in the direction of the plate for a further delay before delivering the pitch. Unless there’s a runner on, put a twenty-second clock on pitchers and let the so-called baseball traditionalists be damned.
Third, when a reliever comes in from the bullpen there’s absolutely no necessity for him to have to throw any warmup pitches; warming up is what he’s just finished doing. Make him go to work right away.