PONDERABLES
Will the United Nations ever justify its cost by doing something worthwhile?
Don’t Conservative leader wannabes Pierre Poilievre and John Charest realize their character assassination tactics are not only hurting themselves but also their party’s chances of winning an election?
If our calls are as important to organizations as they claim they are, why don’t they hire more operators?
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
The answer to the ponderable about the United Nations is “probably not.”
Tradition be damned, it’s time for Major League Baseball to order the Yankees and Red Sox to display players’ names on their jerseys during all games.
When someone gets charged with impaired driving, it’s probably not the first time they’ve done it.
SOME MORE TANTALIZING COUNTRY SONG TITLES
Will Your Lawyer Talk To God
I Always Get Lucky With You
Let’s Chase Each Other Around The Room Tonight
You Look Good In My Shirt
Cleopatra, Queen of Denial
I Forgot To Remember To Forget
ROGERS HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO
Let’s start with a reminder that Rogers Communications (a public company) owns both the Toronto Blue Jays and Sportsnet.
What is the illogical excuse (there can be no logical reason) for Sportsnet not providing Blue Jays radio play-by-play announcer Ben Wagner with a colour commentator and, even more egregious, not allowing him to go on the road with the team? He has to do his broadcasts by watching television monitors at Sportsnet’s studios,
It can’t be cost-saving because on any given day Rogers and Sportsnet executives probably spend more on business lunches and dinners than it would cost to send Wagner on the road with a colour commentator. As was the Blue Jays’ refusal to have the players’ names on their jerseys during spring training games (sometimes even the broadcasters didn’t know who the players were), it might be another example of abject disdain for Blue Jay fans. It could be something else altogether, but Rogers should explain this idiotic decision.
It would be an interesting question for a major shareholder to ask at the next Rogers annual meeting, and the answer might be even more interesting
ELON MUSK AND TWITTER
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk’s attempt to gain control of Twitter is interesting from a couple of standpoints. First, his stated goal is to take the company private and make it a true platform for free speech. Does that mean he would reinstate Donald Trump’s account? Trump is reported to have had 88 million followers at the time of his suspension, and Musk is reported to currently have 80 million. To put this in perspective, there are only about 20 countries in the world with populations over 80 million. Then there is the mind-boggling level of Musk’s wealth. His current offer of $43 billion is less than 1/6 of his total, which Forbes Magazine estimates to be about $275 billion. That’s considerably more than the gross national product of New Zealand.
HOW TO STOP POLITICIANS FROM HIDING BEHIND TALKING POINTS
The practice of politicians of all stripes evading journalists’ questions by hiding behind their staff-provided talking points has become so pervasive there’s no longer any point in paying attention to their interviews. Fortunately, there’s an effective way to end the practice. If journalists would respond to the talking points by saying “you haven’t answered my question,” and repeat that comment until the politician actually does answer the question or time runs out, the cowardly and evasive practice would soon come to an end. Unfortunately, it seems there are no mainstream journalists with the guts to do it.
FOUR REASONS TO BE DUBIOUS ABOUT POLLS
1. Pollsters claim their results are correct within 3 per cent 19 times out of 20. Just how far off is that one poll? And how do we know whether it’s the one we’re looking at?
2. The polling company may be partisan, so to really assess a poll’s validity we need to know the precise wording of the questions, which might be slanted in order to elicit desired answers, thereby invalidating the results.
3. The respondents may be woefully ill-informed about the issue.
4. It’s probable a lot of people lie when being polled.