The Blue Collar Creed

We the unwilling,
Led by the unknowing,
Are doing the impossible
For the ungrateful.
We have done so much for so long with so little
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing

by Larry Wall

Friday, August 29, 2008

My girl Friday!



Yes, I know, I am a lecht. I love women. I love them smart, funny, not too serious and very patriotic. Therefore I am introducing my (hopefully) weekly Girl Friday. I actually thought of this when I came across this picture (on top).
Here are the qualifications for such an honor.

1.- Be of female gender
2.- Show patriotism for Canada
3.- Be of female gender (can’t stress that too much!)

Hey, I figured if the Toronto Sun and its sister publications can have a Sunshine Girl then I can have my Girl Friday. There will not be any nudity and covered private parts will be a must. (Did I hear someone say Awww?) But bikinis are just fine!
Hell, it’s Friday and I am usually in a good mood and like I said, I love women!

Have a great weekend.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Healing really does take time

Mike Murphy sure has been getting it from all sides lately concerning the new Health-care system. The French are scared of losing services, the English says it's too expensive, the North says it's not enough and the South says it's being neglected. I know pleasing everybody is impossible but this is getting ridiculous. New Brunswickers have been screaming bloody murder for the last 10+ years about a lack of doctors, a lack of patient services and long waiting lines at the hospital. Interestingly enough, that’s what Murphy’s been trying to do, and has accomplish some steps in the right direction so far, yet people are still ranting and raving.
We use to have 7 regions. Seven!! Think of the people it takes to run all these regions. Most of the French administrators came from Quebec. Think of the room these offices take. I am positive that many of those administrators were honest hard working people, however there are a lot of these special interest group administrators who are quite content with passing the buck. Supplied housing, supplied car, travel expenses and 6-digit salaries are all part of the job for those high level administrators.
But I am getting off topic here. Like any illness, our health care system needed an emergency appendectomy of sorts and Murphy went in scalpel-a-swinging. Less money for administrators means more money for doctors. Less room for offices means more beds for patients. Fewer regions to equip means less duplication in services. Anybody following me here?
Look, I really don’t care if Mike Murphy is arrogant; if he gets the job done I’m happy. I don’t care if he’s a Liberal or a Conservative, I want more doctors. I don’t care if he drives a fancy car, I just don’t want my/your mom-aunt-sister travelling fours hours a day three times a week for her dialysis.
Basically, I believe there was a big problem in our health care services and at least Murphy is trying to do something about it. We can’t always be thinking of Me, Myself and I, sometimes we have to think about how a system can be better as a whole, for more people.
Anyway, we had a sick health system, the operation has been done, now we wait for the healing. Stop picking at the wound if you don’t want a scar. Give it time.
It’s about time they removed the cyst instead of putting band-aids over it.

Monday, August 25, 2008

A Man for the Unions


I read a great story by Reid Southwick of the Telegraph-Journal last Saturday; The Cain inside Abel.
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/actualites/article/394658

The focus of course was Saint John Lancaster MLA Abel LeBlanc, a former union president of 16 years and longshoreman. For some us who have worked within a unionized environment, men like Abel LeBlanc are the guys you want to go to war with, in a manner of speaking. For those who have never worked in a big industrialized area, it can be difficult for people to understand why Mr. LeBlanc is so curt and outspoken. I understand that in some smaller area, the act of unionizing the employees was damaging for a business. But when you play with the big boys, like Irving, Noranda and Bowater, just to name a few, the workers really do need a union.
When you work for those guys you are just a number, a pawn on the game board of industry. Steel-toe boots are not comfortable and neither is working with a gas mask in 90-95 degree temperature. Yes, I agree that salaries are usually good but they do deal with many dangers on a daily basis. Toxic air, flammable substances and high levels of heat and noise are just some examples. When there’s a fire or a gas leak, trust me the white hats go running for cover. These big companies are in business for the all-mighty dollar, not for the welfare of their workers. But somebody has to do the dirty work. The dirty jobs are blue collar work. Somebody has to make the cars, mine the ores, take out the garbage, teach the children, patrol the streets, plow the road, build the houses, buildings, town, cities etc…
Men like Abel LeBlanc are the ones who look out for their peers. Sure he talks tough but if you don’t, you’re just flapping your lips. If I needed back up I’d want a man like Abel at my side. MLAs Margret-Ann Blaney and Bev Harrison are having a field day calling for LeBlanc’s firing. But then again, Blaney is pretty ineffectual unless she’s modeling her new clothes and stuffed-shirt Harrison is way too busy with his Welsh Corgi League, Royal Commonwealth Society and Constitutional Monarchy Association.
How can they judge LeBlanc when they know nothing about what he’s about? The unions of Saint John will not go rioting in the streets and LeBlanc knows it. He wanted to be heard and sometimes, when you want business people to listen to the little guys, you have to be gruff.
We all have our place in this life and Abel LeBlanc has no qualms about his.
Abel did what he felt had to do. Way to go brother!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

The sands of Beijing

(at right Team Norway)
I love the Olympics. The true patriotic competition, the huge assortment of sports I don’t usually get to see and those sweet little extras... like beach volley ball. Now before you start leaving me messages with words like chauvinist, misogynist or even ...pig!!! Allow me to explain my particular point of view.
I like volley ball, I played varsity volley ball, so obviously I watch it. When beach volleyball began well it was quite natural to watch that too. It takes exceptional ball control and handling abilities to play in the sand plus at 2 vs 2 it becomes a virtual chess game. And of course one of the big attraction is the women athletes. I mean, toned women in skimpy bikinis jumping, running and diving all over the place as their tanned body glisten under the sun’s rays!
Hello!!!
And thus began my search, once again, to find someone, somewhere, upon the vast electronic highway we call the Internet, who would share my point of view. Hark! But not in silence, this shall not do. No, I needed someone to come forth strongly, not to bury thy fine sports deep into the sand that cushion their feet but to praise it. Praise it as the visual utopia it has become in light of these Olympic games. And fruitfully I found that person. I found her opinion as a matter of fact. Yes, Ashley Harris summed a response well written to silence the most objectionable fanatics of this beautiful sport. Tis’ well worth the time to read and understand my friends.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/beijingolympics/archive/2008/08/22/in-defense-of-the-volleyball-bikini.aspx/archive/2008/08/22/in-defense-of-the-volleyball-bikini.aspx


Team USA Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh

Canada's Marie-Andrée Lessard

This year, the US team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won gold by defeating the host Chinese team of Jia Tian and Jie Wang in two sets. Ironically, it rained throughout the match. The bronze-medal match featured the Chinese team of Chen Xue and Xi Zhang who also defeated Brazil’s Renata Ribeiro and Talita Antunes in straight sets.
Unfortunately Canada did not make it to the Olympics this time around but the present teams of Dana Cooke \ Annie Martin and Marie-Andrée Lessard \ Sarah Maxwell http://www.mtothemax.ca/ are well worth keeping an eye on for the next few years. http://www.volleyball.ca/index.asp

But really now, how can one not like a sport that celebrates all the athletic abilities of the human body and shows it off too? Beach volley ball even has teams in Sweden and Norway? Now I ask you, with all the crap going on in world news these days who amongst us doesn’t deserve to watch bikini clad women (and strapping male jocks for the ladies) playing a game in the sand on a nice sunny day. We’ve all heard the saying about stopping to smell the roses, eh? Well, suntan lotion and sand smell like roses to me.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Our deepest respect and sympathies


Today, soldiers in Kandahar will bid farewell to Sgt. Shawn Eades, Sapper Stephan Stock and Cpl. Dustin Wasden, before their long journey home.

Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson was quoted as saying that Taliban attacks are "absolutely not whittling away at the resolve of Canadian troops.”

Eades, of Hamilton, Ont. leaves behind a wife and two daughters.
Wasden, from Saskatchewan, leaves behind a wife and young daughter.

The latest three deaths bring the total number of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002 to 93.

About 2,500 Canadian soldiers are now serving in Afghanistan, most of them in the volatile south.

Gentlemen your countrymen remain grateful of your courage.
Chimo!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Sherraine Schalm


I have to admit, the first time I had heard of Sherraine Schalm was last week. Quite out of the blue I caught a CBC special about Schalm and her efforts to become Canada's first fencing gold medallist. She is a competitor of the highest calibre and a ferociously proud Canadian. Sharp witted and sharp tongued she gave a wonderful interview. What's not to like?
The next day, I caught her match against Hungarian Ildiko Mincza-Nebald. She lost.
The match was a tight affair filled with animosity from both sides which caught me quite by surprise as I don't usually watch fencing.
Anyway, once she lost she reacted with her guts, physically and emotionally. Later she gave an interview which turned into a rant filled with anger and deception.
The next morning, she did another interview on TV basically to apologize for her behaviour of the previous day. She started well but soon turned bitter once again.
I thought to myself; that was too much emotion in too little time for too many to see. For Schalm, or anybody else for that matter, to react so ostensibly there had to be a story somewhere.

Thus I began a search and found out a lot more about this brazen Canadian fencing champion.
I guess the best story I found was this one from CBC.ca


-- Sherraine Schalm, Canada's best hope for an Olympic fencing medal, has been knocked out of competition in Beijing in a defeat Wednesday that triggered some angry words and emotions from the Brooks, Alta., native.
Schalm was seeded fifth in Beijing, six spots higher than her opponent, but was defeated 15-13 by Hungarian Ildiko Mincza-Nebald in the epee round of 16.
Schalm was devastated by the loss, especially since she was defeated by a Hungarian. She had trained with the Hungarian national team for four years, but shortly before her final Olympic camp, she was told by her coach that she was no longer welcome to train with them.
"It's like I imagine being a man. It's like being kicked in the nuts repeatedly, that's how bad it feels. You feel like you want to curl up and die," Schalm, competing in her third Olympics, said after the loss.
"I'm trying to put it all in perspective. Immediately, it's not so easy. It's just really tough. You train so long and I feel like I disappointed myself, my coach, my family, my country, everybody.
"I wish none of you ever have to go through this feeling of loss and feeling of disappointment, and the only thing that I can say is it's definitely not going to kill me, so it will have to make me stronger."
Schalm led the entire bout before Mincza-Nebald, the fourth-place finisher at the 2004 Athens Olympics, took control in the final three points and sealed victory. The contest lasted a little more than seven minutes.
Schalm is one of the best female epee fencers in the world. She won a bronze medal at the 2005 world championships and the overall World Cup title in 2006. She has also beaten Romanian Branza, who is ranked No. 2 in the world, three spots higher than Schalm.
Schalm had a first-round bye in Beijing.


But this still did not explain to me Schalm's angry yet passionate outbursts.

Then I finally found this blog by Elisa Hategan which made all so clear to me.




In light of all this information about Schalm all I have to say is WOW! Give that lady a hand brother, because if there's something I admire is a competitor of this magnitude. Not only is Sherraine Schalm a true Canadian patriot but also a voice that the Canadian government should really listen to. How in the Hell can we expect our athletes to go through shit like that and come out smelling like a rose.


Sherraine Schalm did her best. She does not need to apologize for inadequate sports funding. Chin up girl, you may have lost this time but I can’t wait to see you go for the next 4 years cause you’ll be ripping those Hungarian a new one at the next Olympics. I am officially a Schalm fan.

Go Canada Go!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The beginning

Ok so here we go, my feedback page on the whatevers of our times.

I'll be going slow but eventually...I'll get going. A born procratinator I am. Hey! Why do today what you can do tomorrow right?

Ok, see you next time.

Stan