Quebec Students Protest Again

                                               Quebec Students Protest Again

They got an inch, now they’re going for a mile. Well I think they’ve got a point – sort of. But they’re going after the wrong people – sort of. The thing is that the legislation is all wrong, not only in Quebec, but everywhere. It should be updated all across the country. I agree with the students that they should not have to pay to provide employers with the talent they need to run their companies. At the same time I do not agree that students should be able to take some artsie-fartsie program that leads nowhere other than to teach the same course to others for free, or to be able to go to university on daddy’s dime as a professional student.

What I do agree with is that governments should put an education tax upon employers to provide for such education according to industry’s needs as part of their business license. This would soon establish a substantial college fund on which students may borrow to pay for their tuition. Once a degree or diploma has been achieved and the student is hired on by industry, the industry buys up the student’s loans, and the student is free and clear of any debt. The investment then is that of industry. That’s just as it should be. If students on the other hand don’t obtain their degrees or diplomas or are not hired on by industry – well – tough titty. They’re on their own dime.

If you think that this wouldn’t lay out a whole new dynamic for students and studies as well as industry and commerce, think again. And the legislatures would finally be able to do what their name implies – that is – legislate. Universities and colleges would offer courses as dictated by industry and commerce as opposed to some wing-ding idea coming out of some intellectual’s academic imagination. That will finally give some useful purpose to these institutions of higher learning.

I know universities have long had the reputation of being institutions where people can explore intellectual pursuits of every kind and to be able to freely discuss and debate the merits of such pursuits. Well, that might be a laudable hobby, but it’s not sustainable. Anyone wanting to participate in such activities will have to pay for it. Well really, there’s even an alternate solution to that too. I’m sure the universities could put up brown paper bag dispensers. That way students with that passion for the search for knowledge can put some coin into the machine, take the bag into a corner, stick their heads into them and meditate. That’s cash and carry intelligence. At least that’s how it seems to me from up here on the top shelf.

 

Just sayin’.

Speed Bumps

Well, we like our speed don’t we? Mayor Katz set off another bomb the other day saying that the city was thinking of looking into reducing speed limits in town. The response on facebook was like static machine gun fire. I just happened to mention what speeds were like in the not too distant past and immediately got dumped on from all quarters. Holy regulation Batman! Touchy, touchy, touchy. As it is, nobody follows speed limits anyway. There’s that stupid ten km. leeway in the speed limit that leaves me wondering where the slow lane is anyway. Jeez, a couple of years ago some Alberta redneck was speeding down Henderson Highway, going through an amber light when he was caught on one of them radar cameras. When he saw the flash go off he slammed on his brakes, backed up his pickup truck, took a rifle down from the gun rack behind the seat and shot the damned camera. Satisfied, he drove off. Needless to say, Winnipeg’s finest had a chat with him later about the incident ( having his license number on camera).

Well, that notwithstanding, it seems to reflect the general attitude of drivers. One gets the idea that when they’re in their vehicle they feel like they’re in their own living room and can’t be told what to do. So they text, talk on the phone, eat their breakfasts, read books. You name it and somebody will be doing it. Well everything that is except driving. I want to know whatever happened to paying attention to the road. Cripes, did you ever notice the number of drivers flying through stop signs in residential districts? Last time I looked at those red signs on the corners, they said STOP. I’ve never seen one that says GO FOR IT.

A couple of winters ago my lovely white Hyundai Sonata got Tee-boned by a woman who came screaming out her car saying she had to get to the dentist for a surgery, basically blaming me for being in her road and driving a white car in the snow. She never mentioned that she was required to yield the right-of way though, just that she would be late getting to the dentist. I could quote you chapter and verse about people I know that have had similar experiences, usually ending up in a write off of the vehicles involved.

I’ll tell you what. Multi tasking behind the wheel of a car ain’t such a good idea. It might be if you considered that driving the blamed vehicle was the primary task. Forty and fifty clicks per hour ain’t such a bad speed. It’s actually quite comfortable until you get them cowboys climbing up your tail. The only thing you have to do is to leave wherever on time to get to the other wherever on time, or at all. At least that’s how it seems to me from up here on the top shelf.

Just sayin’. 

Congress - or the Senate - or Parliament

Freedom of expression is an inaliable right, so they say, offensive or not. In the western world we take that to mean we can say what we feel about what offends us. In the middle east, they have a different perspective. They just blow up whoever offends them. Freedom of expression - it's a matter of how you look at it.

Congress – or the Senate – or Parliament

Who’d a thought I’d learn something new at my age? Whether I’ll remember or not is another matter. That’s why I write these things down. Frank sent me an email this morning outlining the names of various animal groups – you know – like a chicken flock, a herd of cows, a pride of lions, and so on. I knew most of these already except for the last one. It’s called a Congress – of baboons. Actually, Frank called it a Parliament of baboons. I guess in a sense, it’s the same thing.

I suppose congress and/or parliament might be insulted at such a reference, especially if they saw the pictures that accompanied the email. But perhaps with a bit of honest soul searching and even a consultation with the senate – ironically called “The House of Sober Second Thought” they might find that the definition is not too far off the mark.

The baboons on the other hand may well be offended at being compared to a bunch of greasy, spineless cheaters of their own species. Baboons after all, have a code of honor to defend and these sub-standard humans just don’t measure up. Is it any wonder that they’re all yellin’ and screamin’ and actin’ up? The thing is that this has serious implications. To cite the author of this information, I can only refer to his tirade here: http://rense.com/general94/congff.htm . Have a look at it. It’s a frightening thought. I didn’t check to see if the author is a human representative of the baboon species, or perhaps a real baboon with a pseudonym. But it points up the seriousness of it. If the American Congress keeps acting the way it does (or Canadian Parliament for that matter) historians will be writing a sad tale very soon. Well we’re their neighbors after all and there’s bound to be a spill over effect on us as well – sort of like acid rain.

As I write this, there is a story on the TV about some real estate developer in the U.S. making an inflammatory film about the prophet Mohammed. The Moslems in Egypt and Libya took offence and burned down the American Consulate in Libya, killing the Ambassador and two others. And the film’s author - he’s in hiding somewhere, presumably in the U.S. You’d think that this was one of those unfortunate things that nobody could control – until you hear that the Consulate had been warned that trouble could be expected over the trailer.

At the same time here in Canada we’re expelling the Iranian Ambassador and his crew for undisclosed reasons. They remain undisclosed if you take old man Toews’ explanation of things. The Iranians however saw it coming and were all packed and ready to go before they even got notice.

Obviously we are too lazy or apathetic to do anything about it, so I had a marvelous idea as to how to rectify the problem. How many baboons are in zoos and otherwise in captivity around the world? They are literally prisoners of the particular state they’re in. Supposing we released them all into the various houses of congress and/or parliament. They would after all be in their natural environment. We wouldn’t even have to elect them. They could just go in there and straighten the whole mess out. It’s like chicken soup – Vouldn’t hoit. Well at least that’s the way it seems to me from up here on the top shelf.

Just sayin’.

The Banking System

The Banking System

The bank earnings are out again and by God, they’re doing well – sailed right through the recession without missing a beat. Profits are up there in the hundreds of millions, even topping a billion in a couple of cases. That’s good news for shareholders.

Shareholders – these are the people who buy shares or bank stocks and are paid dividends based on the number of shares they buy. I had a friend who used to do that and he did pretty well at it too.

I looked to see what these people get paid to earn that kind of money. Ha! Four, five, six million dollars for CEO’s. That’s a pretty good salary. At the other end of the spectrum, clerks, tellers and the like get ten bucks an hour – a fair spread between top and bottom, typical big business. It kind of looks like the only way to make money in the banking business is either to buy and sell shares depending on the market, or to be in upper management in the bank itself. Everything else just sucks.

That’s about where everything takes a left turn. Here’s how I see the picture. We the depositors give our money over to the banks to look after on our behalf. They charge us for that and it’s not unreasonable in concept. After all, the banks should get paid for work that they do. Mind you, some say that the service charges border on gouging. Be that as it may, we the depositors, by way of our deposits provide the banks with the capital they need to invest in mortgages, business loans and so on. This then is their source of revenue over and above the service charges. That’s what they make their billion dollar profits on after paying their top executives millions in salaries and bonuses.

The banks then get to keep the profits they make and we get to keep our money in the banks for them to use to make more profits and line the pockets of their upper management. The shareholders get “dividends” amounting to a hill of beans. The depositors get “high interest rates” of about one to three percent.

Well, the banks got all these profits just sitting there collecting dust. I don’t know what they use them for, but we still keep on depositing and contributing to their profits. Oh, we can get our money back at par, less the service charges any time we want. And maybe that’s what we should just do – get our money back. The banks don’t really need it anymore with all the profits they’ve accumulated. They should really be self-sustainable by now. That would be an interesting exercise – to discover what the banks are investing in and do the same thing, of course on a smaller scale. Still, we could pay ourselves the big bucks the same way the banks do. In the words of Woody Allen in one of his skits, they should go forth, be fruitful and multiply – but not in those words. A friend of mine was lecturing his son one day about money saying; ‘Why are you working for your money? It should be working for you’. Sound advice, I’d say.

But, too lazy to do our homework, we continue to deposit money into banks and let our money work for them. At least that’s how it seems to me from up here on the top shelf.

Just sayin’. 

The Great White North Fiasco

The Great White North Fiasco

Look at that! We’ve got a Great White North! And our prime minister has discovered it! Just imagine, of all the prime ministers we’ve had, he’s the first to become aware of this magnificent land of opportunity. Not only are there diamonds oil and gas up there, but also the cost of living is ten times that of southern Canada. What an opportunity for the merchants of Toronto! There’d be something there for everyone, if only someone was living there.

Did you take note of how we are serving notice of our presence in the area? We’re not saber rattling or making loud noises about our military prowess to warn off foreign interests. No we’re not doing that at all. We are after all, a civilized, peaceful nation. No, we’re just searching for the remains of Lord Franklin’s ships lying at the bottom of Davey Jones’s Locker up there. The icebreaker Sir Wilfred Laurier needs to be commissioned to facilitate the peaceful search (it’s not for patrolling the arctic ocean). Well and the robotic submarine that must go down to find these wrecks also just happens to have the ability to map the whole ocean floor (which is just an incidental byproduct of this archaeological exercise). What a smooth move, Harper! Nobody will ever suspect your real intent. At least the politicians won’t. Well, what do you expect? They’re politicians. But somebody must have noticed, judging by all the other icebreakers in the area.

Aha! Now we know why Canada is dragging its ass on global warming. They’ve got to get the Northwest Passage opened up to get at all that oil and gas you know, in order to ship it to Asia and to Russia. Oops! Maybe somebody spilled the beans. The icebreaker traffic is getting heavy out there. The thing is that China already owns half the oil business in Alberta and who knows what else. And Russia has a number of flags planted on the Arctic Ocean floor, and maybe even a nuclear submarine or two. That leaves Denmark sailing around claiming everything that pokes its head out of the ocean on the horizon.

Its kind of looking like Canada is turning into a giant Winnipeg. Now them critters in Toronto and Ottawa will get to know what it feels like to be the world’s warehouse while head office (Beijing) moves all its (our) products around.

And Lord Franklin - well he was only an excuse to make a lot of noise up north. It’s a good thing we have California orange juice we can sell to the Inuit for eighteen bucks a liter. That’ll give us an income in case we get short changed by head office. Now if only we could figure out how to populate the north, we could chalk up some pretty good sales. At least that’s the way it seems to me from up here on the top shelf.

Just sayin’.