Most news media outlets do a review of top stories of the past year. Frankly, there’s not much we would like to revisit as most of the stories were about terrorism and the slaughter of innocent people. We did hear one review though which made our blood boil.
You may recall the Charlie Hebdo mass murder last January 7. Two days later on January 9 was the taking of hostages and cold-blooded murder of four of them in the kosher supermarket also in Paris.
In what can only be called revisionist history, ABC News eliminated the Jewish massacre. They reported only on Charlie Hebdo. If you recall, the world was riveted to Paris during those days.
We wonder aloud if in the eyes of ABC News Jewish blood is cheaper than the blood of others. Or perhaps because there is so much Jewish blood spilled, what’s another four people? Or, they are outright anti-Semitic. Take your pick. None of the answers is pretty and one wonders what other news items they have decided to ‘revise’.
If you are planning to be in Times Square for New Year’s Eve to watch the ball drop you will have plenty of company. Along with the over one million people there will be about 6,000 officers from terror specialists to NYPD’s finest to plain clothes police men and women walking through and scanning the gigantic crowd.
Terrorist groups have done their best to spook anyone planning to go to New York, showing pictures of Times Square as they spout their rhetoric. Seems the world will continue to run as usual. It’s the only answer to terrorism. In the end, the good guys will win.
Donald Trump has deftly managed to engage Hillary Clinton in a war of words, a war she will never win. Not so much because Trump has a bigger mouth, but because Hillary has much to hide and he’s going to slowly and painstakingly, one by one, bring up things she would much rather remain buried.
For example, when she said she had to run across a tarmac to avoid sniper fire after landing in Bosnia as first lady in 1996. “I misspoke”, she said. Oh really? Blanche, she had no choice but to fess up as CBS News showed footage of her walking calmly across the tarmac with her daughter, Chelsea, and being greeted by dignitaries and a child.
Then there’s Benghazi and the major cover-up that took place. Then there’s the email fiasco which is far from over. And if you want to go very far back there’s the Whitewater scandal and of course Bill’s White House, shall we say, indiscretions. Blanche, remember the blue dress? Honestly, you are just dizguzting.
All of this is to show that Trump has a truck load of ammunition and you can bet your bippy that as it gets closer to the primaries, he’s going to start loading his best weapon – his mouth. We’re not sure if you are a cauliflower lover. Some of us are but alas, the cauliflower doesn’t love us, if you get the drift. It’s can be a tad gaseous. But we digress. Do you know how much a cauliflower is these days? $8.00. Yes Blanche, you read that correctly. It used to be $2.00 but due to a drought in California and the ever-shrinking Canadian dollar, this vegetable has become a luxury.
Who knows where the prices of other fruits and vegetables will go with this El Nino business causing havoc all over North America. Let them eat cake!
Let’s see now, the Quebec government has been negotiating with unions for weeks over an austerity plan. The government has no money. Class sizes will have to get larger, there will be less help for special needs children, there’s a shortage of money now in the super hospital which opened 8 months ago. But wait. It seems the government has found some money. For what you ask?
The Quebec government obviously went to the money tree in someone’s backyard because they want to grant themselves a 31% pay increase bumping their salaries from $90,000 per year to $140,000 per year.
Now guess where the money tree is? Correct on the first try – your pocket and your taxes. If they grant themselves this pay increase, they will be the highest paid provincial politicians in all of Canada. We hope you are not surprised by this. It appears that no matter who is in power in this province, they are or become corrupt, dipping into money that does not belong to them. And you and I can do not a thing about it except sit back, watch the show and fork it over. Nice eh?
Here’s some trivia for you. Guess who the most valuable NHL team is this year? The New York Rangers worth $1.2 billion. Now guess who moved from third to second place… the Montreal Canadiens worth $1.18 billion. We were the only team to move up in this category, no doubt because of Carey Price. Let’s see what happens this year.
Now get this. Which are the best countries to do business? European countries represent two-thirds of the top 25 with Denmark repeating in the lead position of the Best Countries for Business. You know where the United States is? Get this: In 2009 they ranked second. Today they rank 22nd. Ya think it has anything to do with their ‘leader’ who is vacationing, yet again.