mose's posterous

I am neither for, nor against, the death penalty. To me it does not matter. And in the case of Tori Stafford, no matter what we do, she will never be brought back.

What I am in favour of is looking into how our society can exist when we have very disturbed people amongst us that need serious help ... above all else! Yet we fail to help. And, moreover, we fail to act to prevent atrocities like this from happening over and over again.

If you read the media reports on the two convicted murderers in this case, they were not holed up in some cave somewhere their entire lives and burst upon the scene to abduct and kill a child. They were visible, active and repeatedly acted in a manner that any normal person would have been considered them mentally ill. No one is that good a con artist. there were lots of signs.

http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/article/1177612--michael-rafferty-conman-womanizer-murderer?bn=1

http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/article/1177608--tori-stafford-trial-how-terri-lynne-mcclintic-became-a-killer

There are also laws in Canada under the Mental Health Act that outline what can be done, but we rarely use them because we are a very politically correct society and only when a severe tragedy like this happens do we voice our outrage. We could get these folks off the streets and get them the help they need - but we are worried about their rights. What about Tori's rights?

There are laws that can be used to intercept and prevent criminal actions of the mentally ill. These two were, in my humble opinion, suffering from many different  mental illnesses. Russell Williams was as well, the murderer of Holly Jones was … and many, many more. Their families saw them all their lives - they knew. People they worked with saw them - they knew. And in some cases the police and children's services saw some of them along the way - they knew.

People go on and site the costs of keeping these criminals in jail and point out that there are people who are starving yet we spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to keep these heinous creatures alive.

What I am against is that for decades our country - allegedly free -  has been watered down with political correctness and we cannot be truly free and have speech, thought and action police patrolling.

My belief is that to solve some of our criminal problems, or our homeless problem, or our jail problem, is to address an issue that has been with us forever and we simply deny it's existence and refuse to discuss it.

Mental illness.

Young people who are, what we would call normal, do not abduct a child and rape and kill them. It is a universal law called right and wrong. Most of us have that moral compass.  And when some people's compasses turn upside down and there is no right and wrong - we as a society have failed to protect someone like a Tori Stafford.

I am not talking about the mental illnesses where, in your minds eye, you see a poor soul in restraints, thrashing wildly, foaming at the mouth and delirious. I am talking about the mental illness that afflicted Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic. Or Col. Russell Williams. and many others.

There were  signs that would set off warning alarms in pretty much anyone. Serious drug use, animal torture, being abused as a child, deviant behaviour of all stripes. These things cannot go unnoticed. But the families, the teachers, boyfriends and girlfriends, spouses and police and social workers simply want it to go away. Like it never happened. Why? because we are not equipped to deal with these types of illnesses. It is never made public. It is kept under the rug and hidden. And we want to be politically correct. we do not want to step in and do what is right for fear of reprisals, law suits or media harassment. God forbid we do something that is difficult and may hurt someone's feelings.

To truly change our society we must be made aware and given ways to intercept the people who are sick. Mental illness has and will continue to be the most deadly disease in our society. These folks need help.

It is not new. It has been around since the beginning of time. Now is as good a time as any to revamp the laws, revamp the systems in place and to give all people the tools to help.

I can just imagine all of the sports pundits and writers having dozens of these stories written for about a year now.

Say hello to the new Tiger Woods

This was from ESPN. The tone of the article and the video actually made me throw up a little in my mouth. All have, no doubt, been waiting to unleash their platitudes, adoration and gushing to honour TW for many months. Sure it was gonna happen eventually.

I have never drank the Tiger Cool Aid. Amazing athlete, amazing golfer. But that is not all there is, is there? There is more. There is class, there is giving back - and not just cash, that is good business, but really giving back. There are several sport's heros I hold high. Some you have never heard of.

Sure the world flocks to see him, the ratings climb and the tournament organizers drool. He is good for business. But is he good for golf? Not televised golf, not professional golf ... golf, golf.

The sport a lot of us play. Some more than others.

Rounds are slower than ever, golf costs more and having played a lot of goldf in recent years at many different courses, the game is not reallty being played any better. I do not see a general improvement in player's abilities? Only slower. And, sadly, similar to when Arnie came on the scene the great unwashed took up the game. Now every kid, thinking he is TW, is out there with the Nike clubs, the Nike balls, the Nike red shirt, shoes and gloves ... fist pumping their way to a five-and-one-half-hour round of 100. A round of golf should reasonably take two hours less. But no. They wait for greens to clear on par 5s that are 300 yards away - "Well, El Tigre can do it? So can I!" Reading putts for seemingly days. and the antics ... please. Trust me, Skippy, you are not good enough to either, throw a hissy fit, toss a club, nor get angry.

And to tell you the truth, neither is Tiger. Golf is not a game for louts shouting and swearing and carrying on. 

I guess the one thing that always got me about Tiger was that he did not and does not respect the game. At least in my opinion. He respects himself. Being fabulously rich, famous and good lokking will do that. And good for him. I wish him many more millions, beat Jack's record and have a great career. But Tiger, other than lining the pockets of advertisers, TV ratings and call girls ... what have you really done for golf?

Warning:

If you are a relative of Whitney Houston or a close friend, my sincerest condolences. You do not have to read this.

In the last couple of days the simpering, outpouring of grief reminds me of the pandemic when Princess Diana died.

Why must we continually do this.

Yes, it is tragic when someone dies. As an older person, I have lost count of relatives and close friends who have died. Simply too many to count. Whether they are taken at a very young age, after a long battle with disease or whether it is sudden, by accident, a suicide or after a ripe old age. Death, although a major part of life, is always sad. We must grieve. However the false epithets, outpouring of mass hysteria and quite disingenuous remarks as witnessed on Social Media channels is embarrassing. It does a disservice to the real grief we all feel when someone close dies. Ms Houston was not close, at all, to most of us. I also think a lot of people have put their grief out there, not to honour Ms Houston, but to get attention for themselves. This is a well-defined pshycological disorder.

I understand why all the mainstream media does this - it sells ads. Lots of ads. "If it bleeds, it leads." I did not make that saying up. They, the media, did.

In the days before shock, tabloid journalism (Is there anything else these days?)  and Social Media, we could happily live our days in relatively remote, peaceful existence, simply worrying about our friends, relatives and loved ones health and happiness. A notice of a celebrity passing would be in the Entertainment Section … maybe on page 3.

When I see this outpouring of faux grief I sit back, puzzled, wondering where we are, where we have come from and where we are going. Saddens me a great deal.

Maybe, the social webs are loaded with misguided folks. Or. maybe just normal people who have a moral compass that is not pointed int the right direction.

Princess Diana, for example, was famous for winning a lottery. She had no qualifications to place her at the pinnacle of respect other than by her marriage to a Bloke in England. Yes, her new found wealth allowed her to get notoriety and bring some light to good causes. Good for her. Other than that, nothing of note. She won a lottery. She neither contributed to higher leaning, science, the arts, the peace process nor really did anything ... but look pretty. And produce offspring.

Ms Houston was an artist and a fine singer. Probably the owner of one of the best voices to come along in years. Other than that? Not much else to hold her up as a heroine, a beacon, a guiding light nor any of the other platitudes gushed in the last few days. I am sad she died. Sad too as she seemed like someone that fame ate up. But fame was not forced on her. It was her own choosing.

There have been hundreds of those. Instead of idolizing these celebs, the Amys, the Michaels, the likes of Elvis, Janis, Jimi, as I said the list is long, should we not get our priorities in order?

"We as a society seem to be the best entertained and the least informed."

Some quick stats:

A total of 158 Canadian Forces personnel have been killed in the war since 2002.

Over 60 million people were killed in WWII, which was over 2.5% of the world population. 45,400 were Canadians.

Between 1961 and 2009, 133 police officers were murdered in the line of duty.

More than 1,000 firefighters have died since 1848 ( I do not have a stat for recent years)

These to me are the real heroes. The ultimate sacrifice inspires me. 

Please shed tears for them.

Well, if you are going to have a government cash grab, you might as well have an efficient one.

Here's the story …

I needed to renew my plates for my car and the guy at the license place asked if the car was Drive Cleaned in the last 12 months. Yep, it was in July 2011. Well, we need the certificate. He gave me a number to call.

I called them first thing this AM … no way could I get through. So I looked online. There was a form - put in the vehicle info yada, yada… submit.

I assumed it was now in the "ether" of government email somewhere.

About 4 minutes later I get an email from a fella named Alex.

Says, yep you have a  certificate on file.

I was stunned. So I tried the number again wanted to thank this guy personally, probably talk to his supervisor and recommend the Order of Ontario, but could not get through. Alex sent from a general email address, but, what the hell, I replied and thanked him and asked so what did I have to do to get a copy of said certificate.

Expecting all sorts of hoops, I was doing the ramifications in my head, and while pondering … eleven minutes passed…

Alex emails me back!

Email says - "Here ya go - please find attached your certificate."

This is my Provincial Government we are talking about here!

Eleven fucking minutes!

I am taking the rest of the week off. I am not only Gob-smacked, but feel the need to celebrate!

Yep I hate SPAM as much as anyone.

So working at my desk here right now and up pops an email - subject line "coffee news." from "coffee girl". I happen to be sitting here with a coffee in my hand.

The email is plain text, nothing flashy. Says simply, "I was having coffee with a friend, it tasted great. I really like my coffee. The girl asked her friend what kind it was - He said it was "Acid Free Coffee"... Google it. I think it is called Tylers, or something.

So I did.

Now some mitigating circumstances ...

Two of my buddies are completely off coffee on Doctor's orders. I like coffee, doesn't seem to affect me, but have read and heard about too much etc etc

So, I Google Acid Free coffee and find this.

http://www.tylerscoffees.com/

Nice site, rather low key sales pitch ....

SPAM or no SPAM ... I would try this if I can get it. certainly if I was in the States I would order it right now.

Weird, eh? When SPAM works.