General Motors

CEO Ed Whitacre can be seen on commercials on both sides of the border proudly declaring that he GM has paid back government loans with interest 5 years ahead of schedule.

A reality check is in order.  GM paid back $8 billion worth of loans.  This is true enough.  However this is nothing more than a whopper of a lie by omission.  GM was bailed out with a combination of loans and equity.  The equity portion was $50 billion.  GM no longer has any public shareholders....it is entirely owned by the taxpayers and unions.

The commercial gives the impression that the taxpayers have been paid back and that GM is on the rebound.  Time will tell whether GM will recover or not.  The truth is that GM is not worth anywhere close to $50 billion and the taxpayers are sitting on a huge loss on their equity investment.

Spending money to advertise a lie of omission just shows, once again, that GM is clueless.  This was not a good deal for taxpayers and some truth in advertising would be a welcome change.

Public Transit Bee in my Bonnet

Those who live on the Lakeshore GO line have been enduring months of construction and upgrades to the tracks and platforms.

In my case, Clarkson has seen the addition of an extra track (now 3 tracks) and the installation of elevators on the platform.

Most people say that they can't wait for the improvements to be completed so that there will be more express trains and there is hope that off peak trains might run more than hourly.

This makes sense.  More trains during the rush hours and more frequent off peak trains will surely motivate more people to take the train rather than drive.  

There is only one small problem with this:  They haven't added any more parking to the GO stations.

I have had the experience of taking off peak trains.  When i used to drive to the station, I couldn't park once the morning crowd had arrived.  Every day i see dozens of cars parked illegally at my station as every legal spot is filled.  GO officers dutifully ticket those cars. 

GO transit states that the lakeshore line carries an average of 80 people on off peak trains.....which is just slightly below the capacity of 1200 per train.

I wonder how many more people would eschew the drive into the city in favour of the near empty GO trains if only they could find parking?

Tiger Woods

The entire world knows that Tiger Woods had a sex scandal.  Many people who've never watched golf and wouldn't know which end of a 9 iron to use when putting off the tee know all about Eldrick Woods's marriage.


He has earned close to a billion dollars in endorsements by pushing his image as the best golfer in the world with a stunning wife, beautiful children and multi-racial background.  He has invented his own ethnic designation by calling himself "Cablinasian" which incorporates his caucausian, black, indian and asian backgrounds.


In short, Tiger Woods sold his image to the core.  


In the aftermath of the scandal, he entered a treatment program and then held a press conference where he apologized to those he had disappointed but asked for privacy and that his family be left alone.


Then the day before he returns to play at the Masters (the most prestigious golf tournament in the world), we see this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FjYMwPirrI


A new ad by Nike with Tiger staring blankly into the camera while the voice of his late father asks "what have you learned."


I'm not sure what his father thinks of this voice over.  Obviously its impractical to ask him.  


Here is some advice for Tiger:  If you want to guard your family's privacy, stop using them for publicity stunts like this.  Shut up and play golf, that's what you are good at and if that is all you did, then people would leave you alone.  

Graham James

The pardon system in Canada is something of an unknown to me.  Frankly i probably know more about the American system of Presidential pardons than i do about the Canadian system.

Today's news that convicted pedophile Graham James was pardoned three years ago is illuminating.

According to the Canadian Press

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ex-coach-graham-james-pardoned-for-sex-abuse-that-rocked-nhl/article1522464/

the parole board "does not generally take into account the nature of the crime"


This is surprising to say the least.  Why doesn't the seriousness of a crime matter when seeking a pardon?


Apparently the 2006-7 year saw 14,581 applications for pardon.  (7672 were for lesser offences and the other 7076 were for indictable offences) of which only 103 were declined.  Even assuming that all of the denied applications were for serious offences, this implies a 98.5% success rate amongst those seeking a pardon.

The mind boggles.  Sheldon Kennedy and Theo Fleury are two of Graham James's victims.  They need to live with their pain for the rest of their lives.

How is it that the criminal who betrayed their trust, and abused his position of authority to sexually abuse them as kids, is able to effectively clean his record of these crimes?  How is it that convicted criminals can have such a high success rate at obtaining a whitewash of their records?

It is bad enough that he was sentenced to only 3 and a half years for his crimes.  That he is now walking free with a pardon behind him is offensive to the core.  What am i missing here?

Closing the barn door after the SUV is gone

The American love affair with big cars is well known.  Less well known is the fact that SUV's (with their appalling mileage) were not subject to the same emission standards and mileage regulations as other passenger vehicles because they were classified as trucks.

So now the Obama administration has finally ended this absurdity....as of 2016!!!   As of that model year SUV's will be subject to much more stringent regulations.  The minimum mileage requirement of 29 MPG is three times that of the Hummer.

This move is a welcome change and is long overdue.  However it is so long overdue that it is practically unnecessary.  High oil prices have sent SUV sales figures plunging.  People who drive these monstrous vehicles are met with dirty looks and open scorn.  People aren't buying them anymore.

The point has been made that the government funded bailouts of GM and Chrysler gave them the leverage needed to force through these regulations.  I wonder if it is lost on many that had these regulations been in place 10 years ago, GM might have been producing smaller cars sooner and may not have needed the bailouts when their profitable SUV divisions began bleeding red??

The SUV classification as light trucks survived the administration of a Texas oil President as well as that of a Bubba from Arkansas.  A cynic might suggest that the Obama administration made this "courageous" decision at a time when the SUV voters are fewer than ever.

Don't get me wrong.....i'm glad the classification was changed.  However any economic and environmental benefits have already largely been accrued by higher oil prices.  This change will have minimal effect.  The Feds have closed the barn door long after the horse is gone.