It’s not often that I single an individual out for any sort of congratulations.  But in this case, Joannie Rochette, I take my hat off to you.  In light of your personal hardship with respect to the sudden and tragic passing of your mother four days ago, you competed in the Olympics and displayed a bottomless courage in doing so.  The icing on the cake was the bronze medal, yet even if you had finished last your performance was truly inspiring.

I’ll cut right to the chase.  When things like this happens, it pisses me off to know end.  I feel my blood just boil.  When a woman lies about being raped, what should her sentence be when she is convicted?

The story of Biurny Peguero comes to mind.  She purgered herself in a rape trial that sent an innocent man, William McCaffrey, to jail for nearly four years.  This is not a case of mistaken identity, or anything else.  The woman lied, plain and simple.  This man just lost four years of his life.  He cannot get the time back and while he can possibly sue, you cannot get blood from a stone.  I’m sure this woman does not have a lot of money.  And the govermnent will not pay, as they did not make a mistake in the prosecution (though one could argue that they should have done DNA testing).

I think the only fair thing that could be done is to mete out the same punishment to this woman.  And then tack on a year or two because of the perjury charge.  Ergo, the victim served four years, and that’s where her sentence would start prior to any other sentence handed down.

The sad part is that the justice system is lined with examples such as this.

Canada had high hopes going into the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.  We wanted to Run The Podium and finish first overall in the medal standings.  While I admire ambition, or gall if you would like to call it that, I think that the dream was very unrealistic to start with.  We are a country with a small population that does not spend near enough money on our athletes to allow them to properly train to compete at the highest level.

Don’t get me wrong; as a proud Canadian I would be thrilled if we could dominate the Olympics.  Yet – we should be very proud of where we are now for the simple reason that we are there to compete – and compete we did.  If an athlete competes in an event and finishes 4th, 10th, or 20th, they should be proud as long as they gave it their best shot.  If I was in that situation, I would be pretty happy to know that I was the 20th best in the world in something!

Yet I understand the consternation…Canada has always had the stigma that we are happy being second best.  As a proud Canadian I can tell you that is not the case.  Most people that I know always strive to finish first.  In so saying that, at least with respect to the Olympics, you have to look at population density and training methods.

The United States has a population base of some three hundred and thirty million people.  Canada has one tenth of that population.  Ergo – using that metric alone – to expect us to finish with the same amount of medals at the United States is technically unrealistic.  Russia has 118 million people and Germany has 82 million people.  On the other side of the coin – Norway – which has more medals than Canada – has a population around 4 million people.  So – and good for them – they’re kicking ass right now!

The other sabermetric is how much support an athlete is given by their country.  In Canada, it is paltry.  You have to prove yourself as a top tier athlete before you even qualify for government support.  Even when you receive said support, it is not enough to supplement you and you still have to have a full time job in order to compete.  This is due to the time required to train, hire coaches, and purchase equipment.  If you look at the Russian or American teams, these costs are all covered.  In the case of Russia (or the previous Soviet Union) – they are training athletes full time from the age of six.  They also make sure that the facilities are top notch and the coaches are the absolute best that they can find.

There are a few exceptions to this, however.  The Canadian and American women’s hockey team is so dominant because they play together all year.  Every other country – this doesn’t happen.  This is a major reason why the skill level is so disparate.  Teams from Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Finland do not play together all year and play in barely semi-competitive leagues.  The Canadian team plays against men to practice, in meaningful games no less.  They can afford to do this because they have many corporate sponsors.

Donovan Bailey is another good example.  Prior to putting his career on hold to train for the World Championships and the Olympics, he was a self-made man.  He was wealthy enough to be able to afford the coaches and equipment necessary to augment his natural ability to world-record breaking skill.  He had enough money to be able to train and keep food on the table for his family.

So – without resorting to the “athlete schools” of the former Soviet Union  (boy, thoughts of Ivan Drago come to mind here…) and East Germany (boy, thoughts of the Germans turning men into women come to mind here…), how do we increase our medal count at the Olympic Games?  The answer is pretty simple to me, but to expect it to happen overnight is foolish.  The government, and business in general, has to make sure that the athletes have proper funding, the coaching is top notch, and the facilities are world class.

Now, I know that people will argue (and with a valid point) that there are other, more important things to spend that money on.  Yet, the hidden factors are there too that are likely being overlooked with statements contending otherwise.  Economically, building training facilities is an infrastructure project that creates jobs and provides communities with a top tier facility.  The naysayers usually argue that the building is only for training athletes, yet this is rarely the case. 

Thinking it through some more, all three levels of government could participate.  The municipal goverment provides the land, the provincial government covers the labour cost, and the federal government pays for the material (or building) cost.  From there, the municipal government covers the cost of property management and maintenance, yet offsets that cost by selling advertising (via corporate sponsorships) within the building.

The responsibility of hiring top notch coaches would fall to the federal government.  Whether you hire from outside of the country, or develop from within, it doesn’t matter.  Top tier athletes at the end of their prime can pass along their experience and knowledge to our up and coming athletes.  When you take a look at what Alex Baumann – a top Canadian swimmer – has done with the Australian National Team, it makes you wonder how we let him get away.

Developing our athletes is the most important cog of this equation and the responsibility for support falls to both the federal government and the Canadian corporate community.  Now – you don’t have to give an athlete millions of dollars.  They are not professionals.  They are amateurs, but they need enough money to be able to live comfortably while developing their particular skill.

Now – here’s the kicker.  Assuming that this is the plan, do not expect it to bear significant fruit for many years.  It has to be a twenty year plan.  That’s how long it will take to build the facilities, hire the coaches, and develop the athletes.  When the government switches, they must continue what the previous goverment started.  Stopping and starting funding will kill the idea dead in its tracks.

Developing top tier athletes is important because it encourages kids to get into sport and be active.  Our country is becoming lazy and I think that this would be a great way of reversing that trend.  Getting kids out there playing sports, wanting to be the next Donovan Bailey or Hayley Wickenheiser or Clara Hughes is much better than having them watching television or playing video games all day.  Physical education is important, and while it starts at a grassroots level in the schools, providing children with a potential hero or idol to look up is an intangible benefit that is often overlooked.

There are lots of people in the world that enjoy smoking marijuana.  I know some, and by far and away most are pretty decent folk.  This is their fix of choice, yet it also happens to be illegal up here in Canada.  While the sentence for being caught (if it is even enforced) is nothing more than a slap on the wrist, the fact that it is a conviction under the criminal code does not sit well with me.  For the record, I do not partake personally.  I do not care for the smell, and although I have never reaped the benefits of the drugs’ euphoric sensations, I do not find myself craving the urge.

However, for those people of high moral fibre that wish to partake, but do not want to contravene the Criminal Code, there is a new drug quietly making the rounds in the United States and Canada.  It is called K2 – Summit and is sold in stores as incense.  It is also known as “Spice,” “Genie,” and “Zohai.”  It mimics marijuana’s effect on the brain, and it is completely legal.

K2 is produced in China and Korea.  It is a mixture of herbs and spices that is sprayed with a chemical compound that is similar to the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, THC.  The user can use it to roll a joint, or smoke it in a pipe, whatever tickles their fancy.  People have compared the effect as very similar to medical marijuana, yet noted that the buzz does not last as long.

While K2 may be legal – and for how long nobody knows – I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.  The first reason is, obviously, that I do not care for any type of said drugs in my system.  The second reason is, do you really trust anything coming out of China?  These are the same people that substitute antifreeze for gylcerine because it is cheaper.  The same place where all the lead contamination comes from.  Given their shoddy control of things – putting drugs that came from China in my body just is not going to happen (as an aside, more and more legitimate pharmaceutical drugs are now being manufactured in China, which scares the living shit out of me).  Furthermore, this drug has not been tested on humans and God only knows what the potential side effects are.  In mice, K2 leads to partial paralysis, a temporary inablility to feel pain, and a lower body temperature.

In most of Europe, K2 is outlawed.  I think that within a year or two this drug will most certainly be banned in the United States.  Canada is typically slow to follow, so give us a few more years.

Did you know that Valentine’s Day was established in A.D. 496 by Pope Gelasius I to celebrate love and affection between intimate couples?  As you can see, it was initially a holiday that was not based in any sort of commercialism; that did not occur until the nineteenth century with the sending of cards.  The 1960’s brought on the sending of flowers, and the holiday is the second busiest of the year for the flower industry, second only to Mother’s Day.

Sometimes, the fact that you are “supposed” to get flowers or some sort of loving gift for your beloved bothers me.  Why should it be on this day that you have to profess your love for your significant other, and then follow it up with a gift of some sort?  Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy giving – but I don’t think that it should be on this particular day.  Make it a day that is significant to the both of you, or better yet – how about a random day?  Just show up with flowers, a box of chocolate, or anything else that might tickle your fancy.

In any event, that’s my rant pretty much any year.  Now – onto better news.

This year, my Valentine’s Day was the best one yet.  The details are private – but I had a great time with a bunch of people who are close to me.  We did the usual Valentine’s stuff, but we also had a great time shopping in Buffalo, and dining out at Quaker Steak and Famous Dave’s.

I’m sure everyone has heard about this clown by now.  Potentially tossing away his career because he decided that having weapons in the United States capital was the cool thing to do.

Good job, Gilbert.  The world marvels at your stupidity.  Arenas would rather store guns in his locker rather than in his house because he has children.  But I guess – making somewhere around 14 million dollars a year – he can’t afford a gun safe.

Maybe its the culture that he grew up in, I don’t know.  But the blame falls on his shoulders and nobody elses.

Why is it that you always see NBA and NFL stars in legal trouble?  Rarely do you see the same type of infractions with respect to players in MLB and the NHL.

The devastation in Haiti right now is terrible.  70,000 people (and counting) are dead, there is no water, no food, and very little in the way of safe shelter or medical support.  It is truly a sad thing, yet perhaps out of all this pain and suffering happiness can result.

Haiti has always been a poor country that was long ignored by the world.  The people suffered through the Duvalier regime and various unstable governments after the dictators were finally ousted.  Yet up until now nobody has ever given a damn about the Hatian people.  Ordinary people, celebrities, nor foreign government have ever taken up the Haitian cause.  It just wasn’t a cause celebre.

Hopefully the world can pitch in and not only rebuild Haiti, but invest in the country.  Put her citizens to work, train them.  Give them new skills by which they can be productive.  It’s the only way that the country has a hope of surviving.  Providing aid is a short term solution.  Investing in the country is a long term strategy that will eventually pay dividends.

Oftentimes, I sit back and wonder what the world is coming to.  Not necessarily from an “it’s all going to end” standpoint, but rather a “the more information that we have and the laws that we make” perspective.  Let me point out some examples grabbed from recent headlines.

Ok…airport scanners.  Full body airport scanners.  Shades of the movie “Total Recall” come to mind.  If you want to have some fun peel a big potato and put it in your pants.   But seriously, folks.  All it took was a lunatic with his underwear full of explosives.  I understand the need for airline security, and the scanners do not bother me.  It’s not like all the security people are going to be huddled around it looking at an x-ray of everyone.  The funny thing is that Isreal, a country that has a daily legitimate terrorist threat, has no plans to implement these machines in their airports.

It’s time for a little bit of history.  An Isreali airline has not been hijacked since 1972.  Since then, no attempts have been made.  You have to wonder why…and here is where we get a little politically incorrect.  Isreal is always under fire for racially profiling Arabs.  Sometimes it is justified, other times it is not.  Isreal has no issues singling out Arabs for extra scrutiny prior to boarding a plane (ironically, the hijacking in 1972 was by the Japanese Red Army).  They look at people, as much as the baggage.  People who are nervous, or uptight.  The security is very tight, and not often visible.  Over here, in Canada and the United States, were are trying to use technology to compensate for the fact that we do not wish to eyeball certain races a little more carefully than others.  Now – how to you not justify inconveniencing certain ethnic groups when it comes to saving lives?  To do otherwise in my humble opinion is downright foolish.

Speaking of airlines, Air Canada has been directed to offer “peanut-free zones” by the Canadian Transportation Agency, as people who have peanut-related allergies are now considered disabled.  In as much as I have sympathy for someone who has nut allergy, methinks that this is going a bit too far.  Does that mean that obese people are disabled too, and should be given two seats (for the price of one)?  Of course not – which means that the person sitting beside the abnormally large human is inconvenienced and uncomfortable throughout the entire flight.  What if two fat people somehow have side-by-side seats?  I can see where this is going.  In fifty years the airplane will be broken up into all these little sections for individuals with special needs, leaving no room for the people who do not have any problems.

Speaking of peanut allergies, when did these come to pass?  I don’t ever remember notifications of peanut zones when I was a child.  Eating peanuts in school was commonplace, and nobody had anaphylaxis or required an emergency injection of epinephrine.  I really think that the peanut allergies have been severely exaggerated by way of all the media sensationalism.  I have an allergy to Lysol.  It is not something that kills me when I breathe the air in which it has been sprayed, but my eyes water and my nose runs – both of which cause me discomfort.  Does that mean that when I fly I should insist on a Lysol-free zone in the airplane?  Of course not!  Maybe I’m being a little insensitive, but I have never been much of a fan of multiple special interest groups all looking out for their own narrow interests.

Up next is the story of a teenager in London Ontario who made a homemade bomb.  The story is sad.  He did not want to harm anyone but himself, and thankfully it was stopped before he managed to do himself any harm.  It took police a number of hours to deactivate the bomb, and for safety reasons they had to evacuate thirty homes.  The police chief is placing the blame on the Internet.

This is what bothers me.  If there was no Internet do you think that would have stopped the kid from trying to kill himself?  No!  He would have used a gun, or maybe he would have hung himself.  Using that same logic, does that mean that we can blame the Library of Congress because Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons and enriching uranium (It was in the library that Saddam’s scientists researched and copied (legally) the plans to build a calutron)?  If you want to blame someone (and I do not believe in this case there should be any blame spread around), look at the people around him.  Friends, teachers, family…nobody noticed anything strange?

Regardless, placing blame is something we as a society seem to do very well.  Everyone always wants to place the blame for any problem or situation on someone else.  It reminds me of a quotation out of the movie Rising Sun, a movie where Sean Connery plays John Connor, a world weary ex-cop deeply entrenched in Japanese culture.  The quote is “The Japanese have a saying, “Fix the problem, not the blame.  Find out what’s fucked up and fix it.”  Nobody gets blamed.  We’re always after who fucked up. Their way is better.”  Management 101 – It’s a very simple concept that is all too often not applied.

Wow…Almost a month between posts.  That was not supposed to happen, however I have been most busy and updating the personal blog sadly fell somewhat by the wayside.  It has been good, though.  For the most part, I’ve kept myself out of trouble and accomplished quite a bit, especially leading into Christmas.

Anyone and everyone who knows me understands well how much I enjoy the holiday season.  It is, despite the occasional storm, a wonderful time of the year.  Yes, there is a lot of commercialization (and a little note to Costco – September is much too early for Christmas gear to be on sale), but that goes hand in hand with the season.  You can choose not to participate in any sort of gift giving and still have a great time with your family and friends.

I however, choose to give out presents.  I like seeing the faces of people light up when they have a gift to open.  Especially children.  It warms my heart and is something that I truly look forward to.

One of the reasons that I have not updated recently is due to the fact that I have been putting in a lot of overtime at work.  I have been good about it; usually around 2-5 hours a night so that I do not burn myself out.  At my previous job I had that happen a couple of times and the effect is not at all pleasureable.  You walk around in a haze and you have a constant headache.  Furthermore, you are less effective once you pass the daily workload of eight hours (so studies say, and I would concur with them).  In order to have some extra time off at Christmas, with pay, the lieu time has to be put in.  My goal is to get enough time in so as to have a paid summer holiday as well.

Christmas shopping has taken up a decent amount of time too.  I enjoy it, but venturing out to stores, checking sales, and scouring the Internet take time.  I have found some great products at some great prices this year though, so I’m happy.  I always tend to overspend at Christmas, but such is life.  I like to find gifts that people will enjoy and appreciate as opposed to giving out cash, gift certificates, or something equally impersonal.

I came across something the other day that I found very inspirational.  Has anyone ever heard of a gentleman named Randy Pausch?  Randy was a tenured professor at Carnegie-Mellon University and pioneered some simply amazing software.  However, he was more known for his “Last Lecture.”  I will not spoil it for you, but I urge you to take the time to watch it.  The first video is the short version of the talk that he gave on “Oprah.”  The second video is the full speech that he gave at Carnegie-Mellon University.

I have to admit, this talk brought a tear to my eye.

In other news, Tiger Woods is the biggest item in the news right now.  It has been pretty much confirmed everywhere that Tiger was unfaithful to his wife on more than one occasion.  There is mystery surrounding his car crash, and exactly what has transpired.  Personally speaking, I don’t care.  The man is worth over a billion dollars, most of which are from endorsements.  What he does outside of golf makes for great tabloid fodder, especially in light of the fact that Tiger is not generally considered media-friendly.  As a result, the media probably has it out for him a bit.  I’m sure A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Mike Tyson, and all the other sports celebrities that do not have the best of reputations are silently saying a prayer of thanks to Tiger Woods for taking the heat off of them.

Tiger should have handled this the way David Letterman did.  Letterman had an affair, and is notoriously public shy.  Yet he handled it the right way.  He went on his show, spilled the beans, took a bit of flak, and poked some humor at himself.  Guess what happened?  His ratings went up, his public approval went up, and the media went away.

That’s about it for now…I’m sure I’ll think of more later though.