The Real Home Run Champion

Ryan Howard deserves the home run record, he has a chance to pass Roger Maris number of 61. Now I know everyone including Ribs are saying what about Sammy Sosa (66), Mark McGwire (70) and Barry Bonds (73)? That can be easily explained away. Howard is a natural home run hitter who is NOT on drugs whereas Sosa, McGwire and Bonds have clearly taken steroids. Bonds may be even given a prison term because he lied to a grand jury about his involment in the Baseball Steroid Scandal. So In my opinion Howard deserves the recognition for breaking the record if he can just hit 4 more home runs before the end of the baseball season this weekend.

Baseball silent as Howard nears 61 HRs

Rainbow

This rainbow was seen in the sky just after supper. How fitting sense the story that I'm telling for Sunday School is Noah's ark. The following pictures are of course Noah's ark and pictures of two animals that I'm sure were on the ark as well :)

Raining Cats and Dogs

My Cousins Dog Teddy (a former US President)
and My Mother's favourite cat (notice the "u" in favourite) Fluffy. Notice the evil glare, obviously this female cat was experiencing a bad hair day and I failed to notice :)

Treaty Violation

U.S. puts machine-guns on Great Lakes coast guard vessels

The American Government has moved to violate the treaty that ended the War of 1812. The treaty only permits one armed vessal per lake along the Canadian- USA water border. However according to the 2003 treaty revision it seems perfectly legal regardless of what the media may or Toronto's Mayor might say.

Who knows, maybe the violation of the treaty will mean that was between Canada and the US will break out again :)

Memo shows Tories fear Ignatieff most

Etobicoke MP and Liberal leadership hopeful Michael Ignatieff, waves his fist in the air after learning that Conservatives fear him the most. After all he is a former Harvard professor, there probably afraid of his PHD :). One thing there not afraid of is his seemingly lack on ability to control what he says :). Sounds like an ideal Liberal candidate to me. Afterall why wouldn't they want a leader that voices out against Canada's native policy and Canada's traditional foreign policy.

If Michael Ignatieff wins the nomination to lead the Federal Liberals, its going to be hard for him to speak out against PM Harper's alleged American actions sense he lived in the USA for almost 20 years. According to the Income Tax Act, unless he owned property in Canada, he wouldn't even have been a resident for tax purposes over the decades that he was absent from Canada.

He must think a lot of himself to think he can come back after living in a foreign country and claim he's Canadian enough to run for leader of the opposition. Afterall if the Conservatives falter, Canda will be left with a Harvard professor who may or may not know what Canada's all about. :)

BMO buying Indianapolis bank

Now some of my cousings in the Indiana area can go to a financial insitution owned by a Canadian Bank :) As we all know Canadian banks have a better record than American banks. Looking back to the Great Depression and the untold millions of US banks that collapsed compared to just 2 Canadian branches during the 1930's.

Liberal Scandal Reaches front Runner

Vote scandal hits Ignatieff
The only front runner untouched by this scandal is Rae. Makes one think that it was his people that uncovered the dirt and spoon fed it to the media. As a possible future Liberal leader, Rae could be the next non-Conervative Prime Minister of Canada. It is unclear in the polls whether Harper can continue to maintain support to win another election. If Harper could win another election, wouldn't the opposition look scary with two exteme left leaders (Rae and Layton)?

Makes one recall the Chrysler and Daimler merger in 1998, when it was suppose to be an equal partnership but ended up being a Daimler takeover. Maybe Rae isn't really Liberal? Maybe he's a Layton henchman trying to bring down the Liberals so that the NDP could come to power?

I guess with an American- Conservative government in power in Canada, its perfectly acceptable to believe in conspiracy theories. :)

Robin Hood: False Assumptions

Robin Hood was Welsh and never went to Nottingham, claims book

Big Liberal Scandal

Liberals Show that they don't have to be in office to have a ScandalIt's hard to believe that potential Liberal leadership contenders would forge people's names and add them to the voters list to elect a new Liberal leader. How could they be corrput before being elected Liberal leader? I guess their getting a head start :). Hopefully they were prudent enough to forge Liberals on instead of Conservatives. Isn't it amazing the number of members that signed up and paid their fees on July 4 in time to participate in the leadership vote? I don't know how people that were deceased could have done that, but I suppose if you Liberal anythings possible. But you may not want to believe the above link as it was reported by the Liberal Toronto Star (previous BBB post) :)

What will they think of next?

Sisters win right to play hockey with the boys
Should girls be allowed to play hockey with boys in organized leagues? What will they want next? The right to vote? :)

Afghan mission 'balanced'

Afghan president Hamid Karzai thanks Canada, offers condolences to families who lost soldier sons, daughters.

The only question that remains is if his comments and Prime Minister Stephen Harpers comments in support of the Afgan mission will be enough to maintain public and parlamentry support that has repeatedly fallen off. I'm not sure if Karzai's condolences is enough in return for helping his government stay in power. Hopefully the USA lead allies are not making similar mistakes that they made in the cold war in supporting a government that can't support itself in a war torn country. It seems that supporting an American supported regime is asking for trouble in the long-term peace keeping efforts in that region.

Elevator to the Space Station?

Express lift to the stars
How could a thin piece of metal hold two elevators going up and down? Sounds far fetched to me, but it was reported on CNN, so it must be true :)

Pre-Season Hockey has started...

How true, its sad being a Montreal Canadian Fan :)

Ethics Begin at Home

MBA students likelier to cheatThe study found that 56 per cent of graduate business students admitted to cheating in the last year, compared with 47 per cent of non-business students. More than 5,000 MBA students from 11 graduate business schools in Canada and 21 schools in the U.S. took part.

The Business MBA students cheating record is interesting, especially sense they are the corporate leaders of the major Dow Jones and TSX companies of the future. Can any one sense another Enron or WorldCom in the future? I think it would be a safe bet. :)

Who Knew?

'We respect Islam': Bush

Sabres are a crime against fashion

Over the Years the symbol of the Buffalo Sabres certainly has changed from the charging buffalo and sabres crossed to just the menacing buffalo to finally the yellow buffalo that looks more like a ram. I guess theres a compeition in the NHL to find out who can come up with the weirdest looking uniforms :)

The Gossipy Pastor

Carl and Sam were at odds with each other. They could not even remember the initial cause of friction...but their hostility had festered through the years.
Pastor Fred was deeply concerned, so he prayed that God would use him as a peacemaker.
Pastor Fred called on Carl. "What do you think of Sam?" he asked.
"He's the sorriest guy in town!" Carl growled
"But," Pastor Fred replied, "you have to admit that he's a hard-working man."
"No one can deny that," said Carl. "I've never known a person who worked harder."
The next day Pastor Fred visited Sam. "Do you know what Carl said about you?"
"No, but I can imagine his lies," Sam responded angrily.
"This may surprise you," said Pastor Fred, "but he said he's never known a harder worker."
"He said that?" Sam was stunned.
"By the way, what do you think of Carl?" Pastor Fred asked Sam.
"It is no secret that I have absolutely no use for him." Sam replied slowly.
"But you must admit he's honest in business," said Pastor Fred.
"There's no getting around that," said Sam grudgingly. "In business he's a man you can trust."
The next day Pastor Fred met Carl again. "Do you know what Sam said about you? He claims you're absolutely trustworthy in business, that you are scrupulously honest."
"Well, how 'bout that," reacted Carl with a smile.
Soon the gossipy Pastor noticed Sam and Carl would cautiously nod to each other in a friendly sort of way. Before long they were shaking hands, talking, even visiting in each other's homes. Today they are best of friends.
Many people, even church folk, seem to delight in promoting a fight by carrying news of ill-will. Learn a lesson from Pastor Fred's tactic of positive-gossip. Let your *gossip* be to spread words of praise and healing. THAT's the only gossip that's worthy of a Christian.

The Pope's a Coward

Pope disavows remarks

Story Book Gardens

On the BBB the, Byer's have taken a recent trip to the mystical land of Story Book Gardens. Here's how it looked when we were little.

Tweedledum and Tweedlede

Eggs Sunny Side Up :)

King of the Castle

Taypayers pay For New arena

The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to have a new practise arena, and the taxpayers of Toronto seem to be footing a large portion of the bill. I would have thought they would just own their own practise arena and increase ticket prices again. After all for people in Toronto, they have two choices to see a OVER priced Leaf came or pay their rent... Seems like a tough decision eh? Unfortunately most people choose the Leafs, which leads to higher and higher prices, as some desparate fans will pay anything to see their team up close. Why not listen to it on the radio, thats free, and you don't have to worry about subscibing to Leafs TV to see all the games, after all the radio announcers are much better than the TV announcers, as the TV guys sometimes take the play by play for granted because you can see whats going on for yourself; accept for Joe Bowen of course, who was a radio announcer long before he got into TV broadcasting :)

Textbook free for all

A new wiki-project has been started at the University of Georgia, which aims to pool knowledge in free online texts.

Free textbooks, I wonder how the publishers and writers will get paid, maybe they'll write the text books for free:) or fill the site with massive amounts of advertisments...

2010 Winter Olympics

B.C. Auditor sounds alarm over financing for Olympics

Whether its going to cost the province of British Columbia 600 million or 2.5 billion, its still going to be costly for the provincial tax payers. But maybe the pride of holding the Olypic games is worth having to sacrifice spending on healthcare and education?

Typically Liberal

Liberals hurt themselves with smears

NDP wins by-election in Ontario.

Well It wasn't a Conservative win (far from it as they only got 17% of the vote), but at least the Liberals lost one seat in the Ontario Legislature!

CBC Report

4 dead, 16 injured in shooting at Montreal college

Montreal police: College shooting suspect shoots self

DiPietro deal 15-years, $67M

This is one of the longest deals ever. How could an NHL owner give such a long contract to one player who may not turn out as great as the expectation that is placed upon him? 67.5 over 15 years is a good amount of change.

Only in the USA free market system could you see such reckless expenditure of funds. What was the owner of the New York Islanders thinking? First giving Yashin a 10 year deal in 2001 and now a 15 year deal to DiPetro. The deal won't be over until 2021! The answer of the question what was he thinking.... he wasn't!

So what is Canada?

For my faithful American readership (55% of viewers) it might be useful to know important facts about Canada. The BBC has a good summary of Canada and its current political, economic and sociological atmosphere.

One Question before you click on the link:
Who is Canada's current Prime Minister?

:)

One Million Ways to Die

According to this article its more safe to take an air plane than to drive or walk down the street.

Ancient Legend born out of the 1930's

What some people won't say or do to deny the truth or how far reporters will go to find a story. For years people have tried to deny the sacrificial death of Christ. It appears that a 70 year old hox has come to light were it is claimed that Jesus died in Japan, and didn't die on the cross. Ironically, on his grave is a large cross; but why would they choose to put a cross on his grave if the ancient Japanese from the 1930's didn't believe that he really did die to save them from their sins?

The Japanese Jesus trail

Blog Lacks Journalistic Integrity

No I'm not talking about my blog, after all, I'll I do is copy links from newspapers :). I'm refering to the gossip rag better known as the Ribs Report. Ribs has steadly lost subscribers since he faked Rib's death to gain extra readership. But now I believe he has gone to far, as I'm sure some of the people that he talks about are gathered around his computer with torches, ready to set the record straight :). One offended person was quoted as saying "the only good hamster is a dead hamster" :)

Man Feels Old Part 2

This is part of an "Adam" comic strip. I though it shared some enligtening commentary about recent events. Todays link says as Paul Harvey would say "the rest of the story"

Harper Responds to Critics

Canada sending 15 tanks, 120 more troops

Is sending more troops to a region that the US has abandoned the right thing to do? George Bush has forgotten about the war on terror all together. Now he focuses on the war on oil and those countries that form the axis of oil :)

Man admits to growing old!!

JB

"Last evening I was playing some basketball with the young people of the church and somehow threw my back out (not too major here...I think). It's been really neat. If I bend over the wrong way, or try to sleep comfortably...yikes! Anyway, it seems to be a little better this evening, but I might still have to see the chiropractor Monday. It's tough being old."

Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off

Launch ends weeks of frustrating delays

The Space station can now be completed, with that new piece there planning to add to it, the power supply should increase by a significant amount. Who knows, soon the space program may be boldy going where no man has gone before.. to Mars... And why not spend a few trillion for a space station on mars, after all then instead of fighting over minerals on earth we could have massive space battles and fight over the resources that Scientist anticipate finding on the Moon and Mars...

When they build the space station aliens will exist on Mars. After all an alien is considered anyone not born in a specific region, so the people at the space station that will be built someday will also be considered aliens :)

Ancient Change

Sumter Woman Finds Possible Ancient Coin In Grocery Change

Finally, A revamped Senate in the Works...

Senate to be election issue?

Who Controls Canada's Senate?

Liberals: Total-- 72

Trudeau's Dynasty Liberals: 11

Turner's Failed Liberals: 1

Chrétien The Man from Quebec: 43

Martin The Short Lived Success: 17

Tories: Total -- 24

Clark's Progressive Conservatives: 1

Mulroney's The Mighty PC: 22

Harper The Current: 1

Afghanistan a `moral promise:' Ignatieff

Canada can't pull troops, MP saysRelaunches bid for Liberal leadership

Potential Liberal Leader, to keep troops in Afghanistan if elected. I guess for those planning on voting to stay or leave the troops there now won't have much of a choice, as Ignatieff is the front runner to win the leadership race. After all of the seemingly poor leaders, the liberals want one that at least has a PHD :)

Core Oil Production a proven Fact?

With the recent oil find in the Gulf of Mexico, some scientist are claiming that the 1000 of year old belief could be given validity. Philosophers believed that the earth naturally produces oil in its core, which could account for them finding oil 7 miles under the earths crust.

Stocks inch up, Gulf oil find helps Chevron

Oil & gas from the earth's core

Huge Oil Find Could Be Good News For U.S. Reserves

So what do you think? Does the earth produce a steady stream of oil within its core? Is the supply limited or unlimted?

Hockey Great Calls for a Time Out

Dryden calls for debate on Afghanistan

Ken Dryden is a leadership hopeful of the Federal Liberals. His ambition to govern sounds a lot like Sir Wilfred Laurier's when he said that "the 1900's would be Canada's centurary".

"[My government] would be very different than the present Conservative government . . . big in spirit, big in possibilities, big in ambition, big in the world. A big Canada,"

Americans kill another Canadian in Afghanistan

Friendly fire kills Canadian

ONION PATCH

This is the Song that my Grandma Taylor sang to me today, when we stoped in...
I'M A LONELY LITTLE PETUNIA IN AN ONION PATCH
Of all the saddest wordsThat I have ever heardThe saddest is the storyTold me by a birdHe had spent about and hour
Chatting with a flowerand here ís the tale the flower told
I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch,an onion patch, an onion patch
I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patchand all I do is cry all day
Boo hoo, boo hoo
The air ís so strong it takes my breath away
I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch,
oh won't you come and play with me
Who put me in this bed?I'll bet his face is redI call him down with every teardrop that I shed
If I only had him hereI'd take him by the ear
And make him share my misery
I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch,an onion patch, an onion patch
I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patchand all I do is cry all day
Boo hoo, boo hooThe air ís so strong it takes my breath away
(Feee-you!)
I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch,
oh won't you come and play with me

Pre-paid plastic set to save on cheques

Rather than run up a monthly debt, a card user will draw down a positive cash balance, much as he or she would with a bank account. Users are less likely to lose their money, or take back-alley bruisings for the cash. If a card is stolen, the rightful owner will not be liable for losses. Carrying the card is also touted as offering convenience and prestige.

World’s smallest man greets the world

Such traditional points in the Guinness Book of Records include one particular nomination whose candidate is now the 14-year-old Khagendra Thapa Magar from Nepal. The news is, his whole height is approximately 50.8 cm and his body weight is only around 4.5 kg. Considering such an incredibly miniature size the teenager rightly believes that he deserves to be honored in the pages of the Guinness Book of Records. He has already submitted a request to be considered. Most likely he will be granted his request since the current record belongs to a Jordanian citizen whose height is approximately 64cm and whose weight is a whole 10 kg!
Thapa Magar was born in 1992, a couple of hundred km west of Katmandu . From the very beginning it became clear that the boy was far behind others in his growth process. According to his mother, the child began walking independently only at the age of 8 but by the time he was 11 he completely stopped growing. For a long time the parents hid the boy because they were ashamed of his defect but now he has received the long-awaited world-wide fame.

Thapa Magar now has his own support group that has created a special Internet website dedicated to him alone. The activists are hoping to use the site as a fundraising resource in order to gather enough money for the boy’s medical needs, for his education and for his family’s support.

Identity Thieves Steal Home

Paul Reviczky, 89, stands outside his house at 220 Sheppard Ave. W. The property was sold out from under him in May, likely by “tenants” who forged his name on a power of attorney. “I think he was targeted because he is elderly,” his niece says.

Theft of home prompts Ontario bill