- jim young

We’re going to Cuba.

Again.

If you’ve never been – it’s a great place to vacation. And even with airfare and taxes, I can vacation for a week in Cuba for less than I can vacation in the Muskokas.

So I like to help out the people in Cuba who are less fortunate than I as much as I can.

As we began to prepare for our upcoming trip, I remembered a friend of mine in Cuba had asked if I could bring him back a laptop should I come back to the same area sometime.

As we pack our suitcases with essentials and gifts that are hard to come by in Cuba due to the U.S. Embargo we are restricted only by the weight limitations on the plane and what might be considered contraband in Cuba when we arrive.

And while I don’t have a lot of money left in our budget for a laptop I am sure there are many people who have workable laptops destined for the landfill site or electronic recycle bin that would be more than happy to see it go to a good cause.

Ergo – my recent ad for a laptop in reasonable working condition on Kijij.

“I am looking for a working laptop computer.

Preferably Free but would consider paying a small amount for it if necessary.

It doesn’t have to be the latest model. I just need it to be in working condition to suit the basic needs of a young family in Cuba who could use some assistance.

Last year I was approached by a worker at the resort with a request to bring back a computer for his family if I was returning. We have decided to return to this same resort in early June.

I think he was expecting to pay for it, but as he works very hard for so little, I would like to take one to him as a gift for his family.

I will be certain to let him know that the laptop is not from me but from a generous and “Good Samaritan” that just wanted to help out someone less fortunate.

These people work so hard for so little and are still some of the happiest and friendliest people I have ever met.

So if you have a working laptop in reasonable condition that you’re not using and wondering what to do with, please contact me and I can assure you it will go to a good cause.

Thank you.”

I was surprised at the number of replies I received from people who – although do not have a laptop to help me out – have offered their encouragement and praise for doing a very small part in trying to help out the people of Cuba.

Except for one.

Cecil (real name, but email address withheld) wrote this:

“You do realize that your new Cuban ‘friend’ tries this with every single tourist dumb enough to listen right? If you want to be a good samaritan then do it on your own coin. If you can afford to go to Cuba you can afford a cheap Laptop off Kijiji without putting your pathetic begging bowl down.”

Not that I felt an obligation to, I responded to Cecil’s email with the following:

“Dear Sir,

Thank you for your very wise and compassionate advice. I don’t know how I’ve gotten through life without being taken advantage of, as you suggest is the intent of my friends in Cuba.

But then I’m only 60 years old so perhaps your warning came just in time.

You may be interested in knowing, however, that I have only been approached twice in Cuba with requests to bring a laptop back should I return to the same area. Both times the request was made with what I believe to be a very sincere request to pay for the laptop.

Both of these people, who were making the requests in the hopes of being able to provide their children with a bit of an advantage in such an impoverished country, have struggled very hard just to be in a position to afford a laptop. But as you know, with the U.S. embargo still in place, laptops are very hard to come by.

Of course it appears that I do not have the same level of insight into human character, as do you and I am very grateful for your concern for my well being.

For the record, you will note in my ad, if you are literate enough to read and comprehend it, I have offered to pay a reasonable amount for a laptop if necessary. But you see kind sir, the more I spend on a laptop, the less I will have to spend on much other needed commodities that we intend to fill our suitcase with, to help out the needy in Cuba.

I also know that there are many people who have laptops that they no longer want and they might like to see it go to a worthy cause rather than contribute to the filling of our landsites. So it would be a win-win situation for all involved, if that’s not too difficult a concept for your tiny brain to grasp.

And one last point. It is cheaper for me to spend a week in Cuba even with the cost of air travel than it would be for me to spend a week in the Muskokas. I am not a wealthy man by any means, but I get by – not that it’s any of your business.

I am reminded of a line from a classic Walt Disney movie “Bambi – in which Bambi’s mother admonished Bambi with some advice that went something like this. “If you don’t have something nice to say – Shut the fuck up, asshole!”

I believe Cecil is a rare breed – thankfully.

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- jim young

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” – Emma Lazarus.

While Canada may not have a fancy motto such as the one that is engraved on the Statue of Liberty, I have always been proud to know that our country stands as a world leader in acceptance of people from all races, cultures and religions from all over the world, who seek a better way of life for themselves and their families.

If we can be so accepting of people, why do we have such a problem accepting the way other countries govern their domestic affairs? Can we not learn to Live & Let Live?

I’m not talking about ruthless dictators that commit crimes against humanity.

I’m talking specifically about communism; and in particular the communist rule in Cuba.

Why do we seem to loathe and fear it? As in most cases, we fear most from a lack of understanding.

Under the communist regime of Fidel Castro, Cuba has established high standards of education and health care for its people, and in fact is the leader of all third world countries in these areas.

Yes they are a poor country but so are many of the islands in the Caribbean that do NOT live under communist rule.

And the embargo that the United States has imposed on Cuba is not helping.

While Canada has never publicly supported the U.S. embargo against Cuba, our country has taken a step backwards when Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently sided with President Barack Obama’s position to continue to exclude Cuba from the Summit Meetings in Cartenga.

Of the over 30 countries that attended the recent Cartenga Summit meeting only the U.S. and Canada voted to block Cuba’s inclusion at the next summit of the Americas to be held in Panama.

What possible reason could our leader have to take this position against a country who has always maintained friendly relations with Canada despite their political differences?

According to Harper, Cuba does not meet the OAS (Organization of American States) standards of democracy.

The majority of the other countries that belong to the OAS seem to disagree.

Wait a minute! What was that?

“The majority” of the other countries?

Now isn’t it more than just a little bit hypocritical that only 2 countries can veto the acceptance of Cuba to the next summit?

Where’s the democracy in that?

Aren’t the U.S. and Canada blocking Cuba’s admission to the summit by using the same process that they are criticising Cuba for?

To the great people of Cuba, I want you to know that even in a democratic country such as Canada, its leaders do NOT always act on behalf of the people that they are supposed to represent.

As one Canadian who loves Cuba and its people and could give a rat’s ass how the Cubans choose to govern their own country I appeal to Prime Minster Stephen Harper to reconsider Canada’s position in this matter.

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- jim young

I just finished reading “Catcher in The Rye” and I got this sudden urge to fly to New York to shoot some goddamned rock star.

But I’m not a moron so I won’t really do it. I was just thinking about doing it.

And I didn’t really even feel like doing that – flying to New York to shoot some goddamned rock star and all – if you want to know the truth.

It would be kind of boring after all.

I mean rock stars are just a bunch of phonies and all – but I wouldn’t really kill one. I guess I’m kind of yellow that way.

I remember this one guy I went to school with at Warnica. His name was Bobby Knowles. Bobby was one of the really cool kids and everyone wanted to hang out with him.

But he had this bad habit of punching you in the shoulder really, really hard if you said or did something he didn’t like.

He wasn’t a bully, really. It was more of a Fonzi-type cool think to do. And it was just Bobby’s way of saying “Don’t do that.”

I didn’t like getting hurt so I avoided doing or saying things that Bobby didn’t like.

Bobby and I also hung out with Donald Bowman. He was a real nerd but he was an okay guy.

One time at recess Donald said something that Bobby didn’t like. It was just a joke and everyone knew it was a joke including Bobby but since Bobby was the butt of the joke he punched Donald in the shoulder really, really hard.

You could tell by the look on Donald’s face that it really hurt but he just laughed and said something else that Bobby didn’t like. So Bobby hit him again, only harder.

It was bad enough being punched in the arm by Bobby, but being punched a second time while the pain was still fresh from the first punch was a lot worse.

I figured Donald would just shut up then, but he didn’t. What did he do? He just laughed and said something else Bobby didn’t like. And this went on and on until the bell to end recess rang.

Every time Bobby punched old Donald Bowman, Donald would grimace in pain, laugh and then insult Bobby again.

I remember thinking to myself “Why don’t you just shut up, Donald and Bobby will stop punching you?” Donald was no moron. He knew that all he had to do was shut up and Bobby would stop, but he just kept taking the punches and asking for more.

I felt sorry for him at the time, but later I started to have a lot of respect for Donald. And I wish I could have been the one to stand up to Bobby’s punches. But I was a coward and I didn’t like to get hurt.

But I just finished reading “Catcher In The Rye” and to be honest I don’t really feel like doing much of anything much less fly to New York to kill a goddamned rock star.

It was an okay book, but it didn’t really excite me. Maybe I didn’t get the point of the book. I usually don’t.

Mostly it just depressed the hell out of me if you want to know the truth.

But what really gets me is all the fuss they made about how Mark David Chapman was carrying a copy of “Catcher  In The Rye” when he killed John Lennon.

Big deal. He could just as easily have been carrying the goddamned bible or a copy of Penthouse Letters.

It wouldn’t have changed anything.

Except that if Chapman hadn’t had the book with him, I probably never would have read “Catcher In The Rye”.

And another thing that I don’t get is why they keep saying that Mark David Chapman assassinated John Lennon.

John Lennon wasn’t assassinated; he was murdered. It’s not like he was a goddamned politician or anything.

Saying that Mark David Chapman assassinated John Lennon almost legitimizes his murder. It’s like they’re saying Chapman must be a goddamned hero to some underground political movement or something.

It’s bad enough that Mark David Chapman is now as famous as John Lennon and all just because he murdered Lennon and was carrying a goddamned copy of “Catcher In The Rye” when he did.

Chapman isn’t a hero. And he shouldn’t be as famous as John Lennon.

Mark David Chapman is just another moron that annoys the hell out of me if you want to know the truth.

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- jim young

The following is the contents of a letter to my family and friends that I just posted on Facebook.

No healthy relationship can survive without trust, for trust is an integral component of the relationship.

One might even argue that if there is no trust – there really is no relationship. Certainly not a lasting relationship of any value.

And if there are external forces that bind 2 entities together in spite of a lack of trust, those ties must be severed.

For that reason I am seeking a divorce.

Of course the breakdown of any relationship is rarely the fault of just one party and I openly admit that part of our problems are the result of my not completely understanding all that is going on.

If I could get over the lack of trust in this relationship, I would work harder on the understanding, but I truly believe without a foundation of trust – there is no point.

So as I stated before – I am seeking a divorce – from Facebook.

Rather than just suddenly disappear and leave you all wondering what happened, I have chosen to state my reasons and post my intent to Divorce Facebook effective as of April 22, 2012

If you see me here after that date – it will only serve to reinforce my lack of trust of Facebook was valid.

We have all heard the stories about deleted photos surviving on Facebook for up to 3 years. That, in itself – is not right and I do not understand why Facebook would allow this to happen.

But there is more.

Almost every day I see comments – many of which are of a personal nature, posted by people that I do not know.

As I read through the thread of comments I can usually find a link to this person in the nature of a mutual friend.

And while it may seem quite innocent enough that I can view personal comments made by a “friend of a friend,” it disturbs me that Facebook has allowed me access to those comments without the person’s permission or knowledge.

Whether or not this person cares that I can read their comments is not the point.

The point being, every Facebook user should be provided the opportunity to make a conscious decision to allow or disallow their comments to be made public.

Yes, I understand there are privacy settings that can be changed to protect one’s privacy. What I do NOT understand is why those privacy settings are not the default.

The default should allow any Facebook user to feel secure that their privacy is being respected and only made public once they have made a conscious decision to do so.

And this is but a drop in the bucket.

For more on some of the evils of Facebook read Kory French’s blogs on the Inhuman Ones

The Social Network 2 and Facebook and the OpenGraph

So long, farewell and I hope to see you all soon – in the real world.

If you are reading this after April 22, 2012 you will know that Facebook is stalking me after our divorce has been finalised.

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- jim young

Recently I read an article about advertising and marketing to children. And it got me wondering how many products I buy today that were influenced by commercials I watched in my childhood. Television was still in its infancy in the 1950s but even then advertisers must’ve realised the potential value of this target group.

First of all I had to search back into the cobwebs of my mind to try to remember what commercials and advertising I remember from the 50s and 60s.

Store brands were available back then as an alternative to the brand names, but there weren’t any “no-name” brands to choose from.

I can remember a couple of Pixies that used to clean sinks with – was it Comet or Ajax? And if we went to look in my cupboard now, you’ll find Comet there.

I had to Google to refresh my memory of these commercials. It seems those cute little singing Pixies promoted Ajax while Josephine The Plumber was the spokesman for Comet. For what it’s worth – I always hated Josephine the Plumber and her squeaky, annoying voice. So I guess there really is a reason for so many irritating commercials on television.

For canned vegetables, I will usually select a no-name brand, but when going for a brand name, it’s almost always “Ho-Ho-Ho Green Giant”.

I’ll probably reach for Mr.Clean off the shelf unless I notice the price difference in the brand beside it.

The unlikely bald headed, single ear-ring wearing Mr. Clean was soon recognised as a sex symbol and was an early example of using sex to sell to women.

But don’t read too much into that. I am a hetero-sexual with no latent homosexual tendencies. Of course feeling the need to include that here will likely raise some suspicions among some of you so let’s just move on.

And like Andy Warhol, Campbell’s is my soup of preference. Those Campbell’s Kids were just too irresistible for me.

I always wanted my Mom to buy Ivory Soap because it looked like a lot of fun on television. It was the only soap “So Pure – It Floats!” I knew Mom couldn’t be persuaded to buy Ivory based on it’s “fun” value so I took a more intellectual approach (I was about 6 at the time) and pointed out to Mom that Ivory Soap was “99 44/100% pure.” I didn’t really know what that meant then and I still don’t. But it seemed to be a pretty darn good reason to buy soap.

Mom just told me that it didn’t really clean as well, and in fact Zest was the only bar soap that really cleaned and didn’t leave a film on your skin. I don’t know where she got her information but I couldn’t argue with those kinds of facts so that was the end of that.

(For years after, I often wondered why my Aunt Chic, whom I had always regarded as a drop-dead gorgeous model, could walk around with a film on her skin because I noticed at her cottage one summer that she used Ivory soap.)

We don’t use hand soap much in our household now so the large pack size we get at Costco lasts a long time. As I wasn’t sure what brand we use, I had to check under the bathroom sink to see. It’s Ivory. But to be truthful, hand soap purchases are my wife’s decision. Prior to this marriage though, I always bought Zest.

And while under the sink I noticed we have Crest Toothpaste while the toothpaste commercial that inevitably comes to mind from the 50s sang “You’ll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.”

Again, my mother was the influential factor here, telling me that Crest was the only toothpaste that really cleaned your teeth and prevented cavities. (Although there was no suggestion that the other brands left a film on your teeth.)

Did my mother have some kind of an “est” fixation? And perhaps advertisers should be looking at the potential value of a mother’s influence in marketing. Or do they already know about that stuff?

Cigarette ads were commonplace on television in the 50s and the one I remember most was the ever-suave Fred Davis, moderator of Front Page Challenge, looking so sophisticated with his DuMaurier Cigarettes.

Both my parents were heavy Players smokers but when I took up smoking as a young teen, my preference was for the cool, smooth taste of a menthol cigarette. But as that only lasted 1 day, I don’t remember the brand.

I remember Wonder Bread commercials and seeing Miss Sunbeam Bread on the sides of delivery trucks. I think it’s Dempster’s bread we use today because it’s the only Costco option for just plain old white bread.
Special K, the crowing Rooster from Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and the Snap-Crackle-Pop of Rice Krispies always jump to mind when I think of a wholesome and good cereal. But it’s Frosted Flakes – They’re Grrrrrreat! for something fun. I still consider Cap’n Crunch as one of the “new” cereals because it didn’t hit the market until the 60s – about the same time as the Beatles arrived when I was just starting to rebel and find my own identity.

I don’t eat cereal anymore, but if I did, it would likely be one of those 5 brands.

Today it seems a most of my decisions are based on price or availability of the particular brands sold at Costco where we do the bulk of our bulk shopping. Of course the Costco influence is indirectly related to the price factor.

But when all things else are equal, there are many brand names that can be directly traced back to my childhood influence of TV commercials.

Or perhaps it’s more so due to the most famous line of Moms from all over the world, “because I said so.”

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- jim young

Save the polar bear.

Why the fuck should I? That’s what I’d like to know.

What have the polar bears ever done for me?

I’ve never eaten polar bear meat.

I’ve never worn polar bear fur coats.

And I’m pretty goddamned sure that if I went up to a polar bear, nice as can be and tried to pet him – he’d eat me.

How friendly is that?

Sure they look all cute and cuddly when they’re playing hockey or football and drinking Coke under the Northern Lights in those commercials. But polar bears are not really like that in real life, if you want to know the truth.

For years organisations like GreenPeace have been protesting seal hunts in the arctic.

But guess what GreenPeace? Polar bears EAT seals!

How do you like them now?

Now I’m not suggesting we go out and aggressively kill all the polar bears in the world.

But if they all died off of natural causes, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

And I bet the seals won’t either.

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- jim young

God is one miserable fuck.

Yeah – I said that. So what?

If there’s a hell – I’m already going. And if there isn’t a hell, it doesn’t matter.

So I’ve got nothing to lose.

God is one miserable fuck.

What’s he gonna do, off me?

He could do that. And he’d probably make it look like an accident – like a car crash or something.

Or even if it were something as blatantly obvious as a bolt of lightning – everyone would still think it was an accident.

But now that this is out there on the Internet – who among you really believes that even god can retract this?

This is the freaking Internet, man. Once it’s out there, not even god can take it back.

So here are some of my thoughts on how badly god has fucked things up – in the beginning.

Let’s see. In the beginning there was darkness. Then god created light and separated the day from the night.

Then he created all the creatures on the earth and in the skies.

After almost everything else was done, he created man from dust. And as I recall – not that I was there – didn’t he create man in his own image?

Gee – isn’t vanity one of the seven deadly sins? Well, pride is. Close enough.

After man, god created woman from man’s rib.

How am I doing so far? I didn’t Google any of this shit. I’m just going by memory of my Sunday School classes when I was a kid.

So far – except for the embarrassing display of vanity, who can argue that this was some pretty good shit that god did?

And in just 6 days.

So I’ll give credit where credit is due. And I don’t begrudge god for taking a day off after all that work.

But that’s where it all starts to fall apart.

God gave his creations – Adam and Eve and all the living creatures on earth the Garden of Eden –a paradise – to live in.

With just one tiny rule.

“Don’t eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

So here’s my problem.

The serpent tempted Eve with the some of this fruit. And then Eve tricked Adam into eating some too.

And then god displayed his second imperfection (remember the vanity thing?) when he showed a lack of patience and kicked everybody out of the pool.

Adam, Eve and all creatures were forevermore banished from the Garden of Eden.

Woman was cursed with pain in childbirth.

Man was sentenced to spend his days toiling to provide for his family.

The sins of the fathers would be passed onto his children and the serpent would now become the lowest of all creatures, forced to crawl on his belly.

What was god thinking?

The implication here that is pretty obvious is that the serpent, Adam and Eve had no concept of good or evil until they had eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

So how did they even know what they were doing was wrong?

And if they didn’t know what they were doing was wrong – how could they be held accountable for their actions?

Even I, acting as their defense attorney could have won this case for them!

Adam and Eve and the serpent would have all been acquitted and we would all be back in paradise.

And as I said before – that was just the beginning.

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- jim young

Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough. - Groucho Marx

I just turned 59 approximately eleven and a half hours ago as I write this.

It seems the older I get the more I think about my mortality.

I don’t dwell on the subject, I just want to know the likelihood of my ability to see any long-range goals I set for myself to its completion.

So I just took another internet life expectancy quiz on the internet (it seemed a pretty in-depth one) and it’s giving me a life expectancy of 83.23 years.

It appears by the url address that the University of Pennsylvania might have developed this.

More importantly there is a link on the page that will help you determine how much Life Insurance you need.

This link is sponsored by the Aussie Life Plan.

If a life insurance company is involved, you can be damned sure that it’s pretty accurate.

Insurance Companies do not like to fuck around with their money and take chances with having to make unnecessary pay outs.

A nice feature of this quiz provides you with the opportunity to see how you can extend your life expectancy if you improve your lifestyle in 8 categories.

Let’s look at the categories:

Smoking

I already don’t smoke so I can’t do anything to extend my life there.

Driving

Contrary to what my family might tell you – I’m a pretty safe driver. What that means in terms of this questionnaire is, I always wear my seatbelt and I don’t drink and drive (anymore.)

Stress

Okay – so I have a few bad days at work now and again. Who doesn’t? (Not counting you retirees.) But basically I live a pretty stress free life. No improvement necessary in this category either.

Nutrition

The question to determine this factor asked how many of the 5 types of food in the Dietary Diversity List do I eat?

Of the 5 choices listed – dairy, meat, grain, fruit, vegetable, I answered 4.

Beer, after all, is a “grain” product isn’t it?

And french-fries and potato chips are vegetables are they not?

And surely the oranges and grapes that are the main ingredient in my weekend Orange Juice and Wine Breakfast drinks count as a fruits!

Okay – so being the objective type of guy I am, I’ll concede that this category may be a bit flawed when you look closely at all my dietary choices.

But reducing the number to 3 didn’t really change the overall results that much.

Increasing from 4 to 5 makes no difference while increasing from 3 to 5 would still only tack on less than an extra year to my life. I love my beer and wings so I’m not about to make any radical changes there.

Sexual Partners

If I give up all my sexual partners (which is just 1 these days), I can increase my life expectancy by .05 years. That’s 18.25 days. Yeah – that’s not gonna happen even if it gave me an extra 10 years!

Alcohol

If I cut back on my drinking, I can live to 83.56 years (120.45 days longer) – so not much incentive to change there either.

Exercise

If I exercise more I can live to 85.74 years. The calculator didn’t say how much time I would have to spend exercising so I couldn’t weigh the factors of spending time doing something I don’t enjoy vs. the extra time it would give me. But hmmm – 2.51 years after I’ve already lived to 83.23 years? Not much reason to get up off the couch, if you ask me.

Sleep

Sleeping 1 more hour a night, would extend my life expectancy by .29 years.

Let’s do the math on that one.

If I live until I’m 83.23 years – that would put me in the year 2035.

Since that’s not a leap year there would be 365 x 24 hours = 8,760 hours that year.

8,760 x .29 years = 2,540.4 hours or 105.85 days extra to live.

Between today and 2035 there are 24 years, 6 of which are leap years.

6 years x 366 = 2,196 days

18 years x 365 = 6,570 days

2,196 + 6,570 = 8,766 days

8,766 days x 24 hours = 210,384 hours

But if I sleep an hour more every day, I would be losing 8,766 hours over the next 23.23 years to gain 2540.4 hours.

This means I would, overall lose 8,766-2,540.4 = 6,225.6 hours or 259.4 days (.71 years) of my life to gain .29 years or 105.85 days.

It just doesn’t make sense to sleep more.

And that doesn’t even take into account that the extra 15 days a year are much more valuable to me now than they will be when I’m 83.23 years old

Time is not like money. It does not accrue interest no matter how you bank it. It might be wise to save your money – but you can’t save your time.

You have to spend it wisely and you have to spend it NOW!

So I look forward to my birthday wishes in the year 2035 and I will begin my 84-day count down then.

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- jim young

Hey – Helena started it when she announced “Happy fucking birthday to me” after her meltdown in P.E.I. in February of 2010.

So now I just want to wish Helena a Merry Fucking Christmas to go along with it.

Just days before Christmas, Guergis has filed a $1.3 million law suit against Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Conservative Party and lots of others in a shotgun attempt at trying to hold everyone but herself accountable for her own actions over the past few years.

Give it a rest Helena.

At a press conference last April, Guergis was quoted as saying,“by (the constituents of Simcoe-Grey) re-electing me it will send a very strong message that they will not tolerate such unacceptable behaviour from our political leadership in Canada.”

Well guess what, Helena? Once again, as was clearly shown at the polls, you were wrong.

(That is not to suggest the constituents of Simcoe-Grey would accept “unacceptable behaviour…” but rather they just didn’t buy Guergis’ point of view.)

It’s bad enough that Canadians will have to pay $100,000 a year to Helena for her retirement when she reaches the age of 55 even though she was fired from Cabinet, but now Guergis expects Canadians to cough up $1.3 million dollars PLUS legal costs to go along with that?

(The official record is that Helena resigned, but we all know the truth and by her own admission in the Peter Mansbridge interview – Guergis was effectively fired.)

Note to Helena:

You can’t blame your temper-tantrum in P.E.I. on the Prime Minster or the others named in the lawsuit.

And you can’t blame your husband, Rahim Jaffer’s arrest for drinking and driving and possession of cocaine (he was subsequently acquitted after pleading guilty to a lesser charge) on the Prime Minister or the others named in the lawsuit.

And you can’t blame the conflict of interest that you had with your cousin Tony Geurgis in the “Wright Tech Systems Affair” on the Prime Minister or the others named in the lawsuit.

And you can’t blame your neglect to declare the purchase of your house in Ottawa with a 100% mortgage with no down-payment on the Prime Minister or the others named in the lawsuit.

And you can’t blame your claim for clothing purchases as “election expenses” on the Prime Minister or the others named in the lawsuit.

And you can’t blame your staffers’ letters of support to local papers without proper disclosure on the Prime Minister or the others named in the lawsuit.

And you can’t blame your husband Rahim Jaffer’s use of your email and office for business purposes while your were an MP on the Prime Minister or the others named in the lawsuit.

So what exactly is the thrust of Helena’s lawsuit? That her “reputation” has been tarnished? Shouldn’t Guergis, herself and her husband Rahim Jaffer be named in the lawsuit?

Wasn’t it Helena herself who whined that the Prime Minister was not telling even HER what the allegations were?

Allegations that – on the one hand Guergis said she didn’t know what they were – but on the other hand claimed they were “baseless and unfounded?”

How did she know they were “baseless and unfounded” if she didn’t know what they were.

But then Helena likes to play both sides doesn’t she?

Is it really appropriate for the former Minister of the State for the Status of Women to cry crocodile tears to solicit sympathy as she so often does in her interviews?

Or to make a statement such as “It was no secret for the entire time that I was dealing with this mess that I was pregnant…” and even offer up her newborn son to a press conference? Was this intended to be an excuse for her actions or to demonise her critics as if she deserved special consideration due to her pregnancy?

Doesn’t that in fact set the women’s rights movement back?

As President Harry Truman once said, “If you can’t stand the heat – get out of the kitchen.” Perhaps in Helena’s case it should be “If you can’t stand the heat – get back IN the kitchen.”

With any luck at all, the courts will rule in, just irony, that Helen’s lawsuit is “baseless and unfounded”. And while that may save Canadians $1.3 million dollars off the top, we’ll still be stuck with the legal costs involved to allow Helena to exercise one of her “democratic rights” that she mistakenly believes she has been denied.

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