Tony's Column Twenty-Three

Tony’s Column

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July 26, 2008

It’s a Wally, Wally World

HI Everyone, Well at one time we were said to be living in a Mc world but I believe we live in a Wal-Mart Society (or Wally World as I like to call it). We live in a place where parents think it’s alright for their kids to go into any establishment, grab what they want bend, rip, throw items and it will be alright. I wish that most parents would actually parent. I can guarantee that my mom would not have put up with me or my siblings throwing a fit in the middle of a store. I was in a store recently and I heard a kid say to her dad “IF you don’t buy me these shoes, I’m gonna throw a fit”. The Dad took the shoes and headed for the cashier. Most of what’s going on is a pure lack of respect for other peoples property. People think because Wal-mart allows this then every store should allow this. Well this is not fair, especially to smaller stores that can’t afford to have product destroyed. I can only hope that some parents can figure this out. Till Next Time. Tony

July 19, 2008

The Dark Knight

Hi Everyone, if you have not seen the Batman movie, DO NOT READ THIS!!!! This is truly the amazing movie of the summer. Heath Leder performance as the Joker was both chilling and accurate. Aaron Eckhart is going to make a great Two-Face (it made me forget about that horrible job Tommy Lee Jones did). Maggie Gyllenhaal will make you forget that Katie Holmes played Rachel Dawes. There is a brief return of the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) at the beginning of the movie. The Joker scenes are very convincing, it makes me sad that he ended his life short of doing a reprisal of the role. Maybe it was getting into the role comprised with his personal problems that drove him to the edge. That we will never know but his performance is worth of an Oscar nomination, just like his nomination for Brokeback Mountain (which starred Maggie’s brother Jake). This movie is worth going to see and Mr. Leder we salute you. Till Next Time. Tony.

July 12, 2008

Odds and Sods

Hi Everyone, I have many thoughts going through my head. I just read Secret Invasion #4 and once again more question than answers. Maybe when I read the crossovers I will have a better idea of what they are trying to convey. Is it me or do people not have any compassion these days. Air Canada is laying off lots of people, Automakers are cutting back and people are say suck it up. Well I hope people realize that these loss of jobs will effect the local economies of places where the cutbacks take place. A few years ago they moved the forces from Winnipeg to Shilo, Manitoba and it did have an effect on the economy. Over the last few weeks I have run into some guys who used to be part of the old Winnipeg music scene. I think we have all agreed that it’s not what it’s used to be and we have all moved on to other things. Is it my imagination but there seems to be a lot of people who want a job but don’t want to work. There is also the story about an accomplice in a stolen vehicle incident who on her 3 time to court showed some signs of remorse to get her sentence reduced and has strict conditions applied to her release. Her is the kicker, her lawyer is going to appeal the decision of some of her conditions. Did I mention that this person was involved in Hit and Run that killed a man and has tried to remove her ankle bracelet monitor. Sigh. Well Until Next time. Tony

July 4, 2008

Crazy Salaries

Hi Everyone, Well it was just a couple of years that the NHL had a lock out because of crazy salaries and after watching all the stuff that has happened for the last few days, I don’t think they have learned anything. On the first day of Free Agency a sum of over $400 million dollars in salaries were paid out. A lot for players who 20 years ago would have been lucky to make $750 thousand, let alone $3.75 million a year. I don’t want to hear any of these owner crying poverty in the next few years. After this they only have themselves to blame. Till Next Time. Tony.

June 26, 2008

Can’t We Just Get Along

Hi Everyone, Stats Canada has released it stats on Hate crimes in Canada and it shows the number of crimes against people of colour is down but the numbers are up on the religious front. Blacks still lead the category in number of racial incidents against and Jewish people lead in the category of religious incidents. In Winnipeg recently a couple is going to be going to court for sending their 7 year daughter to school with swastikas and other symbols on her person. The father (step-father actually) says that it’s freedom of speech and one radio announcer has said “what would have happened if this was a Muslim“. It got me thinking: there is nothing wrong with being proud of your race, and some of the things that are viewed as hate symbols used to be symbols of a culture but when you are using it to suppress another or using it to justify violence towards another group then something has to be done. When you are indoctrinating a child into this as a way of life and then want to use free speech to cover your butt, well I’m shocked. Then again should I be shocked. I come across racial incidents on an almost daily basis. It just shocks me that some one would use children to get HIS message across. I feel sorry for the child in this, at 7 she probably doesn’t have a grasp on this situation or why people are so upset at Mom and Dad. Maybe one day she will. We can only hope. Till Next Time. Tony

June 20, 2008

Secret Retcon

Hi Everyone, I have just finished reading Secret Invasion #3 and I have to wonder: Are they just making this stuff up as they go along or do they really have a plan. Tony Stark is a Skrull with no memory that he’s a Skrull. Obviously he and probably the rest of the Illuminati (that escaped the Skrull ship in New Avengers: Illuminati) are Skrulls and that Jessica Drew is also a Skrull. The Gang of Super-Skrulls are taking over New York and are about to get there butts kicked by Nick Fury and his gang of raiders. Well so far no big surprises because now this can help retcon even more stuff. Now that most of the Young Avengers have been destroyed, does that mean that the Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers mini series is invalid. I have more questions than answers, again after reading an issue of this series. Except one, Why say that Captain Marvel was plucked out of time and space, when he was obviously a Skrull plant or are we to believe that the Marvell that died of cancer was a Skrull. If they want to retcon that death it will rank right up there with the rebirth of Barry Allen. Something around here stinks to high heaven. Till Next time. Tony

June 13, 2008

Canada’s Other National Anthem

Hey everyone, I was prepared to write about the CBC losing the rights to the theme from Hockey night in Canada. It has been the talk around that we are losing part of our nation heritage. Well as of this writing I have now changed what I am going to write about. The Other Canadian network, CTV, has purchased the rights to the theme song for there hockey telecasts on TSN, Canada’s ESPN. They are going to rework the jingle but it will still be recognizable, so our country’s unofficial second national anthem is saved. Now the CBC can have a contest for their new theme song and everything is right. People can get back to living there lives and Arts columnists can go on writing about the under funding of the arts and that it’s a good thing the people network (what we call the CBC) didn’t cave in to the demands of the songs creator. The one thing these arts guys don’t realize (actually they do but will never say it) is that without Hockey night in Canada they would be in SERIOUS trouble. HNIC telecasts bring in enough advertising dollars to fund all there programming for 1 YEAR!!! Without this could they afford to have some of the arts shows, or Dr. Who or even Coronation street. This is partly the same thing that US Colleges and Universities go through every year, the sports programs bring in lots of Alumni dollars to help with the funding of the other faculties (it doesn’t mean we give sports players a pass for things they do). The thing we are all missing with the fact of the theme song is not the actual song but what it represented for the fans, what memories it conjured up. Saturday nights the family sitting around the TV watching hockey, hearing the du-du-dut-da-dut theme. So someone else has it and it will be the intro to there Wednesday broadcast and we still have HNIC on Saturday nights but it won’t be the same. This has been the theme for 40 years and in that time we have been force fed the Toronto Maple Leafs and I have heard that this was originally written for the Leafs. Well they haven’t won a cup since the theme has been played. I hope that this doesn’t turn there fortunes or maybe this will make the network realize that there are 5 other Canadian teams in country and with a new theme can come a new structure of what people will get to see. Until Next time. Tony

June 6, 2008

Get the Cell out of Here!!

Hi Everyone, Well I’m going on a tirade this week. People with cell phones. Originally I want to vent about people text messaging while driving but last night in not 1 or 2 but in 3 separate incidents of people not paying attention while on cell phones. There are people stopped at red lights talking away while the light has changed to green and they are so involved in their conversation that they don’t even noticed. The are people who just fly through lights oblivious to what’s going on around them. People who could make a tight turn if they would hang up their phone and use 2 hands on the steering wheel instead of waiting until there is no traffic on the street. I have seen when I’m out walking people texting and driving through intersections. I have watched cars in front of me swerve and take up two lanes as they drive and text. Someone asked me how do I know that they weren’t dialing a number. Well unless they were dialing overseas 5 times I don’t think you need to spend that much time entering in a number. It won’t be until someone gets seriously injured and they have proof that the cell phone was in use that we will get changes on this. Till Next time. Tony

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