Thursday 4 December 2008

My published comments on newspaper articles. Part III


Various newspapers around the world invite their readers to submit their views for publication on the various articles they publish. What follows are ten submissions of the many of mine that were published. I will quote in part some of what was published by THE TORONTO STAR and then give you my published comments typed in bold.

August 2008: A posh golf course in Coquitlam, B.C., is denying potential members who don't speak English. The club's general manager, Brent Gough, has said the policy is designed to ensure all members are able to understand the club's rules. Gough said that the policy was introduced a few years ago after prospective members – in particular East Asian immigrants – started applying with the help of translators.

Denying membership in a private club to non-speaking citizens because they won't be able to read the Rules is absurd and a very lame excuse. What they should do is put the Rules in a computer and when a foreign-speaking citizen seeks membership, translate the Rules into his language and print them and hand them to the new member. The private club knows that is feasible but naturally, they know that would mean that they would have to then accept the foreign-speaking citizens into their club and that isn't really what they want to do. I hope the club is brought before the Human Rights Tribunal and fined heavily.

Posted on Saturday, August 30, 2008

Tanned, dirty and hungry, two men who spent three months crossing the Pacific on a raft made of plastic bottles to raise awareness of ocean debris finally stepped onto dry land. The pair left Long Beach, Calif., on June 1 2008. Their 9-metre vessel had a deck of salvaged sailboat masts, six pontoons filled with 15,000 plastic bottles and a cabin made from the fuselage of a Cessna airplane.

I really admire people like those named in this story for their courage and willingness to risk death to prove points. Some people will say it is stupid, especially if people like those in the story perish during their trips. We can learn from their experiences because sometime in our own lives, we may find ourselves somewhere in an ocean with a small boat or raft to cling too because our plane has crash or because our ship has sunk. From the experiences we have learned from others, we might survive. Meanwhile, I hope those in this story survive their adventures.

Posted on Friday, August 29 2008

While campaigning in St. Paul, Minnesota, Sarah and Todd Palin say their 17-year-old unmarried daughter was pregnant.The Alaska governor says that Bristol intends to marry the father of her child. She had asked that the media respect the family's privacy on this matter.

I can't see how disclosing the fact that the presumptive vice president's daughter is pregnant while out of wedlock is really necessary or in the public's best interest. It's a shame that society's desire to be constantly informed of facts in the personal lives of people is so important to the news media. Isn't there more important news events to report?

Posted on Monday, September 01, 2008

Mothers who want to bond with their newborn babies will no longer be able to do that in a British Columbia jail. Now, babies born to jailed moms will go to a relative or be placed in foster care. Other women in the Alouette Correctional facility connected with the children. Former inmate Jennifer Smith said if it wasn't for the program allowing her to keep her baby, Sierra, she would likely be back on drugs. The program was a four-year experiment for the provincial government. Corrections spokesperson Lisa Lapointe said safety was key in the decision to scrub the program. "Our staff are not trained to supervise infants and they're not (trained) in infant first aid or anything," she said. "If something went wrong and we didn't respond appropriately, we just couldn't risk putting an infant in that situation." Women given federal prison time have been allowed to take their babies to prison with them.

When I was invited to visit the Female Central Prison in Bangkok, Thailand, I was impressed with their policy of letting pregnant mothers keeping their babies while in prison. They nurse the babies for a few weeks and then the babies are looked after by other inmates who are studying to be child care workers. The mothers get to visit their babies every day after they finish their work in the prison. From what I saw, the babies remained in the prison for at least a year before they were cared for relatives outside the prison. When the mothers were released they could then have their babies back. I think it is cruel to both the mothers and their babies to deny them the right to be together during that crucial first year.

Posted on Thursday, August 14, 2008

An out-of-court settlement provides a cautionary tale for anyone who has ever sent an email saying malicious things about someone, especially if untrue. In this instance, the recipient forwarded the defamatory email to two others, including the man (Harrington) at whom the malicious gossip was directed. The man (Sullivan) who sent the original email said that it was done in a ‘thoughtless moment’. He soon after apologized to Harrington for engaging in ‘pure gossip’. Sullivan wrote Harrington that he never intended any harm and added that, “There were and are many rumours circulating about your departure, and I should not have passed any of them on."

I can understand why the plaintiff didn't think the defendant's apology was enough. In actual fact, it was akin to adding fuel to the fire. The defendant shouldn't have added the words that there were and are many rumours circulating about the plaintiff's departure. Such a statement implied that many people believed that the plaintiff was dishonest when in fact there was no evidence that he was dishonest.

Pposted on Thursday, September 04, 2008


A mom raced 101 km/h through a school zone as pupils were arriving for the day. The Toronto police clocked the middle-age mom in her Volvo speeding through a school zone at 8:30 a.m. on September 4, 2008 past a school and daycare. She was on her way home to take one of her children to daycare. She ignored three signs on the route that showed school children against a blue background, along with a speed limit sign that included flashing amber lights. She was charged with street racing, had her vehicle impounded immediately for seven days, had her licence suspended seven days and given a court date where she faced fines ranging from $2,000 to $10,000.
Street racers should be heavily punished.

Here is how I propose that street racers should be punished. First offence; seven day suspension of driver's licence, seizure of vehicle and impounded for seven days and $2000 fine along with 20% surcharge which means the fine is $2400. Second offence; 30 days suspension of driver's licence, seizure of vehicle and impounded for 30 days and $5000 fine and surcharge of 20% which means the fine will be $6000. Third offence; six months suspension of driver's licence, seizure of vehicle and impounded for six months and a ten thousand dollar fine with a 20% surcharge which will raise the fine to $12,000 along with a 30-day period of incarceration. Fourth offence; one year suspension of driver's licence, seizure of the vehicle which will be sold at public auction, and $15,000 fine and 20% surcharge which will increase the fine to $18,000 along with incarceration for six months.

Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008

On August 19, 2008, Vietnam authorities freed British glam rocker Gary Glitter 64, (whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd) from prison in southern Vietnam sending the convicted child molester into an uncertain future after nearly three years of confinement. He was transported to the Ho Chi Minh City airport, and was seen at the airport boarding a plane to Bangkok. Vietnamese authorities planned to deport Glitter immediately back to Britain. The faded rock star did not want to return to Britain. Glitter said he was thinking about resuming his singing career and that he might move to Hong Kong or Singapore.

What concerns me about sex offender Paul Francis Gadd, aka Gary Glitter is that this man refused to return to his own country, England. The Vietnamese authorities should not have paid his air fare to Bangkok. It is unlikely they will want him so since this man has no money, where will he then go with his next free ride? He has said that he would like to go to Singapore or Hong Kong. Why does this man get to choose where he is to go? If he goes to Bangkok, let them send him to England. After that, if he wants to go somewhere else, let him do so on his own dime.

Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008

It turned out that Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong didn’t want him either. He then flew back to the UK.


Lynn Westmoreland, Republican congressman from Georgia who referred to Barack and Michelle Obama as "uppity" says he wasn't aware of the term's racial overtones and did not intend to insult anyone. In a statement, Westmoreland – who was born in 1950 and raised in the segregated South – said he didn't know that ``uppity" was commonly used as a derogatory term for blacks seeking equal treatment. Instead, he referred to the dictionary definition of the word as describing someone who is haughty, snobbish or has inflated self-esteem. Westmoreland is one of the most conservative members of Congress. He has drawn criticism from civil rights advocates on a number of issues, including last year when he led opposition to renewing the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He also was one of two House members last year who opposed giving the Justice Department more money to crack unsolved civil rights killings

Politicians have a propensity of putting their feet in their mouths. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Grantville, Georgia put his foot so far down his throat, it will take major surgery to extricate his foot from his mouth. He should get a dictionary of slang words before he speaks again. Here is a word for him that is in such a dictionary. It is fitting that it be used in describing this man. The word is ‘dumbo’.

Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008

He was not re-elected in the November 2008 elections.

A New York man who pleaded guilty to murder in Oregon was sentenced to life in prison. He's not eligible for parole for another 30 years. He pleaded guilty because the prosecutor agreed to give him a good meal first. Durham also married Vanessa Davis, 48, also of New York City, in a civil ceremony at the Portland courthouse.

The deal to give the murder what he wanted with respect to a meal was a good one considering the fact that he saved the community a great deal of money by pleading guilty instead of going on with a trial. What I do find strange however is that a woman married this man just before he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. What kind of woman marries a murderer whom she knows is going to prison for 30 years?

Posted on Thursday, August 07, 2008

Two young brothers, aged 5 and 7 were trapped and smothered in trailer accident on a northwestern Alberta farm in August 2008. The two young brothers died after being sucked beneath a load of grain. The boys were atop a grain trailer being unloaded by a family member and at some point it was realized that the boys, at least one of them anyway, was trapped in the grain. The family member operating the grain trailer soon realized that the second boy was also missing and quickly determined that he too, was inside the large bin. He was able to extract the boys through the chute at the bottom of the grain trailer about five minutes after they went in but by then, they were already dead. It's not uncommon for children to be on top of such farming equipment, watching as the grain is unloaded. Sometimes safety isn't given the attention that's required.

I don't blame the boys for sitting on top of the grain trailer. I blame the man who was operating the trailer. Just because it has been done before, doesn't make it any safer. If the boys wanted to sit on top of the trailer, a rope should have been attached to each of them which would prevent them from falling into the hopper. I should add that sitting on top of a load of hay that is being transferred from one place to another is also risky. It's fun, of that there is no doubt. I know; I used to do it when I lived on a farm as a child. But if the load tips, the child can be dashed to the ground and worse yet, be hit by a car following or by an oncoming car. It's time for farmers to get smart. If they keep these practices up, they will continue to lose their children.

Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008

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