Secular Nazis

Well, well, the ugly face of political correctness and secular Nazis has risen again.  A Nova Scotia student with religious convictions is suspended for wearing a T-shirt that reflects these convictions.

Read the Toronto Star article here.

The idiots administrating the school have decided that his T-shirt saying "Life is wasted without Jesus" is too controversial, and have suspended this poor student.  Talk about secular nazis, oppressing people's right to express their religious convictions.

The fact that people are so beholden to political correctness, and cannot handle people's right to express their religious beliefs is really ridiculous.  Let's hope they come to their senses and let the student enjoy his right to expression and belief.

Concert Master

Why is the concert master of an orchestra always a violin?  Why don't left-wing types complain about this blatant discrimination?

If I owned an orchestra, I would make the Tuba the concert master - is that a cool instrument or what?

Touch Icing

The most moronic rule in the NHL has to be the touch icing rule.  It's a way of adding almost-negligible excitement to icing at the risk of injuring defencemen and forwards who are hustling their asses off for the sake of the team.......

Why do GMs insist on putting their greatest assets (the players) at risk?  That's why it's finally good news to see that the NHL is considering changing this idiotic rule, and implementing something much safe (like hybrid icing), according to this Globe and Mail article.

Let's hope the NHL rule custodians stop being morons, and start protecting the players that make this the greatest game on earth......

Three Man Booths

I'm watching the broadcast of the Divisional Playoff matchup of the Saints @ 49ers.  It's a three-man booth of Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa (albeit on the field).

It's enough to make me realize that two-man booths (like those employed by CBS) are superior to three-man booths.  Albert does a decent job with the play-by-play, but the commentary of Siragusa is really annoying, and Johnston, while less annoying, isn't really providing real insight.  (If I have to listen to one more comment about how much confidence the Saints offence has, then I'm gonna puke)

I think NFL broadcasts should just wake-up and realize that three-man booths are exasperating to listen to, and go back to traditional two-man booths......

About time....

It's about time that airlines in Canada stop deceiving travelers with their fare advertising given the new regulations.  Entirely misleading, advertising fares without service charges and taxes and extra fees, the advertised fare can be at times a third of the real price.

The only question is why this took so long to implement?

Corporate Christmas

One thing I really find sad is North America's two month obsession with Christmas.  After Hallow'een, shopping malls break out Christmas decorations, and we are bombarded with commercials about Christmas gifts, and one has to listen to incessant Christmas carols.

Two months of this stuff!  This is one sixth of the entire year!  Come on, isn't there anything else that corporations can concentrate on, other than spoiling a once quaint and nice traditional holiday?

Tap water in Germany

So the tap water is very clean in Germany. Why can't they just give people tap water in restaurants, or at least not look at you funny, when you order tap water? Water is the most natural thing to drink!!

 In North America, most restaurants will bring a glass of tap water right away, and if they don't, asking for water is no problem. In France, ordering a "carafe d'eau" is also quite normal.

 Why do Germans think that ordering "Leitungswasser" is weird? What's with them and their stupid carbonated water, anyway?

Stupid Outdated Elections Canada Law

If you look at the Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act you'll see what it says:

"No person shall transmit the result or purported result of the vote in an electoral district to the public in another electoral district before the close of all of the polling stations in that other electoral district."

What a load of crock....as this succinct article in the Times-Colonist nicely summarizes, this law is outdated and unenforceable. With the internet media we have nowadays, why is this law still being enforced? What is the government of Canada worried about? It's citizens on the West Coast acquiring the information that others have? Are we living still in an age, where the ease of information acquisition needs to be regulated in this manner?

This is really outdated, and I'm not sure why the government hasn't changed this law, and insists on fining well-intentioned people who are just innocently conveying information to their fellow citizens.

It's time to change this moronic, and hopelessly outdated law.

Enough with the diving already!

I'm no huge soccer fan, but living in Germany, it's nice to follow things like the World Cup (and the European Cup as well). It's a fun time, with the country gripped with the results of each game....

Actually I find soccer not a bad sport at all (much better than basketball). But there are still somethings about it that keep me from being a real fan of the game. The first is the low scoring nature of the game. I actually like defence and good defensive play, but when there are less than two goals per game (from both teams) on average, I think it's a bit too low scoring. I guess I'm biased from hockey, but I would think that an average of 4-5 goals per game would be nice. I'm not into American scoring demands like in Basketball, where you are supposed to score - but I would like to see a team up by two goals still try to score, rather than go into a full defensive shell.

But I think the most annoying thing about soccer is all the diving going on. Players act like they are mortally wounded if they've just been brushed by the opposing player. I'm not sure why this is tolerated by the referees, or by the fans. I mean the sight of a soccer player clutching their shin, looking like they are irreparably wounded, only to sprint down the soccer pitch two minutes later is just a joke. I think the penalty for a soccer player that dives is that they have to block 10 hockey slapshots at an NHL net. I think that would make them much tougher in a hurry......

Soccer Corniness

Is it EVERY soccer game that has those kids that come in hand in hand with the soccer players? What's up with that anyway? What do they contribute to the ceremony anyway? I think nothing is gained aside from CORNINESS.....

More's the pity...

Well, today we got news that Colorado will abandon the Big-12 and join the ranks of the Pac-10. Nebraska will probably also abandon the Big-12 and flee into the arms of the Big-10. The Big-12 is thus severely weakened, and may come to an end depending if Texas wants to bolt or not.....

The decisions of the Cornhuskers and Buffaloes to leave seem purely based on financial considerations. They think that they will reap a larger share of the revenue pie in their new conferences. Unfortunately, this means the end of Big-12 football, which has been arguably the source of the best football games over the past decade or two.

Texas vs. Oklahoma, Nebraska vs. Oklahoma, Nebraska vs. Missouri, Texas vs. Texas A&M, Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma, and Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma St.....these rivalries won't mean the same anymore....

All in all, a sad day for college football.....

Washrooms in Europe

Why is it that restaurant owners in Europe are so stingy when it comes to things like their washrooms? Many put someone there who is "cleaning" the washroom, but really doesn't do anything but sit there, expecting 50 cents for washroom use. Some restaurants put a code lock on their washroom for keeping the public out....only paying customers have the right to use their facilities.....

That's one thing that's annoying about Europe - come on, just loosen up and be generous with your facilities!

Ugh....new parents

I'm at the age where many of my friends the same age are now parents. Sometimes they are insufferable. The whole world revolves around their stupid kids. All they want to talk about are their stupid kids. They have no life for themselves left. They have no personality left. All there is left over, is their kids.

Some people say that you never know the meaning of sacrifice and selflessness until you have kids. This may indeed be true. I can believe that when you become a parent, and hold a child that is totally vulnerable and dependent, that you finally realize what sacrifice and selflessness is.

But I will also say that parents are among the most selfish people in the world. They are selfless to their kids, but they are also the most selfish for their kids. Their whole mentality shifts to getting what they feel is necessary for their kids, no matter what the cost. And damned be you, if you get in the way of their ambitions for their own kids.

New parents - they can be really annoying sometimes.....

German Proficiency Exams

So, if you want to attest that you can speak German at a certain level, you would just take a proficiency exam at the appropriate level, and be done with it, right?

No, of course not! This is Germany, and they wouldn't make things that simple, would they?
Take a look at the different German Proficiency Exams that exist, and you will see that things are not so simple...

Which one to choose between the following?
BULATS
DSH
Großes Deutsches Sprachdiplom
Kleines Deutsches Sprachdiplom
Prüfung Wirtschaftsdeutsch International
TestDaF
Zentrale Mittelstufenprüfung
Zentrale Oberstufenprüfung
Zertifikat Deutsch
Zertifikat Deutsch für den Beruf
Einbürgerungstest
Goethe-Zertifikat B2
Goethe-Zertifikat C1
blah blah blah....

Why don't they just simply things? Oh, wait, I forgot, this is Germany - where simplicity is frowned upon....

The Unfortunate Capitalistization of Christmas

One of the things that I really find amazing is the corporate brainwashing of North American society with regards to Christmas. I have never seen a society so obsessed with a holiday before. And their obsession has nothing to do with the meaning of Christmas, which is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Rather, North American society has taken upon itself to obsess about buying presents for everyone you know. Department stores put up Christmas decorations at the end of October so that these decorations are there 2 months of every year....that's 1/6 of the year that there are these stupid decorations. Lights, and trees, and stockings, and mistletoe - everything that has nothing remotely to do with the birth of Jesus is used to celebrate Christmas.

North Americans obsess about sending out Christmas letters and cards to all the people they know. They have to buy presents, etc, put up their own Christmas lights, trees, decorations around their house. And of course, they have to obsess about buying a proper turkey for their Christmas meal.

The excesses of capitalism are most evident at Christmas time. And it's an even bigger shame that no one cares about the child born in a manger that told us to be happy with the things God has provided us with, rather than turn into greedy, capitalist, narcissistic people, who know nothing about Christ, but seem to believe that they know everything about Christmas.

Get rid of the penny

There are some advocates for the $5 coin in Canada. They say that coins are much more durable and cheaper in the long run than bills, which deteriorate quickly, and are counterfeited often.

I think such advocates have a point. However, a $5 coin will really make Canadian pockets heavy - 1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 25 cent, loonie, toonie, and $5 coin pieces.....it's just too many coins!

So I think that this $5 is not a bad idea, but before it comes into being we need to abolish the penny!

What a useless coin it is, this penny of ours! Just get rid of it!
If we could live with the penny as the lowest denomination 40 years ago, surely we can live with the nickel as the lowest denomination now, since a nickel now is worth less than a penny was 40 years ago!

Banks would still be required to calculate interest to the penny, and a penny that is produced by the Royal Canadian Mint costs much more than 1 cent!

So I haven't yet heard a good argument for keeping the penny...

C.T. and S.T. - more German silliness

In Germany, sometimes the time that an event starts is given with a C.T. or S.T. postfix after the time. This especially occurs often at universities and academic institutions.

What they mean can be found on this link.

Basically 14:00 st means 14:00 while 14:00 ct means 14:15 where ct means "cum tempore" and st means "sine tempore".

I have no idea why Germans insist on this, especially since the terms are Latin, not German. Wouldn't it just be easier for everyone to write 14:00 for 14:00, and 14:15 for 14:15? Or does that make too much sense?

NCAA Stupidity with Excessive Celebration Penalties

An otherwise good game last Saturday between No. 4 LSU and No. 18 Georgia was totally spoiled by the NCAA's stupid obsessiveness with excessive celebration.

Georgia took the lead on A.J. Green's catch with only 1:09 remaining, and the officials called an excessive celebration penalty on Green during perfectly sane celebrations with his teammates on a great TD catch in the dying minutes of the game. As a consequence, the Bulldogs had to kickoff from their 15 yardline, instead of the 30 yardline - giving LSU much more of a chance to comeback.

Sure enough, Charles Scott's run with 46 seconds left put LSU up for good. But of course, NCAA officials had to ruin another great play with another excessive celebration penalty.

There's not taunting from these college kids, just celebrating some great plays - let the players be players, and don't affect the destiny of the game with these pointless penalty calls!

French words polluting the German language

I really am annoyed with the amounts of French words that occupy everyday German vocabulary. I'm not really sure why Germans tolerate them, since they have their own words for them, but for some reason, want to use French words in their speaking.

I think it spoils the beauty and unity of the German language - but what can you do?

Here a list that I came up with (I think most Germans are oblivious to their usage of French):

Restaurant (just say Gaststätte)
Saison (just say Jahreszeit)
Serviette (just say Handtuch)
Vision (just say Traumbild)
Niveau (just say Stufe)
Étage (just say Stock)
Cousin (just say Vetter)
Recherche (just say Forschung)
Chance (just say Gelegenheit)
Revanche (just say Rache)
Version (just say Ausgabe)
Detail (just say Einzelheit)
Orange (just say Apfelsine)
Balance (just say Gleichgewicht)
Portemonnaie (just say Geldbeutel)

Switzerland and the European Union

Switzerland is blessed with some beautiful scenery - great mountain scenery in the Alps, some beautiful lakes, and quaint little towns. It really is a country that is situated smack dab in the middle of Europe.

But something about its people - what's their problem?
What gives them such aversion to the European Union?

Sure, Switzerland has this tradition of "independence" and "non-alignment". But come on! It needs to face reality! Surrounded by EU countries everywhere....Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria to the east.....

How much trade does Switzerland do with the EU? How often must its citizens change currency every time they go outside Switzerland (which is not very big). Because the Swiss are outside the EU, but still want to partake in the benefits - so they have so many diplomats in Brussels trying to ink agreeements that aren't EU agreements (as Switzerland is not in the EU), but have basically the same effect.

Well - just join the bloody EU! And adopt the Euro for heavens' sake! Do you think its pleasurable to have to change currency constantly? Losing 2%-5% of every transaction to the greedy banks?

STOOOOPID!!!!