Earth Hour and Christmas Mass...

I am so glad that Earth Hour has come and gone....now don't get me wrong...I am a firm believer that we need to make efforts to have an environmental conscience...but I don't appreciate being made to feel like a pariah because I am energy efficient everyday and not just for an hour once a year.

The mayor of Toronto even had the audacity to say the participating in Earth hour meant (and I'm paraphrasing here) you were voting for the Earth and to not participate meant you were voting for global warming! Huh? So what I do the rest of the year doesn't count? So all those who are energy hogs 8759 hours per year...are in with the environmental movement...just because that 1 hour...because of peer pressure...they succumb and say oh well, I look at me...I'm an environmentalist!!!

This is like saying your religious because you go to church on Christmas Day...Come on....let's be real here...I'm not against the symbolism of Earth Day, nor the symbolic gesture of going to church once a year...but to consider that if you don't participate in this most holy Earth Hour means you are against the planet.....I personally find that offensive...

So no, I did not turn off all the lights and burn candles and sing Koom-bay-ah for an hour. I had the one light on in the room I was occupying, and was watching TV....like I do most evenings between 830 and 930. On my street, all the homes which usually have their external lights blazing every evening, turned them off for 1 hour...only to turn them on again later...and probably for the next 365 days. I, on the other hand, only have the outside lights on when I have guests (because I don't want them to trip) or at Christmas time.

So does this make me a bad person....Just for the record...although I follow the tenets of a particular religion, I don't go to church...and I don't go at Christmas either, because I would find that somewhat hypocritical.

So why don't we look at a longer lasting solution to the environment, as opposed to patting ourselves on the back and saying "hey look what I did for an hour!" You never know...it just might save our collective souls!

Shut up Fools!

Where is Mr. T when you need him? Remember his famous lines -- "Pity the Fool", and "Shut up Fool"? Well we need to resurrect Mr. T to deal with all those forecasters and pundits out there, because no matter how poor their forecasts were last year, they are still piling on more "informed" outlooks, which are pretty much a shot in the dark...just as they were before.
Furthermore, let's face it most of these folk have a vested interest in getting their face in the media, or in fact in potentially manipulating the stock market.

There is a guy from Merrill Lynch who is constantly pulled up in front of the media to be interviewed about his thoughts...Ok so Merrill Lynch had to be bailed out by the Bank of America because of their poor performance and their betting on bad investments. So why is this company's opinion being sought out? Because this guy likes to say some controversial stuff and so it makes good play in the media. At the end of the day...he is saying these things not for our benefit...but because it makes him look "wise" and in this way he might get a job somewhere else.

And what about the Oracle of Wall Street Mr. Warren Buffett? Why would he say that the markets are going to go down even further if it weren't true? Well, because Mr. Buffett is a very smart business man...which is why he is worth billions. He knows that the market reacts to his pronouncements, so he probably has his team poised to buy, buy, buy as the markets sink on his statements...and then of course, he states that things are looking positive because that helps his shareholders, when the markets go back up....Helloooo? Warren Buffett has a vested interest in having this kind of action go on....Is it illegal? Absolutely not...he can't be responsible for the stupidity of the masses.

And David Dodge...oh please, just shut up....what does it help ...true or not to come out with these damning pronouncements on the economy....I'm still trying to figure that out....so things are bad and they are going to get worse...well, we are kind of figuring this anyway, but why do we need salt put into the wound....I'm not a big Stephen Harper fan...but what's wrong with a little bit of optimism, even if it is misguided.....perhaps it will restore some consumer confidence and maybe we can see a little (even a little) bit of an upswing...

So please...shut up all you so-called forecasters...it doesn't seem that you had any clue that this massive correction was coming...so how is it that you have the "cojones" to come out now and talk a different game...oh yeh, it is in your self-interest isn't it....Mr. T....please put them in a headlock!