Here I go again dipping into the memory well to pull out a few stories from the days of my youth. Back in the early 60’s there were very few laws prohibiting the type of vehicles you could drive and none involving the condition they were in, other than a need to have fenders and brakes. I believe I owned 15 cars between the ages of 16 and 22 and none of them would have come close to passing today’s safety or emissions tests. The group that I hung around with used to have drag races at night out on any country concession roads that were paved and reasonably straight for about a quarter of a mile. Can you imagine a 51 Chevy overhead 6 up against a 53 Ford flathead 8? I can guarantee you that no track records were in danger of being broken within our crowd. During these so called races it was easy to blow a rear end or drop a transmission during the transition from 1st to 3rd gear but the good news was that changing a transmission on these 50’s crates was not a difficult or time consuming ordeal. We all knew the local farmer who had a “car wrecker” business on the side so it was "get towed to the 3rd, put it up on a hoist and get things fixed and ready to hit the road again". I remember one time about 5 of us were lined up in our cars behind two buddies ready to drag up the highway. As soon as they took off red lights starting flashing and it turns out one of the other 4 cars waiting with me was the local town cop who we hadn’t noticed. Unfortunately his Dodge Dart couldn’t catch the two racers so he decided to grab one of the onlookers and guess who that happened to be. My father wasn’t too happy coming down to the Police station at 2 am to pick me up and explain to the officer that I was really a good kid at heart. One other time my best buddy at the time decided that his mother’s 56 Ford would perform well on country gravel roads at high rates of speed. Luckily he spun out (wait) and went headfirst into a ditch with 4 ft of water in it without seriously damaging the car. As we were unable to get the car out of the ditch I decided to go home (3 mile walk) and borrow my Dad’s keys to the Service Station so I could get to our pickup truck. Being courteous I of course did not wake him up at 2:30am in the morning just to inform him that I was providing a towing service for my friend. After securing the truck we proceeded back to the scene of the unfortunate accident. I then proceeded to hook up the tow rope to the undercarriage of the green Ford in the ditch while noticing it had sunk another two feet into the mud since we had left earlier. Our 52 Chevy pick-up truck could not pull the car out no matter how much I tried. In fact without realizing it I burned through the rubber of both back tires leaving us on rims only. It now being close to 4 AM I decided to drive the truck back to the Station albeit at only 20 MPH. On the way back you might guess who we would run into,….the local cop of course. He followed us all the way to the Service Station and watched us put the truck in the bay and close the doors. At this point I figured it might be better not to leave to go home but the local gendarme felt differently as he proceeded to bang on the locked door and tell us to come out. Thinking that I was already going to be in hot water with my father, what more can I suffer by disobeying a police officer. Needless to say my judgment at that age wasn’t very good. Let’s just say it was one of those things that is funny to look back on now but at the time it was a whole different story. Maybe one day I’ll relate the story of rolling the Dodge in a farmer’s field and still beating our local cop home.

The debate continues although now people prefer to call it evolution vs intelligent design. I guess the words “intelligent design” sounds more scientific to the Darwin believers than the phrase “belief in God”. After some research into the present day arguments I have definitely remained on the side of “intelligent design”. While there are quite a few tangible arguments against Darwin’s theory I will deal with just a few of the very strong ones that convince me that he was wrong. First the theory that man evolved from the ape is taken for granted by the Darwinists but they can’t answer the question as to why there are still apes? Why didn’t the current day apes evolve into human beings like the rest of us seems like a viable question but I haven’t seen a viable answer. The second reason that makes me think Darwin got it wrong was there are no explanations as to how certain complex organs in the body came about. I can understand and I do believe that certain aspects of a living being can evolve to fit their environment. We see this in many animals that adopt features that fit their habitat and even human beings evolve different characteristics such as light and dark skin depending on the climate in which they live. But how do you explain the evolution of the eyeball for instance? This is a very complicated organ of the body and it is hard to believe it developed all by itself with no guiding hand. If you take the time to look into the basis for Darwin’s theory you will find more of these very difficult questions that have no reasonable explanations. For instance the theory is based upon the belief that one day two things floating in space collided and formed the solar system. The planet earth was a piece of rock broken off in the massive explosion that resulted and it ended up in a favorable proximity to the sun which allowed life to begin. Over millions of years amoebas developed into animal life and then one day a human being evolved from one of the animals. Animals, insects and fish basically eat, defecate, breed and die without so much of a thought to designing an airplane. So how did man suddenly evolve a powerful brain with no living link to his ancestry? As Judge Judy always says “if it doesn’t make sense then usually it isn’t true”. There are certainly parts of Darwin’s studies that do make sense as they relate to animals and environment and the changes required for a species to survive but in my opinion they don’t provide the answers as to how it all started. I am not an overly religious person but I do believe that there is a power greater than we little people here on earth espouse and this belief provides the only real and practical answers to the who, what, why and when of the tiny world in which we live. Therefore as “God” is the basis of most every religion then this recognition of a higher power makes them the clear winner of the debate, in my humble opinion of course.

Having had the opportunity to reside in all three sizes of towns and cities I believe there are positives and negatives with all of them but at this stage of my life I yearn for only one. Growing up in a small town was a magnificent experience as I had many friends within a 2 to 5 minute walk and the farthest was a 10 minute bicycle ride away. I could walk to both public and high school in 15 minutes tops. My house backed onto a farmer’s field and hundreds of acres of bush-land was just 5 minutes due south. There were a number of creeks where we could skate in the winter and fish in the summer. Everybody pretty much knew everyone else if not personally at least by way of gossip or from other acquaintances who knew them etc. Most stores employed locals and they were known to all by first names regardless of age. There were some downsides as you had to drive to the city of Windsor or over to Detroit to buy clothes if you were a style conscious teenager. Once the Liberty Theater on the main street closed up the same applied to seeing the latest movies. However, up to the age of 13 the small town was a utopia for kids and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Living in the big city of Toronto was also an amazing experience but for other reasons. As a young adult there was a plethora of entertainment to be experienced which included pro hockey, large cinemas, live theater, and an incredible amount of restaurants featuring foods from all over the world. Shopping was an ever changing experience as there were an abundance of retail outlets on every other block. Live entertainment abounded in large arenas including acts such as the Beatles, Marty Robbins, the Ringling Bros Circus and many more. It was an exciting place to live when you were young and adventurous but it had its downsides as well. Where serious crimes were almost non-existent in the small town environment it was an eye opener to see the type of felonies perpetrated on the citizens of “Hog Town”. While Toronto was considered a “safe” city compared to others its size the level of crime was still a shock to those arriving from small town Canada. As the years past my family moved to a medium sized town east of Toronto and while it was 5 times larger than my birth town it still retained some of those values I remembered from the “olden days” as my grandson always says. Sadly this didn’t last as our town has grown from a population of 25,000 to just over 100,000 since we moved here in 1976. The big city has expanded and it is gradually absorbing the medium towns all around it. There are now mass transit connections to Toronto and this has allowed people and a certain inner city criminal element to travel easily to and from the towns outside the Toronto border. We are now looking to relocate for one last time and the objective is to find a house we like in a small community such as a hamlet or a small farming community. We don’t want to be totally isolated so it would have to be near enough to a reasonably sized town in order to secure the necessities of life but far enough away to enjoy the small town lifestyle I remember as a child. We have also been blessed with the fact that both of our sons and their families live within a 15 to 20 minute drive and this is something we don’t want to lose so our search will be contained to a small area north and to the east of where we are now. Perhaps I can find a 53 Chevy to rebuild…mmmmmm I wonder.

The faith of Global warming has all the trappings of a new religion designed to recruit followers through a bombardment of information, usually unsubstantiated and only part true. It has its main evangelist, Al Gore and its legion of followers in the media. They use a most powerful lever to try and convince people to join their sect and of course it is the common Liberal weapon, fear. I will admit I am no expert but I have chosen to look at both sides of the argument and I, as have many other people, have decided that is a monumental hoax. First let’s start with the argument that global warming is a fact due to a consensus of scientists. By definition science is fact, it either is or it isn’t and cannot be something decided by a vote, a consensus or anything else other than fact. The reality is that there are thousands of scientists who are on the other side of the argument seem to make no difference to the mainstream media or the Government. I certainly am not arguing that we as human beings do not pollute as this is a fact but what is so arrogant is the thought that we as part of the human race can do anything that would counteract the universe, the Sun or the planet of earth. Second is the constant barrage of print and video information that promotes the destruction of the planet along with some very visible members of the animal community. Did you know that the film clip in Al Gore’s movie about the Polar Bear on an ice flow was staged? This fact was released a year after the movie came out and was buried very quickly. The main threat to polar bears in recent decades has been from hunting, with estimates as low as 5,000 to 10,000 bears in the 1950s and 1960s. But thanks to conservation efforts, and some cross-border cooperation among the U.S., Canada and Russia, the best estimate today is that the polar bear population is 20,000 to 25,000. The following is a quote from one of the leading experts on the polar bear, Mitchell Taylor, the manager of wildlife resources for the Nunavut territory in Canada: “I have found that the Canadian polar bear population has actually increased by 25% -- to 15,000 from 12,000 over the past decade.” Mr. Taylor also tells us that in many parts of Canada, "polar bears are very abundant and productive. In some areas, they are overly abundant. I understand that people not living in the North generally have difficulty grasping the concepts of too many polar bears, but those who live here have a pretty good grasp of what that is like." Those cuddly white bears are the Earth's largest land carnivores. Third you may ask, why would anyone be against conservation or recycling etc? I and most other people who think this Global warming is scaremongering, are not against these things and in fact I support them wholeheartedly. What I don’t support is burdening our taxpayers with the cost of illogical programs like the “Kyoto Accord” and our industries with more regulation that will do nothing but raise their costs and force them to move to business friendlier climates. Finally the issue of smog and the argument that it is caused exclusively by automobile exhaust needs to be understood. Yes auto emissions contribute to the smog seen over most large cities but it is also made up of ozone (made by the sun) that drops down to lower levels (like clouds and fog) on very hot and humid days. This drives the index up and causes the warnings to be issued for people like asthmatics etc. Have you ever seen this happen in the winter? Of course not because of the temperature and another thing to look for is the fact that not everyday is the smog at warning levels and yet I would speculate that the number of cars on the road doesn’t change that much on a daily basis. Back in the 50’s Nat King Cole sang “ the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” so this is not a phenomenon that has just started in the past two decades. All I ask is that you research this subject for yourself and don’t automatically believe the talking heads and GW evangelists without some personal knowledge of the subject.

It seems like every other day I read in the newspaper or see on the TV news a case involving a child being harmed in some way by an adult. The most egregious of these cases are those that concern child sex abuse by pedophiles. As with most other crimes the Liberal judiciary first looks to rehabilitation before punishment and the rights of the criminal before the safety of citizens. While I believe we need to strengthen our laws and particularly our sentencing practices for all crimes there should be no debate on how society should deal with these scumbags who prey on children. The fact that they have a defect in their brains that has given them an abnormal sexual desire is no reason or excuse for their behavior. Yet there is always some “do gooder” that buys into this argument that their preferences can be changed (brains rewired) or at least controlled. Time after time we hear about repeat offenders and how they just couldn’t control their urges and had to attack another child generally with drastic results. There is no one that requires protection more than our children as they are the most vulnerable members of our society. There are reams of statistics that indicate recidivism is almost a certainty with this inherent behavior characteristic so why does the Justice System keep beating their heads against a wall trying to swim upstream. This is a Liberal theory that doesn’t work and we can’t keep experimenting while kids die. There is currently no cure, therefore these people cannot be allowed to enjoy freedom and liberty within our society…period. Lock these people up and keep them away from our children. There is no other answer at this time and until we can find one that is foolproof we cannot allow our kids to be prey for these deviants. Like most other realities of life that escape the elitists that believe they have all the answers this is one area where they must wake up and do the right thing not the politically correct thing. The “wee ones” are the only innocent human beings on the face of the earth and they represent our future. Let’s not take a chance on losing even one to this type of crime and let us force our Justice System to change before its too late for another child. I want to live to see the day where we never have to watch parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters or anyone else crying over a child lost to this horrendous crime.

Since I was a youngster and then all through my teenage years up until I was 40 or so I always had a nickname and I used them regularly as well to identify certain close friends. Then as we aged and seemed to get more sophisticated or whatever you want to call it, the nicknames seem to fade away into oblivion. To be honest I am not sure if kids or teenagers use nicknames these days. I know the Rappers use the nickname process to come up with their stage names but I’m not sure they use a lot of ingenuity after looking at the results. I was always saddled with “IMEE” because of my name but later I was annointed TC within my close group of friends. My best buddy at an early age was Benny better known as John to his Mom and some of the other guys were “Brains” and his brother “Fancy”. Brains (Charley) was tagged because of his supposedly average grades at school and Gary became Fancy because of his large waterfall hairdo and his button down collar shirts. If you were a fan of the TV cartoon show “Top Cat” you will recognize the names from his motley crew of alley cats. Then there was “Rat” who lived next door. I could never figure out where that came from nor could I figure out why one of his sisters was called “Rat” as well. I played ball with “Stump” and “Maynard” who got their names from different places. Stump was a very short guy but built like a brick wall and therefore got dinged with that descriptive title. Maynard came from the Dobie Gillis TV show and those of you who remember it know that M was a very cool cat. There were a lot of ballplayers that I knew that had names like “Slick”, “Porky” and “Stonehands” and you can probably figure out why if you think about it. Pro sports used to be loaded with nicknames such as Bullet Bob, Whitey, LT, Mean Joe, Da Fridge, Crazy legs and on and on. I must admit I do have affection for these weird handles and so I also take liberties with my family's names by tagging them with their own personal titles. My boys were Torvie Dosh and Regional Waterhouse, my nephews were Sean Sean the Irishmon, Daniel rode the boat ashore, Matt the Rat and I can’t forget about my niece Robin Robinowitz. My grandsons are Griffanso and Tylermon and last but not least my wife is affectionately called budda. I think they still use nicknames quite a bit in the southern USA as I have a friend in Columbia that has a beautiful wife named M’ Sue short for Mary Sue and every other farm boy you see in Georgia is called Bubba. It’s sad that we don’t use the nickname as much as we used to because I always felt that it provided everyone with a special identity that elevated them above the crowd of boring everyday handles. Now of course if your name is Alowishus ………………………………………..

Everyday I read the sports page of the Toronto newspaper and everyday I see some version of the same old comments about the hapless TO professional teams and why they can't win. I have been involved with minor sports almost 50 odd years as a player, coach and Manager as well as various positions with the local Baseball Association and I have come to believe that there are only 3 factors that provide an individual or team the opportunity to win at any level. These things apply to teams from a houseleague program all the way up to and including the Professional level. They are in order of priority, talent, leadership (coaching, managing etc) and the old perverbial luck. Talent is an obvious necessity but on its own does not guarantee success. There have been many talented athletes that have played at every level and have never won the major awards in their respective sports disciplines. At minor levels talent can have more of an effect because the distribution of talent can vary by population. Large centers usually benefit from this factor simply because of numbers whereas a small town with less of a base to call upon averages less overall talent. In the major leagues of pro sports money is generally the deciding factor in attaining talent although the overall level is much higher all across the board. The key factor in my opinion is the leadership aspect of any sport organization or team at any level. It encompasses so much when you consider the following. Talent has to be recognized, obtained, groomed, and then built into a team. Leadership has to provide an environment whereby athletes can learn and exhibit their talent at the optimum level. Very rarely does a coach have to teach someone to want to win but almost 100% of the time they have to teach athletes how to win. Certainly the technical skills can be derived from playing the sport at some level but the other more important attributes such as team building and managing people capabilities are not so easily acquired. Matching the leadership talent with the sports specific athletic talent is the never ending quest of each sports organization as it strives to create a winner. Then you need the last thing I mentioned and that is is luck. There is really only one thing you can do regarding this factor. You be successful with the first two to get you into a position that it can be a factor at all. For instance ending up in last place doesn't leave much room for luck to affect your team results in any way. It usually comes into play when you are playing for all the marbles against another equally talented and well coached team in a short series where small things can have a major affect on outcomes. So listen up Toronto sports teams get the top echelon fixed by obtaining good leadership or by providing your staff with these skills. Just because these guys have played pro sports doesn't mean they possess leadership abilities so bury the pride spend the time and money on education and it will pay off, I guarantee.

There are moments in each of our lifetimes that seem to stand out among all others. They are etched in our memories forever and are destined never to be washed away. I am blessed to have a few of these moments and the first one that I can remember happened when I was 16 living at home, going to High School, combing my hair with a waterfall in front, a DA at the back and just being very cool. Being cool was a necessity if you were to stray out around town (population 4500) at night because the cool guys got the girls so they say. Now you could be semi cool with the right hair, jeans and boots but what really put you over the top was the ownership of a car. This set you apart from the regular dudes who had to walk around town until they got tired and eventually ended up at Bill's pool hall. My Dad owned a Service Station and he was a top notch mechanic so I had a leg up on most guys when it came to securing a car without putting out bug bucks. In fact my Dad had bought a 53 Chev from an old gentleman who had ruined the engine in someway but the body and tires were OK. I then tracked down an old 51 Chevy torpedo back with a good overhead 6 cylinder engine and Dad did the switch. Voila! A new machine. I spent hours sprucing up the interior and putting purple lights under the dash with a toggle switch just next to the steering wheel as a finishing touch. I then went to Detroit and bought a pair (I couldn't afford anymore) of 4 bar spinner hubcaps to put on the front wheels. Last I took the chrome bars out of the grill and painted the inside black to look like a big mouth right where the rad was. Now came the weekend and the parade was starting. It wasn't really a parade but it reminded me of one as each of the cool guys just drove their cars around town over and over and over again. So I combed my hair, put on my white T-shirt with a package of Daily Mail cigarettes under the sleeve next to the bicep of my right arm and I was ready to go. I went down and picked up my good friend Johnny and away we went. This was the moment! The radio blasting "Teen Angel" and me with my arm out the window driving this beauty up town for the first time. You have to realize that a different car joining the parade draws immediate attention from everyone and my status was automatically elevated when I was seen turning down Sandwich street with the spinners gleaming from the reflection of the street lights. I have never been able to explain that feeling other than to say it felt as good as anything I can remember from my childhood. I have had other great moments in time but nothing that quite resembles that night behind the wheel of my 53 Chevy. It's funny I can't remember what I did the rest of that night or most of the others I spent cruising around town that summer but I'll never forget that first half mile of ecstacy as I drove up Richmond Street. You guys who were teenagers in the 60's know what I mean.

Leaving the political turmoil to others for the time being, I want to focus on the Season of Joy……Christmas. It all began many years ago as a time for Christians to celebrate the birth of their Saviour Jesus Christ. Over the years with the onslaught of political correctness and the concern that others would be left out there has been pressure to remove the Religious connection from the Holiday Season. So it became out with the Christmas designation and in with the “Holiday Season”. No more Christmas trees no more Nativity scenes in school, no more Christmas Caroling etc. Fortunately this annual celebration is part of the Canadian heritage and is not something to be tossed away lightly. I know many people of different faiths and beliefs including atheists and I have never heard any of them say they want to see the Christmas Season changed in any way. In fact much the opposite as they would not want their faith denigrated at the expense of any other religion or belief. So over the past several years people have been resisting this pressure and standing up to the political correctness gurus who want to be so inclusive they believe in destroying long held Christian beliefs and ceremonies to show we are neutral in regards to religion. There is no evil in celebrating Christmas in fact it is the exact opposite as “giving” is the theme of the season. Whether it is gifts for the family, alms for the poor, dinners for the homeless etc Christmas is a time for kindness and charity and regardless of your faith this cannot be wrong. There are people in our society particularly children that truly need help and support and if you don’t give regularly during the year this is a time where some generosity can truly brighten someone’s life. For many years I volunteered to serve dinner on Christmas Eve at the Scott Mission and it always amazed me at the number of folks who partook of this meal. How and why they got to where they are and the solution to get them into better conditions is a story for another day but suffice to say that serving them dinner made me feel like I was doing something for those in need and it felt nice. If you do this type of thing you know of what I speak if not give it a try, you might be surprised.

This week the newspapers in Oshawa/Whitby carried the story of two cats that were dismembered and their body parts discovered by passersby. It is hard to imagine what kind of warped mind would do this sort of thing however they obviously do exist or we wouldn’t be discussing their dreadful deed. Putting aside crazed and/or hungry animals it is very rare indeed to hear of an animal attacking a human being. There are of course the stories of dogs that bite people without warning but usually after an investigation they find the dog was provoked in some way. Humans are the only breed in the animal kingdom that hunts and kills for reasons other than the need for food or the basic instinct for survival. We, who claim to be more intelligent, slaughter animals for sport and as noted above for fiendish purposes that are unexplainable. Bears and cougars for example at least have the ability to defend themselves in some way even though high powered rifles lower the odds substantially but cats, c,mon. These lunatics have a disease of the brain that if not corrected will obviously lead to other terrible deeds that will likely be more gruesome than killing cats. Cats and dogs are by far, the pets chosen by most people because of their nature and the long history of being man’s friends. They do not bear any grudges against humans in fact just the opposite as they provide companionship, unadulterated love and lasting affection for their human compatriots. And yet we continually hear stories about animal abuse albeit not as brutal as the story above. These creatures are generally defenceless against people and are easy targets for the deranged mind that wants to visit harm on them for no other reason than their own perverse justification. Should we tar and feather these folks or string them up at noon in the town square. Although the thought does bring a smile to my face we all know that won’t happen so what is the answer? I would suggest that anyone caught purposely abusing an animal should be subjected to three types of punishment. 1) Undergo a complete psychiatric evaluation and complete any therapy that is recommended. 2) Work 100 hours of community service at the nearest SPCA organization in the area and 3) refrain from having any pets without authorization from their psychiatrist. If none of this works then we tar and feather them.