When You Encourage Speeding, Speeding Gets Worse. Who Knew?

When a few infants started to cry about having to face the consequences of their actions, political opportunist Doug Ford saw a chance to score some cheap points. And so it was that he banned municipalities from using the speed cameras that had been allowed a few years earlier by that absolute working man hating idiot…Doug Ford. Assuming that your brain works like at all, I bet you can figure out what happened next.

A new report shows Toronto has seen a dramatic spike in speeding in the months since the Ontario government scrapped automated speed enforcement cameras.
The report, which Toronto city council is set to consider at its meeting this week, shows the percentage of drivers travelling at least 16 kilometres per hour over the posted limit on some streets surged over 400 per cent after the cameras were removed last November.
Vehicle speeds increased at 101 of 104 locations with comparable before-and-after data, and the proportion of vehicles travelling 11 km/h or more over the posted limit increased from two per cent to 8.1 per cent, the report shows.
The increase in speeding was “generally more prominent” on streets with a posted limit of 30 km/h, it says.

So school zones, essentially.

The government has promised what it calls more effective speed enforcement measures that will be rolling out over time. So far, though, the highest profile idea they seem to have come up with is to increase the speed limits that people routinely ignore on the province’s already dangerous highways. Makes sense once you realize that making things worse and more dangerous while cutting off much needed revenue has pretty much been the Ford way in almost every situation all along.

Rogers Sports And Media Decides We Could All Use A Lot Less Of Both

Rogers Sports and Media up and murdered six radio stations yesterday. Sportsnet 650 Vancouver, Sportsnet 960 Calgary, 660 NewsRadio Calgary, 1130 NewsRadio Vancouver, 95.7 NewsRadio Halifax, and most important to us living around here, 570 NewsRadio Kitchener.

They did it for the same reason that all these cunts say they have to do it. I’m so sick of writing it that I’m just going to copy and paste some of what I wrote when CHML shut down to save myself the effort. Just replace Hamilton with Kitchener as you read and you’ll be fine.

The reasons for its demise should be all too familiar to anyone who pays attention to this stuff. Overly large company wants to own everything, but doesn’t much care for the part where it has to pay to run it.

They also blamed Canada’s unfavourable regulatory environment, because that’s what you do when you’re a private company that historically gets whatever it wants from the CRTC and the government but still don’t think it’s enough.

I hate to have to go on this rant again, but if anyone should be complaining about the regulatory environment, it should be the people of Hamilton who just lost a nearly century old radio station because of shareholders who have probably never been there or listened to it. If we hadn’t spent decades allowing the rampant media consolidation that creates monsters like Postmedia, Bell, Rogers, Corus and the like, chances are we wouldn’t be seeing this sort of thing happen over and over again at the pace it’s been happening in the last five-ten years. Those companies exist solely to wring every bit of value they can out of assets and then discard them. They have zero interest in running properly scaled, sustainable businesses or in the communities that those businesses are supposed to serve.

Nailed it.

What makes this one extra insulting is that Rogers, unlike Corus, still has gobs of money. Gobs enough that right before they committed this massacre, they dropped billions of dollars in order to complete their quest to monopolize Toronto sports. The fact that the good people of Waterloo Region now have no station on which to listen to any of those sports would almost be funny were it not so extremely goddamned off pissing.

570 failed us a lot because Rogers never much cared for putting sufficient resources behind it, but make no mistake, its loss is going to be felt here for a very long time. During the hours it was allowed to function properly, it filled a need that no one else in town has truly filled in years. If you needed ongoing traffic or weather info, that’s where you went. Wondering why your hydro went out? That’s where you went. Promoting a community event or need to talk up an important issue, that’s where you went. And now, with the stroke of a greedy asshole’s pen, it’s all gone.

Yes, there are other stations, but most of them are automated to absolute death. The CBC has a very good morning show, but that’s about all it has. Once the clock hits 8:37, it’s pretty much useless from a local perspective. Nothing against Q or The Current, but they’re not what I need when I’m ass deep in snow and wondering if I’ll ever get out.

But speaking of the CBC, this feels like a fine opportunity to make an argument I’m sure I’ve made before. It needs an afternoon show. There is absolutely no reason why our local drive time programming should be coming out of Toronto. There’s more than enough going on around here to fill another three hours each day. And especially after the events of this week, it shouldn’t be super difficult to put a team together. As it was it was a missed opportunity, but as it is now there’s absolutely no excuse for not doing it. If the CBC is truly serious about being relevant to Canadians and their communities, let’s get going.

Rogers, for its part, says that while the radio station may be gone, the 570 website will continue to cover local news. But if you think that commitment is going to stick around for the long haul, I currently own a bridge you should come take a look at. Keeping promises really isn’t their thing.

City Of Waterloo Decides That Nazis Can Google Things Like Everyone Else

I still can’t believe that Cambridge, bastion of inclusivity that it is, was first out of the gate on this. My money would have been on Waterloo, which has finally followed suit.

The City of Waterloo will stop using X (formerly Twitter) because it sees it as a bad place to be and fewer people are using the platform.
“We’ve had feedback from citizens that they don’t feel X is a welcoming space that reflects their values,” said Stacey Abbott, manager of corporate communications. 
City hall is displeased with how the social media platform moderates hate speech and abusive language. 
“We just don’t have shared values around inclusivity,” she said. “There’s a lot more bots, misinformation, disinformation and distorted narratives that concern us.”

Abbott is confident city hall will communicate effectively with people through other social media and websites. 
City hall researched other organizations that have left X and “nobody had any negative implications from leaving X and so we’re comfortable and confident it’ll be the same for us,” Abbott said.

As of July 6th, The city will be posting announcements on its websites, as well as the other social media channels it’s already been using. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Vimeo appears to be the list at this point. The Twitter account won’t be going away, but it’s only going to be used to help direct people to those other places.

Your move, Kitchener.

The Good Scam Advice Is Bad Now, But Also Still Good. Good Luck Out There


This is historically the sort of thing I would tear a strip off of idiots for getting sucked into, but I’m not sure I can do that anymore. Not because this particular woman is old, old people are vulnerable and making fun of vulnerable people is wrong, though. To hell with that nonsense. I don’t care how old you are. If you still have some of it left, use your brain. Check with people you trust. Google it and look further than whatever AI garbage it shits out near the top of page one. You’ll almost certainly find that the old saying about things that look too good to be true is most often accurate.

But, and this is a pretty big but, the standard advice about politicians not openly endorsing financial products or products in general doesn’t apply in the same way it used to. Donald Trump, shyster that he is, has done his best to shoot all of that straight to shit. He has his own crypto. He sells overpriced bibles. His name is on cell phones that may or may not exist. He shilled Teslas…sorry, I mean “Teslers” on his front lawn.

I could go on and on all day, but I’m sure by now you understand.

Yes, everything Trump is selling is a scam as well, but his scams are unique in that they’re also real. Real in the sense that there’s NO AI fakery required. So when someone tells a friend or family member they’re being taken for a ride because the Prime Minister or whoever would never do that, that person can counter with “Oh really? The president does” and be absolutely right. And that’s if they even bother to ask in the first place. Because if Trump does it, why wouldn’t others? It’s normal now. No need to check in. Just take my money.

I hate this, but it’s true.

Watch out for your loved ones, everybody. Be as annoying as you need to be if something doesn’t seem right. It might cause some strain, but they’ll surely thank you when they still have money in the bank and a place to live, so it’s worth it.

The Jury Finds You Innocent On The Charge Of False Advertising

Excluding the last few weeks, I believe I’ve thought about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool approximately 0 times in my entire life. Actually make that one time, because we know some people who saw it while travelling some years ago and told us about it when they came back. They thought it was nice, as I recall. I wonder what they’d think of it now.

Trump’s ability to ruin literally everything he touches is amazing, isn’t it? Pools, businesses, marriages, millions of innocent lives, the world as we know it…at least the guy’s consistent, I suppose.

But what if, just once, everyone else is wrong and he didn’t fuck up? It sounds crazy, but stay with me.

I submit for your consideration the theory that this Reflecting Pool thing isn’t actually an expensive debacle. On the contrary, it’s a rare case of Trump getting every single dollar’s worth of exactly what he ordered the public to pay for. It has to be, because when he handed the job to a company called Greenwater Services, what else could he have possibly expected?

Oh, and the guy who owns that company is a total crook, just in case you somehow weren’t sure how he wound up in Trump’s orbit.

The head of the company that owns the firm responsible for part of the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool pleaded guilty to bribing a congressman, The New York Times reported on Thursday night.
President Donald Trump fixated on the Reflecting Pool in recent months, taking a personal interest in seeing to its renovation. He frequently brought up the topic during press gaggles, even when reporters had not asked him about it. Since the job was completed, the pool has been plagued by algae blooms. This week, passersby at the pool began to notice paint starting to peel away from the bottom. Rather than reflect the color Trump chose for the bottom – American flag blue – the algae has given the pool a distinct green hue.
As part of the renovation, Trump awarded a $1,7 million no-bid contract to an Ohio company to install a water purification system. The name of the company is – and this is true – Greenwater Services.

The congressman he bribed was Ohio Democrat James Traficant, who was himself convicted of bribery and racketeering back in 2002.

Only the best people.

BK, I Wanna Pay

Discounted Burger King is still Burger King so on one level I understand, but seriously, who ever heard of threatening someone for giving you a break?
Here’s a video version of the story that the uploader won’t let me embed, because much like our friend here he must also hate things that are helpful to him.

The employee, Howard Vernon, told WOIO-TV he was taking the customer’s order − two sausage, egg and cheese croissants, a sausage biscuit, and hash browns − which totaled about $8.
“He was like, ‘My order can’t be right, it should be like $11,’ and I’m like trying to explain to him that we had a promotion going on, and like it’s cheaper, and he started cussing and getting all loud, and I was like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you, I don’t know why you want to pay more money,’” Vernon told the outlet.

The customer sped away from the scene, but images captured on surveillance video at the business show he returned a short time later and pulled alongside another car parked outside the drive-thru window.
Images show he then got out of the car and pointed a gun in the direction of the window and the employee.

He was also said to be yelling racial slurs, because what else would a guy like this be doing?

Whether one of the things he was doing was leaving with his food after all this silliness was not reported.

And I don’t know why the two written reports call the victim Howard but the reporter in the video calls him Tim. I’m just glad he wasn’t injured, whatever his name is.

We Just Figured Out Lovemaking And Now We’re Moving On To Genitals

I imagine that there’s someone reading this who could provide me with a long and involved explanation of how swearing as we know it actually came to be and that I would find it rather interesting. I could probably even look one up myself, if I wanted to. But for now I think I’ll stick with this one. It just makes sense.

Don’t Let Me Catch You Kids Parking

People trying to do an innocent thing and running headlong into porn instead is nothing new. Replace the words QR code in this story with phone number and you’ve got a tale as old as time. In fact, it’s one that I wouldn’t even have bothered to mention had CTV Kitchener not given us all a wonderful gift by assigning it to reporter Jeff Pickel.

Erika Monteiro, who owns a clothing store, said she initially couldn’t believe what her customers were telling her.
“I thought it was like a joke, so I scanned the QR code myself,” Monteiro said.
“At first it seemed fine, but then it wouldn’t let you pay for parking—that seemed to have been disabled,” Monteiro explained. “But when you went to press ‘pay for a parking ticket,’ it would send you directly to the adult entertainment website.”
Monteiro reported seeing township workers racing through downtown yesterday afternoon, covering the compromised QR code signs with garbage bags and tape.

If It Wasn’t For The Community Service, You’d Be In Jail Right Now!

“Driving around with alcohol and cocaine in your system and getting into an accident is definitely bad.”

“Maybe, but what if that accident were to kill a guy who was driving around with alcohol and meth in his?”

“Nope, still bad. But thanks…I guess?

“You know what? I think I’m gonna try to avoid roads for a while.”

On Jan. 14, 2022, North Las Vegas police reported the two-car crash near Cheyenne Avenue and Civic Center Drive. Police said a car was making a U-Turn in a center lane, causing the front of another car, which Butler was driving, to collide with it. The driver and the passenger in the first car were both ejected from the vehicle, police said.

While a trauma paramedic was attending to Butler’s injuries, “a small baggie containing a white substance fell out of the left side of her bra,” police said. Police confirmed the substance was cocaine.
Nearly two weeks after the crash, blood tests confirmed Butler had cocaine and cannabinoids in her system. The blood draw also found Butler had an alcohol level of .102, which is above the legal limit.
The victim who died in the crash had a blood alcohol level more than three times above the legal limit. The person also had a substantial amount of methamphetamine in their system, police said.

Summer Butler, who was also doing 70 MPH in a 40 MPH zone, was sentenced to three years of probation as well as between 28 and 72 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of reckless driving and driving under the influence. The jail time was suspended as long as she sticks to her conditions.